War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

The Strait of Hormuz is “under Iran’s control and management”, the head of Iran’s Basij paramilitary unit, Hossein Taeb, said, according to Fars news agency.

The remarks came a day after US President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that the US had “total control” of the strategic waterway.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi says the country will not allow its territory or airspace to be used to launch attacks against neighbouring nations, according to Iranian media.

Speaking during a visit to Iraq’s Air Defence Command Operations Centre, he discussed plans to enhance the country’s air defence capacity.

Former Iranian diplomat Abbas Khameyar says the US has failed “the test of economic and military warfare” against Iran, emphasising that Tehran will not submit to American conditions or ambitions.

Khameyar told Al Jazeera that the Strait of Hormuz serves as a “deterrent card that has succeeded in changing the course of aggression and re-imposing the rules of engagement”.

Washington broke its previous commitments, he argued, adding that obligations could only be fulfilled through serious negotiations carried out in good faith.

According to the former diplomat, the US has ultimately “fallen into the trap of the Strait of Hormuz” in the process of the war.

Iran dismisses claims of US officials that blockade of Hormuz has been lifted, noting the waterways remained blocked until Tehran’s conditions are accepted.

“The successive claims and tweets by American officials about lifting the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz do not change reality; the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked and will not be reopened until Iran’s conditions are accepted,” the Persian Gulf Strait Authority said in a post on X.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baqaei, has stated that every party that benefits from commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz “carries both a legal and a moral obligation to remediate the environmental harm inflicted upon the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman”.

In a post on X, he said, “In recent days, videos have circulated showing oil pollution along the shores of Qeshm Island. This pollution drifted toward the coast from the Persian Gulf, and preliminary evidence indicates a foreign bulk carrier as the source. Contamination has been documented at three coastal sites and across portions of the sea surface.”

He said this incident was “only one visible example of the extensive pollution— both overt and concealed — that has degraded the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, as well as the region’s marine ecosystem, over recent decades, imposing trillions of dollars in damage on Iran’s coastal areas”.

“Who bears responsibility for compensating these damages? Is it the nations that consume the inexpensive energy exported from our region, the shipping insurers, or the aggressors and their partners who have transformed the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman into a theatre for military operations and the testing of highly destructive weaponry?” he asked.

“As the country with the longest coastline along the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, Iran cannot remain indifferent. Every party that benefits from commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz carries both a legal and a moral obligation to remediate the environmental harm inflicted upon the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman,” he said.

Israeli forces demolish homes and infrastructure around Mansouri in southern Lebanon using explosives, Press Tv reports.

Congressional Democrats have demanded answers about conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, following reports of food shortages, broken plumbing and mental health crises during the aircraft carrier’s record-setting deployment, AFP reports.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Senator Richard Blumenthal called for the Navy to account for conditions aboard the aircraft carrier, which “has been deployed more than 250 days” without coming ashore “in over 200 days, setting a record for consecutive days at sea”.

Blumenthal voiced concern for such extended deployments, noting “widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns” and other problems aboard the Lincoln.

The USS Abraham Lincoln departed San Diego, California on November 21, 2025 for duty in the South China Sea and was rerouted to the Middle East before US-Israeli attacks on Iran that began February 28.

In two recent meetings, family members clashed with Navy leadership over the difficult conditions — including food shortages — faced by the 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard the Lincoln and demanded to know when loved ones would return home, MSNOW reported.

Some reported severe mental health issues and attempted suicides on board.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that countries, such as France, should stop lecturing the world about human rights and international law.

In a post on X, he said, “The hypocrisy is blatant and embarrassing. Your backing of Israel’s genocide in Gaza—and aggression against Iran—has destroyed whatever moral high ground you imagined you had.”

A threat that Air Force One could be targeted by a shoulder-fired missile prompted the Secret Service to secretly move President Donald Trump onto a smaller government jet during a trip to Turkiye last month, a person briefed on the matter said, according to Reuters.

The threat emerged on the final day of Trump’s visit to Ankara for the Nato summit amid heightened tensions with Iran, the source said. The Secret Service deemed the threat to be credible and imminent, prompting an extraordinary operation to conceal the US president’s movements.

The source declined to say where the intelligence came from but said officials had little time to prepare and devised the plans at the last minute.

A second source briefed on the matter said there was not a clear plan by those hostile to Trump for executing the threat, but only an intent, which is why the planes were allowed to fly.

Oil prices fell more than $1 as forecasters lowered global oil demand projections for 2026 because of the disruptions from the US-Israeli war on Iran, though the supply constraints from the conflict provided a floor for the market, Reuters reports.

Brent futures dropped $1.29, or 1.5 per cent, at $87.69 a barrel by 0100 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $1.30, or 1.6pc, to $81.97.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi has pledged that the country will be free of any foreign military presence on its soil and that weapons will be solely under state control by October 1, according to Al Jazeera.

According to a statement by his office, Al-Zaidi “affirmed the commitment to the agreed-upon timelines” — under which the international coalition’s military mission in Iraq and the withdrawal of its forces will be completed by September 30 — during a meeting with US Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper.

October 1 will “mark a new day in the history of the Iraqi state”, as Iraq will be “free of any foreign military presence” and responsible for ensuring its own security and stability, the statement adds.

Al-Zaidi adds that the monopoly on force will be held only by state institutions, which will bolster “the state’s authority and sovereignty, and guarantee security and stability”.

Iran’s ISNA news agency reports that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has had a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in the city of Mashhad.

According to the state news outlet, Naqvi travelled to the city to visit the shrine of Munawar Razavi.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has written a message on X to mark the anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, noting that the countries that brought it into being are violating those laws.

