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ISLAMABAD: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday spoke with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar, appreciating Islamabad&rsquo;s constructive role in regional diplomacy while requesting it to continue using its &ldquo;good offices&rdquo; to help &ldquo;facilitate de-escalation&rdquo; in the current situation, the country&rsquo;s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported. In an official statement, the Foreign Office stated that Iranian foreign minister &ldquo;expressed serious concern&rdquo; over &ldquo;recent developments in the region,&rdquo; including ceasefire violations in Lebanon by Israel and &ldquo;the orders by the Israeli government regarding potential attack in parts of Beirut.&rdquo; Araghchi appreciated Pakistan&rsquo;s &ldquo;constructive role&rdquo; in regional diplomacy. He also requested Pakistan to &ldquo;continue using its good offices&rdquo; to help &ldquo;facilitate de-escalation in the current situation&rdquo; and support &ldquo;efforts to maintain the ceasefire.&rdquo; Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar &ldquo;conveyed Pakistan&rsquo;s serious concern and emphasized the importance of ensuring that the ceasefire is sustained in order to prevent any breakdown of existing understandings,&rdquo; the Foreign Office stated. Both leaders agreed to remain in close contact.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar welcomes Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on arrival at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (MOFA)

Foreign Affairs

The Iranian foreign minister also “expressed serious concern” over “recent developments in the region,” including ceasefire violations in Lebanon by Israel.

Iran requests Pakistan to help facilitate de-escalation, maintain ceasefire in the region

TOKYO: Oil prices rose on Monday after US President Donald Trump rejected Iran&#39;s terms for ending the war in the Middle East, while stocks were mixed. Trump&#39;s repudiation of Iran&#39;s response to his latest peace proposal raised the likelihood of further violence and disruptions to oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. &quot;I have just read the response from Iran&#39;s so-called &#39;Representatives.&#39; I don&#39;t like it &mdash; TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!&quot; said Trump, who is due in China this week where the war will likely loom large in discussions. &quot;We did not demand any concessions. The only thing we demanded was Iran&#39;s legitimate rights,&quot; Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Monday. Iran wants &quot;an end to the war&quot; and to the US naval blockade, and the &quot;release of assets belonging to the Iranian people, which have for years been unjustly trapped in foreign banks&quot;, he said. &quot;President Trump&#39;s swift rejection of these counter-demands underscores the wide gulf between both sides, pointing to a risk of prolonged uncertainty rather than rapid de-escalation,&quot; said Lloyd Chan at Japanese bank MUFG. &quot;For oil markets, this suggests a persistent geopolitical risk premium as Hormuz disruptions drag on,&quot; Chan said. Oil came off earlier highs and Asian stocks were mixed, with Tokyo closing half a percent lower and Hong Kong little changed but Seoul was up 4.3%, boosted by tech stocks. In Tokyo, Nintendo shares plunged almost 10% after the Japanese gaming giant warned Friday of lower profits this year and said it would hike the price of its Switch 2 console. In Europe Frankfurt and Paris started lower but London eked out early gains. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was due in Japan and South Korea before heading to China for Trump&#39;s high-stakes summit with President Xi Jinping. &quot;China is willing to work with the United States in the spirit of equality, respect, and mutual benefit, to expand cooperation, manage differences, and inject more stability and certainty into a volatile and intertwined world,&quot; China&#39;s foreign ministry said Monday.

A man walks past an electronic quotation board displaying the Nikkei 225 stock prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange along a street in Tokyo on May 11, 2026. (AFP)

Banking

Oil prices rise after President Donald Trump rejects Iran’s conditions to end the Middle East conflict, increasing fears of prolonged instability and possible disruptions to crude shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Oil prices rise as Trump rejects Iran’s Middle East peace proposal

LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to propose legislation within weeks to proscribe Iran&rsquo;s Revolutionary Guards, a report said Friday. Starmer made the comments while speaking to the Jewish Chronicle newspaper during a visit Thursday to a London synagogue targeted by arsonists nearly a week ago. The commitment comes after the European Union in January agreed to designate Tehran&#39;s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a &quot;terrorist organisation&quot; over allaged crackdown on mass protests. &ldquo;In relation to malign state actors more generally, proscription, we do need legislation in order to take necessary measures, and that is legislation that we&rsquo;re bringing forward as soon as we can,&quot; Starmer said when asked about the prospect of proscribing the Guards. &ldquo;We go into a new session (of parliament) in a few week&#39;s time and we&rsquo;ll bring that legislation forward,&rdquo; he added. Jewish residents in northwest London remain on &quot;high alert&quot; after a spate of arson attacks on synagogues and community sites which began after the US-Israel strikes on Iran since February 28. Starmer has said he is &ldquo;increasingly concerned&rdquo; about countries using proxies for criminal activity in the UK. The IRGC is the ideological arm of Tehran&#39;s military and was created after the 1979 revolution to protect the clerical leadership.

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer (C) and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis (2R) sit alongside Kenton Rabbi, Yehuda Black (4L) talks during a visit to Kenton United Synagogue, which was recently the target of an attempted arson, in the Kenton district of Lon

Europe

The commitment comes after the European Union in January agreed to designate Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a "terrorist organisation."

