Iran-backed Hezbollah has rejected a new US-brokered ceasefire proposal in Lebanon, while Israel says it will not withdraw its forces or halt military operations.

The developments have complicated president Donald Trump’s push for a broader regional peace deal.

Iran has made a ceasefire in Lebanon a condition for any agreement with Washington and has warned it could intervene directly if Israeli attacks continue.

However, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected the proposed pact between Israel and the Lebanese government, saying the group was not involved in the negotiations.

Despite Trump saying he believed progress was being made and that Lebanon “deserved peace”, Israel continued strikes in southern Lebanon.

Defence minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces would remain in the country, while a senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Israel must at least return to positions held before the war began.

Applications for unemployment benefits in the United States reached their highest level in four months last week, signaling growing economic uncertainty exacerbated by the ongoing conflict in Iran, even as overall layoffs remain historically low.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that US applications for jobless aid for the week ending May 30 climbed by 13,000 to 225,000. This marks the highest figure since early February, prior to the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, though it still represents a historically low level. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had anticipated 211,000 new applications.

An explosion near Oman’s Mina al Fahal terminal has led to the suspension of oil loading, two people familiar with the ​matter said today.

The explosion happened near its single-buoy mooring (SBM) berths, between SBM 1 ⁠and 2 berths due ​to an alleged drone attack, they ​said.

It was not immediately clear when the attack took place.

Several supertankers ​were seen anchored off the ​port on Friday, shipping data from ‌LSEG ⁠showed.

The terminal could not be immediately reached for comment outside office hours.

Iranian state media on ​Wednesday ​reported that Tehran ⁠targeted a US military ship hosting a “control ​and command center” while ​it ⁠was approaching Iranian territorial waters in the Gulf of Oman, ⁠which ​the US Central Command ​has denied.

US president Donald Trump on Thursday said ⁠that Washington did not need a deal with Iran to get enriched ⁠uranium from ​the ⁠country.

“We could get it right ⁠now. I don’t think ​they ⁠could stop ‌us if we wanted, but there’s no reason to. ‌It’s entombed,” he ‌told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump also said ⁠that he did not want to meet with Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

But he added that if Washington and ‌Tehran reached a ​deal, it was possible ‌that the ⁠two would meet ⁠and added: “If it happened … I’d ‌be ​respectful”.

The UN nuclear watchdog has been unable to inspect nuclear facilities in Iran affected by the war last June, according to a confidential report by the UN nuclear watchdog circulated to member states and seen Thursday by The Associated Press.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that it “cannot provide any information on the current size, composition or whereabouts of the stockpile of enriched uranium in Iran or whether Iran has suspended all enrichment-related activities.

“The IAEA warned that it was “unable to discharge its safeguards responsibilities” that it has under the Safeguards Agreement of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, adding that it is “indispensable and urgent” for Tehran to implement its obligations under that Treaty.

The only nuclear facility inspected in Iran by IAEA inspectors since the last report in February has been the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which was visited on June 1-3.

The reactor currently running at Bushehr uses uranium from Russia enriched to 4.5 per cent, a low level needed for power generation in such plants.

The confidential report comes as tensions have flared in the Middle East.

For more than three months, Americans have been forced to confront high gas prices as a result of US President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. The conflict has disrupted global oil production because Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 34 percent of the world’s oil passes.

“We’re at dangerously low levels already”, one unnamed industry executive told Politico. “We have shared those concerns at the highest levels of government about what’s coming in mid-to-late June … I hope they are paying attention to inventories right now. You’re hitting tank bottom”.

A White House official denied Politico’s reporting, claiming oil executives have not spoken with senior officials on oil reserve issues.

The United States has boasted about 500 days of President Donald Trump’s “Golden Age” as the Iran war drags on.

The war has caused gas prices to soar while Americans were already struggling with the cost of living.

About 3,526 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Lebanon since March 2, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

Latest figures show 10,733 people have been wounded and more than a million people displaced.