Live: US Iran Rift

The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis on Sunday said two pilots were killed when their helicopter crashed near the Yemen border, after the group claimed it shot the aircraft down.

The coalition blamed a “technical malfunction” for the incident, which inflicted its first military fatalities since the long-running conflict with the Houthis reignited in July.

The incident comes a week after strikes by the Houthis killed 13 people at Riyadh’s international airport, the deadliest attack in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade.

“An AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter belonging to the Ministry of National Guard crashed inside Saudi territory in Najran Region due to a technical malfunction,” coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

“The accident resulted in the martyrdom of its aircrew, consisting of two officers.”

Late on Saturday, Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree claimed the group had “downed an Apache helicopter belonging to the Saudi enemy” in the same area.

After an uneasy, four-year truce, Yemen’s conflict has surged back to life and intensified when the group seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast last month.

The Houthis have hit Saudi targets including tankers in the Red Sea, oil facilities and Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport.

The Saudi-led coalition backing the internationally recognised government has launched repeated air raids on Houthi territory.

The coalition said overnight that it intercepted two drones in the Riyadh area and a third over the oil-rich Eastern Province. Saudi authorities had earlier issued a threat alert in the capital.

Two ballistic missiles “launched by the terrorist Houthi militia towards Khamis Mushait” were intercepted in the kingdom’s south, the coalition added.

On Saturday, the Houthis reported that Saudi strikes killed 12 people in Yemen, including three children.

The Houthis have declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia and captured territory around the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the Red Sea chokepoint and vital export route for Saudi oil since Iran blockaded the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz.

On Sunday, Egypt’s parliament will hold an emergency session after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi asked lawmakers to authorise support to defend Saudi Arabia against Houthi attacks.

Sisi said he was willing to “carry out any measure to protect” Saudi Arabia if its leaders requested it. “I’m not talking about fighting anyone or attacking anyone,” he said on Saturday. “We are speaking only about defence.”

• President Sisi says Cairo will take ‘any measure’ to protect kingdom if asked
• Iran backs ‘political process’, offers to mediate
• Saudi, Houthi forces trade fire

CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pledged on Saturday that Egypt was ready to help defend Saudi Arabia against attacks by Yemen’s Houthi forces if requested, as fighting intensified across the region and Cairo moved towards possible parliamentary authorisation for support.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony at the Egyptian Military Academy, Sisi said Egypt was “not looking for a role to play” in regional conflicts but that it was “inconceivable” for Cairo to stand by while Saudi Arabia was “harmed or its security and stability threatened”.

“Egypt, of course, with the directives of His Majesty King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will carry out any measure to protect you or defend you,” Sisi said.

He said any deployment would require parliamentary approval and expressed hope lawmakers would convene in an emergency session to authorise support “if it is requested of us”.

“I’m not talking about fighting anyone or attacking anyone,” Sisi said. “We are speaking only about defence.”

Egyptian state media later reported that parliament would hold an emergency session on Sunday at Sisi’s request to consider possible support for Saudi defences.

Egypt joined the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen in 2015, though its role has largely focused on securing Red Sea shipping routes rather than frontline combat. The renewed conflict also threatens Egypt’s economic interests, particularly Suez Canal revenues.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said last month that the Suez Canal had lost about $11 billion in revenue since the Houthis began attacking commercial vessels in 2023.

During a visit to Egypt last month, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Sisi called for free and secure navigation in the Red Sea. Egypt has not joined the Makkah agreement, a mutual defence pact signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan in August, and has said it is studying the agreement.

Sisi also said on Saturday that his presidential term would end in 2030 and proposed a 30-month training programme at the Egyptian Military Academy to prepare potential future leaders.

He said a committee would develop selection criteria and legislation for the programme, which would target PhD holders from reputable Egyptian and foreign universities.

Iran, meanwhile, backed a political solution to the Saudi-Houthi conflict and renewed its offer to mediate. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi repeated Iran’s offer to mediate between the two sides.

Araghchi said on Saturday at the Organ­isation of Islamic Coope­ration in Baghdad that Tehran supported an “incl­usive and comprehensive political process as the only practical and sustainable way to resolve the issue”.

Araghchi also said, “Either we build security together, or we will endure insecurity together,” adding that Iran was willing to cooperate with its neighbours. Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of encouraging the Houthis’ recent escalation, a charge Tehran denies.

The fighting continued on Saturday, with Saudi Arabia saying it intercepted four drones over Riyadh, the Eastern Province and the south.

Coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said the drones were “intercepted and destroyed” as the kingdom faced repeated Houthi missile and drone attacks on oil installations, tankers and airports.

Houthi-affiliated med­ia, meanwhile, said Saudi air strikes beginning overnight killed at least 12 people in Yemen, including three children. It said strikes on “civilian homes” in Taiz killed nine people and wounded 16, while attacks in Dhamar killed three children and wounded 17.

The Houthi news agency also alleged that Saudi forces used cluster bombs. The Saudi-led coalition did not immediately comment on that claim.

The renewed war in Yemen has intensified since July. The Houthis have attacked Saudi energy facilities, vessels and Riyadh’s international airport, where 13 people were killed last week.

The Houthis have also seized territory around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, increasing pressure on Red Sea shipping and energy exports.

Separately, the Houthis announced the release of 159 pro-government fighters under an amnesty after their recent territorial gains. The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed the release and said it helped with interviews, health checks, family contacts and transportation.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2026

Yemen’s Houthis have built up a missile and drone arsenal that allows them varied and sustained strike capabilities, as Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government it sponsors are finding out.

‘Tit for tat’ strategy

Since early September, the Houthis have hit key oil infrastructure and airports across Saudi Arabia — notably Riyadh’s airport, which has been targeted 20 times.

They have also, unsuccessfully, targeted the cities of Madina and Makkah.

The trigger for their return to hostilities, after a four-year truce, was a Saudi bombardment of the airport at Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, in July, to prevent a Houthi delegation from landing there.

Since then, there have been “tit-for-tat” military strikes, said April Longley Alley, a specialist on Yemen at the Washington Institute think tank.

“The Houthis framed this campaign as blockade for blockade, airport for airport, escalation for escalation,” she said.

Varied arsenal

The Houthis possess a large range of ballistic missiles and drones, which they are using to also hit targets in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea.

The group’s missile stocks partly come from arsenals seized when it took Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014, as well as “whole systems smuggled in, or self-manufactured systems built from parts that were themselves smuggled into Yemen, primarily via the Arabian Sea”, explained Niranjan BS, a strategic weapons analyst at Jane’s, the open-source intelligence company.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance database, the Houthis have several types of medium-range missiles, several of them derived from Iranian models, such as the Kheibar Shekan.

They also have short-range missiles, such as the Asef anti-ship missile derived from Iran’s Khalij Fars class of missile, noted the Wilson Centre think tank.

In addition, the Houthis also have a range of cruise missiles from Iran’s family of Quds missiles, of which the version 4 is believed to have a range of 2,000 kilometres, according to the Wilson Centre.

They also have a range of drones, both air and maritime, at least some of which were derived from Iranian models.

The Waeid-1 and Waeid-2 aerial drones, for example, are “local copies of the Iranian Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 one-way attack UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) respectively,” the analyst Niranjan BS said.

Iran’s support

“Iran has provided critical military assistance to the Houthis, particularly with the delivery of missiles and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems,” the Middle East Institute said in a report.

“Missile and UAV parts are designed and manufactured in Iran and smuggled into Yemen via small boats, container ships, or over the Oman-Yemen border, where they are assembled,” it said.

In June 2024, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on a man in China suspected of links to the Houthis, who it said played “a key role in procuring materials that enable Houthi forces to manufacture advanced conventional weapons inside Yemen”.

Able to endure

Having already weathered years of conflict, the Houthis are seen as capable of using their arsenal for a long time to come.

“We need to remember with the Houthis that they have withstood punishing air campaigns before, from the Saudis, from the Americans, and from the Israelis,” said the Washington Institute’s Longley Alley.

“This is a battle-hardened group, and they have much less to lose than the Saudis.”

She added that “the Houthis are probably calculating that they can go longer because they’re used to absorbing these strikes”.

AS Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthi movement continue to trade fire, and the US-Iran war is locked in a stalemate, regional states continue to stress the need for a diplomatic solution to the conflicts in both theatres. Numerous attempts have been made in the past to find a negotiated off-ramp in both conflicts, but they have met with little success.

Regional states know that the alternative to talks — a fully fledged war on both fronts — will bring immeasurable destruction to the Gulf, the Red Sea and the surrounding areas. The need for diplomacy was stressed during Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi’s visit to Pakistan on Wednesday. Though the visit was of a bilateral nature, the regional situation was high on the agenda, with Oman’s top diplomat reiterating that “diplomacy is the only way forward”.

Both Pakistan and Oman have played integral roles in trying to find a negotiated settlement to the US-Iran dispute, while the sultanate is also a key link between the Saudis and the Houthis. Both Pakistan and Oman know that any further escalation either in the Gulf or in Yemen will destabilise the whole region.

