War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says that Iran has “not come to a halt” amid attacks by the US and Israel, and that political leadership is in touch with governors across the country.

“By delegating the necessary authorities to the provinces, decision-making is carried out swiftly and in proportion to local conditions,” the Iranian president has said on X.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said he had “productive” conversation with Kuwait’s Crown Prince Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah on the phone, during which the two leaders “underscored the significance of dialogue and diplomacy in restoring regional peace and stability”.

He added that he appreciated the Kuwaiti leadership’s continued support to ensure the safety and well-being of the Indian community.

“India condemns the violation of Kuwait’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and stands with its people in this difficult hour,” Modi said.

The US embassy in Riyadh has warned of an imminent attack in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran, home to much of the kingdom’s energy installations along the Gulf coast.

“There is a threat of imminent missile and UAV attacks over Dhahran,” the embassy wrote on its official X account.

QatarEnergy has said in a statement on X that it is stopping the production of some downstream products, including urea, polymers, methanol and aluminum.

“Further to the decision by QatarEnergy to stop production of liquefied natural gas and associated products, QatarEnergy is stopping the production of some downstream products in the state of Qatar, including urea, polymers, methanol, aluminum,” the petroleum company announced.

Nato chief Mark Rutte has said there was broad backing among US and European allies for Trump’s military campaign against Iran, AFP reports.

“I feel widespread support in Europe. I was on the phone with many leaders over the weekend and also early this week,” Rutte told journalists on a visit to North Macedonia.

“I clearly sensed that taking out the nuclear capability, taking out the ballistic missile capability, and also Khamenei gone, this is applauded by many of my colleagues in Nato.”

Rutte underlined that the Nato military alliance — founded to protect Europe and North America — was “not involved” in the military operations.

“But I can assure you that Nato will defend every inch of Nato territory,” he said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has urged countries to cut their ties with Iran during a virtual meeting with around 60 envoys stationed in Israel, as it pressed its military campaign against the Islamic republic.

“The foreign minister told the ambassadors that following the Iranian regime’s attacks on all its neighbours and the massacre of its own people, countries around the world must cut off their relations with it,” a statement issued by Saar’s office said.

It did not specify whether the 60 envoys’ countries had ties with Iran in the first place.

Hezbollah has announced it targeted a military facility in Israel in its fourth attack of the day, as Israel continued to strike Lebanon, including Beirut, AFP reports.

The group said in a statement it had targeted the Maayan Baruch site in northern Israel with rockets, “in response to the criminal Israeli aggression that struck dozens of Lebanese cities and towns, including Beirut’s southern suburbs”.

Two Turkish journalists who were in Israel to cover the Iran war have been detained, officials and a union says, according to AFP.

CNN Turk reporter Emrah Cakmak and cameraman Halil Kahraman, who “were in Tel Aviv to follow the news, have been detained”, Turkiye’s Journalists’ Union (TGS) said on X.

Burhanettin Duran, the communications chief at the Turkish presidency, slammed Israel for its “attacks on the press”.

“We are making the necessary efforts for the immediate release of our journalist colleagues and are following the matter with sensitivity,” he said on X.

The union said the journalists were there to film in connection with the Iran strikes and to share the latest situation with viewers in Turkiye.

US President Donald Trump has defended the US strikes on Iran in a letter to Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, adding that it is “not possible” at this time to know how long the US military operation will go on, CNN reports.

“Although the United States desires a quick and enduring peace, it is not possible at this time to know the full scope and duration of military operations that may be necessary,” Trump wrote in yesterday’s letter, which CNN obtained.

The report added that Trump pointed to the US’s attempts to negotiate “a diplomatic solution” with Iran but insisted that “the threat to the United States and its allies and partners became untenable”.

Trump also termed the strikes as “collective self-defence of our regional allies, including Israel”.

India has warned that war in the Middle East threatens the safety of its 10 million citizens in the region and could seriously disrupt the country’s economy.

New Delhi’s foreign ministry said it was monitoring developments with “great anxiety”, saying the safety of its 10 million citizens in the region was an “utmost priority”.

“We cannot be impervious to any development that negatively affects them,” ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.

“Our trade and energy supply chains also traverse this geography. Any major disruption has serious consequences for the Indian economy.”

The UN human rights office has urged what it called the forces behind a deadly attack on a girls’ school in Iran to investigate and share insights into the incident, without saying who it believed was responsible, Reuters reports.

“The High Commissioner (Volker Turk) calls for a prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into the circumstances of the attack. The onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it,” UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva press briefing.

“This is absolutely horrific,” Shamdasani said, adding that images circulating on social media captured “the essence of the destruction, despair and senselessness and cruelty of this conflict”.

Turk also urged all parties to exercise restraint and to return to the negotiating table, she said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday that US forces “would not deliberately target a school”. Israel has said it is investigating the incident.

The US State Department has said it had ordered non-emergency staff to leave six Middle Eastern countries, as Iran retaliated against US-Israeli strikes, AFP reports.

