War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has had a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and stressed the importance of sustained dialogue and diplomacy to resolve outstanding issues, according to the Foreign Office (FO).

Dar emphasised the need for all parties in the ongoing conflict to remain constructively engaged, reaffirming that active and sustained diplomatic efforts remain essential to ensuring lasting regional peace, security and stability.

The spokesperson for Yemen’s Houthis, Yahya Saree, has responded to Saudi Arabia’s claim that it has intercepted a Yemeni missile over Madina.

“We stress that this claim is yet another in a series of egregious allegations leveled against the dear Muslim people of Yemen and its armed forces,” Iran’s state-run IRNA quoted him as saying.

“Our operations target only its oil facilities and military bases,” the Houthis have said in a statement, according to AFP.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has met Iranian security council chief Mohsen Rezaei at the Kremlin, Reuters reports citing the president’s office.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov were also present in the Russian delegation for the meeting, an image circulated by the Kremlin shows.

The Saudi-led coalition says it has intercepted a drone in the kingdom’s eastern region.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, have discussed regional developments and ongoing negotiations between Tehran and Washington in a phone call, Anadolu reports citing Turkish diplomatic sources.

The militaries of the US and Israel have drawn up plans for renewed strikes on Iran, Al Jazeera reports citing The New York Times.

It says that the United States is ready to resume major combat operations against the country when ordered by Trump, citing Pentagon and military officials.

“He has already hinted that he is in no rush to resume bombing, despite a major naval and air power buildup that has been underway for weeks as he has mulled whether to launch an intense, short attack on Iran’s surviving nuclear-related sites, along with energy and infrastructure targets,” the newspaper adds.

“Past presidents, suddenly plunged into lame-duck status, have often reached for their military options, partly to demonstrate that their role as commander in chief is undiminished.”

Brent crude futures are up nearly $3 as investors weigh the future course of the US-Israeli war with Iran after President Donald Trump’s Republican Party suffered heavy losses in midterm elections this week, Reuters reports.

Brent futures are up $2.94, or 3.11 per cent, at $97.56 a barrel as of 1417 GMT (7:17pm PKT), while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures have risen $1.73, or 1.96pc, to $89.85.

US President Donald Trump says he intends to keep Pete Hegseth as his secretary of war, despite receiving calls from people expressing dissatisfaction with his leadership, Anadolu reports.

“I have every intention to keep him,” Trump tells ABC News.

Trump acknowledges that some people had contacted him to raise concerns about Hegseth, but questions the criticism.

“I get these calls, you know, about him. I don’t understand why,” he says.

Trump also says that confirming a new Pentagon would be easier before Democrats take over the Senate in January, as they will have the majority needed to vote any nominee down.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has discussed the “latest progress” in diplomatic efforts aimed at establishing stability in the region in separate phone calls with his Saudi and Qatari counterparts, Reuters reports citing the Iranian foreign ministry.

Talks between Riyadh and Tehran have been ongoing amid intensified attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on the kingdom, while Qatar has been mediating between the US and Iran in an effort to end the wider war.

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree has rejected a claim by Saudi Arabia that the Yemeni group targeted the kingdom’s Madina region with a ballistic missile.

He brands the claim “a continuation of … great and immense lies against our dear Muslim people”, claiming that the group only targets military and oil facilities.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s deputy for executive affairs says that the recent US midterm elections reflect the public’s demand for an end to the Middle East war and greater attention on domestic issues, state news agency IRNA reports

Speaking at a meeting with investors in northern Iran’s Gilan Province, Mohammad Jafar Ghaempanah says the US voters’ sentiments echo Tehran’s longstanding call for Washington to focus on its own people and refrain from threatening other countries, noting that voters who previously supported Republicans turned away from them.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, in a phone call, stressed the need for “continued dialogue and diplomatic engagement” to promote regional peace and stability, the Foreign Office (FO) said.

The two also discussed ways to strengthen bilateral ties as well as recent regional and international developments.

Saudi Arabia issued alerts warning of potential danger in Yanbu, the kingdom’s Red Sea oil export hub, as Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis continue attacks on the kingdom that have opened another front in the US-Israeli war on Iran, Reuters reports.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen said it destroyed a missile launched by the group towards Islam’s holy city of Medina. The kingdom’s civil defence also issued emergency alerts for the southeastern area of Sharurah that borders Yemen.

The Houthis had yet to claim any attack on the kingdom on Thursday.

Following the drubbing of US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party in the midterm elections, Iranians set fire to a giant poster featuring the American leader and his allies at a rally in Tehran, AFP reports.