With regard to the Yemeni conflict, while Pakistan has pledged to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Saudi Arabia, the prospect of a long war of attrition involving the kingdom and its allies, and the pro-Iran Houthis, is in no one’s interest. The goal, therefore, should be a renewed ceasefire, which promises Saudi security and an end to the Yemeni civil war. Pakistan, Oman and other regional states should concentrate on achieving this goal.

Where Iran is concerned, it is likely that the US will make its next move after the midterm elections in early November. However, media reports that America plans on dropping the ‘mother of all bombs’ on Iranian energy and nuclear sites should be a matter of concern for all. America’s aggression has failed to make Iran capitulate, and it is hard to see what more violence will achieve, other than perpetuating chaos in the region.

What is needed is a holistic ceasefire that addresses all fronts — Iran, Yemen, Lebanon — along with a long-term peace between the US and Iran. The US must also refrain from initiating more wars in the Middle East, along with reining in its bloodthirsty ally Israel.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2026

• Pezeshkian decries US blockade, insists ‘military force’ will not compel Tehran into submission
• Washington weighs using ‘Mother Of All Bombs’ against Iranian energy sites, CNN reports

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump once again predicted a swift end to the war with Iran, and a sharp drop in oil prices once the conflict concludes, even as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that military action cannot force them into submission.

“The Iran war will end very soon … Soon, as they want it to end,” Trump told reporters in Montana. “They’ll never have a nuclear weapon, and oil prices will drop like a rock.”

According to Anadolu Agency, Trump also expressed uncertainty over which Ira­nian officials the US was negotiating with.

“They don’t have a navy. They don’t have an air force. Their army is decimated. Their leaders are gone,” Trump said. “I should have probably left their leaders because I don’t know who the hell we’re negotiating with.”

“Iran was the bully of the Middle East,” he said, adding that the country was no longer as powerful as it had been.

Trump also claimed that US strikes had destroyed Iran’s naval fleet and rendered its military aircraft unusable. He said Iran had 159 ships and asserted that none remained operational, while also claiming that its fighter jets had been destroyed on the country’s runways.

‘Iran won’t submit to force’

Meanwhile in Tehran, President Pezeshkian warned that military action cannot force a country into submission, adding that his country “must find a way to strengthen national cohesion and unity”, Al Jazeera reported.

He said that the country was facing its most intense blockade since the 1979 Revolution, accusing the United States of seeking to provoke public protests.

“Over the 48 years since the Revolution, we have never faced such intense blockade, war and difficulties as we are facing now,” Pezeshkian said in a speech broadcast by state television.

He accused Washington of seeking to make life difficult for Iranians to fuel public anger and trigger unrest. Pezeshkian said the US was focusing its efforts on making “the people become upset and face difficulties, and then for social protests to emerge so that they can achieve their sinister objectives”.

‘Mother Of All Bombs’

Meanwhile, the US is considering using the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb — better known by its nickname, the “Mother Of All Bombs” — against Iran if Trump decides to renew combat in the deadlocked war, CNN reported on Thursday.

The military is planning for the potential use of the weapon to target Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites, according to the news outlet, which quoted officials familiar with the matter.

“The MOAB is a massive information operation type weapon that is great for huge area clearance but not much else,” a source familiar with the plans told CNN. “It is definitely not designed as a deep penetration warhead.”

Trump is trying to boost his low approval ratings ahead of November’s midterm elections, with polls showing the unpopular war in Iran and the fuel and other price rises it has caused are hurting his Republican Party.

Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have been at an impasse since the summer, and Washington has in recent weeks dialled back military operations in favour of economic pressure.

However, officials have raised doubts over the efficacy of the bomb if deployed, particularly its ability to destroy suspected underground nuclear sites in Iran, as well as concerns over possible civilian casualties from such a huge weapon.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2026

WASHINGTON: Pakistan on Thursday strongly condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia’s civilian and economic infrastructure, reaffirming its support for the kingdom’s security and right to self-defence amid escalating regional tensions.

Speaking at a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) debate on the Middle East, Pakistan’s acting Permanent Representative, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, said, “These attacks must cease immediately.”

He reiterated Islamabad’s support for efforts to secure a peaceful settlement in Yemen.

Pakistan also backed the UN special envoy’s efforts to resume dialogue aimed at achieving a comprehensive and lasting peace in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has, in recent days, come under sustained attack, including a strike on Riyadh’s international airport that was the deadliest in years, as the war with the Houthis dramatically escalates.

Yemen’s civil war reignited in July after a UN-brokered truce collapsed, months into a wider Middle East war that has rocked the region and roiled energy supplies and markets.

The conflict in the country has caused what the UN calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, leaving most of the nation’s population dependent on aid.

The Saudi-led coalition has fought the Houthis since 2015 after they seized Yemen’s capital Sanaa and forced out the internationally recognised government from the city, until a UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022.

Concern expressed over Gaza

In the same session, Pakistan joined the call for halting settler violence in the West Bank and abandoning attempts to annex occupied Palestinian territory.

“In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, settlement expansion, particularly the E1 project, threatens to sever Palestinian territorial contiguity. Settler violence, demolitions, land seizures and forced displacement are entrenching annexation and dismantling the foundations of peace,” Jadoon said.

“All settlement activities must cease […]; settler violence must be halted; and accountability ensured.”

The E1 plan was greenlit by Israel last year and would further separate east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel and predominantly inhabited by Palestinians, from the West Bank.

Jadoon added that the international support for a two-state solution to the Palestinian issue must be accompanied by concrete measures to preserve Palestine’s territorial integrity and viability.

“The two-state solution remains the internationally agreed framework and the indispensable foundation for just and lasting peace,” he said, adding that Resolution 2803, the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict, and the New York Declaration provided mutually reinforcing frameworks for advancing that objective.

“Pakistan supports their full and good-faith implementation,” he added.

He also condemned Israeli incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque and demanded respect for the historical and legal status quo of the holy sites.

Regarding Gaza, Pakistan expressed concern over continued ceasefire violations, Palestinian deaths and restrictions on humanitarian access.

Jadoon warned that the approaching winter threatened to worsen the suffering of families living amid destruction without adequate shelter or essential services.

He called for the Gaza ceasefire to be fully upheld, humanitarian assistance to be delivered unhindered and at scale, and recovery and reconstruction to proceed without delay.

Pakistan also stressed the need to support the work of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, and demanded the release of withheld Palestinian revenues to enable the Palestinian Authority to fulfil its responsibilities.

Jadoon rejected forced displacement and any attempt to fragment Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which he said constituted a single territorial unit.

He called for a “credible, time-bound and irreversible” political process to end the Israeli occupation and establish an independent, sovereign, contiguous and viable Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

Jadoon concluded that lasting peace in the Middle East would remain out of reach as long as the occupation continued and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination remained unfulfilled.

“Pakistan remains committed to advancing dialogue and diplomacy in the region to help de-escalate tensions, resolve differences and promote lasting peace and stability,” he said.

The Palestinian representative, Deputy Permanent Observer Majed Bamya, said Israel continued to kill Palestinians despite the ceasefire and questioned what he described as unequal international responses to Israeli and Palestinian casualties.

“If violence is an impasse, as we are often told, and I believe it is, how can Israeli militarism be justified while Palestinian pacifism is demanded?” he asked.

Bamya said Israel had squandered the international sympathy that followed the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, through the killing of Palestinians, including children, and the destruction of entire multigenerational families.

He said more than 1,000 Palestinians had been killed over three years in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, while Israeli settlers and soldiers continued to perpetrate violence.

He called for Gaza and the West Bank to be reunited under the Palestinian Authority, with one government, one legal system and one security authority.

“We are either sovereign states, equal in rights and duties, sharing security and prosperity, or warring parties forever,” he said, adding that “occupation must end”.

France’s ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, also called for an end to Israeli settlement expansion, warning that the E1 project, settler violence and financial pressure on the Palestinian Authority were fuelling instability.

“The unchecked expansion of settlements—including the E1 project—the clear trajectory toward annexation, the systematic and unpunished acts of terror committed by settlers, and the financial strangulation of the Palestinian Authority all fuel instability, including for Israel itself,” he said.

Britain echoed the criticism of Israeli settlement policy. Ambassador Sarah MacIntosh demanded an immediate halt to the E1 project, withdrawal of the relevant tender and an end to settlement expansion.

“The Government of Israel must ensure compliance with its obligations under international humanitarian law and remove the current restrictions on this critical aid,” she said, referring to humanitarian assistance for Gaza.

The United States defended President Donald Trump’s comprehensive Gaza peace plan, endorsed by Security Council Resolution 2803 (2025), saying its success depended on Hamas disarming and relinquishing its weapons.

The UN’s acting Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Ramiz Alakbarov, warned that the ceasefire remained extremely fragile, with Israeli military operations continuing to cause Palestinian casualties.

Citing Gaza’s Ministry of Health, he reported approximately 1,500 Palestinian fatalities since the ceasefire, including more than 320 children and 140 women.

“During my visit to Gaza on Sunday, I witnessed that, for Palestinians living along the Yellow Line, the ceasefire exists in name only,” he said.

Alakbarov warned that winter would deepen the humanitarian crisis, with an estimated 950,000 people living in areas at medium or high risk of flooding and more than 4,000 buildings being used as shelters at risk of collapse.

