War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

An Israeli security source tells AFP that the country is not carrying out airstrikes in Iran, following reports in Iranian media of blasts over the capital Tehran.

“Israel is not attacking in Iran,” the source has said on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel was “prepared to resume the war against Iran”, adding that his country was awaiting a green light from the United States to return Iran to “the Stone Age”.

A United States defence official has told Al Jazeera that there is no change in the country’s ceasefire status with Iran.

In a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump says he is “possibly the least pressured person ever to be in this position”, stating that he is not in a rush to end the war.

“I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t — The clock is ticking!” he writes.

“Iran’s navy is lying at the bottom of the sea, their air force is demolished, their anti-aircraft and radar weaponry is gone, their leaders are no longer with us, the blockade is airtight and strong and, from there, it only gets worse — Time is not on their side!”

He adds that a deal will only be made with Iran “when it’s appropriate and good for the United States of America, our allies and, in fact, the rest of the world”.

The USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, the US military says, bringing the number of the massive American warships operating in the region to three, AFP reports.

The Bush was sailing “in the Indian Ocean in the US Central Command area of responsibility, April 23”, US Central Command says in a post on X, which includes an image of the carrier with its deck packed with warplanes.

US President Donald Trump will meet Israeli and Lebanese envoys when they hold a second round of peace talks, AFP reports citing a US official.

“The ambassador-level talks between Israel and Lebanon will now take place at the White House,” the official says on the condition of anonymity. “President Trump will greet both representatives upon their arrival.”

Pope Leo XIV has firmly condemned the killing of protesters in Iran, after criticism from US President Donald Trump last week for not doing so while speaking out against the US-Israel war on Iran, Reuters reports.

Leo, the first US pope, has also decried the deaths of “so many” civilians in the war and laments the collapse of US-Iran peace talks in comments aboard his return flight to Rome after a four-nation Africa tour.

“I condemn all actions that are unjust. I condemn the taking of people’s lives,” the pope has said in response to a question in a press conference about reports that Iran has killed thousands of protesters.

“When a regime, when a country takes decisions which takes away the lives of other people unjustly, then obviously that is something that should be condemned.”

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Iran’s judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i has posted a message of unity, saying “one God, one leader, one nation — and today, one path; that is the path to the victory of Iran, dearer than life”.

“The criminal aggressor will regret it,” he says in a post on social media platform X.

His remarks come after President Masoud Pezeshkian and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf shared posts of unity on X in an apparent response to remarks made by US President Donald Trump today.

Air defence systems have been heard engaging what are described as “hostile targets” in parts of the Iranian capital Tehran, Reuters reports, citing Iran’s Mehr news agency, after earlier reports that air defence batteries had been activated in the city.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says that the people are “all united, more than ever before”, echoing similar messages by President Masoud Pezeshkian and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

“The failure of Israel’s terrorist killings is reflected in how Iran’s state institutions continue to act with unity, purpose, and discipline,” he says on X. “The battlefield and diplomacy are fully coordinated fronts in the same war.”

Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, has accused Israel and the United States of spending more than 20 years “scaring” the world with claims about Iran’s nuclear programme, Al Jazeera reports.

In comments carried by the IRNA news agency, Baghaei says while Tehran is preparing “for negotiations, the country must be fully prepared for any scenario”.

He rejects concerns about Iran’s nuclear activities, saying they lack a real basis.

Despite the 12-day war in June last year, the “decision was made to enter into the negotiation process, and in the last round, an agreement was reached on some main parameters for an initial understanding, from their perspective to address concerns and from our perspective to guarantee Iran’s nuclear rights”, Baghaei says.

Iran’s ⁠Nour News ⁠and Mehr news agency have reported that air defence batteries ‌had been activated in parts ⁠of Tehran, without giving ⁠details on ⁠the cause ⁠or ⁠reporting any incidents, according to Al Jazeera.

Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, says “there are no radicals or moderates” in the country, in an apparent response to remarks made by US President Donald Trump today.

“We are all ‘Iranian’ and ‘revolutionary’, and with the iron unity of the nation and government, with complete obedience to the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, we will make the aggressor criminal regret his actions,” he adds in a post on X.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian made the same remarks in a post on his X account.

Trump earlier claimed that there is infighting between “hardliners” and “moderates” within the Iranian leadership, and that the country was having “a very hard time figuring out who their leader is”.

The Israeli military claims it killed two armed individuals in the Aainata area of southern Lebanon after identifying them approaching soldiers and posing what it described as “an immediate threat”, Reuters reports.

It was not immediately clear whether the incident was related to strikes reported earlier in nearby areas by Lebanon’s health ministry.

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi has said that “there is no shame in negotiating with Israel if the goal is to end the war, recover territory, and secure a lasting peace,” Al Jazeera reports.

“Lebanon can no longer endure wars fought on its soil on behalf of others, nor can Hezbollah continue to sell the illusion of victory,” Raggi also wrote in a post on X.

