War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has spoken on the telephone with Egypt’s FM Dr Badr Abdelatty, the Foreign Office (FO) says.

“The two leaders exchanged views on recent regional developments and strongly condemned the Houthi attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, reaffirming their full solidarity with the Kingdom and support for its sovereignty, territorial integrity and security.”

They also discussed cooperation under the R-4 (Pakistan, Egypt, Türkiye and Saudi Arabia) framework and looked forward to the next meeting of the R-4 soon to further strengthen mutual ties and to coordinate on the regional issues, the statement added.

Riyadh is unlikely to request Egyptian military support in the immediate future, even if Egypt’s parliament approves an intervention, Al Jazeera reports, citing Middle East security expert Talha Abdulrazaq.

According to the report, the security analyst said the Makkah defence pact countries, Pakistan and Turkiye, are likely to be Saudi Arabia’s first port of call to defend the kingdom’s territory.

The Saudi directorate of civil defence has issued brief alerts for Najran City and As Sulayyil Governorate, saying “the danger has passed” in these areas.

“For your safety, continue following Civil Defence instructions and avoid gathering and filming,” it added in its alerts on social media.

Saaid Said Omar, acting country director for Islamic Relief in Yemen, tells Al Jazeera that cholera is spreading rapidly in overcrowded camps lacking clean water and sanitation, with children and pregnant women most at risk.

Iran’s offer to the United States to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days is still on the table, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has told Iranian media outlets, Reuters reports.

If Washington accepts Tehran’s conditions, the strategic waterway would be open within six days, and US-Iran talks would resume on the seventh day, he added.

Newly appointed Iranian defence minister Mehrdad Akhlaghi has threatened to inflict “enormous damage” on the United States and its allies in the Middle East if Washington resumes its military campaign against the country, AFP reports.

“People can rest assured that they will most likely not dare to attack us,” Akhlaghi told reporters shortly after securing the vote of confidence. “If they (the US) do, they themselves and the region will suffer enormous damage.”

Egypt will provide Saudi Arabia with all necessary and possible support to defend its security and stability, its presidency says, according to Reuters.

Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, says that Tehran’s armed forces have prepared a plan to respond to US aggression “more devastating” than seen in previous conflicts between the two countries, IRIB reports.

“Iran’s armed forces have prepared a PLAN to RESPOND to any new U.S. adventure that is MORE DEVASTATING than the 12-day and 40-day wars,” IRIB quoted Rezaei as saying.

Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, has warned the United States against repeating “past mistakes”, saying that Iran’s response will be “according to rules they do not know,” IRIB news reports.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says his country will not “bow down to the excesses of aggressor countries”, Al Jazeera reports.

“We will not allow the enemies to covet our country’s soil, just as we do not covet the soil of other countries,” he says during a meeting to review the qualifications of the proposed minister of defence, according to the news agency ISNA.

Egypt’s House of Representatives will hold an emergency session at 1pm local time (10:00 GMT) to consider President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s request to authorise defensive assistance to Saudi Arabia if Riyadh requests it, Al Jazeera reports.

The session comes a day after el-Sisi pledged to take any measure to protect Saudi Arabia, while stressing that any Egyptian involvement would be strictly defensive.

He has acknowledged parliament must approve the move, saying he hoped it would convene to grant authorisation “if it is requested of us”.

Riyadh’s Kingdom Centre skyscraper, one of the city’s major landmarks, ordered its office tenants to work remotely “until further notice,” after repeated Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia.

“Kindly refrain from attending the offices during this period,” the office management said in an email to tenants, according to AFP.

The mall at the foot of the 99-storey building remains open.

Iranian lawmakers have approved Mehrdad Akhlaghi as the country’s new defence minister, replacing his predecessor, who was killed on the first day of the war with the United States, AFP reports.

“Members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly today gave vote of confidence to Mehrdad Akhlaghi, the nominee for minister of defence and armed forces logistics,” state television reported, nearly eight months after the initial US-Israeli strikes that sparked the conflict.

Iran’s FM Araghchi and Iraq’s Prime Minister al-Zaidi have met on the sidelines of an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers meeting in Baghdad, Al Jazeera reports.

Araghchi has stressed the importance of using the OIC’s capacity to address issues facing the Muslim world, particularly Palestine, and called for further expansion of Iran-Iraq relations, IRNA has reported.

He adds that Israeli “occupation and expansionism” are the main sources of insecurity in West Asia.

The talks have also covered the Saudi–Yemeni conflict, ways to help end the maritime blockade of Yemen, and efforts to reduce tensions.

