Pakistan hosts the first round of face-to-face talks between the US and Iran in 47 years in April; the talks end without a breakthrough, but also without a breakdown
US, Iran hold high-level talks in Switzerland on June 20 after signingpreliminary agreement to end the war; hold talks in Doha on July 1, with mediators citing “positive progress”
US launches strikes on Iran on July 8 in response to attacks on ships in Hormuz, Tehran retaliates as strait heats up again
Major General Ali Abdollahi, the Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff, says that the US is “no longer the superpower it once claimed to be” since Iran remains united following Washington’s war on Tehran, state broadcaster Press TV reports.
“The US is no longer the superpower it once claimed to be; it has grown old,” he is quoted as saying. “[US President Donald] Trump tried everything but failed because the Iranian government and people remain united.”
He adds that no aggressor will be allowed to threaten Iran or violate its sovereignty.
Oil prices have slipped by more than $1 as investors take profits after prices climbed to multi-month highs last week, while keeping a close watch on conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and assessing the impact of US waivers on some sanctions and tariffs affecting Russian exports, Reuters reports.
Brent crude futures are down $1.72, or 1.6 per cent, to $108.14 a barrel as of 1427 GMT (7:27pm PKT), after settling at their highest since May 19 on Friday.
US West Texas Intermediate crude is trading at $100.54 a barrel, down 87 cents, or 0.86pc, after ending last week at its highest since September 17.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has highlighted Pakistan’s mediation efforts between the United States and Iran, affirming that Islamabad “never gave up”.
Addressing the 8th Global Security Forum being held in Qatar’s capital, Doha, he notes, “The last few months have been very difficult for our region. The conflict involving Iran and the United States created serious risks not only for the Middle East, but for the entire world.”
He adds that at such a critical time, Pakistan chose the path of peace and made “every possible effort to reduce tensions”.
Naqvi, who has been involved in Islamabad’s peace efforts and has made several trips to Iran since the war began, says: “There were moments when the situation was extremely tense, but we never gave up.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has accused European nations of being “partners” in the US war on Iran, the Fars News Agency reports.
He adds that the Nato secretary general announced that more than 5,000 flights for operations against Iran have taken off from European air bases, claiming that France has “declared their support” for the war, according to Fars.
Saudi Arabia has decided to scrap in-person attendance at its flagship investment conference this year, four sources familiar with the matter tell Reuters, following deadly attacks which rocked the kingdom in recent weeks as the Middle East conflict widens, disrupting local business.
The Future Investment Initiative, or FII, was planned for October 26 to 29, but will now be held virtually or be postponed, according to the sources, who have spoken on condition of anonymity as they are not authorised to speak publicly.
The conference, set for its 10th edition, has become a must-attend event for some of the world’s top financiers.
Dubbed “Davos in the desert,” in a nod to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Switzerland, the event has showcased the kingdom’s ambitious investment plans in a bid to attract billions of dollars needed to fund its economic transformation plan away from hydrocarbons in a pivot to tourism, sports and technology.
Saudi Arabia’s government media office has not immediately replied to a request for comment.
Saudi authorities have sent alerts to residents of the capital, Riyadh, with AFP journalists receiving phone messages warning of “a hostile aerial threat” weeks into intensified Houthi attacks on the kingdom.
“A warning has been issued by the National Early Warning Platform in Riyadh City to alert of a potential danger,” Saudi civil defence says in a statement on X, also reporting the same warning for the neighbouring Kharj area.
However, the civil defence agency has since lifted the warnings, saying “the danger has passed”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking at a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, says regional issues should be resolved through diplomacy and blames the United States for insecurity and tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports.
Calling on regional countries to work toward a joint security arrangement, he says, “We welcome any initiative that leads to security from within without the presence of foreign forces, and consider it the right move.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (L) and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrive to hold a press conference after a meeting in Tehran on October 19, 2026. — AFP
Government agencies in Saudi capital Riyadh have told employees to work from home starting Monday, one worker and two consultants tell AFP, as the city comes under repeated attack from Yemen’s Houthis.
The Kingdom Centre, a 99-storey tower in downtown Riyadh that houses the regional office of the International Monetary Fund, has also requested workers in its offices to stay away until further notice.
On Sunday evening, an employee working for a government agency in Riyadh received a message saying “it has been decided to implement remote work from Monday to Thursday this week”.
“We ask everyone to continue their activities as normal,” it adds.
Two consultants working for two Saudi government agencies say they have received the same instructions. One of them tells AFP that he arrived at his workplace as normal this morning only to learn that remote work had been mandated.
“The email was sent internally. We are consultants, so we didn’t receive it. Once on site, we contacted the project manager on the client’s side, who informed us,” he explains.
Two other sources tell AFP that government offices located in skyscrapers in the Al-Olaya district, in central Riyadh, had been evacuated two weeks earlier.
Companies based in the King Abdullah Financial District, which hosts offices of major American firms, have also asked employees to work from home, according to other sources.
A file photo of the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyahd, Saudi Arabia from March 1, 2017. — Reuters
Chinese Premier Li Qiang has told Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref that the sovereignty and security of all countries should be respected, as the two meet on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Dushanbe, Reuters reports citing China’s state-run media outlet Xinhua.
China is ready to advance exchanges and cooperation across various fields with Iran, Li is quoted as saying, urging “all parties concerned” to opt for peace, resume dialogue and negotiations, and resolve differences through political and diplomatic means so as to help restore peace to the region at an early date, according to Xinhua.
An Egyptian parliamentary vote on whether to authorise the military to help defend Saudi Arabia, should the kingdom request support, has been postponed until October 26, Reuters reports.
