War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reports that a supertanker laden with over 2 million barrels of oil has exploded after striking a sea mine in the Strait of Hormuz.

The tanker, still ablaze, is the third to strike mines in the “unauthorised route” within the key waterway, IRIB adds.

The Royal Oman Navy has carried out an evacuation operation for 25 crew members aboard the commercial vessel RITI in cooperation and coordination with the Maritime Security Centre, after the Panama-flagged vessel was targeted, resulting in a fire breaking out on board.

“The incident occurred approximately 106 nautical miles off the coast of Musandam Governorate. The crew members were provided with the necessary medical care,” the Maritime Security Centre says in a statement.

US President Donald Trump, speaking ahead of the November 3 midterm congressional elections, has said he believes the war with Iran will end soon, but did not say how that would happen, Reuters reports.

“It’s going to get wrapped up soon,” Trump said in an interview with Kansas City radio station KCMO. “We need a guarantee there’ll never be a nuclear weapon.”

Trump has said the US would not strike Iran before the elections.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have said two oil tankers had been halted after encountering unspecified “incidents” while attempting to transit what Tehran considers an unauthorised route in the Strait of Hormuz, AFP reports.

“Two offending oil tankers, one in the eastern part and the other in the western part of the Strait of Hormuz, which were attempting to pass through the unauthorised route, encountered incidents and were brought to a halt in the waters south of the strait,” the IRGC said in a statement.

A Qatari delegation has arrived in Tehran for talks with Iranian officials, AFP reports, citing state media, as mediators try to revive peace talks with the US.

According to the IRNA state news agency, the delegation, headed by a senior adviser to Qatar’s prime minister, came to meet senior Iranian officials and discuss “bilateral relations… as well as regional developments”.

Iran’s representative to the UN Security Council has fiercely condemned the US and Israel for their ongoing military aggression and naval blockade, stating that Washington’s actions are the true root cause of maritime insecurity in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, according to Press TV.

Oil prices are continuing their upward trajectory on Friday and are on track for a fourth consecutive monthly gain, Al Jazeera reports.

The increase came after a number of tankers were reported to have hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz, highlighting ongoing supply risks as the US-Israel conflict with Iran enters its eighth month.

Brent crude futures for December gained $1.20, or 1.04 per cent, to reach $116.08 a barrel as of 03:23 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures went up $1.37, or 1.34pc, to $103.37 a barrel.

For the month, Brent was on course to finish nearly 11pc higher, while WTI was heading for a 14pc jump.

Iranian lawmaker Mahmoud Nabavian says he has called for Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei to authorise the development of an atomic bomb, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, Nabavian says he had raised the proposal during a gathering in the city of Qom, reporting that it was met with expressions of approval from the crowd.

His remarks come amid growing calls from several Iranian lawmakers to reconsider the country’s longstanding position against developing nuclear weapons.

Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a religious decree prohibiting nuclear weapons, while Tehran has consistently maintained that its nuclear programme is intended purely for peaceful purposes.

However, during a September interview with Al Jazeera, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said Tehran remained committed to the ruling and had not changed its nuclear doctrine, before adding: “But we do not know what will happen in the future.”

Qatari mediators return to Tehran on Friday as part of efforts to reach a deal between the US and Iran, an official briefed on the talks told Reuters.

The mediation talks have been coordinated with the US, the official says.

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree has denied a Saudi-led coalition claim that it intercepted a Houthi drone over the Makkah region, saying the group “has not carried out any operation today targeting Saudi territory” and emphasising that its operations target “oil facilities and military bases”, Al Jazeera reports.

Earlier, the Saudi coalition said its air defences intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone in the Makkah region.

A Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted and destroyed in the Makkah region a drone fired by Yemen’s Houthis, reports AFP.

“A drone launched by the terrorist Houthi militia has been intercepted and destroyed in the Makkah region,” the coalition wrote in a post on X.

Four tankers caught fire after hitting mines while attempting to navigate the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s armed forces, a day after the US military claimed it cleared key routes through the waterway, reports AFP.

“Over the past 24 hours, three violating oil tankers exploded and caught fire after striking mines while attempting to pass through the unauthorised southern route of the Strait of Hormuz,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement.

Another tanker had caught fire east of the strait, after hitting mines while “operating in a restricted and dangerous area”, Iran’s army reported later Thursday.

The initial three vessels had “switched off all their radar and navigation systems” and disregarded warnings from the IRGC navy, the statement said.

It was not immediately clear when the incidents occurred or which flags the tankers were flying.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei accuses the UN’s human rights mechanism on Iran of attempting to “whitewash aggression, atrocities, and unilateral coercive measures”, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, Baqaei describes the mandate of UN Special Rapporteur Mai Sato as a “politically motivated” measure “imposed on the Human Rights Council by the UK,” adding that exploiting the role to blame Tehran for US and Israeli crimes was “deeply misleading and profoundly disingenuous”.

