War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company said on Saturday that one of its vessels came under attack while transiting the Strait of Hormuz a day earlier, the Emirati state news agency WAM reported.

The state oil company said no injuries were reported, with the situation now under control, according to WAM.

Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said Abu Dhabi would defend its sovereignty and interests, after repeated attacks on ADNOC tankers.

“We will safeguard our rights to freedom of navigation … while continuing the path of dialogue and prioritising diplomatic options,” Gargash said in a post on X.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said seven people including two women and three children killed in an Israeli strike on Saturday were not military targets, after Israel said it struck Hezbollah “infrastructure,” AFP reports.

“The seven martyrs of the Israeli strike on the village of Ansar are not ‘military infrastructure’ and the women and children who were killed are not military targets,” Salam said, adding that “Israel must halt this escalation”, which he said was “extremely dangerous and undermines efforts to consolidate stability in the south”.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels used six ballistic missiles in their Friday attack on the port of al-Makha, the internationally recognised government’s army has said in a statement, Al Jazeera reports.

One port security official was killed while two sailors went missing, the army’s statement says. At least 8 civilians were injured in the attack, it adds.

Attacking the port, a key hub for the inflow of food and goods, as well as civilian infrastructure, shows the Houthi group’s “determination to impose a suffocating siege on the Yemeni people”, military spokesperson Colonel Majid al-Nuzaili has added.

Israeli military, in a post on X, has said that it struck “Hezbollah terror infrastructure” in Southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh and Ansar areas “in response to an action against IDF soldiers in the Ali al-Taher Ridge, which is located in the Security Zone”.

The post comes after the National News Agency said “a strike launched by enemy warplanes on a home” on the outskirts of the village of Ansar “killed seven people and wounded three others” and destroyed the home.

Iran has brought the “most armed army in the history of the world to its knees,” IRGC commander Major-General Ahmad Vahidi has said, Al Jazeera reports.

Vahidi’s comments were contained in an open letter to IRGC members and other security forces, published in the military publication Sepah News.

The commander is one of several military leaders newly appointed by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei in a major defence cabinet reshuffle in the past week.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei quoted Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov on X, saying it aptly described how “America’s extreme reliance on lies has corrupted its foreign policy toward Iran and the region”.

“This passage from Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov aptly describes the situation in which the US system of governance and foreign policy regarding Iran and the region finds itself due to its extreme reliance on ‘lies,’” he said.

“The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others,” he added.

Iran’s ambassador to Germany Majid Nili has said that lasting security across the world could not be achieved through military bases, arsenals and nuclear weapons, Iran’s IRNA reports.

“The rise in costs and the transfer of military equipment in recent years has once again shown that an arms-driven approach not only fails to bring lasting security but also exposes the world to a new cycle of instability and insecurity,” the media quotes him saying and refers to a new report on a surge in global arms transfer.

“Yet there is another point to consider: the recent acts of aggression by the United States and the Israeli regime against Iran once again revealed a reality: lasting security cannot be built with bombs, nuclear arsenals, and military bases. Instead, history, culture, national cohesion, and, above all, morality and international law are the true pillars of peace and security,” he further said.

A bulk carrier was struck by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, which hit its hull, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said, adding that the crew were safe, no damage assessment had been reported and that the environmental impact was unknown, Reuters reports.

Lebanese state media said an Israeli strike in the country’s south killed seven people, the worst toll since deals in June saw a lull in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, AFP reports.

The National News Agency (NNA) said “a strike launched by enemy warplanes on a home” on the outskirts of the village of Ansar “killed seven people and wounded three others” and destroyed the home.

Kuwait’s once prosperous oil sector has stood largely paralysed for months, with petroleum exports plummeting as fighting raged across the Gulf — triggering the country’s largest crisis in decades.

Half a year into the war, Kuwait remains a hostage to its uncompromising need to access the Strait of Hormuz — where the war between the US and Iran has choked off the once plentiful energy exports that moved across its waters.

Oil has long been the bedrock for the tiny Gulf state’s economy — where more than 90 per cent of government revenue and nearly all export earnings rely on reliable crude sales. The country is also home to roughly 6pc of total oil reserves globally.

Read more here.

Iran has not decided to resume talks with the United States, and messages being exchanged via Qatar and Pakistan do not amount to negotiations, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview, according to Reuters.

