War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

The Saudi-led coalition says it has intercepted and destroyed three Houthi cruise missiles targeting the Riyadh area.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has relocated from his residence to a military base following threats to his life from Iran according to Anadolu, which cites media reports.

The Washington Post, citing three people familiar with the matter, reports that US officials determined in recent weeks that Iranian plots targeting current and former American officials had reached a more advanced stage, partly based on intelligence concerning threats against Bessent.

The Treasury chief, who has led a US economic pressure campaign against Iran since August through tighter sanctions and restrictions on trade routes, has become one of the administration officials Tehran is particularly keen to target, according to the report.

US officials say Iran has limited capabilities to carry out large-scale attacks in the US and other countries, but have identified specific threats targeting individuals as serious, including an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate President Donald Trump during his 2024 election campaign.

In a statement, a Treasury Department spokesperson says Bessent “will not be deterred by the Iranian regime’s threats,” adding that he remains committed to pursuing the campaign aimed at putting further pressure on Iran’s economy.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia boosted oil output in October to the highest since February, the last month before the Iran war disrupted Middle East supplies, according to a copy of Opec’s monthly report seen by Reuters.

Saudi Arabia told Opec that it pumped 10.563 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in October, the report says, up from 8.372 million bpd in September. This marks its highest since February this year, when Saudi Arabia told Opec it produced 10.882 million bpd.

Major General Ali Abdollahi, Iran’s Chief of General Staff, has issued a stark warning to the US and Israel, saying that any renewed aggression or “miscalculation” will result in a more devastating response, state broadcaster Press TV reports.

“We warn the United States and the Zionist regime (Israel) once again that the previous slaps were only the beginning of the story, and in the event of any new miscalculation, far more lethal blows await them,” he is quoted as saying, warning that this is a “credible threat” which Iran is capable of acting on.

He declares that any location acting as a centre of threats against Iran will be the direct target of asymmetric operations.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the COP31 summit summit in Antalya.

According to the government, the meeting has begun and will focus on bilateral relations and the promotion of mutual cooperation between Pakistan and Iran.

“The two leaders will also discuss the regional situation and issues related to peace and stability in the region,” the government said on X.

Oil prices are up about one per cent from the previous session’s two-month lows, after Iran’s security chief said Tehran would not allow even a single particle of enriched nuclear material to leave the country, Reuters reports.

Brent futures are up $1.28, or 1.4pc, to $92.77 a barrel as of 0934 GMT (2:34pm PKT). US West Texas Intermediate crude has gained 76 cents, or 0.9pc, to $86.80.

Iran’s IRIB state broadcaster reports that a second tanker passing through the Strait of Hormuz, escorted by US fighter jets, hit a mine in the waterway and caught fire.

It adds that efforts to extinguish the blaze have been unsuccessful.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says China can play a significant role in ending the war and resolving Iran’s current “neither war nor peace” situation with the US, according to Anadolu.

In an article published on the website of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Ghalibaf has highlighted Beijing’s potential role in regional diplomacy.

“China’s role in ending the war and the situation of ‘neither war nor peace’ is significant,” he writes, adding that China’s relations with Iran and Arab countries, along with Beijing’s diplomatic initiatives, provide an opportunity to strengthen regional stability and help shape a new regional order.

He adds that Khamenei issued detailed instructions concerning relations with China, emphasising specific priorities rather than broad recommendations.

Ghalibaf has announced plans to establish a high-level steering and oversight body to coordinate and monitor cooperation with Beijing, focusing on strategic coordination, setting priorities, accelerating decisions and following up on major cross-sectoral issues, rather than replacing government institutions’ responsibilities.

Iran’s government has warned of worsening internal gas shortages this winter, as a result of damage to processing facilities in the war with the United States that could lead to cuts in supply, Reuters reports.

“If the level of consumption is high, it is possible that gas cuts will occur all over the country, including in Tehran,” government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani says at a news conference.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday from the previous session’s two-month lows, as the market swung between hopes for a de-escalation in the US-Israeli war on Iran and concerns about attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, AFP reports.

Also on Wednesday, a regional governor said a drone attack caused a fire in the port area of Ust-Luga by the Baltic Sea in northwest Russia, injuring three workers.

Brent futures climbed 52 cents, or 0.6 per cent, to $92.01 a barrel by 0730 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 16 cents, or 0.2pc, to $86.20.

Recent data showed little sign of fewer attacks in November, after 37 ships were attacked in October, the highest monthly total since the start of the Middle East war, according to data from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei says that Tehran is waiting for a response from the US on its seven conditions for peace talks, while dismissing speculation about holding any negotiations with Washington, Al Jazeera reports.

The US-Iran war will cost Gulf countries more than $200 billion in damage and economic losses could reach nearly four times that amount by 2030, insurer Allianz Trade said, AFP reports.

“Physical damage across the region is assessed just above $200bn, mostly concentrated in Hormuz-locked economies, especially in energy infrastructure,” the insurer said in a report.

More than 80 energy facilities were hit in the war, mostly in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, the report said, with a third of them “severely damaged”.

