War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Deputy PM Ishaq Dar and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand have discussed the “evolving situation” in the context of the US-Iran war, the Foreign Office says.

They also exchanged views on the regional situation, including the recently signed Makkah Joint Defence Agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye.

The spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission has announced the approval of a strategic action plan to ensure the security and sustainable progress of the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, IRNA reports.

The spokesperson added: “In this meeting, the oral and written views of the relevant agencies and institutions were discussed and reviewed in the presence of representatives at the National Security Commission meeting, and ultimately this plan was approved without any dissenting votes.”

Reuters

Former Iranian chief justice says that Iran will not retreat from the Strait of Hormuz at any cost, Iran’s state-run IRIB news agency reports.

Basij Organisation deputy Qasem Qoraishi has said that footage and other documentation showing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei among the public and out in the streets, as well as in meetings with armed forces commanders, would be released in the future, Reuters reports.

Qoraishi said the footage would “once again bring disgrace upon the enemies and detractors of the Iranian people”.

The comments appeared aimed at countering speculation about Khamenei’s health and lack of public appearances.

Strikes by Houthi rebels have killed at least 11 people, a medical source in the Yemeni port city of Mokha tells AFP, after an earlier drone salvo targeted a Saudi oil refinery on the Red Sea coast.

A medical source in Mokha, held by Yemen’s internationally recognised, Aden-based government, said three civilians and eight military personnel had been killed in the Houthi attacks.

A further 32 individuals were wounded, six of them civilians, the source added, explaining all the civilian casualties had been a result of strikes on Mokha’s port.

Two military sources with the government forces earlier confirmed at least eight troops had been killed in the strikes and more than 40 personnel were injured.

Iranian President Dr Masoud Pezeshkian says that the country’s armed forces, including the Revolutionary Guards, Basij, and police, have done a great job and astonished the America, the Zionist regime, and the world, Iran’s ISNA news agency reports.

Attacks by Houthis in Yemen have killed at least four troops from the government forces and injured 20 more personnel, two military sources told AFP.

The initial toll came from strikes on the Yemeni city of Mokha and surrounding areas, as well as Khokha, south of the port city of Hodeida, the sources said on condition of anonymity, after the Houthis announced they had targeted military forces and equipment on the Red Sea coast.

Iran’s Press TV has reported that at least eight media workers have been killed since the US-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has met with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to discuss the country’s “economic and defence strategies”, IRNA reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons, a goal he has long alleged Tehran is pursuing, regardless of the course of diplomacy with Washington and Arab states, AFP reports.

“I want to emphasise once again: with an agreement or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting.

Houthi rebels say they targeted “Saudi enemy” troops and equipment on Yemen’s Red Sea coast city of Mokha after residents there said they heard blasts, reports AFP.

The group’s military spokesman Yahya Saree said the Houthis had “carried out a large-scale and precise military operation targeting Saudi enemy troop concentrations and weapons depots in the Mokha area,” using “a large number of ballistic missiles and drones”.

Iran and the US are not ​engaged in talks and Tehran ‌will not start them as long as Washington breaches ​an interim deal signed ​in June, Iran’s Foreign Minister ⁠Abbas Araghchi says according to Reuters, adding that messages are ​being exchanged via intermediaries.

Araghchi repeated Iran’s position that an agreement on ​the Strait of ​Hormuz between Tehran and Muscat was ‌in ⁠the “final stages” but would not reopen the strategic waterway.

In comments reported by ​Mehr ​news agency, ⁠he said the agreement would set ​out the new shipping ​lanes ⁠to be used once the US fulfils other ⁠conditions ​and the strait ​is reopened to traffic.

Kuwait’s foreign ministry has lauded a UN Security Council statement condemning Houthi missile attacks against Saudi Arabia since July 13 and attacks on commercial shipping since July 22, Al Jazeera reports.

Kuwait expressed full appreciation for the UNSC’s affirmation of the need to adhere to international law and relevant resolutions, including Resolution 2216, and its rejection of acts threatening regional security and freedom of maritime navigation.

