09/04/2026

THURSDAY | APR 9, 2026

9

US, Iran agree to two-week ceasefire

uranium or its ability to hit its neighbours with missiles and drones. The clerical leadership, which faced a mass uprising months ago, withstood the superpower onslaught with no sign of domestic opposition. And Tehran’s proven ability to cut off Gulf energy supplies, despite the massive US military presence built across the region over decades, could reshape the power dynamics of the Gulf for generations. “The enemy, in its unjust, illegal and criminal war against the Iranian nation, has suffered an undeniable, historic and crushing defeat,” Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said in a statement. Netanyahu’s office said Israel supported the decision to suspend strikes on Iran for two weeks. But the agreement is likely to be seen as a blow for the Israeli leader, who had repeatedly said he wanted Iran’s rulers to fall. “There has never been such a diplomatic disaster in all our history,” opposition politician Yair Lapid said. “It will take years to repair the diplomatic and strategic damage that Netanyahu caused due to arrogance, negligence and lack of strategic planning.” Yair Golan, a former military deputy chief of staff who plans to run in the next election, wrote on X that the outcome was a “complete failure that endangered Israel’s security”. “The nuclear programme was not destroyed. The ballistic threat remains. The regime is still intact and is even emerging from this war stronger,” he said. The agreement did not halt Israel’s parallel campaign in Lebanon, which it invaded in March in pursuit of Hezbollah militia. Netanyahu’s office said the ceasefire did not apply to Lebanon, apparently contradicting Sharif. The Lebanese news agency NNA reported continued Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon, including artillery shelling and a dawn airstrike on a building near a hospital that killed four people. Israel’s military issued repeated urgent warnings to residents that it planned to attack the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon. A senior Lebanese official said Lebanon had received no information on its inclusion in the ceasefire, and had not been involved in talks. The US-Iranian truce leaves the main demands of the warring sides unresolved. An Israeli official said senior Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said. The US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, condemned the Russian and Chinese vetoes. He said: “We call on responsible nations to join us in securing the Strait of Hormuz, protecting it, ensuring that it remains open to lawful commerce, to humanitarian goods, and the free movement of the world’s goods.” France deplored the vetoes. “The aim was to encourage strictly, purely defensive measures to provide the security and safety for the strait without spiralling towards escalation,” its UN ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, said. Russia and China said the

NEW YORK: China and Russia on Tuesday vetoed a UN resolution encouraging states to coordinate efforts to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, calling the measure biased against Iran, while Washington’s ambassador to the world body called on “responsible nations” to join the US in securing the waterway. The 15-member Security Council voted 11 in favour of the resolution presented by Bahrain, with two against – China and Russia – and two abstentions. “The draft resolution has not been adopted, owing to the negative vote of a permanent member of the council,” Bahrain’s Foreign Minister “Israel will not allow diplomacy to work and Trump might change his view tomorrow. But at least we can sleep tonight without strikes,” Alireza, 29, a government employee in Tehran, told Reuters by phone. The ceasefire suspends the war launched on Feb 28 by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had said at the time that they sought to prevent Iran from projecting force beyond its borders, end its nuclear programme and create conditions for Iranians to topple their rulers. Trump told AFP the ceasefire represented a “total and complete victory” and said on Truth Social that the US had achieved its military objectives. But the war has yet to deprive Iran either of its stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched DUBAI: The United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan, potentially suspending a six-week-old war that has killed thousands, spread across the Middle East and disrupted energy supplies. Trump announced the agreement late on Tuesday, just two hours before a deadline he had set for Iran to open the blockaded Strait of Hormuz or face the destruction of its “whole civilisation”. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he had invited Iranian and US delegations to meet in Islamabad tomorrow. The deal is subject to Iran’s agreement to pause its blockade of oil and gas passing through the strait, Trump said. The waterway handles about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments. News of the deal and the prospect that the worst disruption to energy markets could finally come to a close, caused a sharp fall in oil prices and a surge in share markets. Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran would cease counter-attacks and provide safe passage through the waterway if attacks against it stopped. Crowds took to the streets of Iran on Tuesday night to celebrate, waving Iranian flags and burning flags of the United States and Israel. But there was also wariness that a deal would not hold. o Israeli campaign continues in Lebanon

Iranians celebrating at Enqelab square in Tehran early yesterday. – AFPPIC

FRANKFURT: Hapag-Lloyd voiced cautious optimism yesterday on the prospect of resuming shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after a two-week ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran, but said that resuming normal traffic throughout its network would take at least six to eight weeks. Speaking in a call to customers, CEO Rolf Habben Jansen echoed guarded remarks by container shipping peer Maersk, saying that more security assurances were needed. “Even if a ceasefire has now been agreed overnight, I would say that it’s fair to say that the conflict in the Middle East is still severely disrupting shipping, but also supply chains,” the Hapag CEO said, adding that the situation was “very fluid”. He raised the prospect of taking customer orders, provided that the ceasefire holds over the next few days. “We will likely open up for bookings into the upper Gulf area, probably initially for selected markets, but hopefully fairly soon,” said Jansen. Amid broad market relief over the tentative deal, Hapag shares were up 5.5%, recouping losses from the three earlier trading sessions. Maersk stock slipped 1.5%. He estimated additional costs from the Middle East crisis at US$50 million to US$60 million (RM198 million to RM238.6 million) a week and warned that the German company would have to pass on some of that to its customers. That was up from US$40 US$50 million stated previously. He said about 1,000 ships were still stuck in the region, six of which are from his company with a combined capacity of about 25,000 standard containers. – Reuters 6-8 weeks for return to normal shipping

guarantees that the war will not resume and a new system that would allow it to collect payment from ships that use the Strait of Hormuz. Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in chief of Kayhan , a newspaper closely associated with late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, derided the ceasefire in an editorial, saying “compromise and negotiation are a gift to the enemy”. – Reuters

Trump administration officials had assured Israel that they would firmly insist, in talks over the next two weeks, on previous conditions such as the removal of Iran’s nuclear material, a halt to enrichment and the elimination of ballistic missiles. But Iran could also make further demands. It has previously demanded the lifting of all sanctions, compensation for damage,

A fireball rises from a building hit by an Israeli airstrike near the Lebanese city of Tyre yesterday. – AFPPIC China, Russia veto UN resolution on protecting shipping

resolution was biased against Iran, and China’s UN envoy Fu Cong said adopting such a draft when the US was threatening the survival of a civilisation would have sent the wrong message. Russia’s UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said Russia and China were proposing an alternative resolution, including maritime security. A text of that resolution seen by Reuters urges “de-escalation of hostilities” and “a return to the path of diplomacy”. China’s Foreign Ministry said China’s “objective and fair” vote would withstand the test of history, and called on the Security Council to aim for de-escalation.

“(The UNSC) should not be providing a veneer of legitimacy to unauthorised military actions, giving a pass for the use of force, let alone add fuel to the fire,“ ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said when asked about the U.N. resolution. Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani praised the Chinese and Russian moves, saying “their action prevented the Security Council from being misused to legitimise aggression.” Iravani said the secretary-general’s personal envoy was en route to Tehran to pursue consultations. The envoy, Jean Arnault, intends to visit Iran as part of his efforts to encourage an end to the war. – Reuters