War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Kuwait’s military says it is responding to renewed Iranian aerial attacks as Iran and the United States exchange strikes over control of the vital Strait of Hormuz, AFP reports.

“Kuwaiti air defences are currently engaging hostile drone attacks following the Iranian aggression,” Kuwait’s army says in a statement as an AFP journalist reports sounds of explosions near the Gulf state’s capital, Kuwait City.

A drone struck a ship located off the port in Iraq’s southern province of Basra on Thursday, a security official has told AFP.

The ship, which was “carrying American-branded cars”, had arrived from the United Arab Emirates and was hit near an oil terminal, the official says.

Iraq’s oil ministry has said it is verifying reports of an unspecified “object” falling on a tanker.

Lufthansa Group will gradually resume flight operations to Riyadh and Amman starting in September, the German airline has said, Reuters reports.

Lufthansa says that it continuously monitors and assesses the situation in the Middle East and maintains close contact with the authorities.

The airline will first resume service to the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, starting September 10, operating three flights per week from Frankfurt.

Starting September 15, Italy’s ITA Airways, part of the Lufthansa Group, will restart flights from Rome to Riyadh five times a week

Austrian Airlines will once again offer three flights per week from Vienna to Amman, Jordan’s capital, beginning October 2.

Irish airline Aer Lingus could cut up to 500 jobs as part of a reorganisation, it says, citing high costs and a challenging economic environment as the sector grapples with surging oil prices mainly due to the US-Iran war, Reuters reports.

The airline, which has already cut senior management roles by a quarter, plans to reduce wider employee costs by about the same level while making network changes to remove lower margin flying, it has said in a statement.

That would lower overall flying by six per cent, including some long-haul and short-haul routes, it says, adding that it is also focused on reducing supplier costs.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will not fly to the United States because of the postponement of the memorial service for Senator Lindsey Graham, his office says according to Al Jazeera.

The Israeli prime minister was expected to travel there on Saturday and stay until Tuesday to attend the funeral service, according to Israeli media reports.

Tehran has accused the United States of carrying out a “barbaric attack” after a cancer hospital in Iran’s southwest was forced to evacuate due to nearby strikes.

“This barbaric attack, reminiscent of Israel’s atrocities against healthcare facilities, caused severe suffering and anxiety upon the hospitalised children, and forced the emergency evacuation of 211 patients undergoing chemotherapy,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei posted on X.

He termed the strike “a cowardly war crime against the most innocent of human beings — children who are bravely fighting for their lives”.

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi says there will be no “duality of authority” in the country any more, apparently referring to the decision to disarm Hezbollah, Al Jazeera reports.

“There is now no longer any place for weapons outside the legitimacy of the state, nor for decisions taken outside its institutions,” Raggi said in a speech.

“The decision to end Hezbollah’s military arm is a sovereign Lebanese decision.”

Raggi said the decision preceded the framework agreement with Israel and paved the way for “enshrining the fact that decisions of war and peace, as well as foreign policy, now fall exclusively under the responsibility of the Lebanese state”.

The deployment of Lebanon’s army across the entire country “remains inseparable from Israel’s total withdrawal from all the Lebanese territories it still occupies”, he added.

The Kremlin says that Russia is in touch with officials in Iran amid what it calls another cycle of destabilisation fraught with risks for the global economy, Reuters reports.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave no details of the contacts, but told reporters that Iranian authorities had not requested a phone call with President Vladimir Putin.

Crude oil loading has been suspended at all Iraqi terminals after a drone crashed into an oil tanker at the Basra terminal, although it did not cause damage or a fire, four Iraqi oil and security sources have told Reuters.

Iraq’s oil terminals are located in the south. It was not immediately clear who launched the drone.

The oil tanker was towed outside the port alongside another tanker that was anchored as a precautionary measure.

US Vice President JD Vance said some members of the Israeli government had tried to influence US public opinion to oppose a deal by the US to end the war with Iran, in a podcast episode with host Joe Rogan posted, according to Reuters.

The comments echoed earlier criticism of Israeli government policy by Vance, whom many view as a potential future presidential candidate, in a widening public rift between the two countries.

Vance defended a deal reached last month to end the war with Iran, which critics in the US and Israel have slammed for failing to curb Iran’s missile programme and providing no clear path to dismantling its nuclear facilities, while constraining Israel in its fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there have been people within the Israeli government who are trying to, like, actually shift us away from that policy because they want to continue the military campaign,” Vance said.

Conflict in the Middle East could stoke upward pressure on the Swiss franc, and the Swiss National Bank should be ready to intervene in foreign exchange markets if necessary, the SNB said in the minutes of its latest rate-setting meeting, Reuters reports.

