Iran denies having accepted the transfer of its uranium, Trump says it will be brought back to the United States

Thank you all for having it. The writing of 20 Minutes remains mobilized and will meet you tomorrow to find out the latest information on the war in the United States, Israel and Iran. Good night to everyone. To finish and to find out everything about the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, click here:

Iran has threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz if the United States continues its blockade of Iranian ports, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Saturday.

“If this blockade continues, the Strait of Hormuz will not remain accessible,” he wrote on the X network, specifying that the passage of ships in this area must, in all cases, be done with “Iran’s agreement”.

On Friday, Donald Trump declared that an agreement with Iran was imminent to end the conflict, affirming at the same time that the enriched uranium held by Tehran would soon be recovered by the United States.

During an event organized by Turning Point in Arizona, he said “we are going to go there together with Iran” before adding “We are going to go get it, we are going to bring it back to the United States shortly”. “We’re going to need the biggest excavators you can imagine,” the American president told a crowd of supporters.

Iran denied on Friday any intention to transfer its enriched uranium reserves, reacting to comments made the day before by Donald Trump. “Iran’s enriched uranium will not be sent anywhere. In the same way that our territory is sacred, this issue is of capital importance for us,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaïl Baghaï, according to state television.

On Thursday, the American president declared that Tehran had agreed to return what he described as “nuclear dust”, in reference to the stocks of highly enriched uranium held by Iran. On Friday, he insisted that there no longer remained any “blocking points” with a view to an agreement.

The Lebanese president also affirmed that his country was no longer “the theater of anyone’s wars”.

“We are confident that we will save Lebanon, […] we have taken back Lebanon and Lebanon’s decision-making power for the first time in almost half a century,” he said in his first address to the nation since the truce, adding that “today we are negotiating for ourselves, […] we are no longer a pawn in anyone’s game, nor the theater of anyone’s wars, and we never will be again.”

Lebanon is working on “a permanent agreement” with Israel after the ceasefire that came into force on Friday, its president said, denying that direct discussions with its neighbor constitute a “sign of weakness”.

“We find ourselves in a new phase,” declared Joseph Aoun in his first speech to the nation since the truce: “a phase of transition […] to work toward a permanent agreement that safeguards the rights of our people, the unity of our country and the sovereignty of our nation.”

These direct talks, while Lebanon has been in a state of war with Israel since 1948, are “not a sign of weakness or a concession”, added the head of state, promising not to “give up an iota of national territory”.

Drone and rocket strikes killed three Iranian Kurds, including two female fighters, in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region on Friday, an exile opposition group said, accusing Iran of being responsible.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran today launched a new wave of missile and drone strikes targeting PDKI civilian camps,” killing one person and injuring another, the Democratic Party of Kurdistan of Iran said on X. In a separate attack, two female fighters were killed and others injured, he added. Since the start of the war in the Middle East, Iran has carried out several strikes against the positions of Iranian Kurdish groups in exile in Iraq.

The UN Secretary General on Friday welcomed the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to commercial ships by Iran, seeing it as “a step in the right direction”, his spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told the press.

“The position of the United Nations remains clear: the full restoration of international rights and freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz must be respected by all parties,” he added, hoping that the reopening of the crucial maritime route will contribute, with the ceasefire, to “creating trust between the parties”.

“We are very close to obtaining an agreement,” said Donald Trump, contacted by AFP. Asked whether there remained disagreements between the two countries, the American president replied: “no blocking points”.

The global trade body for airlines, IATA, has called on different regulatory authorities to coordinate and be transparent in the event that kerosene “rationing” proves necessary, particularly in Europe.

“It is important that authorities have well-communicated and well-coordinated plans in place in case rationing becomes necessary, including remaining flexible in the allocation of slots at airports,” IATA Director General Wille Walsh said in a statement.

Lebanon’s national news agency reported one death in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Friday, despite a 10-day ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah taking effect.

“A biker was killed […] in the Bint Jbeil area after being targeted by an enemy drone,” said the ANI agency.

“We are not asking for a reopening of commercial negotiations” 2026 between supermarkets and agri-food suppliers, closed on March 1, but “to be able to revise the prices presented since they absolutely did not take into account the effects of the crisis”, explained to AFP Dominique Chargé, president of Agricultural Cooperation, which represents some 2,000 cooperative companies.

The organization is calling for “the convening of a committee to monitor commercial relations, before the end of the month if possible, to jointly acknowledge” the fact that production costs have increased and “that we need to reconsider a revision of prices”.

Fuels, packaging, fertilizers… costs have soared with the rise in the price of fossil fuels and the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, “and we can clearly see that the capacity of the State to intervene is absolutely not up to the scale” of this increase, notes Dominique Chargé.

Around 2:45 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones jumped 2.10% to 49,599.70 points. The Nasdaq index and the broader S&P 500 index gained 1.53% and 1.30%, respectively, both reaching new all-time highs during the session.

Germany “will participate in other ongoing military planning discussions” and “we would welcome, if possible, participation by the United States of America,” the chancellor said.

“More than a dozen countries” have already offered to contribute to a “peaceful and defensive” multinational mission led by London and Paris to secure the Strait of Hormuz, which will deploy “as soon as the conditions are right,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday.

The force’s “military planning” work will continue at a meeting “in London next week, where we will announce more details on [sa] composition” he added, during a declaration at the end of a summit in Paris bringing together around thirty countries.

Donald Trump said Iran had agreed to “never close the Strait of Hormuz again.” “It will no longer be used as a weapon against the world!” “, declared the American president on his Truth Social platform.

“Iran, with the help of the United States, has removed, or is in the process of removing, all sea mines! THANKS ! “, declared the American president in a short message on his Truth Social platform.

According to this still provisional report, 2,294 people were killed, including 274 women, 177 children and 100 health personnel and rescuers in Israeli strikes on Lebanon between the start of the war on March 2 and the ceasefire Thursday evening, the Lebanese Ministry of Health announced Friday.

The strikes left 7,544 injured, added the ministry, according to which the final toll will be announced after the end of rubble clearance operations and DNA tests.

“Now that the situation on the Strait of Hormuz is over, I received a call from NATO asking if we need help. I TOLD THEM TO KEEP THEIR DISTANCE UNLESS THEY WANTED TO FILL THEIR SHIPS WITH OIL. They were useless when we needed them, a PAPER TIGER! », asserted the American president on his Truth Social platform.

The Israeli army announced the lifting of all war-related restrictions across the country.

Almost all restrictions on economic and educational activities in particular had been lifted in most of the country following the ceasefire with Iran which entered into force on April 8, with the exception of the north due to the continuation of military operations on this front.

According to passive defense instructions, the entire country has moved “to a full level of activity, without any restrictions, with the exception of the front zone, where a limitation of gatherings to a maximum of 1,000 people will be in force” on Saturday, from which point this last restriction “will also be lifted”, indicates a military press release.