The department said it had updated travel advisories for Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates “to reflect the ordered departure of non-emergency US government personnel”.

The advisories for five of the countries cited an “ongoing threat of drone and missile attacks from Iran”, while the notice for Iraq cited “security concerns”.

The US embassy in Kuwait said today it was closed until further notice, a day after an AFP correspondent saw smoke rising from the mission following Iranian attacks on the country.

The UAE’s defence ministry has clarified that the resulting injuries and “minor damages were not the result of direct hits on targets within the country’s territory”.

“It is well-known militarily that when air defences intercept hostile missiles and drones, this results in the scattering of shrapnel,” the ministry spokesperson said.

The UAE defence ministry spokesperson has said that 812 Iranian drones have been detected as of yet, out of which 755 were intercepted, with 57 of them falling within the country’s territory.

The official also noted the “detection and destruction of eight cruise missiles, which caused some collateral damage, as well as resulting in 3 fatalities and 68 cases of minor injuries, and the occurrence of minor to moderate material damage in a number of civilian facilities”.

The UAE defence ministry spokesperson, addressing a press conference, has said the country’s air defences have dealt with 186 ballistic missiles launched towards the country since the start of the Iranian attack.

According to a post on X, he added that 172 missiles were destroyed, while 13 of them fell into the sea and one ballistic missile fell on the country’s territory.

Loud explosions have again rocked the Iranian capital, AFP journalists report.

The explosions were heard from locations in central Tehran, the journalists said.

It was not immediately clear what was targeted.

Russia has warned that the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran could result in the very outcome they were seeking to prevent, by spurring both Iran and its Arab neighbours to seek to acquire nuclear weapons.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the logical consequence would be that “forces will emerge in Iran … in favour of doing exactly what the Americans want to avoid acquiring a nuclear bomb. Because the US doesn’t attack those who have nuclear bombs”.

Lavrov told a press conference that Arab countries could also join the race to build a bomb. The risk was now growing that “the nuclear proliferation problem will begin to spiral out of control”, he warned.

He said Moscow had still seen no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. Israel is widely seen as the region’s only nuclear-armed state, which it neither confirms nor denies.

Iran has urged the United Nations Security Council to take action to stop the Islamic republic’s war with Israel and the United States.

“The United Nations Security Council has a duty… if it wishes, it can certainly act, because there is no obstacle to its action except its own will,” said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei during a foreign ministry briefing.

Pakistan’s ambassador to Iran, Muhammad Mudassir Tipu, has said the embassy is in contact with 15 Pakistani sailors stranded on a ship in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas.

In a post on X, he said, “Media reported about our sailors seeking Mission’s assistance. I wish to share that we are in contact with our sailors (15 in number) who are on a ship in Bandar Abbas.

“We are in contact with their families as well as their parent company in Pakistan. We are making every possible effort for their repatriation to Pakistan. It will hopefully be done by today or at most tomorrow.”

Qatar’s state-run energy firm has said it would halt some downstream production a day after stopping the production of liquefied natural gas as Iran attacked facilities at two gas processing plants, AFP reports.

“Further to the decision by QatarEnergy to stop production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and associated products, QatarEnergy is stopping the production of some downstream products in the State of Qatar, including urea, polymers, methanol, aluminum and other products,” the company said in a statement.

Britain is planning to send a warship to defend its Royal Air Force Akrotiri base in Cyprus from Iranian attacks, The Times newspaper reports.

The Times report, citing three sources, said defence minister John Healey had a meeting today with senior military figures, in which they discussed sending HMS Duncan to the region.

The Ministry of Defence did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment on the report.

Turkiye is engaging with all parties to find a way to end the war in Iran and return to negotiations, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said, adding that Ankara was also in talks with Oman on the matter as the Gulf nation works for the same goal.

Fidan told members of Turkish media during a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner that Turkiye was “sensitively carrying out necessary initiatives with all our counterparts” to achieve peace in the region, and added it was critical to preserve the stability of Iran and the region.

“There isn’t a single-layered negotiation, there is a multi-layered negotiation,” Fidan said, according to a transcript of his comments shared today.

“We have been talking to the Europeans for a few days… If you want peace, let’s work together. We are urging them to take action. The Gulf nations are now facing a serious situation,” he said.

“We are talking to the Omani [foreign minister]. Oman is also still trying to do something there. We are talking to the Americans.”

Qatar’s defence ministry has said the country has so far detected a total of 101 ballistic missiles, 39 drones and three cruise missiles.

Out of these, it has intercepted 98 ballistic missiles, all three cruise missiles and 24 drones.

Qatar’s military thwarted attacks on Hamad International Airport, the Gulf state’s foreign ministry spokesman has said, AFP reports.

“There were attempts to attack Hamad International Airport, they were all thwarted… the missiles were downed by our defensive measures, and none of them have reached the airport,” Majed al-Ansari told a press conference.

He added that Qatar had not been in contact with Iran since the start of the strikes.