War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

The US Defence Department will ask Congress to approve around $80 billion to cover costs from the Iran war and other expenses, AFP reports, citing the Wall Street Journal.

President Donald Trump has faced backlash from Americans who accuse him of pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into the Middle East conflict while oil prices and inflation skyrocket in the US.

Deputy Defence Secretary Stephen Feinberg shared the request with lawmakers this week, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the discussions.

Pentagon leaders have said they risk running out of money for operations in the coming months unless Congress passes a new wartime spending bill, the newspaper said.

A total of 25 commercial vessels crossed the newly-reopened Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, the highest number since mid-April, according to data from maritime tracking firm AXSMarine said, accroding to AFP.

After an agreement was struck to reopen the strait, it saw the highest single-day figure since April 18, when Iran briefly reopened the global trade artery to commercial traffic.

Iraq is preparing to export crude oil and naphtha through ports in Syria, Syrian and Iraqi energy officials and refinery sources said after the Iran war cut off its main Gulf shipping routes, according to Reuters.

The move would broaden an arrangement that has seen Iraq export fuel oil through the Mediterranean port of Baniyas after the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which sharply curtailed Gulf export routes for OPEC’s second-largest producer.

Two Iraqi oil officials have said plans to diversify crude and fuel export routes, including through Syria, would continue even after the Iran war ends and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz returns to normal, as part of a government-approved strategy to reduce Iraq’s reliance on a single export corridor.

“The Iraqi government and the oil ministry attach the highest importance to diversifying crude export routes, particularly through Syrian territory,” Iraqi oil ministry spokesperson Saleem al-Rikabi tells Reuters.

Rikabi has said the oil ministry, through state oil marketer SOMO, was continuing “discussions and cooperation” with Syria to expand exports through its western neighbour.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has announced that, according to the Islamabad MoU, ships will pay no fees for passage through the Strait of Hormuz for the next 60 days, IRNA reports.

The SNSC issued a statement announcing that applicants for passage through the Strait of Hormuz will not pay any fees for 60 days, and the Iranian administration will cover these costs.

Accordingly, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority has been directed to process and prioritise requests promptly to meet the objectives of the Islamabad MoU, the statement added.

It further noted that, given the special conditions and the existence of some safety dangers on the passage route, and due to the need to ensure safe traffic and prevent maritime accidents, ships must pass on the route and at the time announced to them, so that the possibility of traffic can gradually increase.

Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that talks with the United States would remain bound by Tehran’s “red lines,” AFP reports.

“As we have shown in the past path of negotiations, we are steadfast in fulfilling the conditions and red lines set, and in achieving the interests of the Iranian nation,” Ghalibaf said in remarks published by the official IRNA news agency.

“If the enemy seeks to be excessive, we have proven that our fingers are on the trigger and we have no hesitation in giving a crushing response to the enemy.”

President Asif Ali Zardari’s spokesperson Murtaza Solangi has cautioned that peace in the region is “fragile” and “only needs [a] few trigger-happy mad men to blow it up”.

In a post on X, Solangi said the US-Iran MoU was the “result of painstaking labour of thousands of hours of committed professionals’ sleepless nights, who stood undeterred despite hiccups, setbacks, intrigues by spoilers and enemies of peace”.

“Achieving peace takes time, patience, courage and hard work of many. Peace building is like building Taj Mahal or Pyramids of Egypt. Hard work, craftsmanship of hundreds of people is needed to make and sustain it,” he wrote.

“Peace sustenance needs constant hard work and care. Peace is fragile. Handle with care,” he remarked.

Oil prices have risen as the prospect of a lasting truce between the US and Iran was clouded after peace talks in Switzerland were called off and as Israel stepped up attacks on Lebanon, Reuters reports.

By 11:45am PKT, Brent crude futures gained 51 cents, or 0.64pc, to $80.36 a barrel, and US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.28, or 1.7pc, to $77.88 a barrel, with the front-month July contract expiring on Monday. Both contracts were headed for a weekly loss of about 8pc.

The more actively traded WTI August contract was up 59 cents at $76.44 a barrel.

“Prices may have bottomed out and we may see a renewed climb accompanied by plenty of volatility as cracks have already emerged in the memorandum of understanding,” said Vandana Hari, founder of oil market analysis provider Vanda Insights.

“This is not the geopolitical backdrop that would give the market any confidence in resuming Hormuz transit.”

Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has said that “all of Lebanon must burn” after Israel’s military announced the deaths of four soldiers there, AFP reports.

