Iran cuts off talks, says there won’t be negotiations with aggression in Lebanon – report

Report from Tasnim:

• Iran stops message exchange with the US in protest against Zionist crimes
• Threatens more aggression in Hormuz
• Will take action in Bab el-Mandeb Strait

Isreal today announced it’s encroaching further into Lebanon. Iran says that the ceasefire has been violated on all fronts and that halting aggression in Lebanon was a condition of the ceasefire.

This report has markets moving. Oil is bid on it and S&P 500 futures have turned (slightly) negative. There has been a quick move into US dollar across FX as it’s starting to look like the ceasefire is slipping away. Here is a look at AUD/USD:

Here is the full message on Tasnim’s Telegram (translated):

Urgent / Iran to Halt Message Exchanges with the U.S. in Protest of Zionist Crimes

Determination of Iran’s Armed Forces and All Resistance Fronts to Respond to Zionist Crimes and Open New Fronts

• Tasnim News Agency has learned that, given the continued crimes of the Zionist regime in Lebanon, and considering that Lebanon was one of the preconditions of the ceasefire, and that this ceasefire has now been violated on all fronts, including Lebanon, the Iranian negotiating team will suspend “talks and exchanges of texts through mediators.”

• Iranian officials and negotiators have emphasized the necessity of an immediate halt to the Israeli regime’s aggressive and brutal military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as the need for the regime’s complete withdrawal from occupied areas in Lebanon. Until Iran’s and the Resistance’s position on these issues is satisfied, there will be no negotiations.

• In addition, Iran and the Resistance Front have placed on their agenda the complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the activation of other fronts, including the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, with the aim of punishing the Zionists and their supporters.

The ‘activation’ is a bit vague but the Strait is off the coast of Yemen and is the path to the Red Sea. A blockade there similar to Hormuz would cause big shipping problems and force boats to sail through the Mediterranean and around the Cape of Good Hope.

Against this the market is weighing Trump’s most-recent comments where he hold critics to ‘just sit back and relax, it will all work out ‘. He posted on Truth:

Don’t the Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans,
understand that it is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and
negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively ‘chirping,’ at levels
never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or
move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever. Just sit back
and relax, it will all work out well in the end – It always does!”

Who do you trust?

This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.