The vote had been scheduled to take place this week.
Saudi Arabia’s Directorate of Civil Defence (DCD) has warned that filming, publishing, or sharing information related to missile and drone interception operations and impact sites could expose individuals to legal liability, Anadolu reports.
The warning has been shared on X, while the DCD has lifted a threat warning in the southern Najran region in a separate post, saying the danger has passed. It urges residents to continue following safety instructions and avoid gathering or filming.
The death toll from a Houthi missile strike on a camp in Yemen’s government-controlled Shabwa province has risen to 50, a government official tells AFP.
“The death toll has risen to at least 50, with more than 100 people injured, some of them in critical condition,” says Fahad al-Khalifi, deputy governor of Shabwa.
He adds that hospitals in the province have been overwhelmed and forced to transfer the most seriously wounded to facilities in neighbouring Hadramout and Aden.
Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi has discussed energy cooperation during a meeting with Iran’s acting oil minister, Hamid Bovard, Reuters reports citing a Qatari statement.
Qatar needs to repair damage caused by Iranian attacks on its huge Ras Laffan liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant, which sharply cut its output amid the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesperson Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi says most US bases in the Middle East have been “rendered inactive” and that they are incapable of launching a renewed assault on Iran, state broadcaster Press TV reports.
“The US entered the previous war with its full military might and is certainly not in a position to launch a new conflict that would bring it any additional gains,” he is quoted as saying.
“Most US bases in the region have been rendered inactive. US forces are exhausted and fatigued, and have withdrawn hundreds of kilometres from Iran.
He adds that Tehran has not ruled out the possibility of war, and that Iran’s response to aggression will be “much stronger”.
Around 40 people have been killed or injured in a Houthi ballistic missile attack on a military camp in Yemen’s eastern Shabwa province, Anadolu reports citing the province’s deputy governor.
They said around 40 people were killed or wounded when missiles struck the Al-Alam camp in the province’s Jardan district, local news outlet Yemen Monitor reports. The outlet also cited local sources as reporting at least 40 casualties in an initial toll, without providing a precise breakdown of those killed and injured.
The official adds that the camp housed new recruits undergoing training before joining the security forces.
A spokesperson for Yemen’s armed forces says the Houthis targeted Shabwa with three ballistic missiles, adding that the missiles struck a training centre for security and police personnel, accusing the group of deliberately killing Yemenis across the country’s provinces.
There has been no immediate comment from the Houthis on the reported attack.
Germany has summoned the Iranian ambassador after two men were jailed last week over what it called a “malicious” plot to assassinate pro-Israeli public figures on behalf of Tehran, AFP reports.
A Hamburg court last Thursday convicted a Danish national and an Afghan national for planning to target the president of Germany’s main group representing the Jewish community and the head of the German-Israeli society.
The foreign ministry says on X that the Iranian ambassador had been summoned, adding Tehran would not be allowed to “threaten our free society”.
“The malicious assassination attempts … will have legal consequences,” it says. “We do not tolerate attacks on Jewish life and on those who defend it — anywhere, and certainly not in Germany.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows that that Israel will not hesitate to strike its enemies at a moment’s notice, eight days before a tight election and following his warnings to Iran, AFP reports.
Netanyahu says he spoke to the commander of an unspecified base and saw Israel’s “capability to strike our enemies the moment it is required”.
“I say to our enemies: Do not test us — you will receive harsher blows than you have suffered to date,” he says in a video statement from the base.
Russia’s foreign minister has arrived in Tehran for his first visit since the outbreak of the Middle East war, AFP reports citing Russian news agencies, as Moscow seeks to play a mediating role.
Arriving from Bahrain, Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Qatar will soon announce a defence production hub, the minister of state for defence affairs has told the Global Security Forum in Doha, Reuters reports.
Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said: “We are partnering with a regional partner, in addition to other partners such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, to make sure either we do local protection or we are investing in some of these companies.”
When asked about the threats faced by Qatar and the other Gulf countries from ballistic missiles, drones and cyberattacks, Al Thani said: “Soon we are going to announce a new partnership that we will do with the regional partners to establish a new initiative towards building capability into these three elements and others.”
He did not elaborate.
Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman bin Hassan bin Ali Al Thani, Qatar Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defense Affairs, speaks at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, on May 30, 2026. — Reuters/File
The Pakistani military’s spokesperson, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, has called on the Muslim nations to unite amid the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
In an interview with Independent Arabia, he emphasised that there was no advantage “to these countries, any country, by vertically or horizontally escalating these conflicts”.
“We need to stop attacking each other,” he maintained, highlighting that Pakistan had been trying to convey the same to all parties since the US-Iran war erupted.
“Whether you expand it to Houthis, whether you expand it to other places, it doesn’t serve anything. It only serves those who are interested in chaos in the region.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has criticised French President Emmanuel Macron for supporting US policy toward Iran, saying he cannot shift the blame for France’s massive wave of protests to a war on Iran that he helped bring about.
In a post on X, Araghchi said Macron had “made his bed” by assuring US President Donald Trump that he welcomed atrocities against Iranians.
“Too late to blame the war his ilk helped cause,” he added.
At least 18 people were killed in an attack by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement on a Yemeni government military training camp in Yemen’s Shabwa province, four government and medical sources told Reuters.
The government sources said the attack, which targeted soldiers during a morning training, was carried out using three ballistic missiles.
Fighting between the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised government and the Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa and much of the north, has escalated in recent weeks, becoming another front in the wider regional conflict that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.
Yemen’s Ministry of Health announced in a statement that the number of victims of Saudi aggression against the country has risen to 536 martyrs and wounded, IRNA reports.