The SNB kept its benchmark interest rate on hold at 0 per cent in June, saying the medium-term price outlook had barely changed despite a recent uptick in inflation stoked by higher fuel costs stemming from the Iran war.

The final exams of graduating high school students in the Iranian provinces of Hormozgan, Bushehr, Khuzestan, and Sistan and Baluchestan have been postponed because of ongoing American attacks and threats of escalation, Al Jazeera reports.

The country’s Education Ministry said final exams in other provinces will continue as normal.

US President Donald Trump has called the release of a US citizen held in Iran a “gesture of goodwill”, even as conflict rages for a fifth night across the Middle East, Reuters reports.

Trump says in a post on Truth Social that an American who was “wrongfully detained” under the Biden administration in 2024 has been allowed to leave Iran.

“She is now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition. The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran,” Trump has written.

Iranian Army says Security imported from the US will not last for countries in the region, IRIB reports.

Bahrain’s army says Iran is “continuing its systematic hostile approach through its sinister attacks targeting civilians” in the Gulf country, Al Jazeera reports.

“The General Command clarifies that, with strong will and high combat readiness, the air defence systems detected, intercepted and destroyed a number of treacherous Iranian air strikes today,” it said in a statement.

The army urged “everyone to exercise caution and avoid approaching any unfamiliar or suspicious objects resulting from the remnants of the brutal Iranian aggression”.

An Iranian military spokesman says it doesn’t want to confront its Middle East neighbours despite a separate army official earlier vowing to “crush” regional infrastructure if the US hits civilian sites, Al Jazeera reports.

“Iran has no intention of confronting its neighbouring countries or the Islamic nations of the region. It has consistently emphasized expanding cooperation and fostering fraternal relations with regional states,” said army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia.

“The armed forces regard the protection of the Iranian nation’s security, interests, and dignity as their foremost mission, and they will spare no effort in fulfilling that responsibility,” he added in a statement.

Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia has warned attacks “will spread to new areas” if the United States continues its strikes, Al Jazeera reports.

“If US aggression continues, the war will be expanded to new arenas,” he said in a post on Telegram.

“A significant portion of the armed forces’ capabilities have not yet been demonstrated. Should any hostile actions against the country continue, Iran’s response will be commensurate with the circumstances and exceed the enemy’s expectations, opening new arenas of confrontation.”

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi has said that the goal of the country’s armed forces is to “gradually extend their authority over all Lebanese territory, including the south”, according to the National News Agency (NNA),

Speaking at a conference held by the French Senate in Paris, he said achieving this objective remains contingent upon a complete Israeli withdrawal from all Lebanese territory.

“No state can complete the building of its institutions and sovereignty while part of its territory remains under occupation. Occupation undermines state institutions, fuels tensions, delays the return to political and security stability, and prevents the state from exercising its full authority over its territory,” Raggi said.

A new public opinion survey by YouGov and The Economist suggests that 57 per cent of Americans believe the decision to launch the war on Iran was wrong, while only 27pc say it was the right decision, Al Jazeera reports.

Some 46pc of Americans also believe the war will last another year or more, the poll suggested.

India has ordered shipowners, ship managers and recruitment companies not to deploy the country’s seafarers on vessels undertaking trips through the Strait of Hormuz amid renewed fighting in the region.

“No deployment of Indian seafarers on vessels undertaking voyages involving passage through the Strait of Hormuz until further orders,” the Directorate General of Shipping says in an order.

Recent attacks on vessels have increased the risks faced by seafarers and commercial ships operating in the conflict-affected area “significantly”, the shipping regulator says.

The Iranian army said it launched drone attacks on Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa Air Base, targeting communication and radar systems, including Super Hawk radars and Patriot installations used by US forces, Al Jazeera reports.

The IRGC says it launched a “devastating attack” on the same base and “completely destroyed the air reconnaissance and control radars” as well as “the fuel tank pumping station of the aggressor enemy’s fighter jets”.

Tehran warns that it would target regional infrastructure if the United States carried out threats to attack Iran’s infrastructure, as the war in the Middle East resumed, according to AFP.

The spokesman for Iran’s military headquarters says that if the US followed through on its threats, “all infrastructure in the region” would be “crushed under the steel blows” of Iran’s armed forces.

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz tells his US counterpart Pete Hegseth that Israel is determined to keep its forces in “security zones” it has carved out inside Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, Katz’s office said the two men spoke overnight and the minister “emphasised Israel’s determination to remain in the security zones in Syria, Gaza, and Lebanon in order to protect Israel’s borders and the communities near the border from the threats posed by … forces”.