War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry has welcomed a statement by members of the UN Security Council condemning attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on the kingdom, Al Jazeera reports.

In remarks carried by the Saudi Press Agency, the ministry stressed the importance of the UN statement’s provisions, including its emphasis on the importance of fully implementing Security Council resolutions against Houthi attacks on civilians and infrastructure.

It also welcomes the Security Council’s calls for practical cooperation to prevent the Houthis from acquiring weapons and other support.

The Saudi-led coalition says in separate statements that it has intercepted a salvo of missiles and drones fired at Saudi Arabia.

According to coalition spokesperson Major General Turki Al-Maliki, a ballistic missile bound for the Red Sea city of Yanbu was intercepted.

Similarly, two cruise missiles were intercepted over the Red Sea, he adds.

Separately, Al-Maliki says three drones have been intercepted in the kingdom’s southern and Riyadh regions.

Yemeni government media outlets report that armed forces have repelled two Houthi attacks on the Dhahih and Hisn Kahlan fronts in Taiz, according to Al Jazeera.

The reports add that government forces have been engaged in clashes with the Houthis on the Jabal al-Dahhih front in the Taiz governorate’s al-Masrakh district.

Qatar will help revive Lebanon’s ailing energy sector and solve its chronic problems in providing reliable electricity, the Lebanese and Qatari prime ministers have said, AFP reports.

“We have agreed to establish a comprehensive framework for cooperation in the energy sector and to present viable solutions,” gas-rich Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said during a visit to Lebanon.

This is an “old project that Qatar had discussed with Lebanon… for years,” he added, saying it was now “about to see the light of day”.

Oil prices have steadied and are heading for weekly gains on uncertainty over Middle East supplies and a larger-than-expected draw from US crude stockpiles, Reuters reports.

Brent crude futures are flat at $105.92 a barrel as of 1311 GMT (6:11pm PKT), while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures are down 22 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $97.75.

Europe is in Iran’s sights and Germany will not tolerate Iran’s hostile activities, Germany’s foreign minister Johann Wadephul says, according to Reuters.

Iran’s acting oil minister Hamid Bovard says Tehran will respond “immediately and appropriately to any US threat to Iranian energy facilities”, Al Jazeera reports.

“The war that the United States started by ignoring international norms has affected the energy sector globally,” he states. “We will take precise and appropriate retaliatory measures at the right time to counter enemy threats.”

President Donald Trump says the US may have to target Pickaxe Mountain, a site linked to Iran’s nuclear program, as he aims to ensure Tehran does not get a nuclear weapon, Reuters reports.

In an interview with Newsmax, Trump says the US wanted to make sure Iran would never have a nuclear weapon “because if they had it, they would use it”.

“Their nuclear is buried under millions of tons of mountain. Now we’re looking at Pickaxe Mountain. We may have to go there. We’ll take a shot at that one. We’ll knock it out fast,” Trump tells the news outlet.

Pickaxe Mountain is a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Tehran’s main nuclear sites.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani says that during his visit to Lebanon, continuing Israeli escalation in Lebanon “was largely part of our discussion — in addition to the assault on the peacekeeping forces, as well as the Israeli violations within the Lebanese territories,” Al Jazeera reports.

Al-Thani says the meetings have given him an “opportunity to discuss the means to bolster mutual cooperation and opportunities looming in the future, in addition to global and regional developments”.

“We reiterate and emphasise the importance of the implementation of UN Security Council’s resolution 1701, as well as the implementation of all the agreements made in coordination with the UN,” he adds

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has thanked Qatar for its “continuous” cooperation and support amid ongoing attacks by Israeli forces, Al Jazeera reports.

“This is nothing new, of course,” he says, speaking alongside Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani. “We can never forget Qatar’s support in some of our darkest hours, namely after the 2006 war [with Israel].”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says he has been assured that “Armenia will not take any action against the security of Iran”, though Tehran is concerned about US influence in the region, referring to the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), a US-backed transport and trade corridor through southern Armenia, Al Jazeera reports.

“We are in direct contact with our Armenian friends and we know that they will not take any action against the security of Iran,” he is quoted as saying by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency. “We will continue our consultations with Armenian officials.”

Iraq has lost around $60 billion during the Middle East war, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein says, with Iran blockading the Strait of Hormuz, which is crucial to global energy flows, AFP reports.

“Iraq has suffered losses estimated at around $60bn during the recent war between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Hussein tells his Italian counterpart in Rome, according to a statement from the Iraqi foreign ministry.

