DUBAI/WASHINGTON, April 25 -- Israel and Lebanon extended their ceasefire for three weeks at a meeting at the White House brokered by US President Donald Trump, who said he was prepared to wait for "the best deal" to end his conflict with Iran. Fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon has been one of a number of sticking points to resolving the wider eight-week regional conflict, along with Iran's nuclear ambitions and control of the crucial Strait of Hormuz. Trump said he was in no rush to reach a peace agreement and wanted it to be "everlasting," while continuing to assert that the US had a clear upper hand in the naval standoff in the strait. A day after Iran flaunted its tight grip over the strait, a key shipping corridor through which around a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas usually transits, Trump dismissed the threat posed by Iran's "little wise-guy ships". He said he believed Tehran was hamstrung from making a deal because its leadership was in turmoil, after several senior political and military figures were killed in US-Israeli strikes that began on February 28. On Thursday, he said the US could knock out in a day any refurbishing of weapons that Iran may have made during a ceasefire in place since April 8. But navigation in the passage remained effectively blocked, and the Iranian capture of two huge cargo ships was a reminder that Tehran can still cause trouble for oil markets and pose major strains to the global economy. The Philippine government said 15 Filipinos were on the two vessels and believed to be safe and that it expected the ships to be cleared soon. Container shipping group Hapag-Lloyd said on Friday that one of its ships had made it through the strait, but did not have any information on the circumstances or timing. Before the war, around 130 vessels crossed the strait each day. Oil prices resumed their rise on Friday with the blockade of the strait unresolved and the fate of a lapsed ceasefire unclear since Trump announced a unilateral extension at the 11th hour. Though Trump has said that US forces have destroyed Iran's naval threat, the use of a swarm of small, fast boats to seize the container ships underscored Tehran's evolving tactics in the strait as it countered US interception of Iran-linked oil tankers and other vessels. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Thursday rejected Trump's claim of disarray in the leadership, describing it as "the enemy's media operations" to maliciously undermine Iranian unity and security. "Unity will become stronger and more solid, and enemies will become weaker and more humiliated," he said in a post on X, as he remained out of the public eye since taking over from his father who was killed in an airstrike on the war's first day. Trump said this week he would indefinitely extend what had been a two-week ceasefire with Iran to allow for further peace talks, which have yet to be scheduled. "Don't rush me," he said when asked how long he was willing to wait for a long-term peace deal. "I want to make the best deal ... I want to have it everlasting." Iran's top diplomat is expected to travel to Pakistan by this weekend for talks, two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press on Friday, raising hopes for revived negotiations in the Iran-US war. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was expected to be accompanied by a small government delegation and could arrive as soon as Friday, the officials said, without providing further details. Iran did not immediately acknowledge Araghchi's trip. Islamabad has sought to reinject momentum into the negotiations, which had been set to resume this week but did not materialise, to end a war that has left thousands dead throughout the Middle East, jolted energy markets and clouded the global economic picture. Separately on Friday, the White House said President Donald Trump issued a 90-day extension to the Jones Act waiver, making it easier for non-American vessels to transport oil and natural gas in the wake of the war. Trump first announced a 60-day waiver in mid-March, a move seen as helping to stabilize energy prices and making it easier for more ships to travel to the US following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The post on social media by a White House press aide said: "New data compiled since the initial waiver was issued revealed that significantly more supply was able to reach U.S. ports faster." The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, retreated on the news, falling to around $104 a barrel. Earlier it had edged up to more than $107, a level nearly 50% higher than where it was on February 28, when the US and Israel attacked Iran to start the war. As part of the diplomatic push earlier on Friday, Araghchi and Pakistani officials discussed details of the ceasefire in the war with the US and Israel, part of an effort by Islamabad to get Iran to send a delegation for a second round of negotiations with Washington....