War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Baqaei has accused US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of engaging in a “cognitive war against Iran and the world”, Al Jazeera reports.

“Distorting history to justify warmongering is dangerous and an injustice to Greek civilisation,” he has told reporters, referring to recent remarks made by Rubio about the history of Greece.

He adds that Rubio had inadvertently admitted that Iran has “endured for thousands of years”, adding that “the continuity of civilisation and culture is not achieved through military conquests”.

The Australian embassy in Riyadh has issued a new shelter in place order, calling for people to stay indoors and avoid unnecessary travel, following a series of deadly attacks, AFP reports.

“Stay indoors, follow the advice of local authorities and avoid unnecessary travel,” reads a post by the embassy on an official social media account.

A Saudi broadcaster says the Saudi-led military coalition was responding to a missile and drone threat but did not specify where the projectiles were headed, AFP reports.

“Coalition: Dealing with a threat of drones and cruise missiles on the Kingdom currently underway,” read a post published online by state-backed broadcaster Al Ekhbariya.

Iran is still reviewing a US response to its proposal regarding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and will reply to Washington via intermediaries when the review is over, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei says, Reuters reports.

Baghaei also told a press conference that Iran continues to exchange messages via intermediaries, without elaborating.

Iran has said it was “deeply concerned” by escalating attacks between Yemen’s Houthis and Saudi Arabia, after 14 people died in strikes on Riyadh’s airport over the weekend, AFP reports.

“We are deeply concerned about the developments taking place in the Arabian Peninsula,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told a weekly press conference, adding that Tehran was ready “to use our good offices to help facilitate dialogue between the parties”.

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman warned that energy security could not be taken for granted amid the war in the Middle East, saying conditions were testing infrastructure and decision making.

“Energy security can’t be taken for granted,” the minister told a high-profile energy conference in Riyadh. “For Saudi Arabia, these circumstances have tested our infrastructure, our institutions, our people, and our resilience. They have also tested decisions made long before present crises, because resilience is built before crises begin.”

Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, has threatened to strike US data centres, AI facilities and cables in the Gulf if the war resumes, Al Jazeera reports citing state media.

The US has extremely expensive assests in the UAE and around the Strait of Hormuz, he said.

“We have not yet included these assests among our targets. But if war breaks out, many of these cables, data centres, AI facilities and numerous other sites will be destroyed,” he added.

About 60 per cent of scheduled flights at Riyadh airport in Saudi Arabia are expected to be cancelled, data from aviation analytics firm Cirium showed, after attacks from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis killed over a dozen people over the weekend, Reuters reports.

King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh cancelled 99.7pc of all scheduled flights on Sunday, according to Cirium.

China’s foreign ministry said that it condemns the attacks on Riyadh airport that killed and wounded people, Reuters reports.

China expresses “serious concern” about the escalation in the conflict, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in Beijing.

UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash has stressed a pressing need to revive joint Gulf action, particularly on aspects of security and defence, saying that targeting Saudi Arabia undermined the security of all Gulf states, Reuters reports.

Neglect of collective Gulf security had ‘emboldened others’ to overreach against regional states, he adds.

Oil prices have extended gains as the Middle East conflict escalated after Yemen’s Houthis stepped up strikes on Saudi Arabia while two tankers were attacked over the weekend, raising concerns about oil supply from the region, Reuters reports.

Brent crude futures rose 76 cents, or 0.73 per cent, to $105.48 a barrel by 2304 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $92.44 a barrel, up 59 cents, or 0.64pc.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister spoke with his Iranian counterpart about the recent escalation of the regional conflict and efforts to lower tensions, the Saudi state news agency reported on Sunday, the officials’ first publicly reported contact since Houthis intensified strikes on the kingdom, Reuters reports.

Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran is ready to provide any assistance to facilitate dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, according to a post on the minister’s Telegram account.

