Skip to main content

Vance has not yet left for Iran talks in Pakistan, source says

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - Vice President JD Vance is still in the United States and has not yet departed for Pakistan, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters, as prospects for a second round of negotiations with Iran remain unclear.

President Donald Trump has said he would send a U.S. delegation to Pakistan for additional talks before a ceasefire is set to expire in the coming days. Iran is considering attending the peace talks, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday, but no decision had been made.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Vice President JD Vance gestures as he boards Air Force Two, after peace talks with Iran in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, April 12, 2026. Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

EU to widen Iran sanctions to those who block Hormuz

By Julia Payne and John Irish

BRUSSELS/PARIS, April 20 (Reuters) - The European Union will expand the criteria of its Iran sanctions to include those responsible for blocking the Strait of Hormuz, which has been largely shut for nearly two months upending global energy and commodities markets, two EU diplomats said.

Tehran effectively closed the strait after ​U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28, cutting off roughly one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

Ships and tankers in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Musandam, Oman, April 18, 2026. REUTERS

Trump: Israel never talked me into war with Iran

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Monday that Israel did not persuade him to attack Iran, after news reports that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu influenced the U.S. president's decision and criticism from right-wing commentators.

"Israel never talked me into the war with Iran, the results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, did," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks about research into mental health treatments in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., April 18, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo

Tit-for-tat blockades once again cripple traffic in Hormuz

Traffic once again seized up in the Strait of Hormuz as both Tehran and Washington imposed separate blockades, with Iranian vessels continuing to test the US shutdown, tracking data showed Monday.

Iran announced on Friday that it would reopen the strategic waterway, but the United States did not reciprocate for vessels going to and from Iranian ports.

Dozens of commercial vessels passed through the strait before Iran reclosed the passage on Saturday, later warning that any approaching ship would be treated as a target.

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine speaks as a map of the Strait of Hormuz is displayed during a press briefing

Is Israel replicating Gaza's 'Yellow Line' in south Lebanon?

Israel says it has established a "Yellow Line" in south Lebanon near the border, where its forces are operating despite a 10-day ceasefire with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

What is the so-called "Yellow Line", how does it resemble an Israeli military demarcation in the Gaza Strip and where does it leave Lebanon?

What has Israel announced?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the truce, which took effect on Friday, but would maintain a 10-kilometre (six-mile) deep "security zone" along the border in southern Lebanon.

Lebanese civil defence personnel search for missing people next to the bomb-damaged Qasmiyeh bridge near the southern city of Tyre

Israel, Lebanon to hold second round of talks in Washington on Thursday, Israeli source says

April 20 (Reuters) - Israeli and Lebanese representatives will hold talks in Washington on Thursday, an Israeli source speaking on the condition of anonymity told Reuters on Monday.

Israel will be represented by its ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, the source added.

It will mark the first talks between the two countries since a 10-day ceasefire took effect on Thursday.

(Reporting by Hatem Maher and Ahmed Elimam in Cairo; and Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem, Editing by Hugh Lawson)

People travel in vehicles as displaced people make their way back to their home crossing the bridge linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country, which was hit earlier in an Israeli strike, amid a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in Qasmiyeh, Lebanon, April 19, 2026. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

Israeli fire kills two in Gaza, Hamas clashes with Israeli-backed militia

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO, April 20 (Reuters) - Israeli strikes killed at least two Palestinians in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Monday, health officials said, and fighters from Hamas clashed with gunmen from an Israeli-backed militia, witnesses said.

Medics said one man was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Bureij camp in the central area of the enclave, while another strike killed one person and wounded others in Gaza City.

People react near Palestinians fighters after clashes with Israeli-backed militia, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, April 20, 2026, in this screengrab obtained from a video. Video obtained by REUTERSy.

Israeli ministers celebrate reestablishment of settlement in West Bank

By Pesha Magid

SA-NUR, West Bank, April 20 (Reuters) - A Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank received demolition orders for 15 shops on Monday a day after Israeli ministers celebrated the reestablishment of a settlement on a neighbouring hill.

Israel's ruling far-right coalition has supported a rapid expansion of settlements and Palestinians have received thousands of demolition orders since the government took power, according to U.N. data.

The release of the latest order was for Al-Fandaqumiya, according to a local official.

Israeli settlers move an appliance inside an house, on the day of the re-establishment of the settlement of Sa-Nur, which was evacuated as part of Israel’s 2005 disengagement, in Sa-Nur in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, April 19, 2026. REUTERS/Shir Torem

Exclusive-US to host further G20 talks on war's impact on food and fertilizer

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. will host further talks in coming weeks for the Group of 20 major economies on the impact of the war in the Middle East on food and fertilizer, as it continues to push for coordinated action.

The U.S., current chair of the G20, will make the vow in a chair's statement about a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors held during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank on April 16.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks during a press briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 15, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci/File Photo