He called for the full implementation of the Gaza peace plan, including the disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups, withdrawal of Israeli forces, deployment of the international stabilisation force and transfer of transitional governance responsibilities to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.

He said the ceasefire must become the foundation for genuine recovery and a lasting political settlement, paving the way for two states living side by side.

A Saudi foreign ministry official on Thursday accused Iran of encouraging the Houthis in the latest escalation of their fight with the kingdom, adding that it continues to arm and train the group.

“Iran continues to arm, train and support the Houthi militia in violation of UN security council resolutions,” Dr Rayed Krimly, deputy minister for public diplomacy at the foreign ministry, said during a virtual briefing with reporters.

“We think that the escalation by the Houthis at this latest stage of the conflict is encouraged by Iran,” he later said.

The official said the kingdom however remained in communication with Iran, even if Tehran appeared unwilling to offer concessions.

“We continue to have direct communications with Iran,” Krimly told reporters.

“Overall, it doesn’t seem yet that the Iranians are able to provide the necessary concessions for a solution.”

The official went on to accuse the Houthis of refusing to meet in Oman in recent weeks as fighting ramped up between the two sides.

“At the beginning of this escalation, we asked them to meet in Muscat, Oman and they refused,” he added.

“This was the last communication which happened a few weeks ago.”

The world’s top crude oil exporter has in recent days come under sustained attack, including a strike on Riyadh’s international airport that was the deadliest in years, as the war with the Houthis dramatically escalates.

Yemen’s civil war reignited in July after a UN-brokered truce collapsed, months into a wider Middle East war that has rocked the region and roiled energy supplies and markets.

The conflict in the country has caused what the United Nations calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, leaving most of the nation’s population dependent on aid.

The Saudi-led coalition has fought the Houthis since 2015 after they seized Yemen’s capital Sanaa and forced out the internationally recognised government from the city, until a UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022.

Saudi-led coalition says Houthis attempted to attack dozens of Saudi facilities

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said on Thursday that the Houthis had attempted to attack dozens of Saudi airports, ports and oil facilities.

Coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki said at a press conference that the Houthis had launched 20 attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh this month, killing 17 people and wounding 333 others.

The coalition also said Houthi attacks on Abha airport, in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border, had killed three people and wounded 28.

Maliki said the Houthis had acquired advanced military technology with the help of “regional actors,” including ballistic missiles, drones and explosive-laden fast boats.

The spokesperson also said the coalition had destroyed 127 weapons storage facilities and launch platforms in Yemen’s mountainous areas.

He called on the Houthis to immediately halt operations targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, and said the group should read the coalition’s statement carefully and “between the lines”.

Shortly after the coalition’s statement, the Houthi military spokesperson said Saudi airspace and airports were unsafe, renewing a warning to airlines while excluding airspace over the holy cities of Makkah and Madina.

The United States is considering using its biggest non-nuclear bomb against Iran if President Donald Trump should decide to renew combat in the war that has hit a deadlock, CNN reported on Thursday.

The military is planning for the potential use of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb — better known by its nickname, the “Mother Of All Bombs” — to target Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites, according to the news outlet, which quoted officials familiar with the matter.

Trump is trying to boost his low approval ratings ahead of November’s midterm elections, with polls showing the unpopular war in Iran and fuel and other price rises it has caused are hurting his Republican Party.

Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, which erupted with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February, have been at an impasse since the summer.

But officials have raised doubts over the efficacy of the bomb if it were deployed, particularly its ability to destroy suspected underground nuclear sites in the Islamic republic.

“The MOAB is a massive information operation type weapon that is great for huge area clearance but not much else,” a source familiar with the plans told CNN.

“It is definitely not designed as a deep penetration warhead.”

The United States and Israel have said the war was necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons — a goal Tehran has long denied pursuing.

There are also concerns over the possibility of civilian casualties from such a huge weapon.

Washington has in recent weeks dialed back military operations in favour of economic pressure.

AFP has contacted the Pentagon for comment.

In 2017, the US military in Afghanistan dropped the “MOAB” to target Islamic State group hideouts in a complex of tunnels and bunkers, killing more than 90 militants.

Millions could be thrown into poverty by surging energy costs, the impact of an intense El Nino phenomenon and higher interest rates, with vulnerable countries being pushed to the brink by repeated crises, the UN’s development chief told AFP.

Global fuel prices have soared since the United States launched its war on Iran in late February, with Tehran’s retaliations against Washington’s Gulf allies curtailing major oil and natural gas supplies.

Fiscal deficits and debt-to-GDP ratios around the world have ballooned since the 2008 global financial crisis, with governments firefighting against a series of shocks including the pandemic and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Speaking on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, UN Development Programme (UNDP) head Alexander de Croo said many developing countries had responded to the current spike in energy prices with blanket subsidies, but a succession of crises had left them with limited resources to keep that up.

“You have to repair your roof while at the same time your home is on fire,” he told AFP, adding governments in the developing world did not have time to rebuild buffers or resolve previous shocks before being hit by new crises.

The IMF warned this week that while global growth had held up in the face of the energy crisis, that resilience was highly dependent on the boom in AI technology investments, and poorer countries not exposed to that were still struggling.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva had warned that “winter is coming” — an allusion to popular fantasy book series “Game of Thrones” —implying that a cataclysm was around the corner if the world did not prepare for it.

And De Croo added: “Some countries have a well-insulated house with money in the bank. Other countries have a house without a roof and no money in the bank.

“We’re stumbling from one crisis into the other, and what countries need is some space, and some time, and access to financing.” Not getting the response right could be devastating. The UNDP warned in a new report that about 130 million people were at risk of being pushed into poverty this year if energy and food price increases were fully passed on without subsidies.

People in South and East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are at particular risk, the agency said.

‘Difficult to manage’

With advanced economies seeing bond yields surge — owing to elevated inflation expectations, surging debt ratios and AI capital-raising activities — global borrowing costs have been rising.

That in turn, de Croo warned, had tightened space for developing countries to access the capital they needed to combat the shocks, with rising interest rates feeding into increasing debt payments.

According to UNDP, the median developing country now spends about 9.5 percent of government revenue on interest payments — the highest in a quarter of a century, and more than three times that of high-income countries.

“It starts to be a difficult situation to manage, and it takes away all their margin for policy,” de Croo said.

The former Belgian prime minister said he would spend the week in Bangkok — where world economic policy leaders have gathered since Monday —pushing for advanced economies and multilateral agencies to invest in economic growth, resilience and job creation in the developing world.

He also said recent stark cuts in international aid were having an impact on those countries.

The UNDP warned there was potentially more pain to come, with this year’s El Nino climate phenomenon forecast to be the strongest on record.

That is expected to have widespread effects including flooding, droughts and other extreme events that are estimated to peak in early 2027.

De Croo also said private capital needed to step in to help fight some of the worst consequences of climate change.

“We see that the impact of climate has an economic cost. Avoiding that cost has a business case,” he said.

OHIO: US President Donald Trump said that the United States “might have gone too far” in targeting Iran’s leadership.

“We might have gone too far with the leaders because we don’t know who the hell we’re dealing with any more,” he said during a campaign rally in Ohio, according to Middle East Eye.

“Nobody wants to be the president of Iran,” he added, claiming that potential candidates did not want to take up the position. Trump made this remark despite Masoud Pezeshkian being Iran’s president since July 2024.

“We’re having a hard time figuring out who the hell to deal with, to be honest with you. I think we went too far,” the US president said.

Trump says he doesn’t believe China, Russia are helping Iran

Meanwhile, Trump said on Monday that he does not believe that China and Russia are helping Iran, adding that they have “too much to lose.”

Trump has faced pressure over reports that Chinese and Russian entities have supplied Iran with intelligence for attacks on US troops.

Responding to comments that China and Russia are helping Iran, Trump said in a post on Truth Social: “If they are, it’s at a very low level, but I don’t believe they are at all. They have too much to lose, and we would know about it, and know about it very fast!”

Trump said in July that he did not believe China and Russia were selling weapons to Iran, warning that “it would be very bad for them” if they did.

China and Russia both maintain strong ties with Iran but have refrained from getting directly involved in the Middle East war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on February 28.

Since the outbreak of the war, Russia has sent humanitarian aid to Iran, but has otherwise not officially announced any concrete assistance.

The Kremlin has denied US media reports claiming that Moscow passed sensitive intelligence to Iran, including the locations of US warships and aircraft in the region.

China has sharply condemned US and Israeli strikes while also criticising Iranian attacks on Gulf states and the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz.

China has previously supplied Iran with drones as well as equipment that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

Beijing has denied reports that the country’s top semiconductor firm, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, has sent chipmaking tools to Iran.

China and Russia have also been accused of helping Iran circumvent international sanctions targeting its oil sales.

Trump has frequently taken a more deferential tone toward Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin than he has toward some of Washington’s own allies, saying that they must be respected as the leaders of major world powers.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2026

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned on Tuesday that while low-income developing countries were dealing with the disproportionate impacts of the Iran war-fuelled energy shock, many had “no choice” but to cut spending or potentially face debt restructuring.

Speaking to AFP on the sidelines of the organisation’s Annual Meetings in Bangkok, IMF deputy director of research, Petya Koeva Brooks, said that the heavily indebted oil-importing countries were facing the worst of the energy shock, and had difficult choices in helping their citizens through the crisis.

