War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Seoul’s foreign ministry says it is continuing to hold “close and serious discussions” over a recent attack on the South Korean vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, AlJazeera reports, citing Yonhap news agency.

Spokesperson Park Il promised to take action once a probe into the incident was complete.

An official inquiry previously determined that two unidentified flying objects hit the HMM Namu causing an explosion and a fire, Yonhap reported. It said analysis of debris recovered from the site is under way to identify the objects and those responsible for the incident.

“If additional findings are available, we will continue necessary communication and take appropriate measures, including providing explanations to the Iranian side,” Park was quoted as saying.

“Our top priority is ensuring the safety and freedom of navigation of our vessels and crew members in the region, and we are pursuing diplomatic efforts on multiple fronts to that end,” he added.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is scrutinising a surge in oil futures trading that occurred moments before US President Donald Trump postponed strikes on Tehran in March, the Wall Street Journal reported, according to Reuters.

The CFTC is interested in at least three firms as part of its inquiry, the Journal said, citing documents and a person familiar with the matter.

Oil prices eased after US President Donald Trump again asserted the war with Iran will end “very quickly”, though investors remain wary about the outcome of peace talks amid continued disruptions to Middle East supply from the conflict, Reuters reports.

Brent crude oil futures fell 45 cents, or 0.4 per cent, to $110.83 a barrel by 0050 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate futures were down 27 cents, or 0.3pc, to $103.88.

“Investors are keen to gauge whether Washington and Tehran can actually find common ground and reach a peace agreement, with the U.S. stance shifting daily,” said Toshitaka Tazawa, an analyst at Fujitomi Securities.

“Oil prices are likely to remain elevated given the possibility of renewed US attacks on Iran and expectations that, even if a peace deal is reached, crude supply will not quickly return to pre-war levels,” he said.

Russia is ready to help out with talks between the United States and Iran over their ongoing military conflict, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by TASS state news agency, Reuters reports.

“Russia is ready to provide all possible assistance in resolving this conflict, and the parties involved are well aware of this,” Ryabkov said.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Iranian forces are confirmed to be the first to down an American F-35 fighter jet, citing a US congressional report on aircraft combat losses, AFP reports.

“With lessons learned and knowledge we gained, return to war will feature many more surprises,” Araghchi wrote on X.

Two Chinese supertankers carrying 4 million barrels of Middle East crude oil exited the Strait of Hormuz after waiting in the Gulf for more than two months, shipping data on LSEG and Kpler showed, Reuters reports.

Chinese-flagged Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Yuan Gui Yang loaded 2 million barrels of Iraqi Basrah crude on February 27, a day before the US-Israeli war on Iran started, the data showed.

Hong Kong-flagged VLCC Ocean Lily loaded 1 million barrels each of Qatari al-Shaheen and Iraqi Basrah crude between late February and early March, the data showed.

US President Donald Trump told lawmakers at the White House that the United States “will end the war very quickly” with Iran, Reuters reports.

Russia joined other UN Security Council members to condemn the drone strike on the UAE’s Barakah nuclear power plant, which Abu Dhabi said originated from Iraq, AFP reports.

“Attacks targeting peaceful nuclear facilities in any country of the world…are categorically unacceptable,” said Russia’s ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzya.

“Against this backdrop, our country categorically condemns the actions of those who carried out the strike targeting the plant on the territory of the UAE, thereby generating risks of escalation,” he continued without naming any party.

From China to the United States, the other members of the Security Council also condemned the strikes, which have not been claimed by any group.

“What sane nation, either directly or indirectly through proxies, sends drone attacks into an active and ongoing nuclear power plant?” asked US ambassador Mike Waltz, denouncing “outrageous and unacceptable attacks”.

US Donald Trump’s presidential approval rating has fallen to nearly its lowest level since he returned to the White House, hit by a drop in support among Republicans, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The four-day poll, which closed on Monday, shows 35 per cent of the country approves of Trump’s job performance, down a percentage point from a Reuters/Ipsos poll earlier this month and just above the low-point of his presidency — 34pc — seen last month.

