The US and Israel on Feb 28 launched what they described as a “pre-emptive” joint strike against Iranian targets, with Trump announcing start of “major combat operations”
Pakistan hosted the first round of face-to-face talks between the US and Iran in 47 years in April; the talks ended without a breakthrough, but also without a breakdown
Ceasefire falters as US, Iran exchange attacks on each other’s military sites; Kuwait, Bahrain targeted in retaliation
The Israeli army, via its Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee, has defended its attack on a Lebanese army four-wheel-drive vehicle in southern Lebanon, which killed two officers and one soldier, Al Jazeera reports.
Adraee claimed that the vehicle was “moving suspiciously” in an “active combat zone” that had been evacuated, referring to forced displacement orders issued earlier. However, he added that the incident was under investigation.
“Following the identification of the vehicle, and based on the warning information and the danger it posed to the troops, it was targeted,” the military spokesperson added.
He emphasised that the Israeli troops operate against Hezbollah and not against the Lebanese army.
Kuwait’s Public Authority of Civil Aviation has announced the reopening of Kuwait’s airspace after a temporary closure as a precautionary measure due to Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on the country, Kuna reports.
In a statement to Kuna, the aviation authority said the authorities concerned have activated procedures and plans to deal with emergencies, to ensure the safety of passengers, crews and facilities.
Egypt has strongly condemned the “heinous Iranian attack that targeted Kuwait and Bahrain”, terming them a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the two countries and “a dangerous escalation that threatens the security and stability” of the entire region.
The foreign ministry said Egypt affirmed its “full support” for Kuwait and Bahrain in “confronting this heinous attack” and expressed its “support for all measures they take to preserve their security and stability and protect their territories and vital facilities”.
“Egypt also reiterates its affirmation that the security and stability of the Arab Gulf states represent a fundamental pillar of Arab national security, and categorically rejects any actions or practices that violate the sovereignty of states or threaten their security and territorial integrity, which threatens the security and stability of the entire region,” the statement added.
Iran slammed World Cup host the United States over what it called “discriminatory treatment” by not granting visas for some members of the Iranian delegation to attend the tournament.
“Why do you not say that visas were denied to a large portion of the managerial and executive staff, technical advisers, and others who are an integral part of any national football team?” the Iranian embassy in Turkiye said in a post on X, referring to an earlier announcement by US envoy Tom Barrack that visas had been granted to players.
“You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team to its highest level,” the embassy added.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs has called on the IAEA to “refrain from turning technical reports into tools of political pressure” if it wants to be part of a diplomatic solution.
“Safeguards are not strengthened by military action, threats, and resolution-making; they are strengthened by impartiality, adherence to international law, respect for state sovereignty, and explicit condemnation of attacks on facilities under agency monitoring,” Kazem Gharibabadi said on X.
“Sixth, one cannot bomb facilities under safeguards, eliminate the necessary access and safety for inspections, and then use the consequences of that very attack as ‘ambiguity’ against Iran,” he added.
In his statement, Kazem Gharibabadi further asserted that the repeated mention of the “60 per cent” uranium enrichment and the “presentation of potential scenarios regarding weapons, without a precise explanation of the legal framework, is more political than technical”.
The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) “does not stipulate a numerical ceiling for enrichment percentages; the legal criterion is the absence of diversion of nuclear materials and activities toward military purposes”, the diplomat highlighted.
“Iran’s nuclear programme has been peaceful, and Iran has acted within the framework of its legal obligations,” he stressed.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, has commented on a recent report by the IAEA and remarks by its chief.
In a post on X, Gharibabadi said that the “ambiguity”, “lack of access” and “loss of continuity of knowledge” referred to by IAEA chief Rafael Grossi did not arise in a vacuum but after “nuclear facilities under safeguards were targeted” by the US and Israel.
“The director general of the agency (IAEA), who has shown himself to be entirely at the disposal of the United States and the West, unfortunately never condemned these attacks,” he added.
“The Agency cannot both report on the effects of a military attack, overlook the responsibility of its perpetrators, and then demand that Iran bear the technical and political costs of the insecurity created by the aggressors. This is neither verification nor confidence-building,” the diplomat further said.
Israeli military vehicles have infiltrated the occupied Golan Heights overnight and arrested a Syrian citizen from a farm near the village of Saida in the southern countryside of Quneitra, Syria’s state news agency SANA reports, according to Al Jazeera.
SANA said an Israeli force of four vehicles entered the Abu Madhara farm west of Saida after midnight, raided a house, and took the unidentified citizen into occupied territory. No reason for the arrest was provided.
In a separate incursion earlier today, another four-vehicle Israeli force entered the village of al-Usha, also in the southern Quneitra countryside, and searched several homes before withdrawing, SANA said.
Iran’s soccer team and “necessary support” staff have been issued visas ahead of the World Cup but Donald Trump’s government has warned them no to “sneak terrorists into the United States”, the New York Times’ The Athleticreports, citing an administration official.
A source familiar with the situation told The Athletic that not all of the Iranian national squad’s intended travelling party had been granted visas to travel to the US from Mexico, its current base ahead of the tournament.
When The Athletic contacted the White House on the matter of the Iran national team’s visas yesterday, a US administration official said: “The visas necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup, including for athletes and necessary support staff, have been issued.
