War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Israeli drones are hovering over the Lebanese capital of Beirut for the second consecutive day, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reports.

“Non-stop buzzing of Israeli drones over central #Beirut and the capital’s southern suburbs … flying at low altitude,” she wrote in a post on X.

The Israeli army has threatened the residents of 10 villages in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh and Jezzine areas to leave their homes before imminent strikes, Al Jazeera reports.

The military’s Arabic language spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a post on X that the threat applied to residents of Al-Nabatieh Al-Tahta, Al-Louizeh, Sajd, Ain Qana, Harouf, Zibdin, Kfar Reman, Al-Duwayr, Adshit Al-Shaqif, and Maydun.

Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi has termed his discussions with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi yesterday as “good”, saying they reflected the “constructive nature of Oman-Iran dialogue”.

“We reaffirmed the importance of diplomatic engagement on all fronts,” the minister wrote on X.

“Oman will continue supporting efforts to reduce tension, advance peaceful regional coexistence, security and freedom of navigation,” he added.

India’s state-run fuel companies have raised petrol and diesel prices for the fourth time in 10 days, as the Middle East war strains supplies to the world’s fastest-growing major economy, AFP reports.

In New Delhi, petrol prices rose to 102.12 Indian rupees from 99.5 rupees, while diesel is now at 95.20 rupees.

Automobile fuel prices have increased by five per cent since the war broke out in February, prompting Iran’s near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical energy corridor.

Fuel rates vary across the country but prices have broadly been increased by a little over two rupees ($0.02) after the latest adjustment.

Born to landless Indian farmers, Sunil Pooniya thought a job at sea would be his ticket out of poverty. Instead, his first voyage saw him diving into the ocean to escape a deadly attack driven by the Iran war, AFP reports.

The attack on Pooniya’s ship killed two fellow Indians — the country’s sailors are among the highest merchant maritime casualties from the Middle East war.

“There was a huge noise and the whole ship shook,” Pooniya recalled.

“I thought something had gone wrong with the engine, but a missile had hit us,” Pooniya added, who had been on the Palau-flagged MV Skylight.

“The whole ship was up in flames.”

“Everyone jumped into the sea wearing life jackets,” Pooniya told AFP, now back home in India.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has released a statement observing Resistance and Liberation Day, which marks the date in 2000 when Israel ended its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reports.

Aoun noted that this year’s commemoration comes amid Israel’s continued occupation of southern Lebanese villages and deadly attacks.

“The path to a complete Israeli withdrawal remains a steadfast national demand, one that the Lebanese state is working to achieve through negotiations,” he said.

Israel said a soldier was killed in southern Lebanon, AFP reports.

A military statement named him as 19-year-old Sergeant Nehoray Leizer of the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, who “fell in combat in southern Lebanon”.

During the incident in which Leizer was killed, “an additional soldier was severely injured”, the Israeli military said separately on Telegram.

Two liquefied natural gas tankers are exiting the Strait of Hormuz, heading to Pakistan and China, shipping data showed, Reuters reports.

The vessels are among a handful of supertankers exiting the Gulf this month via a transit route that Iran has ordered ships to use. Last week, three Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) made their way to China and South Korea with 6 million barrels of crude.

LNG tanker Fuwairit is crossing the Strait of Hormuz and is expected to discharge its cargo in Pakistan on Tuesday, shipping data on LSEG and Kpler showed. The vessel, sailing under the Bahamas flag, loaded LNG at Qatar’s Ras Laffan port around March 28.

The LNG tanker Al Rayyan has also exited the strait. Carrying a cargo loaded at Ras Laffan, it was last seen in the Gulf on May 22, and currently shows up outside the strait between Iran and Oman. It is expected to discharge its cargo in China on June 27, LSEG and Kpler data show.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US will either have a good agreement with Iran or deal with the country “another way”, Reuters reports.

The US will give diplomacy every chance to succeed before exploring the “alternatives,” Rubio told reporters in New Delhi.

There is a “pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the strait, get the strait open, enter into a very real, significant, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matter, and hopefully we can pull it off,” Rubio said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that a deal to end the war with Iran could materialise “today”, adding that Israel had the right to defend itself against attacks, AFP reports.

“We thought we might have some news last night, maybe today, I wouldn’t read too much into it,” Rubio said in New Delhi, referring to the potential agreement.

“Israel always has a right to protect itself … if Hezbollah is going to launch missiles or launches missiles at them, Israel has every right to respond to that,” he told reporters as he departed the Indian capital, where he has been on an official visit.

