War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Israel set up a clandestine military outpost in the Iraqi desert to support its air campaign against Iran and launched airstrikes against Iraqi troops who nearly discovered it, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter, including US officials.

Israel built the installation, which housed special forces and served as a logistical hub for the Israeli air force, with the knowledge of the US just before the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran, the outlet said. It also included search-and-rescue teams positioned to assist any downed Israeli pilots, WSJ said.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate response from the Israeli prime minister’s office to a Reuters request for comment.

The base was almost discovered in early March after Iraqi state media said a local shepherd reported unusual military activity, including helicopter movements in the area.

Iraqi troops were dispatched to investigate, but Israeli forces used airstrikes to keep them at a distance and prevent the site from being discovered, the paper said, citing one of the sources.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow is ready to transport and store Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, Al Jazeera reports.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, Putin said Russia had transported enriched uranium out of Iran in 2015 and was prepared “to repeat this experience”.

He said all parties to the conflict had agreed to have the uranium moved out of Iran. “But then the United States hardened its position and demanded that the uranium be transported exclusively to US territory. Iran then hardened its position.”

Moscow will remain in contact with both Washington and Tehran, Putin said, adding that he hopes the conflict will end “as quickly as possible”.

There was no immediate comment from Iran.

Marco Rubio has met with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the US State Department says, according to Al Jazeera.

“The Secretary expressed appreciation for Qatar’s partnership on a range of issues,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement.

“The secretary and the foreign minister also discussed US support for Qatar’s defence, and the importance of continued close coordination to deter threats and promote stability and security across the Middle East.”

Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports that an Israeli air strike on the town of Bedias in southern Lebanon has killed one person and wounded 13 others.

Despite the “ceasefire”, Israel has killed at least 24 people in Lebanon on Saturday and left dozens wounded.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy command has warned that any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial ships will be met with a large attack on its vessels as well as an American base in the region, Iran’s state-run IRIB News agency reports according to Al Jazeera.

“Any attack on Iranian oil tankers and commercial ships will be met with a wide attack on one of the American bases in the region and enemy ships,” the IRGC Navy Command was quoted by IRIB News.

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has held a phone call with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud to discuss regional tensions and efforts to maintain stability.

In a post on X, Qatar’s foreign ministry said the two sides discussed relations and “developments in the situation in the region, particularly those related to the ceasefire between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the efforts aimed at de-escalation that contribute to enhancing security and stability in the region”.

It added that Qatar stressed the need for all parties to engage with mediation efforts and the importance of addressing the “root causes of the crisis through dialogue and peaceful means”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes that the Iran conflict ends as soon as possible, but notes that if it does not, then “everyone would lose out”, according to Reuters.

The US military blockade of Iran’s ports is likely to cut Tehran off from vital oil revenue, but the country can likely endure the pressure for months without a major economic crisis or lasting harm to its oil industry, possibly dimming US hopes of forcing a quicker end to the war, Anadolu reports citing NBC News.

The blockade has stopped dozens of Iranian tankers near the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has slowly reduced oil production because of the blockade and could run out of storage space within two months, potentially forcing some wells to shut down.

“They’re going to have to shut down about half of their production. They can keep producing because they can refine it domestically,” says Robin Mills of Qamar Energy consulting and the Centre on Global Energy Policy at New York’s Columbia University.

Gregory Brew of the Eurasia Group says Iran has experience in reducing oil production after doing so twice in the past 15 years under US sanctions.

“I don’t think it’s going to do tremendous damage to their infrastructure,” Brew said. “They know how to do this. They’ve done it before.”

According to Brew, Iran has responded by cutting the amount of oil loaded onto tankers from about 11 million barrels per week to roughly 6-8 million.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reports on information from Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, which says that at least seven people have been killed and 15 wounded in Israel’s attack on Saksakieh in southern Lebanon.

“Those killed were families who fled their home in Jibshit and were seeking safety in Saksakiyeh when the building was targeted,” Khodr reports.

Global oil reserves are depleting at an unprecedented pace as the US-Israel war on Iran disrupts flows from the Gulf, eroding a key buffer against supply shocks, Al Jazeera reports citing Bloomberg.

Morgan Stanley estimates that global stockpiles fell by nearly 270 million barrels between March 1 and April 25.

The sharp drawdown means that governments and industries lose room to absorb the impact of more than a billion barrels of disrupted oil supply since the US-Israeli war on Iran started on February 28.

European Union crisis management chief Hadja Lahbib has called for increased humanitarian access in southern Lebanon, where Israel has continued strikes and Hezbollah has launched retaliatory attacks despite a “ceasefire” currently in effect, Al Jazeera reports.

“Humanitarian aid is ready, but too often it cannot reach those who need it most,” Lahbib tells a news conference on the second day of her visit to Lebanon, in advance of an expected EU aid delivery. “We need humanitarian access in full respect of international humanitarian law. Aid cannot save lives if it cannot reach people.