He recounts that the four treaties established the basic rules of war “in order to civilise humanity and humanise war”.

“The architects of these four treaties could scarcely have imagined that, in 2026 — 77 years after the adoption of these instruments — the United States, host nation of the United Nations and a permanent member of the Security Council, would repeatedly threaten to attack the infrastructure, bridges, and power plants of another country, and would in fact commit such crimes,” Baqaei writes.

He adds that Article 1 of the Conventions does not merely obligate signatories to respect the treaties, but to “ensure respect” for them as well.

“Silence in the face of explicit threats against civilian objects is not mere political passivity — it is the erosion of one of the most fundamental civilisational and legal achievements of the post-World War II era,” he writes.

The newly appointed Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, has highlighted the “strategic depth” of relations between Iran and Pakistan, noting that the two countries have developed strong political and defence ties that should be used to expand bilateral cooperation, Iranian state news agency IRNA reports.

Rezaei has made the remarks during a meeting with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in Tehran, where he has emphasised Pakistan’s “special position” in Iran’s foreign policy and that Tehran considers Pakistan’s government, military and people “among the major assets of the Islamic world”, the news agency adds.

He adds that both countries should use their existing ties and “valuable capital” to pursue broader cooperation.

Rezaei also stresses the responsibility of major Muslim countries to “strengthen unity and convergence” across the Ummah.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has condemned Israel’s “systematic destruction” in the country’s south as a violation of international law, as Israel’s defence minister said its military was “destroying all the houses” there, AFP reports.

Salam says Israeli “attacks, incursions, demolitions and the systematic destruction of homes”, infrastructure, government buildings and places of worship “represent a serious violation of the principles and rules of international law and international humanitarian law”.

Claiming that villages and towns “are entirely ‘military facilities’ does not stand up to any logic and cannot be used as an excuse for destroying them, displacing their inhabitants and preventing them from returning”, he says in a statement.

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has vowed to destroy infrastructure and keep troops in a so-called “security zone” as well as in Syria and Gaza during a visit to southern Lebanon, AFP reports.

“As the prime minister and I have clearly stated, we are not withdrawing from this security zone,” Katz said, according to a statement from his office.

The Israeli military “is here to protect the northern communities and its own forces. We will clear this area and guarantee the security of the residents of the north. We will in no way withdraw from the security zones: not in Lebanon, not in Syria, and not in Gaza,” he adds.

In southern Lebanon, Katz says the military is “destroying the underground infrastructure” in the area and “destroying all the houses”.

A vast oil spill in the Gulf is quickly becoming one of the world’s worst in years after being allowed to spread almost unchecked for weeks, Reuters reports citing international agencies, satellite imagery and environmental groups.

The slick off the coast of Oman from a grounded tanker carrying Russian crude has reportedly reached the mainland, the UN’s shipping agency tells Reuters.

The slick now covers an area of more than 2,000 square kilometres, says John Amos, an oil spill specialist who reviewed satellite imagery obtained by Reuters.

The Caroline Bezengi, carrying an estimated 800,000 barrels of Russian oil and under international sanctions, ran aground on June 30 at an Omani island that is part of a marine nature reserve. The ship first reported difficulties off Yemen on June 8. Maritime sources said a blast appeared to have occurred aboard the Caroline Bezengi.

No party has claimed an attack, but the vessel was navigating two separate wars on its journey from Russia to India.

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US President Donald Trump has claimed that the United States is in control of the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports.

“The US has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I think we will keep it!” he writes on Truth Social. “Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, a wall of steel, and there is nothing Iran can do about it.”

The Lebanese military has said that Israeli attacks are preventing it from completing its deployment in southern Lebanon and hindering the return of residents to their homes, according to Al Jazeera.

In a statement posted on X, the army accuses the Israeli military of continuing its “assaults and violations of existing agreements and international laws”.

It lists the latest attacks as the bombing of a building, a public school, a clinic, a children’s daycare and several homes in the Nabatieh area.

The attacks demonstrate Israel’s “persistence in its destructive approach to inflict the greatest possible damage on the southern villages and towns, and to prevent the establishment of stability”, the military states.

Lebanese forces continue to carry out their missions in the south, but face “significant difficulties” as Israeli attacks are hindering “the completion of its deployment and the return of the residents”, it adds.

Al Jazeera, citing Lebanon’s National News Agency, reports that Israeli warplanes carried out two air strikes targeting the town of al-Mansouri in the country’s south. There have been no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has requested that Iran help prevent further escalation by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea’s Bab al-Mandeb during a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Al Jazeera reports citing the Iranian presidency.

According to a statement, the Japanese prime minister has welcomed what she terms progress in Iran’s negotiations with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz, expressing hope that the strategic waterway will reopen as soon as talks conclude successfully.

It adds that Takaichi has also reiterated Tokyo’s support for diplomatic efforts to end the war, adding that it is in the long-term interests of both Tehran and the broader Middle East.

Pezeshkian thanks Japan for supporting efforts to end the war, noting that his country “never sought instability” in the region and claiming that the US and Israel had undermined regional peace through acts of aggression.

He adds that Tehran acted in accordance with international law and consistently sought to improve relations with neighbouring countries.

Oil prices have risen once again after attacks on two ships reinforced worries about disruptions to Middle East supplies, Reuters reports.

Brent futures were up 35 cents, or 0.4 per cent, at $89.26 a barrel by 1219 GMT (5:19pm PKT), heading for a sixth day of gains. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose by 57 cents, or 0.7pc, to $83.77, heading for a fifth daily gain.