“Unfortunately, after years of the global economy being hit [by] shock after shock, debt levels have increased quite a lot, and at the same time, inflation has become a problem,” she said.

The US war on Iran has plunged the Middle East into conflict and sent global energy prices soaring, as Tehran’s retaliatory action targeted Washington’s Gulf allies and curtailed oil and gas supplies.

Those prices have begun to bleed into other goods, with the crisis also having an effect on crucial fertiliser supplies.

The IMF has called on countries to offer narrow, targeted subsidies in the wake of the crisis, while also recommending all governments work to rebuild fiscal buffers and address rising debt after years of fighting economic shocks since the pandemic.

“Our messages indeed apply to most countries, but again, the trade-offs and the choices that have to be made are much more difficult for the most vulnerable countries,” Koeva Brooks said.

The IMF’s World Economic Outlook, released on Tuesday, identified low-income developing countries that are net oil importers and are not exposed to the ongoing artificial intelligence technology investment boom as being the most vulnerable to the shocks from the Iran war.

“For those countries that are most vulnerable, this is where the consumption basket is heavily weighted towards energy and food, and so indeed it is much much more difficult,” she said.

“But unfortunately there is no other choice.”

The senior IMF official added that “many” low-income countries were in debt distress, or close to it, and that they should seek debt restructuring if they were not able to address the issue.

“Where debt is not sustainable, then resolving that debt and having orderly and timely restructuring is always better than waiting, because then the cost of restructuring down the road is going to be much higher,” she said.

‘Domino effect’

In its World Economic Outlook, the IMF raised its forecast for 2026 global growth, largely on the back of advanced economies enjoying a boost from AI-related investments and economic activity.

Growth outcomes were highly uneven across economies, depending on their exposure to the war and whether they were integrated into AI supply chains.

The world’s advanced economies were forecast to grow 2.1 per cent in 2026, with those in the AI supply chain such as Taiwan and South Korea posting significantly higher figures.

Koeva Brooks told AFP that if AI investment activity were to slow, the world economy “would see a negative impact on output, not only in advanced countries like the US but again through trade linkages also in Asia”.

In the IMF’s worst-case scenario — of AI not delivering promised productivity gains — global GDP forecasts for 2028 would fall by as much as 0.4pc.

Climate-related risks were another key part of the World Economic Outlook this year, and Koeva Brooks told AFP that some of the effects of a particularly intense El Niño phenomenon had already been taken into account in higher prices for certain food items.

The warming phase of a natural climate cycle, El Niño raises sea temperatures in the tropical Pacific, triggering changes in weather that can increase the risk of drought and flooding, and exacerbate man-made global warming.

“We have a significant increase in beverage prices, in the prices of rice, and so on,” said Koeva Brooks.

“Of course, it could turn out that the domino effect is even bigger than what we currently have.”

Saudi authorities said on Monday they were extending the suspension of operations at the international airport in the capital, Riyadh, after deadly weekend attacks by Yemen’s Houthis.

Operations at King Khalid International Airport, Saudi Arabia’s second-busiest airport after Jeddah, were suspended to “allow for the completion of procedures to ensure the safety and operational readiness of the airport’s facilities”, the Saudi civil aviation authority said in a statement.

The airport has been shut since an attack on Saturday that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade. On Sunday, another attack killed one Pakistani and injured nearly a dozen others.

The attacks marked one of the most significant disruptions to Saudi aviation in years, adding to pressures on an industry already grappling with conflict across the Middle East.

The airport cancelled 99.7 per cent of all scheduled flights on Sunday, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. An air traffic tracker from Flightradar24 showed no planes over the city.

The disruption has forced airlines across Europe and Asia to suspend services, while the Federal Aviation Administration advised US carriers on Sunday to exercise caution when flying to or over Saudi Arabia.

Lufthansa Group has cancelled all flights to Riyadh until October 16, while Air France-KLM has extended a previous suspension of services to and from the Saudi capital until the end of the month.

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways was among the airlines that further extended Saudi flight cancellations, affecting around 20 flights to Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam on Monday and Tuesday.

The escalation with the Houthis has raised concerns over the broader economic impact. Saudi Arabia’s real gross domestic product is projected to contract by 3.6pc this year, reflecting a combination of factors including lower oil activity.

The attacks have put events scheduled in Riyadh this month under pressure, including the kingdom’s flagship investment conference and the WPC Energy Congress, where several top oil executives were dropped from the programme.

Video released by Saudi authorities shows moment of Saturday blast

Muslim pilgrims wrapped in white garments queued for a document check at Riyadh’s international airport, when a powerful explosion brought chunks of the ceiling down on their heads, footage released on Monday by Saudi authorities showed.

Gate workers dived under their desks as passengers scrambled away from the direction of the blast, in dramatic security camera footage released by the Saudi media ministry showed the moment of the deadly strike on Saturday.

Smoke and debris cloud the images, leaving only a sudden fire visible, while some blurry figures appear too shocked to flee.

Many of the passengers in the video released by Saudi authorities appear to be pilgrims headed to Makkah on Umrah, the high season of which is just beginning as the intense summer heat starts to ease in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi authorities have warned of potential legal consequences against witnesses speaking out about strikes and have restricted media from accessing attack sites to independently report on them.

The official release of footage from the deadliest attack on Saudi soil in a decade is a notable development after the government for weeks offered few public details on the extent of Houthi strikes on the kingdom.

The Saudi Gazette said the footage underscored “the danger posed to innocent travellers whose journeys are dedicated to worship”, adding that the attack “raises serious questions about the Houthis’ claims to religious legitimacy”.

Announcing last Thursday that the United States will not launch military strikes against Iran before the midterm election, President Trump also made clear that the ongoing US naval blockade of Iran’s oil exports will remain in full force. Some are now questioning this assertion while Iran makes its moves.

Trading through Balochistan, the Caspian and China remains key to its efforts to bypass the sanctions. Iranian export volumes are lower than before, yes, but not zero, as President Trump asserts. Iran has not been completely crippled.

Sanctions are hurting Iran without delivering Washington’s desired outcome, says former Ambassador Husain Haqqani, now a Senior Fellow and Director for South and Central Asia at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, in a piece published in World Geostrategic Insights on September 29.

Media is now also reporting that late in August, Tajikistan began receiving Iranian oil and petroleum products. The deliveries began following talks between the two countries on expanding cooperation in the oil and gas sector, Tajikistan’s Energy and Water Resources Ministry told the Asia-Plus news agency.

Trading through Balochistan, the Caspian and China remains key to its efforts

The Tajik ministry, however, did not disclose the shipment volumes, their commercial terms, or how the oil and petroleum products were transported to Tajikistan. Tajikistan is not the only outlet for the Iranian crude exports. Multiple trade routes are helping Iran evade sanctions, says Haqqani.

With Gulf access restricted, Iran is using costlier northern and eastern corridors, with Pakistan, Russia and China providing alternatives to Western-controlled routes. Strictly speaking, Iran is no longer constrained to trade via the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran shares a 900km-long, porous border with Pakistan. Trade between the two countries is not large. In March 2025, it was $3.13 billion. To circumvent sanctions, this relatively small trade remains important for Iran, especially because cash payments and barter arrangements help it bypass dollar-clearing requirements.

Pakistan is also looking to expand trade with Iran. Soon after mediating a ceasefire between Iran and the US in June, Pakistan allowed the entry of goods originating from third countries into Iran overland through Pakistan.

When Iran attempted to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, Pakistan designated six road corridors linking its ports in Karachi, including Port Qasim, and Gwadar, to the Gabd and Taftan land crossings through Balochistan for trade with Iran. These crossings have enabled exchanges of daily essentials as well as fuel, electricity and gas.

Iran and Pakistan are currently implementing a barter mechanism and the Customs Convention on the International Transport of Goods under the Cover of TIR Carnets (TIR Convention, 1975), enabling them to bypass sanctions and avoid scrutiny in traditional banking channels. Reportedly, Pakistan often grants temporary exemptions from normal banking-instrument requirements for essential exports to Iran.

Pakistan has also eased some export rules to facilitate transit trade between Iran and Central Asian countries through its territory. It has temporarily waived formal banking rules for essential supplies to Iran and for Pakistan’s exports to Central Asian states, trying to bolster its own exports. This helps Iran build resilient transportation corridors through Pakistan and into Central Asia.

These align with Pakistan’s geostrategic ambitions. For years, Islamabad has sought to make Pakistan a transit trade and energy corridor between the Middle East and Central Asia.

Russia is another important plank in this Iranian strategy. Over time, Iran and Russia have moved to conduct bilateral financial settlements using a rial-ruble exchange, bypassing the SWIFT architecture. Though their bilateral trade stands at only $5bn, it avoids Western sanctions and banking restrictions.

The 2025 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty between the two countries institutionalised what has been built over the previous two decades.

The central element of this effort is the International North-South Transit Corridor (INSTC), established in 2000 by India, Russia and Iran as an alternative transportation corridor and trade route to the Suez Canal. The INSTC, a 7,200km multimodal network, gained significance for Russia after it launched the war on Ukraine in 2022.

