US Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that more than a dozen ships had reached Iranian ports after Washington lifted a naval blockade under an agreement aimed at ending the war.
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Speaking at a White House briefing, Vance said oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz had increased, with more than 12.5 million barrels passing through the strategic waterway overnight Wednesday – the highest level since the conflict began in late February.
Vance said Washington was fulfilling its commitments under the initial phase of the agreement. While Iran would retain the right to self-defence, he said the US expected Tehran to forgo missiles capable of “broadly threatening the entire world” under the terms of the deal.
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Speaking on Lebanon, Vance said that part of the goal of the agreement would be to allow the Lebanese government to police the south of its country, rather than the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
“What we want to see is the Lebanese government, the elected representatives of the people of Lebanon, who are able to police southern Lebanon, so that Hezbollah has not taken over the country, the Israelis are not threatened, and then consequently the Israelis are not attacking southern Lebanon or Beirut either,” he said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters)