The spokesman’s comments follow Sato’s report to the UN General Assembly, which noted that while US and Israeli military actions compounded the suffering of Iranians, authorities in Tehran used the regional conflict to intensify their crackdown on dissent through arrests and executions.

Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir-Saeid Iravani, says Washington and its supporters are responsible for the insecurity in the Strait of Hormuz and the disruption to regional shipping, Al Jazeera cites Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB.

Speaking to the UN Security Council, Iravani says the US naval blockade of Iran violates the UN Charter and threatens civilians’ access to food, medicine, fuel and other essential goods. He adds that the measures amount to “collective punishment” against the Iranian people.

The US has said its blockade is effective and that no Iranian ship has been able to cross the strait.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz says Iran must cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rather than blame other countries for its failure to meet nuclear inspection obligations, Al Jazeera reports.

Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting, Waltz has accused Tehran of failing to provide the information and access requested by the nuclear watchdog.

“Your lies are no good here,” Waltz tells the council, addressing the Iranian delegation directly and adding that the US and its partners would never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.

He says IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi had asked Iran for “answers, not speeches”.

However, Grossi told the same meeting that military attacks in June 2025 had forced the agency to suspend inspections and withdraw its personnel from Iran for safety reasons.

Grossi says Tehran had previously agreed to allow inspectors into its Isfahan enrichment facility, but “the commencement of the attacks prevented our inspector from going to the site”.

He has added that since June 2025, “we have not identified any activity to repair or reconstruct” nuclear facilities damaged in the 2025 and 2026 attacks, although physical inspections remained necessary to establish their condition.

Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman and his Spanish counterpart Margarita Robles have reviewed the two countries’ defence cooperation in a call, the Saudi minister says in a post on X.

“We explored regional developments after the Houthi terrorist attacks on the Kingdom and efforts to promote security and stability,” he says.

The two have also discussed “ways to strengthen the Saudi-Spanish relations”.

US Vice President JD Vance says President Donald Trump will not allow the conflict with Iran to become a “forever war”, defending the administration’s military campaign despite criticism of its involvement in the Middle East, Al Jazeera reports.

Speaking during a Fox News town hall in Fort Worth, Texas, Vance was responding to a Republican voter who questioned whether the administration had fulfilled its promise to end costly foreign wars.

“I understand the frustration about foreign misadventures in the Middle East,” Vance says, recalling his own military service in Iraq.

“We’ve been involved in Iran in some form for 7 months. The United States has been dealing with Iran for 47 years, and I promise you that Donald Trump is not going to let Iran become a forever war,” he adds.

Vance has argued that opposing prolonged military interventions do not mean rejecting the use of military force altogether.

“He’s [Trump] going to accomplish America’s objectives,” Vance says, adding that the administration would then focus on its other priorities.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei underscores that the enemy had come to realise that it could not break the will of the Iranian nation through pressure and threats, IRNA reports.

He, in particular, referred to the public’s presence on city streets and squares in the face of the US-Israeli war of aggression, describing the people’s enthusiasm in evening gatherings as a valuable asset for Iran’s future.

Referring to the capacity and strength of Iran, he noted that Iran had experienced significant growth and development internationally — which the enemy is fully aware of, and any hostility or action against Iran would cost them dearly.

“The Iranian nation will ensure the enemy comes to regret its actions and miscalculations,” the agency quoted Baqaei as saying.

Iranian MP Ebrahim Azizi says that any nuclear issue cannot be addressed within the framework of the current negotiation process until the United States fulfills its commitments, according to state-run IRNA news agency.

In an interview with the Al-Alam news network, Azizi added that Iran has repeatedly declared its missile and nuclear technology as non-negotiable “red lines”.

Regarding a new proposal from Qatar, necessary guarantees for negotiations, and strategies to counter sanctions, he said that Tehran was evaluating the proposals, but any new agreement would require Washington to fulfil its prior commitments.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) has received a report from a company security officer that a tanker has been struck by an unknown projectile while transiting outbound through the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports.

No injuries to the crew or environmental impact have been reported, UKMTO adds.

The Saudi-led coalition says it has intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis at Riyadh.

Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker Bagher Ghalibaf says that progress in negotiations can only be achieved once the country’s seven conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz have been agreed upon.

“Iran’s conditions have been repeatedly and clearly stated to the mediators,” he says in a post on X. “The carrot-and-stick approach has no effect on Iran.”

Saudi authorities warn that the capital Riyadh is “under a hostile aerial threat” in a phone alert, as AFP correspondents report hearing at least eight explosions.

“Warning: [the] city of Riyadh is under a hostile aerial threat,” the alert reads.