Once completed in 2030, the corridor will haul 30 million tons, resulting in $1.5bn in transit fees for Iran, the Eurasian Development Bank estimated.

In addition, cargo already moves through St. Petersburg-Astrakhan-Anzali-Bandar Abbas via the Caspian Sea-river link, and through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan by rail. The next step in the project will be to complete the Rasht-Astara railway. This would connect St. Petersburg, Russia, to Bandar-Abbas in Iran, avoiding American sanctions and ensuring a stable flow of goods. It is also diverse, with two land routes and one sea route, meaning disruptions can be mitigated by switching supply lines. The western path runs through Eastern Europe, while the Caspian and eastern routes run through Central Asia.

China is another key player in this ongoing geopolitical game. The primary land-based transport links between the two countries are rail connections through Central Asia. These lines have become increasingly important since the start of Iran’s war with the US, and the American naval blockade only deepened their strategic value. The key rail link connects the Chinese cities of Yiwu and Xi’an to Iran via the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran corridor, which first opened in 2014 and was extended in 2025 with Chinese freight links.

The rail corridors provide a trade route that bypasses US sanctions and is more removed from geopolitical tensions. Pakistan also plays a key role in deepening the Iran-China relationship because of its strategic relationship with China and beca­use many of the transport links between Iran and China pass through Pakistan.

Iranian finances are under pressure. With the Iranian oil reserve held afloat off Malaysia and China likely to run out this month, Iran faces a drastic curtailment of government revenues — probably amounting to 40 per cent of what had previously been expected in the annual budget, The Maritime Executive reported on October 8.

With no oil or LNG flowing out of Iran on traditional routes, several alternative export routes to prop up its finances are being looked at closely by Tehran, the report also pointed out.

Iran has two railway connections that could be valuable, including the route through Sarakhs across Turkmenistan to China, which carries some potential.

Further, the Iranian national oil transmission network has a pipeline link to Zaghmarz on the Caspian Sea, but this was built as an import conduit for Russian oil being imported for refining to meet domestic fuel needs in northern Iran. Tankers on the Caspian are shallow draft and carry low volumes. However, there are impediments in the process, the report added.

Neither Azerbaijan nor Kazakhstan are on friendly terms with Iran, so they would not be prepared to insert Iranian oil into their oil transmission systems, either from Kazakhstan through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium pipeline, or from Baku via the pipeline through Tbilisi to Ceyhan.

Slowly and gradually, with the help of its neighbours, Iran is striving to wriggle out of the Western stranglehold. But this remains a painstakingly slow and arduous process and will take time to take a robust shape.

The writer is an energy analyst and has delivered talks at the Department of Energy in Washington and the International Energy Agency. X: @rhusainsyed

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, October 12th, 2026

A fresh Houthi strike hit Riyadh’s international airport on Sunday, killing one person — a Pakistani resident — and wounding 11 others, a day after another deadly attack claimed by the Yemeni group forced authorities to suspend operations there.

Saturday’s attack, the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade, was a sharp escalation in the Yemen war, where Riyadh has long militarily supported the internationally recognised government against the Houthis.

The group on Sunday claimed multiple attacks over the last 24 hours, including on the airport, and threatened to keep targeting the kingdom’s transit hubs, calling them “a theatre of operations for our forces”.

Hours later, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the group reported that a projectile struck King Khalid International Airport, sparking a fire.

Air defences also intercepted a missile nearby, it added.

The fresh attack on the airport killed one person — a Pakistani resident — and wounded 11 others, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said on X.

Authorities have extended the closure of the airport by 24 hours until 2100 GMT (2am PKT) on Monday, the tracking site Flightradar24 said on the same platform.

AFP journalists and locals reported hearing multiple blasts in the Saudi capital on Sunday.

“The birds went into a frenzy after the sound. The whole house shook,” said one resident of the Al-Aarid neighbourhood in the north of the city.

The civil aviation authority also reported another attack on Dammam airport in the east — which the Houthis also said they had targeted — a day after the Saudi coalition reported a projectile landing nearby.

Shortly afterwards, the coalition reported shooting down a drone, also in the east.

It said early on Monday that it had also “intercepted and destroyed” a Houthi ballistic missile heading for the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait, home to a major military base.

‘Full-fledged war crime’

The Houthis have stepped up their attacks on the Riyadh airport — where three people were also killed on Thursday — as well as on other key targets in the world’s top crude oil exporter.

And although Saudi Arabia has poured billions into its military, Houthi attacks continue to slip through.

“Saudi air defences have been able to intercept some Houthi missile and drone attacks, but Saudi Arabia is so large that it’s simply impossible for them to consistently defend themselves against Houthi attacks,” said Thomas Juneau, security analyst at Ottawa University.

The anti-Houthi coalition called Saturday’s attack a “full-fledged war crime” and vowed to “respond decisively”.

Houthi media reported two Saudi strikes in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled Sanaa governorate on Sunday.

Saturday’s attack drew condemnation from the United Nations and leaders around the world, including US President Donald Trump, who said he was considering joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country does not have diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, also denounced the “horrific terrorist attack”.

Four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese were killed, the civil aviation authority said, with 309 wounded.

The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia also said one of its citizens died on Sunday after being wounded the day before.

A Riyadh-based Western diplomat told AFP the official number of injured may not give a full picture, as it did not appear to include those with minor wounds.

Operations suspended

Authorities suspended operations at the airport into Sunday, a senior aviation source said, with air traffic monitor Flightradar24 saying the closure was extended until 21:00 GMT (2am PKT on Monday).

A second aviation source confirmed the halt in operations “until further notice”, adding radar and communications equipment was damaged and runways needed to be assessed.

Witnesses to Saturday’s strike described chaos in the aftermath.

“People who were in Terminal 3 started running towards us,” a 32-year-old Riyadh resident told AFP.

“Some had lost a hand or an arm. People were running while carrying injured people, covered in blood.”

The attack prompted health officials to activate a rare mass call-up of doctors, a medical source said.

The US, Canadian, German and Spanish embassies in Saudi Arabia have warned their citizens to avoid Riyadh airport, while Australia urged its citizens on Sunday to stay indoors altogether and “shelter in place”.

The Houthis also claimed to have targeted the Dammam airport, whose official website on Sunday showed many flights — both departures and arrivals — were delayed.

‘Rewrite the rules’

Saturday’s airport strike, on the eve of Saudi Arabia’s high-profile convention and entertainment season, was the deadliest attack in the kingdom since a 2015 suicide bombing.

With the summer heat subsiding, October also usually marks the beginning of the high season for Umrah pilgrims, with millions of Muslims from across the world flocking to Makkah.

Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that has supported Yemen’s government militarily since 2015, including by seeking to exert control over Yemeni airspace and the airport in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.

Ottawa University’s Juneau said the Houthis now “want to rewrite the rules of the game”.

“They want to do to Saudi Arabia what Saudi Arabia does to them,” he said.

“So if their airport in Sanaa has to be closed because of the Saudi air embargo, they want to do the same thing to Saudi Arabia.”

On the ground in Yemen, Saudi-supported government forces were advancing in their counter-offensive against the Houthis around the Bab al-Mandab strait, a key shipping route, military sources said on Saturday.

The Houthis claimed to have repelled them.

Claims by both sides have been impossible to independently verify, with the situation moving fast on the ground and access for journalists difficult.

AMERICAN President Donald Trump’s statement that he will not launch a fresh attack on Iran before the US midterm elections does little to calm fears of renewed war in the Gulf. In effect, the US president has only promised to postpone the attack, when he should have committed to indefinitely suspending hostilities in favour of dialogue.

Clearly, it is a calculated political move: the Iran war is unpopular with the American people, mainly because of the inflation and high petroleum prices it has caused. Mr Trump may be holding off on a new assault to prevent a complete drubbing of the Republicans at the ballot box. What is perplexing is the mixed messaging. While refusing to rule out a post-midterms attack, he also said that the Iran war was going to end “very soon”.

Most observers have lost count of how many times he has said this. He added that talks with Tehran were “productive”. Should the world believe that a new attack is imminent after the US elections? Or is the US looking to wind things down? Perhaps those calling the shots in Washington themselves do not know. It is also a matter of concern that Israel is reportedly contemplating another attack on Iran.

Both the US and Israel need to halt their destructive misadventures in the Middle East. Their irresponsible warmongering has resulted in widespread bloodshed across the region and has upended the global economy. Washington and Tehran have exchanged proposals on how to end the conflict. Mr Trump and his cohorts, therefore, need to concentrate exclusively on the diplomatic track, instead of fuelling speculation regarding fresh hostilities.

Already, the Yemen conflict is spiralling out of control. If the US and Israel were to spark another round of violence with Iran, the consequences for the entire region — indeed the world at large — would be grim. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is already constrained. If Bab al-Mandeb were also to be closed, and the export of petrochemicals from the region curtailed further because of conflict, the entire world will pay the price for the deadly follies of Mr Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Therefore, instead of speaking in riddles, President Trump must commit his country to the peace process, offer the Iranians a fair deal, and bring his military home from the Middle East.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2026

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry has said Pakistan is acting as an “honest broker” while mediating between the United States and Iran, reiterating the commitment to a “negotiated and peaceful” outcome.