“We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses.”
The Iranian flag hangs in a bar downtown as part of decorations for the FIFA World Cup 2026, as the Iranian national soccer team is set to establish its base camp for the event in Tijuana, Mexico, on June 2, 2026. — Reuters/File
Elie Mahfoud, head of Lebanon’s Forces of Change parliamentary bloc, said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had overstepped “the position of the Presidency, which represents the sovereignty of the Lebanese state and the dignity of its people,” by criticising Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun.
“Once again, Iranian officials insist on addressing the Lebanese with a guardian and ruler mindset, as if Lebanon were a province subordinate to Tehran rather than an independent state with sovereignty and free decision-making,” Mahfoud said in a post on X.
Mahfoud called “to sever relations with any state that opposes Lebanon or treats it with superiority and disdain or violates its right to be a free and independent sovereign.”
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is an attempt to change global energy market regulation in the interests of the United States, Igor Sechin, head of Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft, says.
Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Sechin, a long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin, also said that the Opec+ group of leading oil producers has lost some of its potential with the withdrawal of the United Arab Emirates from the alliance.
Igor Sechin, CEO of Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft, warned that if the Strait of Hormuz were to be closed, other routes such as the Strait of Malacca, Bab el-Mandeb and Gibraltar could also be at risk, Reuters reports.
Bahrain’s foreign ministry has decried attacks by Iran against its territory and neighbouring Kuwait, saying the two Gulf countries intercepted seven missiles fired by Iran, AFP reports.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemns the renewed attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the Kingdom of Bahrain and the sisterly State of Kuwait,” Bahrain, which hosts the US Fifth Fleet, said in a statement.
“This blatant aggression constitutes a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of both countries,” it added.
Airline executives descend on Rio this weekend to weigh the prospects for an industry grappling with geopolitical turbulence, soaring fuel costs and travellers wary of chasing sky-high ticket prices, AFP reports.
The annual gathering of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) brings together 370 airlines representing 85 per cent of global passenger traffic, just as the Mideast war is roiling the industry.
According to the IATA, average prices now stand at around $142 a barrel, forcing carriers to make hard choices on ticket prices, the number of flights per destination — and their future development plans.
“Airfares are inevitably rising as the price of oil increases, but airlines are having to balance their increased costs against demand,” said John Grant of the consulting firm OAG Aviation.
“Forward schedule data is showing a reduced offering in the coming months, indicating that airlines are balancing high fuel costs and weaker demand,” IATA director general Willie Walsh said in a statement.
Several Lebanese soldiers, including an officer, were killed in an Israeli strike targeting their military vehicle on the Khardali-Nabatieh road in south Lebanon, the Lebanese army says, according to Reuters.
“A number of military personnel, including an officer, were martyred in a barbaric Israeli raid targeting a military vehicle on the Khardali-Nabatieh road,” the Lebanese army said in a statement posted to X.
The Lebanese army has historically avoided involvement in confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel and has not engaged Israel in the current conflict.
Smoke billows from southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, as seen from Nabatieh, Lebanon on June 5, 2026. — Reuters
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has announced that it will conduct a controlled detonation of an unexploded ordnance in Bushehr from a recent US attack at its army’s air base, Tasnim news agency reports.
Observers across the world have long questioned the utility of Donald Trump’s now three-month-old war on Iran. But a growing number of voices from within the US president’s Republican party are saying that this futile and illegal conflict must end. A resolution calling for the withdrawal of US troops from Iran passed narrowly in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives recently, with four members of the US leader’s own party backing the resolution.
The move has expectedly incensed Mr Trump, who called it “unpatriotic”. Since the start of the war, most American lawmakers had only mildly been criticising the joint US-Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic. But now, with US mid-term elections in November inching closer, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers want to avoid the voters’ wrath at the ballot box.
Like people around the world, Americans are also paying high prices at the petrol pump and rising energy prices have sparked a global spike in inflation. Many Americans are rightly asking why they are paying the price — in blood and treasure — to protect Israeli militarism.
The Pentagon is increasingly concerned about Israel ramping up its spying on the US, recently raising the counterintelligence threat level from America’s top ally in the Middle East to the highest level, according to NBC News.
The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in recent weeks issued the new counterintelligence threat assessment amid rising tensions between Israel and the US over the way forward in the war with Iran, the report said, citing o two US officials and one former US official.
“They said the DIA posted an internal message, viewed by one of the current officials, that raised the level for Israel to ‘critical’,” the publication said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has rejected remarks by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that Lebanon was a bargaining chip for Tehran, Reuters reports.
Aoun said earlier that Iran was using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the United States and that Lebanese people were paying the price for Iran’s interests.
“Had Lebanon been bargaining chip for Iran, we’d have a deal long ago,” Araghchi posted on X. “Save Lebanon from your real foe, Mr President.”
The United States has announced its approval of a $1.98 billion arms sale to Kuwait, one of the Gulf countries hit by Iranian strikes during the Middle East war, AFP reports.
In a statement, the US State Department said it would allow purchases of counter-drone technology from defense company Anduril, which was founded by a supporter of President Donald Trump.
“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a major non-Nato ally that has been an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East,” the statement said.
