War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

US President Donald Trump is set to hold talks with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France this month, the Egyptian presidency has said.

In a statement, the presidency said Sisi is expected to hold a series of meetings with world leaders during the summit, “including a bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump”.

It added that Sisi’s meetings would focus on “discussing ways to resolve international geopolitical crises and address their repercussions on trade, energy and supply chains”.

The G7 summit will be one of the first major international gatherings since the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran.

Lebanon’s foreign ministry says it has lodged a complaint with the United Nations over Israel’s alleged spraying of the herbicide glyphosate in Lebanese territory near the border earlier this year, AFP reports.

In a statement, the ministry said it had sent a letter to the UN Security Council and the UN secretary-general this week to complain about the incident, which occurred in February, a month before the latest Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on March 2.

The ministry said “laboratory tests and chemical analyses carried out on soil samples” in the south Lebanon border villages of Aita al-Shaab, Ras Naqura and Dhayra “confirmed the use of glyphosate at high levels of concentration”.

It said the levels “greatly exceed” those usually found in agricultural areas after regular use by farmers. The statement said the complaint was based on a report from Lebanon’s government-linked National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS).

At the time, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said Israel had notified it of its plans to spray a “non-toxic chemical substance” near the border and had warned peacekeepers to take shelter.

According to a statement on the Iranian foreign minister’s official Telegram account, Araghchi made the remarks as he met with prominent figures and religious leaders in the capital, Tehran, Al Jazeera reports.

The top diplomat, referring to his country’s importance in regional security, said, “Regional security cannot be shaped through eliminating or ignoring Iran.”

He added: “The countries of the region have gradually come to the reality that sustainable security, economic development, and regional stability are only possible through cooperation, understanding, and consideration of the common interests of all countries in the region, including the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

The top diplomat also stressed that the new security structure being shaped in the region requires the participation of all countries based on “collective cooperation”.

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says Israeli strikes in Beirut have once again shown that the US “lacks the will to fulfil its commitments or the ability to do so”.

In a post on X, Ghalibaf said, “The Zionists’ incursion into Dahiyeh has once again shown that America either lacks the will to fulfil its commitments or the ability to do so”.

He added that the US and Israel’s “good cop, bad cop” routine was “outdated”.

“If you lack the will and ability to fulfil your commitments, speaking of continuing the path is not possible,” he added.

Sardar Asadi, an official at the Central Headquarters of Khatam al-Anbiya, says Israel’s air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburb will be met with retaliation, Al Jazeera reports.

“Without a doubt, these crimes will not go unanswered,” Asadi said, according to the Iranian Mizan news agency.

Lebanese civil defence agency says it recovered three bodies following the Israeli attack on the Ghobeiry area in Beirut’s southern suburb, Al Jazeera reports.

Search, rescue, and debris removal operations are ongoing at the site, it said in a statement.

The attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut‬⁩ was carried out by two warplanes that launched four guided missiles, Al Jazeera reports, citing the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Home Front Command has raised the alert level in the country to its highest level for a potential retaliatory response from Iran.

The Iranian football team is expected to fly to Los Angeles today for its first game in the FIFA World Cup against New Zealand in the city, marking the first time a World Cup host has hosted a country it is at war with, AFP reports.

Iran’s participation in the tournament was shrouded in doubt for months.

The Iranian team has had to leave many of its support staff in Tijuana after the US refused to grant visas to 15 administrative and management staff.

At least two people have been killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut, Al Jazeera reports, citing Lebanon’s National News Agency.

It added that the strike on a building in the Ghobeiry neighbourhood also wounded four other people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz have confirmed the strike on southern Beirut, Al Jazeera reports.

The military “has just struck Hezbollah terror targets” in the Dahiyeh district of Lebanon’s capital in response to Hezbollah “firing at Israeli territory”.

“Israel will not tolerate fire directed at its territory,” a statement said.

UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash has expressed the hope that the expected peace deal between the US and Iran will “turn the page on war and open a political path that proves successful”.

“We have never been advocates of war, and we will always remain advocates of peace and stability, while holding firmly to the defence of the homeland and the preservation of its sovereignty and interests,” he said on X.

He commended the UAE leadership’s “handling of this crisis and its repercussions”.