Iranian Army spokesperson Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia says that collective security will be established in the region, with the participation of regional nations, and the global economy will improve if the US leaves the Middle East, according to state broadcaster Press TV.

“If it doesn’t leave, we’ll expel it,” Akraminia says of the US.

The Iranian Navy says that an oil tanker “violating maritime restrictions” in the Strait of Hormuz caught fire, state broadcaster Press TV reports.

The navy adds that the vessel attempted to navigate the waters after switching off its tracking systems.

Iran has managed to export some liquefied petroleum gas and jet fuel since July, despite a US naval blockade, Reuters reports, citing shipping intelligence and people involved in security.

Tehran has in recent weeks been concealing such cargoes among a growing volume of ship-to-ship transfers by other Gulf producers off Oman, four people in maritime security who track Gulf oil movements told Reuters.

The Iranian exports and methodology are reported for the first time here. While a fraction of its former energy exports, the cargoes are rare evidence of petroleum products getting through a blockade that has halted Iran’s crude exports.

Oil prices eased but were heading for weekly gains on uncertainty over Middle East supplies and a larger-than-expected draw from US crude stockpiles, while European diesel margins dropped following the IEA’s decision to release more diesel, Reuters reports.

Brent crude futures were down 47 cents, or 0.44 per cent, at $105.45 a barrel by 0747 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 62 cents, or 0.63pc, to $97.35.

WTI settled up more than 3pc on Thursday after a big US crude stock draw on hurricane production shut-ins.

Chief Commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Major General Amir Hatami has highlighted the enemy’s miscalculations in the recent war, stressing that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until the rights of the Iranian people are respected, IRNA reports.

Speaking in a ceremony at Imam Ali Officers’ University in Tehran on Thursday, Major General Hatami said that the enemy’s miscalculation was the reason for the outbreak of the war, noting that it had assumed Iran was in a weak position and underestimated the capabilities of the country’s Armed Forces.

He added that the Iranian Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) responded with full force, launching hundreds of strikes against the enemy from the earliest hours of the imposed war.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian urged countries to condemn what he called “ecocide” in the Middle East caused by “wars of aggression,” AFP reports.

Pezeshkian said the conflicts in Gaza and the wider Middle East had inflicted a significant toll on nature that extended beyond borders and required “international solutions”.

“What has occurred in our region as a result of wars of aggression is ecocide, or environmental genocide, and it must be condemned,” Pezeshkian told a nature summit in Armenia attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Around 10 Israeli military vehicles advanced near a dam in Daraa, southern Syria, as Israeli military aircraft flew over the area, TRT reported, citing Syrian state media Alikhbariah TV.

The report said the Israeli forces approached the Abdeen Dam while jets were flying over Daraa, which borders the occupied Golan Heights.

It added that Israeli forces opened fire indiscriminately towards farmland and searched homes in the eastern part of the village of Abdeen.

Ousted US Army Chief of Staff General Randy George warned months before the US-Israeli war against Iran that American missile defence stockpiles were critically low and could take until 2030 to recover, CBS News reported.

George raised the warning in late December, two months before the conflict began, according to US officials familiar with his assessment.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth removed him from his post in April as the war was under way.

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said early Friday that it intercepted and destroyed a drone heading toward Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, while Houthi-affiliated media reported artillery shelling in Yemen’s northern border province of Saada, Anadolu reports.

In a brief statement, the coalition announced the interception without identifying who launched the drone or specifying its intended target.

The statement provided no details on casualties or damage.

US President Donald Trump ruled out using nuclear weapons against Iran, saying Washington did not need them and emphasizing that the “mother of all bombs” was non-nuclear, Anadolu reports.

Asked during an interview Thursday with Newsmax about reports that his administration was considering using the bomb against Iran, potentially after the US midterm elections, Trump stressed that it was a conventional weapon.

“The mother of all bombs is not nuclear,” Trump said, adding: “This is just an extremely large bomb.”

He reiterated that the weapon was not nuclear.

Oil prices have eased on Friday but are heading for weekly gains on the uncertainty over Middle East supplies and a larger-than-expected crude stocks draw in the United States, Reuters reports.

Brent crude futures have fallen 71 cents, or 0.67 per cent, to $105.21 a barrel by 0352 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures are down 77 cents, or 0.79pc, to $97.20.

WTI settled up more than 3pc on Thursday after a big US crude stock draw on hurricane production shut-ins.

For this week so far, Brent increased 0.44pc, while WTI jumped 5.81pc.