Araghchi says that it was the US that “repeatedly disrupted” diplomatic processes to end the war by breaking agreements and resorting to force.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi says the country has “remained committed and steadfast with respect to international law”, adding that “keeping the path of dialogue open among us is not a sign of weakness, but a responsibility”, Al Jazeera reports.

“The United States chose the opposite path: aggression, threats, assassination, and economic warfare, with blatant disregard for international law and the United Nations Charter,” he said at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Baghdad this morning.

Iran “does not accept coercion, threats, or intimidation, and will not relinquish its sovereign rights under pressure”, he said. “But it remains ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and credible guarantees.”

Lebanon’s ambassador to Pakistan “expressed deep appreciation for Pakistan’s active role in facilitating peace negotiations between Iran and the US”, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal says after a meeting between the two.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Iranian support has helped the Houthis mount the most potent and sophisticated attacks yet on Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies, according to Al Jazeera.

The US outlet has cited people briefed on intelligence from Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s anti-Houthi alliance.

Iran’s assistance has helped the Houthis make territorial gains on Yemen’s Red Sea coast and launch attacks on Saudi oil facilities and airports, including the raid that killed 13 people in Riyadh last week.

Iran has denied interfering in Yemeni affairs, saying the Houthis are “entirely independent actors”.

US Vice President JD Vance has acknowledged that “gas prices are too high right now” but said that once the US-Israel war on Iran “is over, we are going to see gas prices come down,” Al Jazeera reports.

He blamed Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its attacks on tankers for the high prices, saying, “We’ve never had a situation like this” with one country “trying to completely choke off world energy supply”.

Vance claimed petrol prices would be “three times as high if it weren’t for the US Navy keeping oil and gas moving out of the Strait of Hormuz”.

“If we just … left and we let the Iranians control shipping out of the Strait of Hormuz, what that would mean is you would pay a lot more for gasoline,” he said.

Vice President JD Vance says the US has “in some ways decisively won” the war on Iran and has destroyed the country’s nuclear programme, Al Jazeera reports.

He told a town hall hosted by CBS News that the US was now focused on ensuring that Iran makes a “long-term” and “verifiable commitment” not to rebuild its nuclear programme.

“Not over the administration of Donald Trump … but five years from now, could the Iranians rebuild that nuclear arsenal? Could they try to rebuild that enrichment capacity?” he asked.

Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons and insists on its right to a civilian nuclear programme, including for power generation and medical research.

The British navy-affiliated UKMTO has said that it received a report of an incident northeast of Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates, where a tug sailing southbound reported being struck by two unknown projectiles, Reuters reports.

One minor injury was reported and the tug has sustained damage, however is continuing on its route, UKMTO added.

A Saudi AH-6i helicopter has crashed in the Najran region of Saudi Arabia due to a technical malfunction, killing its two crew members, the Saudi-led coalition’s spokesman Brigadier General Turki al-Maliki has said in a statement, Reuters reports.

The helicopter crashed in an area under the jurisdiction of the Saudi National Guard Ministry, the statement added.

Saudi-led coalition says it intercepts and destroys 2 ballistic missiles launched by Yemen’s Houthis toward Khamis Mushait in southwestern Saudi Arabia, Anadolu Agency reports.

Riyadh residents received a mobile phone alert early Sunday warning of a “hostile aerial threat”, AFP journalists reported, after days of attacks from Yemen’s Huthis.

“Warning. The area is under a hostile aerial threat. Please remain calm, stay indoors or in a safe place away from windows and doors,” read the alert, which was lifted a few minutes later.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says Iran faces a choice between abandoning its “nuclear ambitions” and reaching a deal or facing devastating military action, Anadolu reports.

“Iran’s going to have a choice to make real quick about whether they’re going to give those up at the table or face the kind of devastation that America can bring and will bring swiftly if necessary,” Hegseth tells Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadets and military recruits at the University of Tennessee.

He accuses Tehran of building a large conventional missile arsenal to deter military action while pursuing “nuclear ambitions,” arguing that US military strength is essential to forcing adversaries to negotiate.

Hegseth also claims Iran “funds the proxies in Hezbollah, funds the proxies in the Houthis in Yemen,” adding that Washington seeks to deter attacks on US forces and shipping.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi says the country is still in contact with littoral Gulf states and “Our contacts with the foreign ministers of the countries of the region are ongoing”, news agency ISNA reports.

“It is true that the situation in the region is not favourable due to the aggression of the United States and the Zionist regime (Israel), but these contacts are at the highest level,“ he adds.