The ministry renewed Kuwait’s solidarity with Saudi Arabia and its support for all measures Riyadh takes to preserve its sovereignty and security. It also reaffirmed Kuwait’s support for Yemen’s legitimate government and for the UN special envoy’s efforts to achieve peace and stability in Yemen.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say they will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States accepts all of Tehran’s demands, reports AFP.

“Our current strategy is to maintain this strait until the enemy accepts all our conditions,” said Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi, as quoted by state TV, adding that “the strait is now actually a theatre of war for us and not just a waterway”.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have said they had struck an oil facility on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, reports AFP.

The group’s military spokesman Yahya Saree said the Houthis had “succeeded in targeting the Aramco refinery in Jazan with a drone, and the strike was precise”, adding the attack had been launched in response to Saudi incursions into territory in northwest Yemen.

Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s internationally recognised government have joined Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar and Syria in condemning the attack on an oil tanker operated by the UAE’s ADNOC while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, Al Jazeera reports.

The UAE blamed Iran for the attack and said it did not result in any injuries.

In a statement, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “These reprehensible attacks constitute an assault on the security and safety of maritime navigation, as well as on the security of global energy supplies.”

The kingdom “holds Iran responsible for the consequences of its continued acts of aggression and calls on Iran to immediately cease these violations”, it added.

Yemen’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a similar statement, calling it “a serious threat to the security and safety of maritime navigation and commercial vessels”.

It demanded an immediate end to such attacks and adherence to international law.

The leader of Iraq’s Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba has promised retaliation for joint Saudi-US strikes last month that hit sites of the country’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), of which it is a member, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement, Akram al-Kaabi said diplomacy with Saudi Arabia is “futile”, and that it must be disciplined “through a suitable military response” to avenge the strikes on the PMF.

“Missiles can only be countered with missiles, and fire can only be met with fire,” he said.

Saudi Arabia and the US Central Command said last month that the joint air strikes targeted militias in Iraq responsible for attacks on American troops and Saudi energy infrastructure. The PMF, a paramilitary force, said at least 20 of its members were killed and 32 wounded in the strikes.

The Trump administration has asked the US defence industry to rapidly escalate the production and delivery of weapons, including munitions that are in extremely short supply due to the war with Iran, The Washington Post has reported, quoting a Defence Department memo, according to Al Jazeera.

Deputy Defence Secretary Steve Feinberg wrote to industry leaders last Wednesday, noting that they have to submit plans to “drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities”, within 21 days.

“Years-long development cycles are not acceptable,” Feinberg wrote. “We must dramatically accelerate our program schedules and expand our production capacity now.”

There have been multiple reports of the US running short on munitions stockpiles, and more critically, of anti-missile Patriot interceptors. Trump earlier said that the army has “massive amounts” of munitions, posting on Truth Social that “large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the US as needed”.

Brigadier General Hassan Hassanzadeh, of the IRGC’s Tehran Corps, has said that the US and Israel have “completely failed to achieve their goals against” Iran, Al Jazeera reports.

“The people’s power and the all-encompassing readiness of the Basij have transformed Iran into one of the major powers in the region and the world,” he said, quoted by Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

“Today, the leaders of the United States and the Zionist regime have no answers for the public, intellectuals, and the people about their repeated failures,” he added.

Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, has said that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the US agrees to change its policies regarding Iran, state news agency IRNA reports.

He has laid out conditions that include an end to military aggression and sanctions, calling on Washington to lift its maritime blockade, withdraw its naval and air forces from around the country, and pay for damages caused by two wars against Iran in full.

“The Strait of Hormuz will not open until America corrects its behaviour,” he is quoted as saying.

US forces have begun to evacuate logistics support centres from Harir base in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iran’s Fars news agency reports, citing the Iraqi Al-Maalomah news agency.

Sources tell Al-Maalomah that “the technical and engineering teams of the US forces stationed at Harir Air Base near Erbil have begun evacuating logistical support centres, especially the large complex located in the eastern section.

“Evacuating these centres represents the penultimate stage in the withdrawal from this base, which will be free of any US presence by the end of September,” they add.