US-Iran war as it happened: Talks end with no agreement; Two US warships pass through Strait of Hormuz

Economic policymakers will assess the global fallout from the US-Israeli war on Iran as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank hold their spring meetings in Washington next week.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva warned the international community was becoming less able to respond to shocks, and advised the world to “buckle up” ahead of new economic forecasts and a global financial stability report to be published on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported.

“Given the impact of the war, we are going to downgrade them,” she said.

The meetings will run from April 13–18 and will focus on preparing for coming eventualities after the US and Iran failed to reach an agreement in peace negotiations, according to the newswire.

Israeli airstrikes have killed six people in Lebanon during a barrage of attacks in the country’s south, the Lebanese National News Agency has reported.

A strike in Maaroub hit a home of seven people, while an agriculture structure near Shebaa was attacked and shrapnel from interceptor missiles fell on homes in Qlaiaa, the state media said.

The Israeli military has moved to occupy swaths of southern Lebanon to establish a “security zone”, after attacking Iran alongside the United States in February.

The Israel Defence Forces said it destroyed a rocket launcher that was “positioned and ready to launch” towards Israel from southern Lebanon.

In a post on social media, the IDF said the weapon was identified in Jouaiyya and was destroyed before it could launch.

The Israeli State Prosecutor’s Office has agreed to delay testimony from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his long-running corruption trial because of the Iran war, The Times of Israel has reported.

The trial was put on hold after Israel and the United States attacked Iran in February, but was scheduled to resume today after the two-week ceasefire was declared earlier this week, according to the Israeli outlet.

Netanyahu’s defence asked on Friday for his testimony to be postponed “due to classified security and diplomatic reasons”. Israel has continued to attack Lebanon throughout the ceasefire, denying that conflict was included in the terms.

Netanyahu, who denies the allegations, was charged with bribery, fraud ​and breach of ​trust in 2019 and was the first sitting Israeli prime minister to be charged with a crime.

US Vice President JD Vance’s failure to win the concessions the United States sought from Iran in a single, marathon negotiating session over its nuclear program was no surprise.

But what now?

The failure leaves the Trump administration facing several unpalatable options: A lengthy negotiation with Tehran over the future of its nuclear program, or a resumption of a war that has created the largest energy disruption in modern times, and the prospect of a long struggle over who controls the Strait of Hormuz.

Read the full analysis from The New York Times journalists here.

Donald Trump has reshared an article that suggested the US could blockade Iran to pressure the nation to make a deal after talks collapsed this morning.

The story frames a naval blockade as “the Trump card the president holds if Iran won’t bend”.

“In short, Trump simply could out-blockade Iran’s hold over the Strait of Hormuz,” the conservative outlet Just the News article says, citing experts.

Trump reshared the article in a flurry of posts on his social media platform Truth Social about 1am Miami time, including one about how he announced in 2008 he would buy TV personality Ed McMahon’s house to help him out financially. The president also reshared past remarks in which he worried that Europe was being devastated by “energy and immigration”.

Trump has not yet directly commented on the failed talks in Islamabad this morning.