AS IT HAPPENED: Trump expects deal to be signed ‘over the next week’

US-Iran talks are back on track, according to a regional source with knowledge of the talks.

Semi-official Iranian state media said earlier that the talks were suspended amid Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

But US President Donald Trump said the talks continue at a “rapid pace.”

Rapper Vanilla Ice has declared he will play in the Trump-inspired Washington DC concert to be held as part of the Freedom 250 celebrations.

The musician, whose real name is Robert Van Winkle, told CBS News he would perform for anyone or in any country, including Russian President Vladimir Putin or Iran.

“It’s simple as a pimple for me, there’s nothing to it. It’s the birthday of America.”

“Two hundred and fifty years. It’s not anything to do with politics. I don’t know why they’re turning it into politics,” Van Winkle said.

He added he’d “never voted in my life.”  

The line-up was released last week, but several artists - including Morris Day and the Time, Young MC and The Commadores - later declared they were pulling out.

Freedom 250 was launched by the Trump administration last year as part of plans to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

Oil prices rose overnight following the latest fighting to threaten the US-Iran ceasefire, but Wall Street wasn’t very worried, and stocks ticked to more records.

The S&P 500 added 0.3 per cent to its prior all-time high set last Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.4 per cent to likewise set records.

The rosy outlook wasn’t shared by Australian investors, though.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index has dipped by 0.8 per cent in early trading today.

An Iraqi national accused of plotting at least 18 attacks in Europe in retaliation for the US and Israel’s war with Iran has pleaded not guilty before calling himself a “prisoner of war”.

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi fronted a US federal court overnight.

The charges say he conspired to provide material support to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Kata’ib Hizballah, an Iran-backed Iraqi militant group.

“I’m a prisoner of war. I’m not a threat. Children and women are being killed by your rockets,” he told the Manhattan court through an Arabic translator.

Among the 18 attacks in Europe, Al-Saadi is charged in the firebombing of a bank in Amsterdam and with stabbing Jewish men in London. He is also accused of involvement in two recent attacks in Canada: an attack on a synagogue and a shooting at the US consulate in Toronto in March. 

Trump has vented his fury at Netanyahu when the two leaders discussed Israel’s escalating military operations in Lebanon, reports  US news site Axios.

Two people familiar with the discussion say the president resorted to expletives to convey his disapproval of the Israeli strikes, which threatened the US push for a preliminary agreement with Iran.

One US official summarised the president’s message to Netanyahu as follows: “You’re f---ing crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”

Trump “steamrolled” the Israeli prime minister during the call, who replied, ‘OK, OK, just make sure everything is taken care of,’” the official said. 

Trump has shrugged off the possibility of talks breaking down, telling CNBC “I don’t care if they’re over, honestly.”

“I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less,” the president said before adding he believed the drawn-out talks “started to get very boring”.

The president also said he wasn’t worried about oil prices, which had spiked after Iranian state media reported that Tehran was halting negotiations and clamping down on the Strait of Hormuz.

“I think the oil will be dropping like a rock in the very near, you know, the very near distance,” Trump said.

But he also said  Americans who understand the importance of halting Iran’s nuclear ambitions will not mind higher fuel prices.

“Once you explain that this is all about Iran having a nuclear weapon, people are willing to pay a little bit more,” he said.

Donald Trump has told a US media outlet he thinks he will have a deal with Iran to extend the ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz “over the next week.“′

“Looking good, looking good,” he told ABC News.

“There was a little glitch today, but I turned that one around very quickly, as you probably noticed earlier,” Trump said.

The glitch, according to the president, was that the Iranians were upset about Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

“So, I spoke with Hezbollah, and I said no shooting, and I talked to Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu], and said, no shooting, and they both stopped shooting each other,” Trump said.

Trump said a peace deal with Iran could be “even better than a military victory.”

The Trump administration has said it will comply with a court ruling temporarily blocking a nearly $US1.8 billion fund meant to compensate allies of the president.

Officials have effectively agreed to pause the plan for at least two weeks after setbacks in the courts and a fierce backlash from Republicans who objected to potential payouts to participants in the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol in Washington DC.

The announcement from the Justice Department comes in response to a Friday court ruling by a federal judge in Virginia who ordered plans for the fund halted pending additional arguments later this month.

The department said in a statement that it “disagrees strongly” with the ruling but would abide by it.

The Lebanese government has received confirmation of Hezbollah’s agreement to a US proposal calling for a ceasefire with Israel, according to a statement from the Lebanese embassy in Washington.

“Under the proposal, Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs are to cease in exchange for Hezbollah refraining from carrying out attacks against Israel,” the statement said.

The ceasefire framework would then expand to include the rest of Lebanon’s territories, it added.