Israeli army has said that a recent hostile aircraft alert was a “false identification”, Al Jazeera reports.

The brief update by the Israeli military comes after sirens were activated in several areas in southern Israel.

A senior Iranian official has told Reuters that a final draft of the memorandum of understanding with the US covers a range of issues from Tehran’s nuclear work to reopening the Strait of Hormuz and US waivers on oil sanctions, with a final deal to be discussed in the 60 days following agreement by the two sides.

The Iranian official said the draft memorandum included the following:

Strait of Hormuz: Iran will immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all commercial vessels, while the US will lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports

Financial: The US will agree not to impose any new sanctions on Iran until a final deal is reached. The US will also waive oil sanctions on Iran for a specified period, allowing Tehran to sell oil and receive revenue.

The US has also agreed to release $25 billion of Iran’s frozen assets, including via direct cash transfers, cooperation among regional countries, and financial credit lines.

Nuclear: Tehran has agreed that it will neither produce nor acquire nuclear weapons. 

Tehran has also agreed to maintain the nuclear status quo until a final deal is reached, including by not enriching uranium and not expanding nuclear facilities. The US has agreed that Tehran will dilute its highly enriched uranium stockpile inside Iran, with a mechanism for doing so to be discussed within 60 days.

The Israeli military says sirens have been activated in several areas of southern Israel, Al Jazeera reports.

The Israeli military has claimed that three drones, suspected to have been launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon, struck northern Israel in separate incidents, causing no casualties, AFP reports.

“Two impacts of suspicious aerial targets in Israeli territory were identified near the Israel-Lebanon border. No injuries were reported,” the military said in an initial statement.

Later, in a separate statement, the military said another “hostile aircraft” infiltrated the northern Israeli territory.

In the wake of the strikes, two far-right Israeli ministers called for retaliatory strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh.

Tehran’s final decision on signing the agreement under discussion with the United States remains “under review”, Iran’s Fars news agency reports, citing an informed source close to Iran’s negotiating team.

Iran has not yet announced its decision on the proposed memorandum of understanding, according to the source, who added that the review of the political, legal, and technical aspects was still underway at the expert and decision-making levels.

“The responsible institutions are carefully evaluating the political, legal and technical aspects of the issue,” the report added.

Alerts have been activated due to the intrusion of hostile aircraft in several areas in the north of the country, Al Jazeera reports according to a brief update by the military.

The details are under review, it added.

Yadollah Javani, the political deputy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), says Iran’s military, its diplomats and public are working “together toward a common goal of protecting the rights and interests of the Iranian people”, Al Jazeera reports.

He said Iran’s armed forces were ready to respond to any threat with “eyes open and hands on the trigger”, according to the IRNA news agency.

A cyberattack has disrupted services at four major Iranian banks, though no customer data was compromised, the country’s banking coordination council said on Sunday, Reuters reports according to state media.

The council said the attack targeted a shared communications infrastructure used by Bank Melli, Bank Tejarat, Bank Saderat and the Export Development Bank of Iran, prompting technical teams to implement protective measures and temporarily affecting some banking services.

It said no unauthorised access to customer information had occurred and no data had been deleted, adding that recovery efforts were underway to restore normal operations.

An Indian national has died from medical complications aboard the vessel MT Celestial while it was docked at Duqm Port in Oman, the Indian embassy in Muscat has said according to Reuters.

“Necessary arrangements are being made for the early repatriation of the mortal remains to India,” the embassy said in a post on social media.

The death comes days after three Indian seafarers were killed in a US strike on a tanker off Oman, triggering criticism from the public and opposition parties.

The Israeli military has issued evacuation warnings for residents of 29 villages in southern Lebanon ahead of planned strikes, despite a ceasefire intended to halt the war with Hezbollah, AFP reports.

The military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, issued two successive warnings — first for 13 villages, then for 16 more, with the second targeting communities north of the Zahrani river.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar also spoke with Egypt’s FM Dr Badr Abdelatty last night, according to the Foreign Office.

“The two leaders discussed the latest regional developments, including progress towards an understanding between the United States and Iran.”

Dar and Abdelatty “expressed hope that these positive developments would contribute to lasting peace, security, and stability across the region”.

Both sides agreed to maintain close contact, the FO added.