War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Iran’s state broadcaster said on Sunday that flights at airports in the west of the country were cancelled, after Tehran warned it would respond to an Israeli attack on Beirut.

“Flights from airports in the western part of the country have been cancelled until further notice,” state television reported following the warning from Iran’s top security body.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has criticised Israel’s strikes on Beirut that threatened US plans for Washington and Tehran to sign a framework peace deal later in the day, AFP reports.

“The strikes took place despite the ceasefire and at a time when the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran are expected to reach an agreement that will pave the way to a peaceful resolution of this conflict,” he said in a statement.

“I urge all parties to show maximum restraint at this crucial moment.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran enjoys “very good relations” with neighbouring countries despite recent attacks, Al Jazeera reported.

Many misunderstanding are “on the path to resolution”, says Pezeshkian.

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, has threatened a “strong response” following Israel’s deadly attacks on Beirut today, Al Jazeera reports.

“Today’s crime by the Zionist regime in Dahiyeh, Beirut, once again proved the US is weak without credibility, as it is not even capable of controlling this illegitimate regime.

“A strong response is coming,” Azizi said.

US President Donald Trump told Fox News he will ask Iran not to respond to Israeli strikes in Beirut.

Iran’s military commander, Ali Abdullahi, says the country’s resistance has “marked a new chapter” in international affairs and established Iran as an “influential global power”, Al Jazeera reports, citing Iran’s Mehr news agency.

In a message to the nation, he was quoted as saying that its military capabilities are more powerful than before and soldiers have a “finger on the trigger”, ready to shoot at the “enemy’s heart”.

The Israeli military claims that its forces have killed a senior Hezbollah commander allegedly involved in the kidnapping and killing of five American soldiers in Iraq in 2007.

Ali Mussa Daqduq was killed on Friday in a “precise strike” south of the Litani River in Lebanon, the military said.

“Over the past several years, Daqduq led much of Hezbollah’s operational planning against IDF soldiers along the Lebanon border,” the military said.

“In 2007, he was imprisoned by US forces after orchestrating the kidnapping and murder of five American soldiers” in Iraq, the military claimed.

US President Donald Trump has said that a peace deal with Iran is still on track to be signed within hours, despite an Israeli strike on Beirut that he said had delayed the plan, AFP reports, citing Axios.

“It shook it up. It delayed the signing by a few hours. It was supposed to be now. Now it is scheduled for a few hours from now,” Trump said in a phone call to the Axios news outlet.

Trump fumed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the attack on Beirut, saying, “It is so bad — I couldn’t believe it. An hour before we are supposed to sign the deal.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a call with US counterpart Donald Trump, has discussed the wars in Ukraine and Iran and an upcoming visit of Washington’s envoys to Russia, AFP reports, citing the Kremlin.

“The conversation focused on the situation surrounding the memorandum of understanding being drafted between the United States and Iran. Donald Trump said an agreement is close,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that the country’s highest security authority supports the “path of dialogue”, after hardliners criticised Tehran’s negotiating team in talks with the United States, AFP reports.

“The Supreme National Security Council has concluded that the path of dialogue should be pursued,” Pezeshkian said in a meeting with media executives, according to the presidency’s website.

He added that the council was in charge of “decisions regarding war and negotiations”.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, says Trump remains determined to finalise an agreement with Iran today, despite what he described as difficult negotiations, Al Jazeera reports.

Speaking on ABC’s This Week, Waltz said, without providing evidence, that Iranian negotiators have struggled to receive clear guidance from the supreme leader and are “not always on the same page” internally.

Still, he said Trump and the US negotiating team remain confident that a deal can be completed.

US President Donald Trump has said Israeli strikes on Beirut “should not have happened” as he vowed a regional peace deal was at hand, though he did not confirm reports it would be signed during the day, AFP reports.

“We are very close to a deal that will bring peace to the region, including to Lebanon, and all sides should stand down,” Trump said on social media.

“This could be the beginning of a long and beautiful peace — Let’s not blow it!”

Barack Obama says it is unrealistic to expect that any deal between US President Donald Trump and Tehran would mark a “significant improvement” over his own nuclear pact 11 years ago, AFP reports.

In interview excerpts on ABC News talk show “This Week,” the former president also suggested it was better to negotiate a deal that falls short of all of Washington’s requirements in order to avoid an outright war.

“It is doubtful that any agreement that arises is going to be significantly different or a significant improvement from the deal that we had in the first place,” Obama said, referring to 2015’s landmark pact that Trump abandoned.

Obama said his own deal “had worked for a long stretch of time before…the United States pulled out of it.”

Obama said the troubled progress of a new US-Iran deal is a reminder that Washington can not “just bully our way or bomb our way to solutions” instead of engaging in comprehensive diplomacy.

“You’d think we would have learned that lesson by now,” he said.

The Israeli military says it is bracing for a possible retaliatory attack “in the coming hours”, after carrying out a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier.

“Following the IDF strike in Beirut … the IDF is preparing for potential fire toward the territory of the state of Israel in the coming hours,” the military said, without specifying from where the attack was expected.

Iran is still conveying its desired clauses to the US through Qatar and nothing has yet been finalised, Fars news agency reports, citing a source.

The source added that the Iran was conveying the message before today’s Israeli attacks on Beirut.

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.