Araghchi told Iranian news outlet Shahrara News that separate talks with Oman were focused on defining a sea route through the Strait of Hormuz, while the United States would have to meet conditions for shipping to resume through the waterway.

Yemen’s government said Houthis fired six ballistic missiles at the Red Sea port of Mocha, killing at least four civilians, according to Reuters.

The Yemeni armed forces aligned with the government said in a statement that the Houthi attack on Mocha targeted a civilian facility and economic and maritime installations, killing one port security guard. Two sailors were also missing and eight civilians were wounded, the armed forces said.

A military source told Saba News Agency the Houthis hit Mocha with six missiles, resulting in the death of four civilians and the burning of several fishing boats.

The Houthis said they used ballistic missiles to attack what they described as a military build-up of weapons and warships belonging to Saudi-backed forces and “mercenaries” in Mocha, destroying boats and weapons.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi stressed Saturday that the Strait of Hormuz “will remain Iranian”, after US President Donald Trump said he would “soon” declare the waterway part of American territory, AFP reports.

“The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian,” Gharibabadi said on X, adding that the route “will be opened and closed only at Iran’s command”.

Trump had said that after the United States defeats Iran, “pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States”.

United Arab Emirates’ state-owned oil giant ADNOC said one of its vessels came under attack in the Hormuz strait, the latest incident in the waterway at the centre of the US-Iran conflict, AFP reports.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) “confirmed that one of its vessels was attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on the evening of Friday, August 14”, according to the official WAM news agency, but reported no injuries.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has said no decision has yet been made to resume negotiations with the United States, the Iranian Student News Agency reported, adding that mediator Qatar and Pakistan were in contact with Iran and exchanging messages, but that this did not amount to negotiations.

US President Donald Trump urged Americans to accept slightly higher gasoline prices as the cost of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, Reuters reports.

In a speech in Garden City, Trump said Americans who had to “pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” should remember that this was the cost of ensuring “a very evil country” could not have a nuclear weapon.

“What we’re doing is a great service for the world, not only for ourselves … and we’re really doing a great job,” said Trump, adding he would never apologise for attacking Iran.

President Donald Trump has said he would “soon” declare the Strait of Hormuz waterway part of US territory, claiming that Iran was being heavily defeated, AFP reports.

“Pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States. It’s true,” he said with a chuckle during a political rally at a police academy in New York state.

US President Donald Trump tells Fox News that the United States will hit Iran hard economically as Washington and Tehran struggle to reach a deal to end a nearly six month conflict, according to Reuters.

His comments came a day after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US was going to apply measures that have “never been seen” on Tehran as soon as next week.

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has discussed Israeli attacks in the country’s south with US General Joseph Clearfield, head of the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon (MCG4L), according to Al Jazeera.

Berri accuses Israel of systematic violations and attacks against Lebanon, including the destruction of villages, farmland and forests, as well as damage to heritage sites, since November 2024.

He has demanded that Israel end its military campaign and withdraw to the international border, as per the US-brokered ceasefire.

President Donald Trump has dismissed concerns over the living conditions and mental health of personnel on a US aircraft carrier deployed in the Middle East and says the ship will soon rotate out.

Asked by reporters whether family members are worried about the situation on the USS Abraham Lincoln, Trump responds, “No, they’re not.”

Trump also rejects that the ship — now in its ninth month at sea — has been deployed for too long. “No, no, no, not nearly enough,” he says.

Additionally, he has confirmed reports that the Lincoln is due to be rotated with a replacement aircraft carrier as the United States remains locked in a stalemate with Iran over control of the Strait of Hormuz and the country’s nuclear programme.

“That ship is moving right now or very shortly and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,” Trump says.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has denounced statements by the European Union’s on human rights in Iran, claiming the bloc “lacks any moral standing” to lecture others on the matter, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reports.

It adds that Tehran’s top diplomat made the comments in a telephone conversation with his Greek counterpart, Georgios Gerapetritis, where both sides discussed bilateral relations and regional and international developments.

According to the report, Araghchi has criticised the EU’s “double standards and hypocrisy” regarding human rights, particularly support for Israel and “their (the EU) indifference toward the genocide of Palestinians and the war crimes committed by the Israeli regime in Lebanon and Iran”.

He additionally rejects the EU’s “interventionist statements” on human rights in Iran, declaring, “The European Union, due to its performance in the field of human rights, lacks any moral standing to lecture others,” Tasnim adds.