“With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not up for bargaining. All of Lebanon must burn,” Ben Gvir said in a statement.

“I told the prime minister, even in our private meetings: for every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep,” he said.

“Enough with the ping-pong. In the Middle East, you don’t win with measured responses and restraint — you have to go crazy. To obliterate. To crush the terror,” the minister added.

Israel’s military has said that four of its soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon, its first losses since a US-Iran deal was signed to end the Middle East war, AFP notes.

Lieutenant Colonel Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon “fell in combat” along with three other soldiers whose names will be released later, the military said in a statement.

The announcement came after the military said it had carried out strikes across south Lebanon against Hezbollah following what it claimed were “repeated violations of the ceasefire” by the group.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reports that an Israeli drone attack targeting a motorcycle has killed one person on the Deir ez-Zahrani-Nabatieh highway, Al Jazeera says.

According to a statement from Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health cited by the NNA, Israeli attacks since midnight have now killed a total of 18 people and wounded 33 others.

PM Shehbaz Sharif is speaking in the National Assembly about Pakistan’s mediation efforts in the US-Iran war.

He noted that God had bestowed immense respect upon Pakistan.

“From Japan to Saudi Arabia, from Kuala Lumpur to Casablanca, and from Mexico to India, if any country’s name is echoing around the world with respect and dignity, it is Pakistan’s,” he remarked.

France will not approve the lifting of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions on Iran unless it is satisfied that talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme meet its expectations, Reuters reports, citing the country’s foreign minister.

Jean-Noel Barrot, whose country is a veto-wielding member of the UNSC, said there would be no stability in the region unless US talks with Iran resolved questions around Iran’s ballistic missile programme and support for proxies.

“We need a radical change of posture by Iran,” he said.

Israel must stop its hostilities in Lebanon and the United States must put pressure on Israel, French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, AFP reports.

Barrot, speaking to French broadcaster franceinfo, said that France was still working to hold an international conference to mobilise support for the Lebanese army.

Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) is offering crude for July delivery via a tender, Reuters reports, citing a document, after lifting force majeure and announcing plans to ramp up output.

The producer is offering Kuwait Export Crude with each cargo at 2 million barrels, according to the document.

They will be sold at a differential to the average Oman and Dubai price quotes on a delivered ex-ship basis, it said.

The tender will close on Tuesday with bids remaining valid until Wednesday.

Democratic Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari – the first Iranian-American Democrat elected to Congress – has slammed the US-Israel war on Iran as “catastrophic”.

In a post on X, Ansari said thousands of innocent people “died for nothing”.

“Donald Trump is an incompetent, pathological liar who didn’t achieve any of his alleged objectives for the Iran war,” Ansari wrote. “I’m glad the war is ending. It’s been catastrophic.”

United States President Donald Trump wants to turn his attention to North Korea now that he has an accord with Iran, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said after meeting his US counterpart in France.

“President Trump said that the time had come to pay attention to the North Korea issue,” Lee told reporters in Seoul as he shared details of his meeting with Trump at the G7 summit.

The Israeli military said it carried out strikes overnight and continued attacking Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon, adding that the attacks were in response to repeated violations of the ceasefire by the group, Reuters reports.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reports that Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling have killed at least 16 people and left several others wounded or missing across the Nabatieh district in southern Lebanon.

The agency described the overnight bombardment as one of the most intense Israeli assaults on the area, with multiple homes targeted after midnight.

Iran’s World Cup team will lodge a complaint with FIFA claiming they are being subjected to travel restrictions during the tournament in North America, the Iranian football federation spokesman said, AFP reports.

“Despite having submitted its preparation schedule for the tournament well in advance, Iran’s national football team has once again encountered restrictions imposed by the organisers, affecting the implementation of its technical staff’s plans,” the spokesman said.

Talks that had been planned for Friday between the United States and Iran at the Burgenstock mountaintop resort in Switzerland will not take place, according to a Swiss foreign ministry statement, Reuters reports.

The announcement came after a White House spokesperson said overnight that US Vice President JD Vance had pulled out of a planned trip to meet Iranian negotiators in Switzerland on Friday to begin talks on implementing an agreement struck between Tehran and Washington to end the war.

United Arab Emirates state-owned producer Abu Dhabi National Oil Co has told its customers to resume loading its crude oil from its ports at Das and Zirku islands, in the Gulf, Bloomberg News reported, citing a notice sent to customers, according to Reuters.