War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Former Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon has told Israeli Channel 12 that Israel is “paying the price for the hallucinations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government”, Al Jazeera reports.

He has added that the government should have entered negotiations with Lebanon since October 2024, saying soldiers have continued to be killed due to “private and partisan political interests”.

Ya’alon has said Netanyahu is prolonging the war “to keep his extremist coalition safe”, adding that Israel is approaching elections, and “if the status quo continues after that, we will have no state left”.

Israel has carried out deadly strikes in south Lebanon and Hezbollah maintained it had the right to respond, despite the US announcement of a renewed ceasefire in fighting less than 24 hours ago.

A senior Hezbollah official told Reuters the group would not allow Israel “freedom of movement” in what it called occupied Lebanese territory, adding that resistance remained legitimate while Israeli forces remained in Lebanon.

Lebanese state media reported Israeli air raids on around 20 locations, with the country’s civil defence agency saying 16 people were killed in the Nabatieh area, where an AFP photographer saw smoke rising over the city after strikes.

Another AFP journalist on the Israeli side of the border also reported multiple explosions in Lebanon, with smoke billowing behind the historic Beaufort Castle that Israel captured last month.

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro says that he supports and respects the US-Iran MoU, “because it means more Life for the world”.

“With the Bible that I have read, the constitutions of the world, and the international law that humanity has built, that agreement must be respected by all the nations of the Earth,” he wrote on X.

Petro pointed out that Israel “has decided to continue bombarding the sovereign republic of Lebanon with missiles”.

“I believe it is time for President Donald Trump to have the support of humanity to cease this terrible conflict and for the people of Israel to help us so that their government stops aggressing its neighbours, who can be their brothers and not their enemies,” he added.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has arrived in Iran’s Mashhad city, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reports.

Fars said Naqvi was expected to meet Iranian officials and would pay a visit to the holy shrine of Imam Reza.

Earlier this week, the US and Iran finally reached an agreement to stop the war. Pakistan, which played a central role in said agreement has been acknowledged and praised by the international community. But is this where it ends for the country? Or can the Shehbaz-led government convert the diplomatic visibility and influence into that rare opening that actually guarantees dividends?

Before we answer that question, however, it is important to acknowledge that the agreement, brokered after weeks of intense diplomacy between the United States and Iran, is not a peace treaty. It is an interim framework that has merely paused a dangerous confrontation and created a 60-day negotiating window during which the most difficult questions, including sanctions relief, nuclear restrictions, and regional security arrangements, will have to be addressed.

The fragility of the arrangement was evident even before its conclusion, with disagreements linked to Lebanon threatening to derail the process at a late stage, and Qatar eventually stepping in to facilitate implementation mechanisms and financial assurances.

Read more here.

Lebanon’s civil defence agency said ongoing Israeli strikes on the Nabatieh district in the country’s south had killed 16 people, a day after the latest Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire announcement, AFP reports.

Civil defence personnel have transported “16 dead and 12 wounded” to hospital, a statement said, adding that the personnel were working “since the early morning hours” in the Nabatieh district in response to “ongoing attacks targeting the area”.

The Israeli military claimed it was striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in response to overnight projectile launches from the group, despite a ceasefire announced a day earlier, AFP reports.

“Overnight, the Hezbollah terrorist organisation launched more than 50 projectiles at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon. Following the attacks, the IDF has been striking Hezbollah terrorist targets in southern Lebanon,” an Israeli military official said.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah has said his group had the right to respond to Israeli attacks, as Israel kept up strikes on Lebanon despite a new ceasefire announced a day earlier, AFP reports.

“There is talk of a ceasefire. For us, what concerns us is that the enemy fully and comprehensively respects the ceasefire, and doesn’t attempt to attack our country and villages or seek to occupy any new position,” Fadlallah said in a statement, adding that “the resistance has the full right to confront this enemy when it attacks us, as it is the aggressor and the occupier”.

The Lebanese army said an Israeli strike killed one of its soldiers in the country’s south, despite a new ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah reached a day earlier, AFP reports.

“An Israeli enemy strike targeted an army soldier on the Kfar Rumman-Nabatieh road, leading to his martyrdom,” an army statement said, charging that “the continuation of brutal Israeli attacks aims to obstruct any solution that would allow for restoring stability in Lebanon”.

Uzbek Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov appreciates Pakistan’s “constructive role in facilitating” the US-Iran deal during a phone conversation with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, according to the Foreign Office (FO).

Saidov commended the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, DPM Dar and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir.

Uzbekistan’s FM has acknowledged Pakistan’s “significant contribution to advancing international peace efforts, as well as promoting regional peace and stability, the FO said.

Both ministers hope that the Memorandum of Understanding between US and Iran would contribute to “lasting peace, stability, and prosperity in the region and beyond”.

The former US president, who signed his country’s last nuclear deal with Iran, has criticised the Trump administration’s deal with Iran in an interview with NBC, reports Al Jazeera.

