War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper on the occasion of King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s visit to the United States, says a State Department statememt.

“The secretary and foreign secretary discussed the urgent need to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” it said.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says he spoke by phone with Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berry, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on his official Telegram account, Araghchi says the two officials “discussed and exchanged views on the latest regional developments”.

Members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “have no place” in Canada, Ottawa says, after top Iranian officials left the country before a FIFA Congress, citing the conduct of immigration officers, AFP reports.

Iranian outlets reported that the nation’s football federation’s president, secretary general and deputy secretary general left Canada after being reportedly mistreated at Toronto’s airport on route to the FIFA meeting in Vancouver.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says it cannot comment on specific cases due to privacy, but adds, “IRGC officials are inadmissible to Canada.”

Oman’s foreign ministry says its top diplomat, Badr Albusaidi, has spoken by phone with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about the latest regional developments, Al Jazeera reports.

The two officials “emphasised the importance of intensifying international efforts to resume the security, safety, and freedom of maritime navigation, and to ensure the smooth flow of global trade in accordance with the rules of international law”, it says.

“They also stressed the necessity for all parties to exercise the required flexibility in order to reach practical solutions for settling disputes and prioritising the common interests of all,” the ministry adds.

Iran’s permanent mission to the UN has slammed the US for exploiting the UN’s recent nuclear non-proliferation treaty review conference and portraying Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium “as a danger in order to divert attention from its own violations and those of its allies in the field of nuclear disarmament”.

In a post on X, the mission notes that all of Iran’s enriched uranium “has always been under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and there is no report of even one gram of Iran’s nuclear material being diverted”.

“The UN Security Council, the IAEA Director-General and the Board of Governors not only failed to condemn these illegal attacks, but most regrettably, took actions that reversed the roles of the victim and the aggressor,” the mission adds.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned his US counterpart Donald Trump of “damaging consequences” of a new military action in Iran, a Kremlin aide has told reporters after the two leaders spoke by phone, AFP reports.

Putin “highlighted the inevitable and extremely damaging consequences not only for Iran and its neighbours, but also for the entire international community, should the US and Israel resort to military action once again”, says Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.

Iran has accused Bahrain of violating the human rights of 69 people whose citizenship it revoked for allegedly supporting Iranian attacks on the country, Al Jazeera reports.

Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior announced the measures on Monday, accusing the individuals whose citizenship it stripped of sympathising with Iran and “colluding with foreign entities”.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says the move shows the “discriminatory approach” of Bahrain’s authorities.

“The Bahraini government cannot use these airbrushing [tactics] to distract the public opinion of this country and the region from its direct responsibility in supporting and accompanying the American-Israeli aggressors against the Iranian nation,” Baghaei says in comments carried by Iran’s IRIB broadcaster.

Turkish Airlines will resume flights to Damascus, Beirut and Amman at the beginning of May, Al Jazeera reports.

In a notice on its website, Turkish Airlines says flights to the three cities will restart as of May 1.

The routes had been suspended since February 28, when US and Israeli attacks on Iran began, disrupting airspace across parts of the Middle East.

The American aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford will depart the Middle East and begin sailing home in the coming days, multiple US officials have said, according to The Washington Post.

The Tasnim news agency reports that six Iranian crew members who were on board a US-seized container ship on April 20 have been freed and returned to Iran, according to Al Jazeera.

Another 22 Iranian crew members from the Touska vessel are still detained, and Iranian authorities are continuing efforts to secure their release, it says.

US Central Command and President Donald Trump claimed the Touska was targeted after it refused to follow US orders to withdraw from its planned passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

US President Donald Trump has said that “we’re not flying anymore with 18-hour flights every time we want to see a piece of paper,” adding that negotiations will be conducted over the telephone.

“I always like face-to-face … but when you have to fly 18 hours every time you want to have a meeting … and you know they’re going to give you a piece of paper that you don’t like before you even leave,” he tells reporters.

Trump adds that Iran has “come a long way”, but questions whether or not “they’re going to go far enough”.

“At this moment, there will never be a deal unless they agree that there will be no nuclear weapons,” he states.

Asked whether the US naval blockade of Iran would last for several months, Trump has said that Tehran has been defeated “militarily”.

“Now they have to cry uncle, that’s all they have to do. Just say ‘we give up’,” he says.

US President Donald Trump has hailed the United Arab Emirates’ exit from oil cartel Opec, telling reporters, “I think ultimately, it’s a good thing for getting the price of gas down, getting oil down, everything down.”

US President Donald Trump has once again expressed disappointment with Nato.

Speaking to reporters, he says, “When we called on Nato to give us a hand … we wanted them to do things with Iran … on Iran, they weren’t there.”

Trump adds that he discussed the situation in Iran with the visiting King Charles of England, noting that “if it were up to him, he would have probably helped us with Iran”.

When asked whether the war in Iran was worse than that in Ukraine, US President Donald Trump has said, “We talked more about the war in Ukraine, but he (Russian President Vladimir Putin) would like to be of help. I said, ‘Before you help me, I’d like to end your war.’”

Asked about which war would end first, Trump replied, “I don’t know. Maybe they’re on a similar timetable.”

US President Donald Trump has reiterated his claim that Iran has very little military equipment left in the wake of Washington’s military campaign.

“They have some missiles, a small percentage. They have a small percentage of missile-making facilities,” Trump tells reporters. “We knocked out about 80 per cent of them, the rest could come very quickly if we don’t make a deal.”

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump says he talked “a little bit” about Iran during a phone call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

“He told me he’d like to be involved with the enrichment, if he can help us get it,” Trump says, referring to retrieving Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.

“I said, ‘I’d much rather have you be involved with ending the war in Ukraine.’ To me, that’d be more important,” he adds.