War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

The US cannot achieve its goals of blockading Iran’s economy and shutting its trade routes because Tehran has made preparations and communicates closely with neighbours, a Revolutionary Guards spokesperson has been quoted as saying, Reuters reports.

Hossein Mohebbi was reacting to the US military’s Task Force Iron Gate, launched to help crack down on Tehran’s movement of advanced weapons and other sanctioned material over its land borders and through the Caspian Sea.

“The Iron Gate plan is merely a wordplay, the Americans cannot achieve their objectives of imposing severe economic pressure to cause economic collapse in Iran through this approach,” Mohebbi tells the semi-official Fars news agency.

Most Gulf stock markets start Sunday on the back foot as investors awaited indications on whether US President Donald Trump will order fresh attacks on Iran, Reuters reports.

Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index drops one per cent, weighed down by a 0.6pc fall for Al Rajhi Bank and a 1.1pc decline for Saudi Arabian Mining Company.

Qatar’s index slides 1.3pc.

Saudi energy ministry says Aramco building in Riyadh has been attacked, Reuters cites State TV.

Ministry says debris fell on building causing limited material damage.

No casualties have been reported, it adds.

A tower in the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh was damaged by a projectile, said one witness and three people briefed on the matter, Reuters reports.

Saudi authorities did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

According to Iran’s state-run Press TV, an analytic report says the United States’ aggression against Iran is the least popular of seven major wars launched by Washington in the modern era.

Multiple witnesses have told AFP on Sunday that Riyadh’s financial district had been targeted and the area’s Aramco building had been damaged, after the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis said it had intercepted missiles launched by the group.

“Aramco tower in KAFD has been targeted, that’s the sure thing,” said one witness, referring to the King Abdullah Financial District. Two other witnesses confirmed seeing damage to the building.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis has said it intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles fired by the rebel group towards Riyadh, after loud booms were heard in the Saudi capital, reports Reuters.

Saudi Civil Defence had issued an alert in the Riyadh region shortly before the booms, a Reuters witness said. Authorities later announced that the risk of danger had passed.

Later, the coalition said it intercepted and destroyed two cruise missiles in Riyadh and the southern region.

Multiple loud booms were heard in the Saudi capital Riyadh shortly after Civil Defence issued an early-warning alert of a potential threat, a Reuters witness said, as hostilities between the kingdom and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis persisted.

Saudi Civil Defence later said the danger had passed.

The United Arab Emirates National Guard says it has rescued 22 people, all of whom are Arab nationals, after a fire broke out on a cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman.

Rescue operation followed a report from the ship’s crew that fire had broken out on board, the National Guard says in a post on X.

It adds, “Specialised teams immediately began responding to the report, located the tanker, reached it, and rescued all 22 crew members.

“They provided the necessary first aid before handing them over to the relevant authorities, with all of them in stable condition.”

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen says it had intercepted a ballistic missile launched by the Yemeni Houthi group towards the Eastern region, Reuters reports.

We earlier reported that the US Centcom said an American military aircraft fired on ​and disabled a commercial vessel that ‌tried to break the US blockade of Iran.

Here’s are further details from the Centcom statement.

It said the incident took place on Nov 7 in the Gulf of Oman.

“This action followed the vessel’s civilian crew ignoring repeated warnings and making several attempts to breach the naval blockade against Iran. After Centcom forces ordered the crew to leave designated areas, a US military aircraft disabled the M/V Huda, a ship flying the flag of Saint Kitts, by firing precision munitions at its stern.

“The cargo vessel had stopped at a port in Iran and was preparing to leave the region’s waters.”

Mohsen Razzaqi, commander of Iran’s Northern Fleet and Fourth Naval Zone, says coordination and cooperation among the branches of the country’s armed forces are at “their highest level”, Al Jazeera reports.

He says Iran’s naval forces are defending its maritime borders around the clock, and that the consequences of any attack must be high enough to deter another assault.

“The cost of any aggression against Iran must be raised to such an extent that the enemy will no longer dare attack the country again,” Razzaqi has said, according to the IRNA news agency.

His remarks are the latest in a series of statements from Iranian officials and commanders signalling readiness to respond to any renewed US attack.