The Saudi-led military coalition said on Monday that it had “intercepted and destroyed” a ballistic missile fired by Houthi fighters towards southern Saudi Arabia, AFP reports.

“The coalition intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi terrorist militia towards Khamis Mushait,” Major General Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the coalition, wrote on X.

Australia’s foreign minister has condemned “unacceptable” attacks by Houthi fighters against civilians in Saudi Arabia, advising citizens not to travel to Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, AFP reports.

“Australia condemns the Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia, including those on Riyadh airport which have stolen the lives of so many innocent people,” top diplomat Penny Wong said on X.

The Saudi civil aviation authority said Dammam airport in the kingdom’s Eastern Province has been attacked, in a statement released shortly after the Houthis said they had targeted the airport, Reuters reports.

Two men have been killed in south Lebanon, one by Israeli fire and the other by an explosive remnant of war, as they took part in the annual olive harvest, AFP reports citing state media and local officials.

The official National News Agency (NNA) said one of the men was killed in Yater, in Bint Jbeil district, when Israeli “shelling targeted the outskirts of the town while he was inspecting his land and olive harvest”.

The Lebanese army blamed Israeli tank fire and called the ongoing attacks “a flagrant breach of existing agreements”.

In the village of Froun, in the same district, the NNA reported that “a foreign object” left over from previous Israeli operations exploded and killed an engineer as he and others tended their trees.

The engineer had come down from Beirut, where he lives, for the harvest, Froun mayor Hassan Bazzi told AFP.

The spokesman and deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), Behrouz Kamalvandi, says Iran will secure its national interests through both diplomacy and resistance, and is ready for confrontation if negotiations fail, according to Iran’s state-run Press TV.

Speaking to reporters, Kamalvandi said Tehran would continue to defend its rights and interest. He added that diplomatic engagement and resistance were complementary rather than contradictory approaches.

“If our interests can be secured through diplomacy, so much the better. Otherwise, we will secure them with strength and determination on the battlefield,” he was quoted as saying.

The Regional Four (R4) Group consisting of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkiye has condemned “in the strongest terms” the ongoing Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia, including those targeting King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, in a joint statement.

The statement, posted on social media by the Foreign Office (FO), said that the attacks constitute a “blatant violation of international law” and a violation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity while posing a threat to its security, stability and civilian safety.

It added that the “dangerous” escalation “cannot be justified or accepted under any pretext”.

The group reaffirmed its solidarity and support for the Kingdom and all legitimate measures it takes to counter the attacks and prevent their recurrence, while emphasising that it holds the Houthis “fully accountable” for the results of the attacks and any repercussions threatening regional security. It demanded the immediate and unconditional halt of the attacks.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree says the group has “carried out four qualitative operations in the past 24 hours using ballistic and cruise missiles and drones”, AFP reports.

Saree said they targeted the Riyadh airport multiple times, as well as the Dammam airport and two facilities belonging to the Saudi state oil company Aramco.

The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia said one of its citizens died after being wounded in the attack on the Riyadh airport a day earlier, AFP reports.

“It is learnt that one Indian national injured in the Riyadh attack has unfortunately lost his life today. We convey our heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased,” the embassy wrote in a statement posted on X.

Yemen’s Houthis have claimed responsibility in a televised speech for Saturday’s attack on Riyadh’s international airport that killed 12 people and wounded more than 300 others, according to Reuters.

Two new blasts have been heard in Riyadh, AFP journalists report, more than an hour after the Saudi-led coalition reported a fresh attack on the city’s airport.

AFP journalists heard two explosions in quick succession in central Riyadh.

The cause of the blasts was not immediately clear.

The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei says that the US has responded to Iran’s seven conditions to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz, but the response is “insufficient”, Fars reports.

“Americans have now responded to us; they have accepted some of our conditions while others remain unresolved.

“We are no longer in the process of responding to the Americans; they must clarify the issues that remain ambiguous for us,” Fars quotes Rezaei as saying.