The president’s popularity has taken a hit this year as Americans suffer from surging gasoline prices since Trump ordered strikes on Iran in February alongside Israel.

Discontent is spreading within Trump’s party, with 21pc of Republicans saying they now disapprove of the president’s performance, compared to 5pc just after he took office in January 2025. Some 79pc of Republicans in the poll say Trump is doing a good job, down from 82pc earlier in the month and 91pc at the start of his term.

Republicans have soured in particular on Trump’s handling of the cost of living for Americans, an issue he promised to address during his campaign in 2024.

Among Americans overall, just one in five approve of Trump’s stewardship over the cost of living.

The US seized an Iran-linked oil tanker in the Indian Ocean overnight, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing three US officials, according to Reuters.

The tanker, known as the Skywave, was sanctioned by the US in March for its role in transporting Iranian oil and was likely loaded with more than a million barrels of crude at Iran’s Kharg Island in February, the report says.

Reuters has been unable to immediately verify the report.

US Vice President JD Vance says Russia taking possession of Iran’s enriched uranium, though discussed in negotiations, is “not currently the plan of the United States government”.

“These things are being discussed through negotiation; that is not currently our plan, that has never been our plan,” he explains in response to a question.

When asked what about Iran makes him think that they are not negotiating in good faith, US President JD Vance replied that Tehran’s leadership is fractured and it is unclear as to what they want.

“It’s a very complicated country … it’s a great and proud civilisation,” he tells reporters at the White House. “Smart people, very hard-working, and you see some of that in the negotiating team on the other side.

“You also see some very hardline positions in the negotiating team on the other side, so I think you see that conflict, the fact that maybe the Iranians aren’t themselves quite clear in what direction they want to go to.”

Vance adds that Iran’s leadership is fractured, with officials under supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei who “have some influence in the negotiation”, and that the position of the negotiators is unclear.

“I don’t know if that’s sometimes bad communication, if that’s bad faith … But I will say with confidence, it’s sometimes hard to figure out exactly what it is that the Iranians want to accomplish out of the negotiation,” he says.

“What we’ve done is try to be as clear as possible; what are our red lines, what are the things we’re willing to be accommodating on, and what are things we absolutely must have.”

US Vice President JD Vance has warned that resuming military operations remains an option for Washington should an agreement which satisfies the US not be reached.

“There’s an option B … we could restart the military campaign to continue to prosecute the case … try to achieve America’s objectives, and we can talk a little bit about what that looks like, but that’s not what the president wants and I don’t think that’s what the Iranians want either,” he tells reporters.

Vance adds that Washington and Tehran have an opportunity to “reset” relations between them, and that is what the US will keep working on.

“It takes two to tango: we are not going to have a deal that allows the Iranians to have a nuclear weapon, so as the president just told me, we’re locked and loaded,” he warns.

“We don’t want to go down that pathway, but the president is willing and able to go down that pathway if we have to.”

US Vice President JD Vance, echoing President Donald Trump, says it is important to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon to prevent other countries from pursuing them.

“I think it’s important for the American people and all of you to appreciate that when we say that it’s not just that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, it’s what would happen if the Iranians did get a nuclear weapon,” he tells reporters during a press briefing.

“We know that a lot of nations all across the Gulf would then want their own nuclear weapon, and then a lot of nations all across the world, and what has been a very effective bright spot of American foreign policy, really for the last 20 or so years, would disappear overnight.”

He adds, “If you have every country in the world scrambling to try and get a nuclear weapon, it would make us all much less safe, and Iran would really be the first domino in what would set off a nuclear arms race all around the world.”

US Vice President JD Vance says Washington and Iran have made a lot of progress in their talks and neither side wants to see a resumption of the military campaign, Reuters reports.

“We think that we’ve made a lot of progress. We think the Iranians want to make a deal,” Vance tells reporters at a White House briefing.