After indi­­cations that Tehran and Washington will soon reach an understanding to end the weeks-long war in the Middle East, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday expressed hope for another round of peace talks between the US and Iran in Islamabad “very soon”.

Background conversations with sources privy to developments suggested that while Islamabad may yet serve as the venue for another round of talks between the warring sides, there were no immediate signs of preparations for such a high-level event.

Read more here.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Hezbollah in a statement of trying to plunge Lebanon “back into chaos”, AFP reports.

Rubio denounced what he called Hezbollah’s “reckless call to overthrow Lebanon’s democratically elected government” and said the armed group was “actively trying to drag Lebanon back into chaos and destruction”.

Naim Qassem, the leader of Hezbollah, said earlier that “the people have the right to go down onto the streets and to bring down the government” in response to Israeli strikes and US sanctions on the Al-Qard Al-Hassan financial institution.

India’s state-owned fuel retailers increased diesel prices by 2.71 rupees ($0.0283) per litre and petrol by 2.61 rupees, dealers said, the fourth hike in May to recoup some losses driven by higher crude costs due to the Middle East war, Reuters reports.

Indian state fuel retailers, which control 90 per cent of the market, began raising pump prices from May 15 after elections were over in some key states.

Since then the state companies — Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp — have raised the prices of diesel by about 8.6pc and petrol by about 7.8pc.

Oil prices plunged over five per cent and Asian markets ticked up early on hopes of a deal to end to the US-Iran war despite President Donald Trump downplaying its imminence, AFP reports.

As of around 2300 GMT on Sunday, the price of North Sea Brent crude slipped 5.1pc to $98.22 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate fell 5.2pc to $91.57 a barrel before recovering slightly.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has accused Hezbollah of trying to plunge Lebanon “back into chaos”, reports AFP.

Rubio denounced what he called Hezbollah’s “reckless call to overthrow Lebanon’s democratically elected government” and said the pro-Iran armed group was “actively trying to drag Lebanon back into chaos and destruction. “

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told The New York Times on Sunday that an agreement with Iran had garnered regional support but a nuclear deal couldn’t be achieved “in 72 hours on the back of a napkin.”

His comments came after US President Donald Trump told his negotiators “not to rush into a deal” with Iran to end the three-month war.

“We’re not kicking it till later. Nuclear talks are highly technical matters. You can’t do a nuclear thing in 72 hours on the back of a napkin,” Rubio told the Times in a brief interview.

“So right now, we have seven or eight countries in the region that are endorsing this approach, and we’re prepared to move forward on this approach,” he said.

The Israeli military says it launched interceptors at “a number of suspected aerial targets with which contact was lost” in northern Israel, Al Jazeera reports.

The launches followed alerts signalling the possible intrusion of aircraft in several areas, the military said on Telegram.

According to Iran’s Tasnim news agency, US obstruction of some clauses, including the release of Iran’s frozen assets, continues.

“Accordingly, there is a possibility that the agreement may be cancelled,” the report said.

US lawmakers appearing on Sunday morning talk shows have split sharply over a potential deal to end the Iran war, with Republicans mostly backing the publicly reported contours of an agreement being negotiated by President Donald Trump and Democrats dismissing it as accomplishing little, Reuters reports.

Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the reported outlines of a deal sounded like little more than “the pre-war status quo” with Iran.

“I think this was a blunder,” Van Hollen said on the “Fox News Sunday” program.

“When you’re digging a hole, you should stop digging, and that sounds like maybe what we’re doing finally.”

Representative Mike Lawler, a New York Republican who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, praised Trump’s approach to talks with Iran.

Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, said Trump was being “played as a fool” in negotiations. “He’s got us in a situation that’s worse than it was before, a more extreme regime,” Booker told CNN’s “State of the Union” show.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem has expressed hope for an agreement between Iran and the United States, and that Lebanon would be part of its terms, AFP reports.

“God willing, this agreement will be finalised, and there are signs of its completion, and accordingly, that we too will be among those included in this agreement — an agreement of a full cessation of hostilities,” he said in a televised address.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem has once again urged Lebanese authorities to abandon direct talks with Israel, ahead of a fourth round of such discussions in Washington early next month, AFP reports.

“Direct negotiations are completely unacceptable and are a pure gain for Israel,” he said.

Addressing Lebanese authorities, he added: “Abandon the direct negotiations and do not give to America so that it gives to Israel[..] don’t be with them and stab us in the back.”