“A lot of people have died. And it feels like we’re back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little bit worse off,” Barack Obama has said in an interview with NBC’s TODAY show cohost Craig Melvin that aired on Friday.

“I am very happy to see a ceasefire. And I’m hopeful that it holds,” Obama says.

He has questioned the rationale for the Trump administration’s war on Iran. The former president says that under the Iran nuclear deal negotiated during his administration, “Iran had agreed not to develop nuclear weapons.

“This administration, or a prior version of this administration, pulled out of it, which caused then Iran to develop more nuclear capacity,” Obama has said.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh has announced Tehran’s readiness to continue the talks and emphasised that five clauses of the memorandum of understanding must be implemented immediately, IRNA reports.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Khatibzadeh emphasised that any possible future agreement must include the release of all of Iran’s frozen assets and financial resources.

The Iranian deputy FM added: “We are preparing for the important upcoming talks, and the resulting memorandum of understanding foresees the immediate implementation of five clauses.”

Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev congratulated his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on signing the memorandum of understanding and marking the end of war, Tasnim news agency reports.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has departed for Tehran for meetings with senior Iranian officials, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reports, according to Reuters.

IRNA said Naqvi would discuss the progress of negotiations between Iran and the United States during his visit, without providing further details.

The chief commander of the IRGC Quds Force, Brigadier General Esmaeil Qaani, has warned Israel that Gaza is capable of launching major retaliatory operations, IRNA reports.

In a post on X, Qaani referred to battlefield capabilities of Hezbollah, saying, “When we said Hezbollah has Mirsad [drones], you did not pay attention and got caught. Who will answer for the 100 casualties?”

He added, “Gaza also has a flood. If you act according to your politicians’ wishes, you will be caught in the flood. Be careful.”

The remarks came shortly after Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told Al Jazeera that Iran is “working to achieve peace on all fronts, including Gaza, and we included Lebanon in the memorandum because of its direct link to the war”.

Providing details of yesterday’s phone call between Deputy PM Ishaq Dar and Iran’s FM Abbas Araghchi, Tasnim reports that the Iranian top diplomat “highlighted the United States’ commitment and responsibility to end the war on all fronts, including Lebanon”.

He stressed that any violation of the obligations outlined in the memorandum would be attributed to the US and warned of the consequences of such action.

Araghchi also expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s efforts, initiatives and comprehensive endeavours in the negotiation process and reaching the US-Iran MoU.

Iraq’s oil ministry is working to restore production to the level within two months, following the sharp decline caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran, Al Jazeera quotes the Iraqi News Agency (INA) as reporting, which cited spokesman Salim Farhoud.

Farhoud said there is no fixed timeline for exports to return to previous levels, citing differences in reservoir conditions and production capacity across fields. He noted that operating companies had begun restoration work.

“It is possible that we will return within one to two months to the previous production levels, which exceed three million barrels per day from the southern fields,” said Farhoud.

Iraqi oil production fell by approximately 60 per cent due to the war, dropping to 1.3 million barrels per day from 3.3 million barrels before the war began.

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is also expected to join US envoy Steve Witkoff in Switzerland for the US-Iran talks, CNN reports, citing a US official.

Axios said he was already there.

The latest advisory from the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre has maintained the threat level in the Strait of Hormuz as “moderate” — down from the “substantial” threat it warned of two days ago, Al Jazeera reports.

The advisory said the southern route through the key Gulf waterway, which runs close to Oman, is open “day or night”.

“However, mariners should be advised of the existence of mines and expect naval presence as clearance operations continue,” it added.

The advisory also “strongly” advised ships to use the Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping, a system developed by Nato that the alliance describes as an “interface between military operations and merchant shipping”.

At least five people were killed in an Israeli air strike on the southern Lebanese town of Arabsalim on Saturday morning, Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reports, despite a ceasefire agreed between Israel and Hezbollah.

According to Reuters, NNA said Israeli warplanes and drones carried out a series of strikes across the Nabatieh area overnight and into the morning, destroying residential buildings and houses, while Israeli artillery shelled Nabatieh and its outskirts before dawn.

Iran’s treatment at the World Cup in North America is a “dark point” in the history of the competition, a leading Iranian football official says, according to AFP.

Hedayat Mombeyni, the secretary general of the Iranian football federation, was speaking to reporters the day after his organisation said it would lodge a complaint with FIFA, claiming the team was being subjected to travel restrictions that were jeopardising its performance.

“This is a major international tournament. This sort of breaking of our rules and our agreements, in my opinion, calls football itself into question,” Mombeyni told reporters at the team’s training base in Tijuana, Mexico.

“I believe this will mark a dark point in the World Cup’s recent history,” Mombeyni added.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has described Israel’s shelling of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon as “relentless” and “devastating”.

“What our teams are describing resembles a death trap,” the group said in a social media post, noting that people have been “caught under heavy shelling”.

“Civilians and first responders must be protected, and unhindered access for rescue teams is urgently needed,” MSF added.