“Hospitals and ambulances targeted and journalists attacked [by Israel] for simply doing their job. There is no justification for this. International humanitarian law must be respected,” she adds.

Israeli forces have carried out a new wave of air strikes across southern Lebanon in the past hour, according to reports.

An Al Jazeera correspondent reports that attacks hit Safad al-Battikh in the Bint Jbeil district, as well as the town of Budyas in the Sour district.

Lebanon’s National News Agency also reports that Israeli warplanes struck the al-Bayad neighbourhood in Nabatieh for the second time in less than an hour.

There have been no immediate reports of casualties.

A senior Iranian official has issued a sharp warning to regional neighbours, specifically Bahrain, over their support for a US-backed resolution concerning the Strait of Hormuz, Al Jazeera reports.

Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee in the Iranian parliament, cautions that aligning with Washington would result in “severe consequences”.

In a post on X, Azizi targets the island nation directly: “We warn governments, including microstates like Bahrain, that siding with the US-backed resolution will bring severe consequences. Do not close the doors of the Strait of Hormuz to yourselves forever!”

Kuwait has expressed solidarity with Bahrain and voiced support after Manama’s “uncovering [of] an organisation linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard”, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs says in a statement posted on X, according to Al Jazeera.

The ministry commended “the efficiency of the Bahraini security apparatus and its vigilance in confronting the plots targeting the Kingdom’s security”.

The statement came after Bahrain’s Interior Ministry announced earlier on Saturday the arrest of 41 people accused of belonging to a group linked to the Iranian forces.

US Central Command says that 58 commercial vessels have been redirected and four others disabled since the naval blockade of Iranian ports began on April 13.

Fuel shortages due to the Middle East crisis have delayed by several weeks an annual mission to swap out researchers at South Africa’s sub-Antarctic Marion Island base, the government said Saturday, reports AFP.

The SA Agulhas II icebreaking polar supply vessel was meant to have left Cape Town last month to relieve a team based there since April 2025, the environment ministry said.

But it only received a shipment of specialised polar diesel required for Antarctic and sub-Antarctic operations on May 1, a statement read.

“The delay is primarily due to the global scarcity of fuel products linked to ongoing geopolitical developments in the Middle East,” it added.

The base on the island, about 1,920 kilometres southeast of Cape Town, had enough polar diesel reserves until about May 20 and food supplies for about two months.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Ankara does not want the conflict between the United States and Iran to spread further across the region, Anadolu reports.

Erdogan has made the remarks during a meeting in Istanbul with Masrour Barzani, the Prime Minister of Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), according to Turkiye’s Communications Directorate.

The two sides discussed the latest regional developments during the meeting, where Erdogan expressed concern over attacks on Iraqi territory, including in Erbil, and said Turkiye opposed the expansion of the US-Israeli war on Iran to other countries in the region.

A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker has started to exit the Persian Gulf, with all other observable shipping through the Strait of Hormuz at a standstill following recent clashes, Bloomberg reports.

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, seeks to reopen the vital energy channel at all costs, the outlet adds

Iran’s oil infrastructure may be the source of a suspected slick off a key island export terminal, but satellite images showed it is “much reduced”, an environmental group tells AFP.

Satellite images in the past days appeared to show an oil slick spreading off the coast of Iran’s Kharg Island. It was not immediately clear what had caused the apparent spill off the island’s west coast.

“The cause and origin of the slick remain unknown and cannot be determined conclusively from the available imagery alone,” a UK-based non-governmental organisation, the Conflict and Environment Observatory, tells AFP.

“While offshore infrastructure in the wider area could be a potential source, we are unable to identify a definitive point of origin or attribute the spill to a specific cause at this time,” says Leon Moreland from the observatory.

But, he adds, “the slick appears visually consistent with oil based on analysis” of imagery from the Copernicus Data Space browser.

The UK will send a destroyer to the Middle East ahead of any international mission to help protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, according to its defence ministry.

“The pre-positioning of HMS Dragon is part of prudent planning that will ensure that the UK is ready, as part of a multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and France, to secure the strait, when conditions allow,” a ministry spokesperson tells AFP.

An explosive drone launched by Hezbollah has been located in Israeli territory near the Lebanese border in the morning, Al Jazeera reports citing the Israeli military.

It adds that there was no damage or casualties, and that crews are working to remove it from the area.

Lebanese official media reported a new Israeli strike outside Beirut, moments after it reported two strikes on the highway linking the capital to the country’s south, AFP reports.

The state-run National News Agency said the strike hit the Chouf district, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Beirut and not far from a previous strike on the Saadiyat highway.

Both areas are outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds and came despite a ceasefire in the Iran-backed group’s war with Israel.