The military’s spokesperson made the remarks in an interview with CNN correspondent Ivan Watson, who posted a small clip of the interview on his X account.

During the interview, Lt Gen Chaudhry was asked whether Pakistan can “still play a neutral role [in the US-Iran war] when Iran has targeted Saudi Arabia in the past, with the Makkah alliance, and now you have an Iranian ally — the Houthis — attacking Saudi Arabia”.

“Can Pakistan be a neutral broker?” Watson asked.

In response, Lt Gen Chaudhry said: “Pakistan has been exhibiting that we are a very honest broker … everything stems from honesty. We have been very clear on where Pakistan stands with all our partners”.

He recalled that when the US-Iran war began, Pakistan had openly condemned Israeli attacks on Iran and also condemned Iran’s retaliatory campaign in the Gulf.

“So we have been honest about that. We don’t mince our words; we have a stake in regional peace and stability. We tell all that nobody benefits from expanding this war,” he said.

Lt Gen Chaudhry said Pakistan was committed to a “negotiated and peaceful” outcome to the conflict. He stressed that the country was doing “whatever is possible, whatever is necessary so that the gap narrows”.

“We want that the conflict should not expand horizontally or vertically.”

In a small clip of the interview released on Wednesday, Lt Gen Chaudhry was asked about deployment of Pakistani troops in Saudi Arabia under the Makkah defence alliance. In response, he said Pakistani troops were in Saudi Arabia, adding that they had been in the kingdom “for decades” and across multiple domains.

In a longer clip of the interview posted by state-run Pakistan TV on X on Friday, the military’s spokesperson said that such questions were dwelling on the operationalisation of the force.

“The Makkah accord, its actualisation and whatever effects it achieves, that will be purely defensive. That’s how the partners, that’s how the principles have agreed, that’s how it is going to manifest itself,” he said.

“How that will be done, which component will go there, how it will be employed, that’s for the operational commander to decide. And the operational details, because it’s a military conflict … no participating country starts disclosing how and where I am going to employ my forces,” he said.

“So how and when they will be employed, you will see [for] yourself,” he said. However, Lt Gen Chaudhry hastened to add that it would be “defensive in nature”.

He went on to say that under the United Nations charter, all countries had the “right to self-defence”.

“It is best, that rather than the threat [manifesting] into an actual operation or a military conflict, you ward it off through collective deterrence,” he said.

He went on to say that the signatories of the Makkah defence pact, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, had potent military and diplomatic capabilities.

“So, then anyone who is having some funny ideas against any other will hopefully think twice, thrice or multiple times. So, that stops something terrible [from] happening. That is how collective deterrence works,” he said.

The remarks by the military’s spokesperson come amid escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and as the US-Israeli war on Iran, in which Islamabad has been playing the role of a mediator, shows no signs of abating.

Meanwhile, the defence pact between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, signed on Aug 7, aims to strengthen collective deterrence and empower its signatory states to treat an attack against one of them as an attack against all of them.

On Monday, the three countries agreed to the deployment of military forces and capabilities rapidly in the kingdom during an emergency meeting of alliance in Riyadh.

• Araghchi says Tehran can reply to proposal within days; Iranian atomic chief vows not to give up enrichment
• Centcom terms Hormuz closure claims ‘false’

TEHRAN: Iran announced on Thursday that it was still reviewing Washington’s response to a proposal under which the Strait of Hormuz could reopen within seven days, as US President Donald Trump indicated that he will not attack Iran before November’s midterm elections amid ‘productive talks’.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran could reply within days, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, emphasising that “the diplomatic process is still continuing”.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that Washington will not strike Iran prior to the Nov 3 midterm elections, calling talks with Tehran “productive”.

“I want to make it clear to everybody that, while Iran is in very bad condition … we will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the midterm elections to be held in the United States on Nov 3,” Trump wrote.

Meanwhile, Trump said that his special envoy Steve Witkoff is “doing very well” in negotiations with Iran, though he indicated that an agreement is not his preferred outcome, Anadolu reported.

“He’s working on the Iran deal and doing very well. I think the deal isn’t really something that I want to do, but they’re willing to offer us anything to stop,” Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in San Antonio, Texas, adding that Tehran “will never have a nuclear weapon”.

Trump described Witkoff as “a great negotiator” who has “done some phenomenal things”, citing the ceasefire deal in Gaza, and said he expects the war with Iran to end soon.

“That war ends — it’s going to be very soon. It’s got to be very soon,” Trump said, descr­ibing Iran as “a failed nation”.

He also reiterated his claim that Iran has been defeated “economically and militarily” and said the US naval blockade will remain in place, while claiming that oil is flowing through the Strait of Hormuz in “record numbers” with 22 million barrels passing through Wednesday night.

Despite the ongoing talks, Iran will not abandon uranium enrichment or hand over its uranium, state media reported Thursday, citing Mohammad Eslami, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation.

Dismissing renewed US threats aga­inst Iran’s nuclear facilities as “nothing new”, he said enrichment was “an inseparable part” of the nuclear process.

On the aviation front, the first commercial flight operated by a foreign airline to fly into Iran since the outbreak of the Middle East war landed on Thursday, state media repo­rted, after the United States granted a sanctions waiver for Iraq’s national carrier.

The waiver applies to pilgr­ims travelling between Iran and Najaf, alongside a separate agreement allowing Iran­ian airlines, except Mahan Air, to operate daily flights on the route.

At sea, Maj Gen Ahmad Vahidi, commander-in-chief of the IRGC, warned that military forces are ready “with crushing weapons to deliver a decisive response to any attempt at unauthorised passage in the Strait of Hormuz,” Fars reported.

US Central Comm­and rejected Iranian claims that the waterway is closed. However, shipping data from analytics firm Kpler showed the number of vessels transiting the strait fell to seven on Tuesday, the lowest in more than two months, before edging up to 10 on Wednesday, after tanker attacks reached a wartime high last week.

“Crude crossing the strait fell 27 per cent from a wartime high the week before, to at least 10.1 million barrels a day,” Kpler analysts Emma­nuel Belostrino and Yui Torikata wrote Tuesday, though rising exports from the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea kept overall Middle East crude exports at pre-war levels.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2026

US Vice President JD Vance has said in an exclusive interview with Reuters that Iran must make a meaningful reduction in its nuclear enrichment capacity to satisfy US demands and end the country’s seven-month war, even as Washington was unsure how Tehran makes decisions in negotiations.

Vance, a longtime sceptic of US involvement in foreign wars, has taken a leading role in negotiating a settlement to the conflict and brokered a provisional peace agreement in June that quickly fell apart. The war has jolted global energy markets and become a political liability for President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans ahead of November midterm elections.

Speaking on Monday after a campaign trip in Alaska, Vance said any agreement would require Iran to reduce its nuclear enrichment capacity, rather than offer assurances of future nuclear drawdowns.

“If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60 per cent enriched fuel? And if you want to show commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, don’t build highly enriched fuel. That’s a very basic threshold issue,” Vance said.

“I think if they want to show a commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, they would do something meaningful on their enrichment capacity.” Iran and the US have exchanged proposals in recent weeks aimed at ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global energy shipping route. Trump rejected Tehran’s latest offer and has warned that military operations could intensify after the midterms.

Vance said the US remained open to an agreement but would require concrete Iranian nuclear concessions.

“We’re not going to trade words for actions,” Vance said.

Unclear how Iran makes decisions

Complicating matters, Vance said Washington is uncertain who makes decisions in Tehran.

Vance said the US was in talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. But it was unclear how much authority they wield within Iran’s power structure, he said, after joint US-Israeli strikes at the start of the war assassinated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“One of the things we picked up on is it’s not totally clear how their country makes decisions,” Vance said. Separately, Trump said on Tuesday his “biggest problem” is no one knows who is running Iran.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Sunday that US officials are well aware of who their Iranian counterparts are and how Iran’s decision-making system works.

“The problem is actually the opposite: it lies in the contradictory positions and mixed messaging from US officials,” Esmaeil Baqaei told a weekly press conference.

Vance told Reuters he has held personal conversations with field commanders to gauge battlefield conditions. He dismissed concerns over critical munitions shortages and added that while Iranian troops are periodically able to strike commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, they are largely unable to prevent energy exports through the waterway.

Vance declined to say if he was leading peace talks, though he is frequently cited as the White House’s top negotiator.

“We’re certainly involved,” he said. “Ultimately, the president of the United States is driving things.” The war and its $3 billion monthly price tag have become a key issue on the campaign trail. Higher energy prices have put Trump and Republicans on the defensive in competitive states that will decide control of Congress.

Vance has sought to temper criticism of Trump’s handling of the conflict, telling voters they should not let that issue keep them from backing Republicans in next month’s elections.

In Alaska, Vance rallied for Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, who is locked in a tight reelection battle with Democratic challenger Mary Peltola. Trump carried Alaska by 13 percentage points in 2024, but rising everyday costs have put the state in play.

Before speaking with Reuters, Vance focused much of his speech on affordability concerns, especially around energy. Alaska’s remote locale makes consumer goods more expensive, and energy production is a key industry.