“We want to keep the number of countries that have nuclear weapons small, and that’s why Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he adds. “That’s what we’re trying to accomplish in negotiations.”

“What we did here was we effectively degraded their conventional military capability. That has been successfully done,” Vance explains.

“Where we are now is that the President has told us to aggressively negotiate with the Iranians. Why did I go to Islamabad, Pakistan? … Because we wanted to show a sign of good faith, that the Vice President of the United States is willing to cut a deal, so long as the Iranians are willing to meet us, again, on that core issue of never having a nuclear weapon.”

Iranian national security council chairman Ebrahim Azizi says US President Donald Trump is hesitating in taking military action against Iran, because “he knows any move against Iran means facing a decisive military response and a unified nation.”

Azizi adds that Trump “obviously does not care about the mediation of the Persian Gulf state heads”.

“Power is the only language he understands!” he writes on X.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman has been asked whether the global body believes a ceasefire is in place in Lebanon amid deadly Israeli attacks and return fire from Hezbollah, according to Al Jazeera.

“There was a cessation of hostilities agreement,” Stephane Dujarric has replied during a briefing at UN headquarters in New York City.

“I think how it’s being respected or disrespected is a matter of fact. It’s a situation of a lesser fire. We will continue to call for the agreement to actually be respected, and not be ignored.”

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi will brief the UN Security Council on the recent attack on a nuclear plant in the UAE, a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tells reporters, according to Al Jazeera.

The Emirati Ministry of Defence said earlier today that the drones involved in the incident originated in Iraqi territory.

The Canadian government is facing mounting pressure to ensure justice and accountability for the killing of one of its citizens in an Israeli attack on southern Lebanon last month, Al Jazeera reports.

Hassan Haidar, a 38-year-old father of five from Windsor, Ontario, was killed in an Israeli drone attack in Qana, a Lebanese village near Tyre, on April 10.

Al Jazeera has pressed Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand on the killing, as Ottawa previously said it had asked Israel to investigate.

“This strikes me as odd only because if a Canadian citizen died in Ukraine, would you be asking Moscow to investigate?” Al Jazeera’s Scott McLean asks Anand.

She replies, “We’re requesting all of the information that might be available, leading to the death of a Canadian citizen.

Anand adds that the government “will ensure that no stone is left unturned”.

The US military investigation into a blast at a girls’ school in Iran is “complex”, given that it was located on an active Iranian cruise missile site, US Admiral Brad Cooper, head of Central Command (Centcom), tells Congress during a hearing.

Reuters first reported that an initial, internal US military investigation showed US forces were likely responsible for the destruction of the girls’ school in Minab. The Pentagon has since elevated the probe.

The incident took place on February 28 on the first day of the conflict, and killed 168 children, mostly girls, Iranian officials say.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to work with Nordic allies to end the conflict in the Middle East and defend the “rules-based global order”.

Speaking at a summit in Oslo, Modi — a close ally of US President Donald Trump — says his and the Nordic leaders’ commitment to democracy and multilateralism made them “natural partners”.

“In these times of global tensions and conflict, India and Nordic countries will together continue to focus on a rules-based global order,” Modi tells reporters. “Whether it is Ukraine or West Asia (the Middle East), we will continue to support an early end to the conflict and efforts for peace.”

The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on an Iranian foreign currency exchange house and what it says are front companies overseeing transactions on behalf of Iranian banks, as the US maintains pressure on Tehran, Reuters reports.

The Treasury department has imposed sanctions on the Iran-based Amin Exchange, also known as Ebrahimi and Associates Partnership Company, which it claims has a widespread network of front companies spanning multiple jurisdictions, including in the United Arab Emirates, Turkiye, and Hong Kong.

The US has also blocked 19 vessels it claims are involved in shipping Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals to foreign customers.

According to the Treasury department, Iranian exchange houses facilitate billions of dollars in foreign currency transactions a year, enabling the government to evade sanctions and access the international financial system. It adds that front companies oversee hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions on behalf of Iranian banks.

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