In the capital’s central Enghelab square, crowds gathered to observe the burning of the poster which also featured his Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The war was started by Trump and Netanyahu, who launched a massive wave of surprise attacks against Iran which killed supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei and others on February 28 and sparked the wider Middle East war.

The cheering audience waved red flags to demand revenge for Khamenei’s death.

Spot premiums for Middle Eastern crude benchmarks returned to levels seen before the Iran war this week as ample supplies weighed on the market, while cooling refining margins in Asia slowed buying interest, Reuters reports.

Middle Eastern producers ramped up crude exports in September and October, which JP Morgan analysts said has created a surplus, despite rising attacks on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The wave of supply has depressed Middle Eastern crude benchmarks this week to their lowest premiums since July, when an initial agreement to end the US-Israeli war with Iran enabled more Gulf oil exports through the Hormuz strait.

Dubai’s cash premium to swaps slumped to 65 cents a barrel on Monday, the lowest since July, before recovering to $1.55 a barrel on Thursday, Reuters data showed.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis has said that a ballistic missile fired by the group at the Madina region had been intercepted, AFP reports.

The announcement came just minutes after the kingdom’s civil defence agency warned of potential danger in the area near the strategic port of Yanbu.

It was unclear if the two events were connected.

“Air defence intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi militia toward the Madina region,” coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said in a post on X.

Yanbu, on the Red Sea, is the terminus of the East-West Pipeline that allows Saudi oil to bypass the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

The port and pipeline have played a key role since the outbreak of the Middle East war, helping Riyadh ship crude and fuel to global markets.

A tanker was struck by two unidentified projectiles about 50 nautical miles north of Qatar’s Madinat ash Shamal, United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations has said, dating the incident to November 4 at 23:20 UTC, Reuters reports.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his Oman counterpart Badr bin Hamad Albusaidi have spoken by phone about regional developments and diplomatic efforts to secure peace and stability in the region, Al Jazeera reports, citing Mehr news agency.

Iran’s parliament speaker Bagher Ghalibaf slams US Vice President JD Vance, describing his recent X post as “losing gambler energy”.

Hinting at US President Donald Trump’s supposedly America-first policies, Ghalibaf writes, “Boss is prepping the next war phase while America teeters on an Israel-First cliff”.

“Skip the TED talk. Why not say this to your boss?”

Vance’s post in question was about the US midterm election results, in which the Republicans lost to the Democrats.

In the post, Vance had said that the Republicans had lost due to the Iran war.

Brent crude futures rose on Thursday as investors weighed the risk of a further escalation of the US-Israeli war with Iran after the losses suffered by US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party in congressional elections this week.

Brent futures were up 34 cents, or 0.36 per cent, at $94.96 a barrel as of 0825 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 27 cents, or 0.31pc, at $87.85 in choppy trade.

Both benchmarks tumbled by more than 8pc in the previous session to settle at their lowest since August 31.

“Markets are assessing the impact of the midterm elections on Donald Trump’s next steps with the Iran war, pricing in more likelihood for the war to end,” said June Goh, senior oil analyst at Sparta Commodities.

Chinese refiners have sold roughly 500,000 metric tons of diesel for loading in November so far, according to traders and Reuters calculations based on trade data, with multi-year low domestic stockpiles limiting exports, Reuters reports.

Fuel exports from China, Asia’s major swing supplier, have been volatile since the US-Israel-Iran war broke out in February as the Chinese government imposed curbs to prioritise domestic supplies, requiring refiners to obtain approval for sales each month.

However, since China began relaxing export controls in July, diesel exports have surged to multi-year highs to 1.33 million tons in August and 1.8 million tons in September thinning domestic inventories, analysts said.

Senior officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration have been divided for months over the war with Iran, with Vice President JD Vance privately criticising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and warning that the conflict could cost Republicans control of Congress, according to US media reports.

Vance privately accused Netanyahu of “being wrong on everything” regarding Iran and repeatedly urged Trump to negotiate an end to the conflict, Axios reported Thursday, citing sources familiar with the discussions.

The vice president also warned that the war was deeply unpopular among American voters and could lead to Republican defeats in Tuesday’s midterm elections, according to the report.

The UAE’s Emirates Group said profit in the first half of the financial year fell 66 percent year-on-year, as the regional war and high fuel costs hit aviation, Reuters reports.

Half-year profit before tax stood at 4.1 billion AED ($1.1 billion), the group said in a statement.