UK PM vows legislation to ban Iran Guards: Report

HONG KONG: Oil prices fell along with stocks Wednesday as investors assess the chances of US-Iran peace talks after Donald Trump extended his ceasefire at the eleventh hour but kept his blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in place. With the two-week truce in its final hours, the US president said he would push the deadline back indefinitely following a request from mediator Pakistan and stressing the need to give Tehran&#39;s &quot;fractured&quot; leadership time to form a proposal. He had previously indicated he would not extend the truce and warned he would resume bombing the Islamic republic when it expired. &quot;I have...directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their (Iran&#39;s) proposal is submitted,&quot; Trump wrote on social media. The decision not to carry out fresh attacks on Iran but continue to prevent its ships from passing through the Strait -- a major sticking point between the rivals -- left traders awaiting clearer developments. The fate of peace talks in Islamabad was hanging in the balance, with a White House official saying Vice President JD Vance would not travel Tuesday as previously planned, pending the submission of an Iranian proposal. Tehran has said it will not attend because of what it said were unreasonable US demands, while the semi-official Tasnim news agency said there was no prospect of officials going at present. Christopher Wong, a strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, said: &quot;The US and Iran may be trying to shore up leverage and playing a game of who blinks first. &quot;Whatever the outcome, the suspense in the interim may see risk appetite being curtailed but when either side blinks, risk proxies could rally.&quot; Both main oil contracts edged down, though they fluctuated in early trade, having risen around three percent Tuesday. Equities were mostly in the red following another down day on Wall Street. Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore, Seoul and Wellington dropped, with Shanghai flat. Tokyo, Taipei and Wellington rose. Traders have been struggling to find direction this week after Tehran said Friday it would allow ships through the Strait of Hormuz -- which it had effectively closed since war began on February 28 -- before pulling back a day later, citing the US blockade and seizure of a ship. Donald Trump has similarly accused Tehran of violating the ceasefire by harassing vessels in the waterway, the transit passage for about one-fifth of global oil. The developments sent crude swinging wildly, though they have held below $100, while equity markets have been less volatile on lingering optimism the two sides will eventually reach a deal to end the seven-week conflict that has hit the global economy. &quot;With markets surging amid optimism that the war is soon going to end, and the Hormuz Strait to open, markets are now more cautious,&quot; wrote Fawad Razaqzada, an analyst at FOREX.com. &quot;If there&rsquo;s no deal, I would imagine that oil prices could climb back above $100, which would likely invite pressure on equities.&quot; Investors are also keeping tabs on the confirmation hearing by senators of Kevin Warsh, Trump&#39;s pick to replace Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell, whose term ends next month. Warsh insisted he would not be controlled by the president as he fielded questions on his assets and central bank independence during his confirmation hearing. The former Fed governor emphasised his commitment to &quot;ensuring that the conduct of monetary policy remains strictly independent&quot;, adding he would &quot;absolutely not&quot; be Trump&#39;s puppet. Trump, since his return to office last year, has severely criticised Powell for not slashing rates more aggressively, and told CNBC on Tuesday he would be disappointed if the new chair did not swiftly lower borrowing costs. - Key figures around 0230 GMT - West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.3 percent at $89.38 a barrel Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.2 percent at $98.31 a barrel Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent at 59,653.56 (break) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.1 percent at 26,191.13 Shanghai - Composite: FLAT at 4,084.94 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1747 from $1.1749 on Tuesday Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3513 from $1.3511 Dollar/yen: UP at 159.27 yen from 159.25 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.94 pence from 86.96 pence New York - Dow Jones: DOWN 0.6 percent at 49,149.38 (close) London - FTSE 100: DOWN 1.1 percent at 10,498.09 (close)

Business

Oil prices and stocks fell as investors weighed uncertain US-Iran peace prospects after Trump extended the ceasefire but kept the Hormuz blockade, leaving markets cautious over talks, oil flows and conflict risks.

Oil, stocks fall as traders weigh outlook after Trump extends truce

WASHINGTON: Two US warships have reportedly passed through the Strait of Hormuz, the first such transit since the war with Iran began, as President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States had started &quot;clearing out&quot; the strategic waterway. The US Navy guided-missile destroyers passed through the strait with no issues reported, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing three US officials. The operation was not coordinated with authorities in Tehran, US media outlet Axios said. &quot;We&#39;re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz,&quot; Trump said on his Truth Social platform, calling it &quot;a favor&quot; to countries such as China, Japan and France that &quot;don&#39;t have the Courage or Will to do this work themselves.&quot; He insisted that Iran is &quot;LOSING BIG!&quot; in the conflict, while acknowledging that Iranian mines in the strategic strait &ndash; through which a fifth of the world&#39;s crude passes &ndash; still pose a threat. &quot;The only thing they have going is the threat that a ship may &#39;bunk&#39; into one of their sea mines,&quot; Trump wrote. US officials did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comments about the reports. The key shipping lane off the coast of Iran has been virtually blocked by Tehran since the United States and Israel started bombing Iran on February 28, though reopening the strait was ostensibly a condition of the shaky ceasefire put in place earlier this week. Senior Iranian and American officials began negotiations in Pakistan on Saturday, in a bid to bring to an end a conflict that has plunged the Middle East into violence and sent shockwaves through the world economy. In an earlier post, Trump said that empty tankers were headed to the United States from around the world to purchase oil, without providing details.

A view of the vessels passing through Strait of Hormuz following the two-week temporary ceasefire reached between the United States and Iran on the condition that the strait be reopened, seen in Oman on April 08, 2026. (AFP)

Middle East

Two US warships transited the Strait of Hormuz as President Donald Trump said the United States began clearing the vital waterway amid Iran conflict, while negotiations started in Pakistan Saturday.

Articles tagged with "US Iran ceasefire"

Iran requests Pakistan to help facilitate de-escalation, maintain ceasefire in the region

Oil prices rise as Trump rejects Iran’s Middle East peace proposal

UK PM vows legislation to ban Iran Guards: Report

Oil, stocks fall as traders weigh outlook after Trump extends truce

US warships transit Strait of Hormuz: media

Iran requests Pakistan to help facilitate de-escalation, maintain ceasefire in the region