A US official said that Washington and Tehran agreed to halt attacks after new tit-for-tat strikes strained their interim deal, with the sides planning to renew talks aimed at ending the Middle East war.

A US official said, “Technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the MOU,” referring to the memorandum of understanding struck between Washington and Tehran. “Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely” in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the official added.

Iran has not immediately commented on the US statement, and the US official did not confirm a US media report that talks would resume Tuesday in Qatar.

Tehran has insisted on controlling passage through the vital strait, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas travel in peacetime. It did not have that control before the war.

Iran presently insists ships transiting the strait pass through a corridor near its own shores, though this week dozens of vessels have traveled along the opposite side of the waterway, hugging the Omani coast.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, “Any attempt to adopt new or separate arrangements compared to what is underway by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to more complicated situations and delays in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and will increase the tensions.”

Iran’s top diplomat warned against any attempt by ships to bypass its preferred route.

The strait comprises Omani and Iranian territorial waters, but under customary international law the two cannot generally block passage or charge tolls.

Nevertheless, Iran prevented most ships from using the narrow waterway during the war, granting it enormous economic leverage which it appears reluctant to give up.

Tehran’s enforcement of its control has sparked repeated flare-ups with Washington, the latest of which came early Sunday, when US Central Command said it had attacked 10 Iranian military targets over “continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping”.

Iran said it retaliated with strikes against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Both Kuwait and Bahrain denounced the Iranian attacks.

In Lebanon, the Israeli army destroyed an extensive tunnel in southern Lebanon on Sunday, with Lebanese state media reporting strikes in the area and Iran-backed Hezbollah saying it reserves the right to respond to those attacks.

“The tunnel, stretching more than 200 meters and reaching a depth of over 25 meters, contained hundreds of weapons as well as several launch shafts intended to target the State of Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement.

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said early Monday that the trilateral framework agreement between Lebanon, Israel and the United States would not pass as it did not guarantee Lebanon’s rights.

“This agreement will not pass, and it will not be implemented in its current form,” Berri said in a statement shared by his party the Amal movement, adding that it was “an agreement of ‘dictates’, not an agreement that preserves Lebanon’s rights”.

The deal paves the way for Lebanese-Israeli peace and conditions Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon on Hezbollah’s disarmament.

In response to the attacks, Hezbollah said it “reiterates that what the enemy has done is a blatant violation of the ceasefire to which it has adhered until now, and that it is monitoring and tracking these violations, and reserves its right to defend its homeland and its people”.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war in early March, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in support of Iran, and Israel responded with heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion. Tehran has insisted on Lebanon being part of the wider peace deal for the Middle East war. (AFP)