Iran hit out at the United States’ $20 million reward for information on its nuclear programme on Wednesday, calling it “repugnant and regrettable,” AFP reports.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged the United Nations’ atomic energy agency and the Security Council to condemn the reward, which was announced last week.

Last Friday, the US military said up to $20 million and “possible relocation” were available for information about the programme’s “facilities, equipment, and associated personnel”.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran calls upon the UN Secretary-General, the Security Council, and the Director General of the IAEA to condemn this repugnant announcement explicitly and unequivocally,” Araghchi wrote in a letter addressed to all three.

Tehran will not allow even a single particle of enriched nuclear material to leave the country, Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei has said in an interview with Lebanon’s pro-Iranian Al Mayadeen TV.

Iran’s army said that an oil tanker had struck a mine and caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz, where the country has been targeting ships that transit without its authorisation, Reuters reports.

The United States has in response imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports and helped tankers travel the strait, which normally carries about one-fifth of global oil.

The American military recently claimed all mines had been cleared from the strait.

The Iranian chief of armed forces has said that “any location that serves as a centre of threat against the existence of the Iran will be directly targeted by asymmetric operations.”

The statement was shared in an X post by the Iranian state broadcaster.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the US had waged war on Iran under the pretext of preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons, before using a PrSM missile in Lamerd for the first time.

He said Washington was now invoking the “Mother of All Bombs” to pursue diplomacy through threats, calling the approach “not a contradiction, but a disgrace”.

“Who threatens global peace and security?” he asked.

Heavy fighting continues in Yemen, with forces aligned with the country’s internationally recognised government claiming to have killed and wounded at least 190 Houthi fighters in hundreds of air and artillery attacks, Al Jazeera reports.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said that it’s “delusions that are producing failed US policy”.

In a post on X, he shared a video of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and said: “Eight years ago a cartoon character like Pompeo said Iranians must follow White House diktat ‘if they want to eat’. Today, Rubio—whose fellow Cubans are victims of same policy—repeats that drivel.”

Araghchi added, “Forget about the inhumanity. It’s the delusions that are producing failed US policy.”

The US embassy in Riyadh has urged Americans in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East to exercise heightened vigilance, warning of threats from Houthis and alleged Iranian efforts to target US government officials, Al Jazeera reports.

Hundreds of truckers and bus drivers in Chile launched an indefinite strike on Tuesday to protest high fuel prices, blocking roads and major highways, AFP reports.

Hndreds of transport workers gathered at various points of Route 5, which runs the length of Chile from north to south, to demand relief from surging diesel prices, which are widely relied on in the sector.

The average price of diesel has risen 74 percent since March — driven by the war in Iran — threatening many transport companies, according to industry groups.

A Tuesday afternoon meeting between government officials and protest leaders failed to reach a resolution.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has recently moved from his Washington, DC residence to a US military base after Iranian threats against his life, reports Reuters, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The New York Times first reported the move.

“The secretary will not be deterred by the Iranian regime’s threats and remains committed to executing Operation Economic Outcast and maintaining the blockade, which together are collapsing Iran’s economy,” a US Treasury spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

The Times reported the severity of the threats to Bessent was not immediately clear.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says lawmakers need to show up and do their jobs, after 11 Democrats missed a House vote that effectively killed an effort to impeach Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Al Jazeera reports.

“The people send us here to do a job,” the New York Democrat tells CNN. “I don’t know if anyone had any real health issues or anything significant. So I want to leave room for that. But that being said, at the end of the day, we’re here to do a job. And the same way I had to clock in when I worked at a restaurant, we got to clock in and do our work here.”

She says she hoped Congress would not have to wait for the new session to move against Hegseth.

Republicans in the US House of Representatives blocked an effort on Tuesday to impeach Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, winning a reprieve for the polarising Pentagon chief before Democrats take control of Congress next year and possibly try again.

The vote on a procedural motion came just hours after Hegseth blasted efforts to impeach him as a farce and delivered a defiant defence of his record at the helm of the US military, winning praise from US President Donald Trump.

The chamber voted 211 to 204 in favour of a motion to refer eight articles of impeachment to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, a move that the sponsor of the impeachment push, US Representative Thomas Massie, warned would kill it.

Massie, an outgoing Kentucky Republican, had hoped to draw votes from Republicans upset with Hegseth’s policies and wary of the unpopularity of the war on Iran, but no other Republicans joined him.

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said he will use the COP31 UN climate summit in Turkiye to highlight what he described as US and Israeli crimes against Iran’s environment, Al Jazeera reports.

“The UN climate summit is a good opportunity to discuss the actions the US and Israel have taken to damage the environment in Iran and the region,” Pezeshkian says before departing for Antalya, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

He also says he would raise Tehran’s position during bilateral meetings with other world leaders. “We will discuss the legitimate positions of the Islamic Republic and the crimes the US and Israel have committed in the region,” he says.

Pezeshkian claims Washington had already seen the consequences of its actions in its own elections and among the American public. US President Donald Trump is not attending the summit, with Washington sending no official delegation for the second consecutive year.