Rally attendees roared when Sullivan nearly introduced Vance as the president of the US, rather than the vice president. Vance is seen as a leading Republican contender to succeed Trump in the White House.

Vance told Reuters afterwards that he had not decided whether to seek the presidency in 2028.

“I’m inherently a procrastinator,” he said. “I really haven’t thought about it much.”

WITH confirmation that members of the Makkah Defence Alliance will be deploying their forces to Saudi Arabia, it appears that the kingdom is preparing for a full-scale war with the pro-Iran Houthi Ansarallah movement.

Senior civil and military leaders from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye met in Riyadh on Monday to chart a course forward. Though details are sparse, the three defence allies agreed to ensure “rapid deployment in the Kingdom, in accordance with … the national legislation of the parties.” As collective defence is a central pillar of the trilateral alliance, such developments were expected. Members of the MDA also condemned the attacks on Saudi Arabia, particularly alleged attempts to target the holy cities in Hejaz.

It is hoped that, from Pakistan’s perspective, these developments only reflect a commitment to defend Saudi Arabia from outside aggression. It would be ill-advised for Pakistan, Turkiye or any other external actor to jump into the Yemeni quagmire. Pakistan has decades-old defence ties to the kingdom, and the pact only reflects a solidification of this relationship. The defence of the holy cities is also a sensitive matter, and Pakistan has in the past contributed troops to protect them. But getting dragged into the Yemeni civil war — which has pit Ansarallah against the Yemeni government, backed by Saudi Arabia — is another story altogether. There was considerable pressure on Pakistan in 2015 from Riyadh to get involved in its operation against the Houthis. Pakistan, thanks to the collective wisdom of parliament, at that time had wisely stayed away from any such undertaking. Similar wisdom is required at this juncture. This country values its deep ties with Saudi Arabia, and should do all it can to protect the kingdom from external aggression. But putting Pakistani boots on the ground in Yemen should be avoided.

The fighting in Yemen, both between Ansarallah and the government, as well as between the Houthis and the Saudis, has intensified. At this point chances of a ceasefire seem remote. This conflict has been raging since 2015, and previous external attacks, including by the US and Israel, have failed to dislodge the Houthis.

To prevent a fresh humanitarian catastrophe within Yemen, as well as the spread of this conflict across the region, there is an immediate need to end the hostilities. States such as Oman, which has channels open both with the Houthis as well as Saudi Arabia, can perhaps play a mediatory role. The basic requirements of a truce should include an end to all attacks on Saudi Arabia, free passage through Bab al-Mandeb, as well as a halt to all external attacks across Yemen. Only a political process led by Yemenis, and acceptable to all factions in the country, can bring internal peace, as well as guarantee the security of neighbouring states.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2026

TEHRAN: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared on Sunday that there was no military solution to the US’ war against the Islamic Republic and that only negotiations based on “justice and fairness” could end the conflict, as talks between Washington and Tehran appeared to be at an impasse.

“If our enemies again choose the path of military confrontation, our response will be stronger than before, and we will defend ourselves with even more force,” Araghchi told a gathering of foreign ambassadors in Tehran.

“There is no military solution, nor any solution based on new sanctions,” he continued, adding “only negotiations based on justice and fairness” could end the conflict.

Tensions continue to centre on the standoff between the US and Iran regarding the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical conduit for Gulf oil and gas.

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf reiterated that the vital Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until seven Iranian conditions set out in a June interim agreement with the US are met.

“The position of the Islamic Republic of Iran is completely clear and firm, and the strait of Hormuz will not be opened until our seven conditions, based on the Islamabad memorandum of understanding, are met,” he was quoted by state media as saying.

Ghalibaf added that Washington “must understand that the period of dragging out the process and dictating one-sided demands is over”.

Iranian and US officials held indirect talks last week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, during which Tehran said it presented its seven conditions.

The conditions include a ceasefire across the Middle East, the unfreezing of Iranian assets abroad, the lifting of sanctions on its oil sector and an end to the US naval blockade.

US President Donald Trump publicly rejected the proposal while leaving the door open to both further talks and renewed military operations. The US nonetheless replied to Tehran’s proposal last week, with Qatar shuttling messages between the two sides in an effort to end the conflict and reopen the strait.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said that the latest US counterproposals were “more or less in line with their previous positions, specifically on the nuclear issue”, but that Tehran’s focus was on Hormuz.

“We have clearly indicated that we are focusing on the issue of the Strait of Hormuz,” he said, adding that reopening the waterway required an end to disruption of Iranian maritime traffic and the lifting of sanctions.

He denied that Tehran had offered UN nuclear watchdog inspections of its facilities in exchange for sanctions relief, saying Iran had not entered into nuclear discussions.

The US has not struck Iran since Sept 1 but has continued a fresh military buildup.

Axios reported that Washington had deployed additional Patriot missile batteries to Saudi Arabia and Qatar to protect energy facilities, and that the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group was heading to the Middle East.

Iran’s army, meanwhile, said it would upgrade the range of its missiles, underlining Tehran’s warning that it is preparing for further confrontation even as it continues to call for diplomacy.

Separately, Iran’s Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad has resigned and Hamid Bovard, chief executive of the government-owned National Iranian Oil Company, will be in charge of the ministry as acting minister, state media said on Sunday, without providing a reason for the resignation.

Mohsen Paknejad has been the oil mini­ster of the Opec member country since August 2024 and resigns as the seven-month war between Iran and the US puts pressure on the country’s economy.

“With acceptance of Mohsen Paknejad’s resignation by Dr Pezeshkian [the country’s president], Hamid Bovard has been appointed as acting oil minister”, state media cited an official at the president’s office as saying.

Paknejad was cited by state media, ahead of the news of his resignation, as saying “revenues of the oil that we have sold are still coming and that will continue God willing”.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2026

Yemen’s leader announced on Sunday the start of a new military operation to retake all territory held by the Houthis, even as the group made fresh gains on the ground, effectively encircling a government-held city.

The announcement sets an ambitious goal for the embattled government, which recently lost swathes of the country’s Red Sea coastline and areas around the Bab al-Mandab strait — a chokepoint for international shipping — after a lightning offensive by Houthis.

Yemen’s government has struggled to roll back the surge, even with the military support of Saudi Arabia, where the Houthis said they had attacked oil infrastructure in the capital yet again on Sunday.

“I announce today the start of military operations to retake the remaining territories of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory,” Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s presidential council, said in a statement.

Alimi called on all the armed forces “to begin carrying out their assigned missions, in accordance with the approved plans, until the country is liberated from the grip of the Houthi terrorist militia”.

The statement came just hours after the Houthis cut a vital supply route linking the besieged city of Taiz with the government’s interim capital Aden, according to four security sources.

The Houthi advance followed days of heavy fighting in and around Taiz, where dozens of combatants were reported killed on Friday.

The battle for Taiz is taking place on several fronts, including highlands overlooking coastal areas recently seized by the Houthis. Taiz is Yemen’s third-largest city after Sanaa and Aden.

“We were informed that the Houthis had taken control of the al-Safiya area, where they cut the main road and took control of the police station,” a police source in the area told AFP.

Three sources with the Yemeni military also confirmed Houthi control over the area and the supply route, with traffic along the road halted and the group now surrounding Taiz city.

The military sources added that fighting in the area was ongoing.

Sources from both sides told AFP on Sunday that fighting in and around the western province of Taiz has killed more than 70 people over the past day.

Sources from the internationally recognised government reported that 34 government troops were killed — 20 on the edge of Taiz province in neighbouring Lahj — while Houthi military sources said 39 of their fighters were killed in fighting across Taiz and in border areas with Lahj.

Taiz city itself remains under the control of government forces but has long been besieged from the north, east and west by Houthi fighters and remains one of the main fronts in Yemen’s long-running civil war.

“They’ve achieved the military objective of isolating Taiz from Aden, even if they haven’t fully taken control of it,” Farea Al-Muslimi, research fellow at the Chatham House think-tank, told AFP.

Muslimi also downplayed expectations over what the coming government offensive might accomplish. “In my opinion, it’s meaningless,” he added.

But Taiz residents vowed to resist any Houthi advance.

“We will defeat and crush anyone who enters the city of Taiz. We will not abandon Taiz,” resident Zakaria Al-Dhubhani said.

“This is a message to the Houthis: I swear to God, we will not allow you to advance a single inch into the city.”

Saudi attacks

Following several years of relative calm, Yemen’s civil war reignited in July against the backdrop of the wider conflict in the Middle East.

It has also drawn in Saudi Arabia — leader of an anti-Houthi military coalition since 2015 — with the group regularly claiming attacks on the kingdom’s territory in recent weeks and declaring a blockade of its ships in the Red Sea.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree on Sunday said the group launched ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi energy giant Aramco’s sites in Riyadh and in the oil-rich Khurais area in the east.

“The strikes were precise, causing large fires at the targeted sites,” Saree said on X.

Saudi oil exports were already under pressure thanks to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.

The Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV channel reported Saudi strikes on Sunday in the northern governorates of al-Jawf and Saada, saying at least two people had been wounded.

They came a day after Yemen’s government said its forces struck Houthi targets around the country, including in the capital Sanaa, the northwestern governorate of Saada and the group’s positions near Taiz in the southwest.