Saudi Arabia’s civil defence says that the danger has passed, shortly after issuing alerts warning of potential threats in several parts of the kingdom, including Dhahran, home to oil giant Saudi Aramco’s headquarters, reports Reuters.

The danger had also passed in Dammam, Abqaiq and Al-Ahsa governorate, the civil defence said.

Anees Alasbahi, a spokesperson for the Houthi Ministry of Health, claims the death toll from airstrikes by Saudi-led coalition on the village of Al Shariyah has now risen to 33, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, he says at least 39 others were also wounded.

The village is located in the Bani Hashish district, east of Sanaa.

Alasbahi says several airstrikes on Saturday had targeted homes, roads, paramedics and civil defence teams.

There has been no comment from the Saudi-led coalition.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, have discussed the latest regional developments in a phone call, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, the Saudi Foreign Ministry says the ministers also talked about the “ongoing efforts to de-escalate tensions and enhance security and stability”.

It was the second reported phone call between the two ministers in the past week.

An American military aircraft fired on ​and disabled a commercial vessel that ‌tried to break the US blockade of Iran on Saturday, US Central Command has claimed, according to Reuters.

The St. ​Kitts-flagged cargo vessel tried to depart ​regional waters after visiting an Iranian ⁠port, and a US plane fired ​precision munitions at its stern after US ​forces directed the crew to abandon targeted spaces, Central Command said.

Iranian state broadcaster IRIB has reported citing the Iranian Navy that two “offending tankers” that passed through the “unsafe part” of the Strait of Hormuz with their navigation systems turned off had suffered severe damage and stopped after hitting sea mines.

The state media, which reported the incident early on Sunday, said it took place hours ago.

US Vice President Vance has spent the past two weeks personally involved in indirect talks with Iran aimed at reaching a new ceasefire and resuming nuclear negotiations, Axios reports, citing two “sources with knowledge of the matter”.

Axios correspondent Barak Ravid claimed Vance has been “speaking almost daily” to key figures from mediating countries Pakistan, Qatar and others.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told US President Donald Trump by phone that Ankara will continue its peace efforts and that tensions between Iran and the United States should be resolved through diplomacy, Reuters reports citing Erdogan’s office.

Erdogan told Trump that Turkiye would also continue to contribute to efforts to end the war in Ukraine and that contacts with both Kyiv and Moscow should be intensified, according to a readout from his office.

Iranian naval commander Rear Admiral Mohsen Razzaqi says coordination and cooperation among the country’s armed forces is currently at its highest level, highlighting the “strong synergy” among branches, state news agency IRNA reports.

He also highlights Iran’s missile, drone, and naval capabilities, its geographical location, and the resilience of the people as key parts of national defence.

Houthi media has claimed that Saudi strikes killed 27 people, most of them women and children, in Yemen’s Sanaa province, as deaths mount in the country’s revived civil war, AFP reports.

The United Nations says more than 1,600 people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced since fighting resumed in the impoverished country.

The death toll from the strikes on Al-Shariya village has risen to 27, most of them women and children, with 36 people wounded, the Houthis’ health ministry said in a statement to their Saba news agency.

Saba said earlier on Saturday that operations to recover victims from the rubble were ongoing and that “aircraft targeted paramedics with two strikes”.

Syria has no plans to send military forces to Yemen, a Syrian diplomatic source told state news agency SANA, dismissing reports of a possible deployment as baseless, according to Reuters.

The source was outlining the scope of military cooperation with Saudi Arabia, which currently focuses on training Syrian forces, building their capabilities and exchanging military expertise.

Coordination visits by Saudi officials to Syria are set to begin next month, the person added.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed they had launched multiple missile and drone attacks against Saudi troops and infrastructure both in the Gulf kingdom and Yemen, AFP reports.

The group, which is fighting a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised government, launched six operations that targeted Aramco oil facilities in Khurais as well as Riyadh airport, Saudi troops in Najran and military facilities on both sides of the border, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree posted on X.

Iranian national security chief Mohsen Rezaei has warned the US: “Start a war, and you’ll face a devastating response.”

In a post on X, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said: “You lost the war and the election. Vance has conceded, Rubio is heading for the exit, Hegseth is about to be fired, and the Centcom commander is now a podcaster!

“So٫Who exactly in Washington do we need to get this message across to?” he asked.