Addressing today’s Lebanon-Israel talks in Washington, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has been quoted by his office as saying: “For the first time, the Lebanon file is returning to the American table … which opens the door for us — if things proceed as they should — towards economic recovery, reconstruction, and more.”

The president hopes to visit Washington to discuss the impact of the war with Trump himself, but Lebanon’s Ambassador to the United States, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, will be raising Lebanon’s interests in the talks later today in the US, the office says in a statement on X.

These include extending the ceasefire and stopping Israel’s destruction of homes, as well as attacks on civilians, including attacks on places of worship, journalists, medical personnel, and educational institutions.

An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon has killed three people, AFP reports citing the Lebanese health ministry, in the latest attack despite a 10-day truce in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

In a statement, the ministry says that “an Israeli airstrike on the Shoukine road in the Nabatieh district”, more than 30 kilometres north of Israel, has killed three people, while a strike on the village of Yater has wounded two people, including a child.

The attacks come hours ahead of the second meeting between Lebanon and Israel’s US ambassadors in Washington, where Beirut is expected to ask for a ceasefire extension.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei has condemned the killing of journalist Amal Khalil, stating, “Killing journalists is not merely an atrocious war crime; it is part of a cruel erasure of populations and annexation of territories in furtherance of a vicious colonial ambition.”

The spokesperson has hailed Khalil as a “voice for the voiceless” in a post by X, lamenting that “like so many before her, that voice is now silenced for telling the truth about the occupying regime’s (Israel’s) atrocities”.

“The world is morally and legally obliged to act against this continuing rule of cruelty,” Baghaei says, extending his condolences to the Lebanese people.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says Tel Aviv is “prepared to resume the war against Iran”, adding that his country is awaiting a green light from the United States to “return Iran to the Stone Age”, AFP reports.

“The IDF is ready both defensively and offensively, and the targets have been marked,” Katz says in a video statement.

“We are awaiting a green light from the United States — first and foremost to complete the elimination of the Khamenei dynasty … and additionally to return Iran to the Dark Age and the Stone Age by destroying key energy and electricity facilities and dismantling its national economic infrastructure.”

The Indian embassy in Tehran has “strongly advised” Indian citizens against travelling to Iran by air and land.

This advisory has been issued in view of reports of “commencement of some flights between India and Iran, and in continuation of earlier advisories”.

“Airspace restrictions and operational uncertainties due to regional tensions continue to affect international flight operations to and from Iran,” the embassy adds.

“It is further reiterated that all Indian nationals currently in Iran should leave the country through designated land border routes, strictly in coordination with the embassy.”

According to the BBC, the Pentagon has hit out against media reports that US forces may need six months to clear the Strait of Hormuz of any mines that pose a threat to shipping.

“One assessment does not mean the assessment is plausible, and a six-month closure of the Strait of Hormuz is an impossibility and completely unacceptable to the Secretary,” Pentagon Chief Spokesman Sean Parnell tells the BBC.

“The media cherry-picking leaked information, much of which is false, from a classified, closed briefing is dishonest journalism.”

US President Donald Trump has told the BBC that “whatever I’m doing, it seems to be working very well” when asked about his threats towards Iran.

The BBC’s North America editor, Sarah Smith, has spoken to the president in a brief phone call, in which she asked if his statement earlier this month that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” was a threat to use nuclear weapons against Iran.

“The other side is dying to make a deal,” he responds. “So whatever I’m saying or whatever I’m doing, it seems to be working very well. Thank you very much.”

On Nato, Trump says the US “didn’t need them at all” in its war with Iran but that they “should’ve been there”.

When Smith asked why, then, he wanted them to join the war, Trump replies: “Because I wanted to see whether or not they would be involved.”

He asserts hasthe US has “always been for” the UK and Nato and criticised the UK for not making “at least a minimal effort and at least nicer words”.

Trump adds that “many people from the UK” have let his administration know how “incredibly bad a decision” it was for the UK to not get involved in the war — the UK has only allowed the US to use its bases for “defensive” air strikes.

Earlier in the call, Trump said he believed his relationship with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer could “recover” if he “opened the North Sea” and if his “immigration policies became strong” — but added that “if he doesn’t, I don’t think he has a chance”.

US Central Command (Centcom) says it has redirected 33 vessels since the imposition of a naval blockade on Iranian ports.

More than 30 million people will be pushed back into poverty by the impacts of the Iran war, including disruptions to fuel and fertiliser supplies just as farmers are planting crops, UN development chief Alexander De Croo tells Reuters.

Fertiliser shortages — worsened by the blocking of cargo vessels through the Strait of Hormuz — have already lowered agricultural productivity, the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says.

That would likely hit crop yields later this year, De Croo adds.

“Food insecurity will be at its peak level in a few months - and there is not much that you can do about it,” he warns, listing other fallouts of the crisis, including energy shortages and falling remittances.

“Even if the war would stop tomorrow, those effects, you already have them, and they will be pushing back more than 30 million people into poverty,” he says.

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