The Yemeni government’s air capabilities, however, are limited, and the Saudi-led coalition has long been the primary force carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis.

Experts believe the recent operations have most likely been conducted by Saudi warplanes as well.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world and remains gripped by a vast humanitarian crisis that has unspooled since the civil war broke out in 2014.

That year the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa from the Saudi-led government, before going on to take control of much of the country’s north, with Riyadh’s international coalition intervening the following year.

Hunger warning

Hostilities between the Houthis and Yemen’s government had reignited after four years of a fragile truce when Iran sent a plane to Sanaa carrying a Houthi delegation.

The flight did not seek authorisation from Saudi Arabia, contravening a practice in place for a decade.

Riyadh retaliated with strikes on Sanaa airport, and in response the Houthis attacked Saudi territory for the first time since 2022.

Since then, fighting has intensified with the Houthis launching a lightning offensive in which they seized control of coastal regions along the Bab al-Mandab strait.

They have also struck multiple Saudi targets including oil infrastructure and the capital Riyadh while also announcing a naval blockade on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.

The renewed fighting has worsened a humanitarian crisis sweeping Yemen, with the World Food Programme warning on Friday that three-quarters of the population was unable to meet its basic food needs.

IT appears that escalation is on the cards where the Houthi-Saudi and US-Iran conflicts are concerned. As per reports, Riyadh is planning an offensive to help the Yemeni government — which it backs — retake the strategically important Red Sea coast area from the pro-Iran Houthis, who captured it during a lightning offensive last month.

Hostilities are continuing; there were reports on Saturday of both Riyadh and Sana’a being attacked.

Meanwhile, members of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement are due to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the Yemen situation.

Regarding Iran, the US has reportedly ordered thousands more troops, as well as an aircraft carrier group, to the Gulf. This mirrors the build-up of American forces around Iran before the US-Israeli assault targeted the Islamic Republic in late February. Top US officials have reportedly met at Camp David to discuss the Yemen and Iran files.

Diplomacy, it seems, is giving way to more war in the Gulf and the wider Middle East.

The humanitarian situation in Yemen is dire, with hundreds of thousands of people uprooted, while the UN says millions of Yemenis, including more than 2m infants, face acute hunger. If the Yemen war sucks in more regional states, it will complicate matters further.

The best option, therefore, is for Muslim and Arab states to help restore the Saudi-Houthi ceasefire. The Houthi Ansarallah group must pledge to stop its attacks on Saudi Arabia, while ensuring free passage through Bab al-Mandeb. The Saudis, on their part, should consider lifting the blockade of Houthi territory, while encouraging all Yemeni factions to peacefully resolve the internal conflict.

The Yemen war has been raging for over a decade, and previous external interventions have failed to end it; in fact, continued violence has exacerbated the humanitarian situation.

With regard to Iran, it appears that President Donald Trump’s administration has halted kinetic action only till the November US midterms, and plans to restart hostilities after elections are out of the way. This would be a grave error.

US-Israeli aggression has caused great loss of life in Iran as well as damage to infrastructure, while the global economy has been shell-shocked due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The world — particularly the states of the region — cannot afford more disruption and war.

Mr Trump has turned down the recent Iranian proposal to open Hormuz. He should reconsider his strategy and restart dialogue with Tehran, while the Iranians should promise to reopen the strait if the US lifts its blockade of Iran and eases sanctions.

The US leader has hailed the exit of American troops from Iraq. He should work on a similar plan to bring his forces home from elsewhere in the Gulf and end the Iran war.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2026

LISBON: Portuguese prosecutors said on Saturday they had opened a probe into the legality of the centre-right government’s authorisation of the United States’ use of the Lajes Air Base in the Azores during the Iran conflict, following a complaint by an opposition party.

A longstanding agreement with the US allows Washington to use the base without prior authorisation during peacetime, but requires Portugal to give approval once hostilities begin.

Portugal, unlike neighbouring Spain, authorised several US transit flights through the Lajes air base, a decision that drew criticism from left-wing opposition parties and triggered a political debate over Lisbon’s role in operations linked to the conflict with Iran.

In a statement, the Prosecutor General’s Office said “the probe was opened following a complaint filed by members of the Left Bloc party,” without providing further details. Portugal’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

The air base serves as vital stepping stone for US military to project power into Middle East

The Left Bloc asked prosecutors in April to investigate the US use of the Lajes base, arguing it amounted to a “gross violation of international law.” However, Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel has said Portugal was not involved in the conflict and that the use of the Lajes base complied with international law, having been authorised only after assurances from Washington that any operation would be defensive, necessary and proportionate, and limited to military targets.

Portugal’s prosecutors are bound by the principle of legality, requiring them to investigate alleged wrongdoing when there are sufficient grounds to do so, unlike in some jurisdictions where prosecutors have broader discretion to decide whether a case should proceed.

Strategic location in mid-Atlantic

The Lajes base, located in Portugal’s Atlantic Azores archipelago, is a strategic transit hub for US forces under a bilateral defence treaty dating back to 1951 and hosts the 65th Air Base Wing of the US Air Force, providing support for US, Nato and allied operations.

Located in the mid-Atlantic, Portugal’s autonomous Azores region acts as an indispensable stepping stone for the US military to project power from North America into Europe and the Middle East.

The centre of this strategic value is Lajes Field on Terceira Island, which hosts the 65th air base group of the US Air Force. It features one of the largest airfield ramps in the US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) inventory. This massive capacity allows it to function as a primary secure staging area, far outside the immediate threat ring of

Middle Eastern missile ranges, yet perfectly positioned to support long-range bombers and cargo fleets.

During active hostilities with Iran, the US military relies heavily on an “air bridge” to transport troops, equipment, and munitions across the Atlantic.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2026

ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday stressed to British High Commissioner Jane Marriott the need for dialogue and diplomacy to ease tensions in the Middle East, the Foreign Office said.

The two officials met in Islamabad, where they also welcomed what was described as positive momentum in relations between Pakistan and the UK. They discussed upcoming engagements intended to broaden cooperation between the two countries.

In a statement on X, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Dar had “underscored the importance of efforts to ease tensions and reaffirmed that dialogue and diplomacy remain the only viable way forward”.

High Commissioner Jane Marriott welcomes positive momentum in Pakistan-UK ties

Pakistan-Bahrain commission session

Separately, the foreign minister chaired an inter-ministerial meeting to review preparations for the third session of the Pakistan-Bahrain Joint Ministerial Commission, which he will co-chair with his Bahraini counterpart next week.

Mr Dar directed government ministries to finalise their preparations and to pursue concrete outcomes during the Bahraini foreign minister’s forthcoming visit to Islamabad. The meeting heard a briefing from the secretary of the Economic Affairs Division on key areas of bilateral cooperation.

Tariq Bajwa, special assistant to the prime minister, and the acting foreign secretary were among the senior officials who attended.

Later in the day, the deputy PM led a groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion and renovation of the Foreign Office Mosque. A spokesperson said the project would upgrade the site’s facilities and increase its capacity to accommodate a growing number of worshippers.

The acting foreign secretary, together with officers and officials of the foreign affairs ministry, attended the ceremony.

Mr Dar also chaired a high-level meeting on the development agenda for Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Offi­cials reviewed ongoing infrastructure and socio-economic initiatives, including road refurbishment projects, and discussed measures to strengthen administrative coordination.

The deputy prime minister stres­sed the importance of completing development projects on time and using financial resources efficiently.

He said this would support long-term growth and improve public welfare, in line with the directions of the prime ministers of Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the aspirations of the people of the region.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2026

PARIS: The International Energy Agency said on Saturday that member countries had so far released 325 million barrels of oil and oil-derivative products from strategic reserves, from 400 million barrels promised in March.

The update came a day after G7 countries, in coordination with the IEA, agreed to immediately release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil to ease global energy supply concerns caused by fallout from the US-Iran war.

The G7 did not say whether the 100 million barrels included the outstanding 75 million barrels from the March IEA commitment, or came on top of that.

The US government of President Donald Trump has been pressuring allies to release diesel reserves to ease a spike in prices for the fuel, being felt in America and elsewhere.

Trump says US will soon fill its strategic oil stockpile ‘for nothing’

Restricted diesel supplies are one of the consequences of the war in the Middle East, where Iran has been throttling ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks.

Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, part of the fightback against Moscow’s strikes, have also affected the market.

March pledge

The IEA said in a statement on Saturday that “around 325 million barrels of the IEA collective action announced on March 11 have so far been released, representing over 80 per cent of the 400 million barrels originally pledged in the action”.

The March pledge was offered up by the IEA’s 32 member countries, a grouping that includes all the G7 nations: Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US.

The G7 countries on Friday agreed to release over the next four months 100 million barrels of oil and oil-derivative products, “including a frontloaded substantial diesel release within the first 20 days”.

They also said there would be no ban on diesel exports between them — heading off a threat Washington had brandished, and which Trump later said would not be enacted.

In a related development, President Trump said on Friday that the US would soon fill its strategic petroleum reserves.

“We’re going to be filling up very shortly our strategic reserves, for nothing,” Trump said at a rally in Mobile, Alabama. He offered no additional details.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2026