War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

US President Donald Trump has said the biggest problem for him is that nobody knows who is running Iran, Reuters reports.

“Their second group of leaders are gone, and the biggest problem I have is nobody knows who the hell is running the country,” Trump said.

US Vice President JD Vance has said in an exclusive interview with Reuters that Iran must make a meaningful reduction in its nuclear enrichment capacity to satisfy US demands and end the country’s seven-month war, even as Washington was unsure how Tehran makes decisions in negotiations.

Vance, a longtime sceptic of US involvement in foreign wars, has taken a leading role in negotiating a settlement to the conflict and brokered a provisional peace agreement in June that quickly fell apart. The war has jolted global energy markets and become a political liability for President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans ahead of November midterm elections.

Speaking on Monday after a campaign trip in Alaska, Vance said any agreement would require Iran to reduce its nuclear enrichment capacity, rather than offer assurances of future nuclear drawdowns.

“If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60 per cent enriched fuel? And if you want to show commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, don’t build highly enriched fuel. That’s a very basic threshold issue,” Vance said.

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The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Houthis said Wednesday it had shot down a ballistic missile north of Riyadh, AFP reports.

“A ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi militia north of Riyadh was intercepted and destroyed,” the coalition’s spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki wrote on X.

Oil prices rose Wednesday and stocks fell amid fresh concerns about Middle East supplies following a warning that Iran appeared to be stepping up attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, AFP reports.

The retreat came as investors brushed off another record day on Wall Street where the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were boosted by a rush back into the AI trade that saw chip titan Nvidia push towards a $6 trillion market capitalisation.

However, both contracts rebounded on Tuesday and rose in early Asian trade, as figures showed Tehran had increased strikes on tankers in the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

UK Maritime Trade Operations said there had been nine attacks so far this month, half of all of September in the waterway and Persian Gulf combined.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthis claimed an attack on Riyadh’s main airport and denied reports it had been pushed back by government forces, who have launched a major operation to recapture lost territory.

The Kuwaiti cabinet has strongly condemned Houthi attacks against Makkah and Madina in Saudi Arabia, Al Jazeera reports, citing the Kuwait News Agency.

The cabinet affirmed that the attacks “constitute a provocation to the feelings of Muslims around the world and a dangerous escalation in violating the sanctity of Islamic holy sites”.

Six civilians have been killed in attacks launched by the Houthis in Yemen’s al-Mawasit and al-Misrakh districts in the southern Taiz governorate, Al Jazeera reports, citing the interior ministry.

Women and children were among four others injured in the attacks, it said.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree says the group has thwarted attempts by Yemeni government forces to advance towards the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, one of the world’s most important shipping routes, Al Jazeera reports.

According to Saree, the Houthis – also known as Ansarullah – targeted the internationally recognised government forces with 10 ballistic missiles, resulting in dozens of casualties and the destruction of several vehicles.

Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni has appreciated Pakistan, along with Qatar, for their role as a mediator in regional developments, Press TV reports, citing the statement by the minister.

He had a meeting with Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani during his visit to Doha.

“We discussed regional developments and expressed our appreciation for the fair and mediating role of Qatar, together with Pakistan,” he said.

Iranian defense ministry spokesperson, Reza Talaei-Nik, says any US or Israeli aggression against Iran will face a firm response, stressing the country’s readiness to counter threats, IRNA reports.

Talaei-Nik said the resistance and national power were key to completing “the enemy’s defeat and safeguarding Iran’s rights”.

He also said domestic production of weapons and defence equipment had reached 2.5 times its level before the recent war, up from double the pre-war level announced three months earlier.

The increase was attributed to the capacity of knowledge-based companies and Iran’s defence industries, with production of some weapons rising more than threefold through private-sector participation.

Talaei-Nik warned that any renewed miscalculation by Iran’s adversaries would be met by more advanced weapons and equipment and a heavier response from the armed forces.

The Saudi cabinet has issued a statement, reiterating support for the Presidential Leadership Council and the Yemeni people “to end the coup” and “restore the state and its institutions from the terrorist Houthi militia”, Al Jazeera reports, citing the Saudi Press Agency.

It accused Houthi forces of choosing military escalation as an alternative to peace and of deepening humanitarian suffering as a result.

Houthi forces continue to “threaten the region and navigation in the southern Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb strait”, the cabinet added.

The internationally recognised Yemeni government’s forces have shot down a Houthi drone west of the Marib governorate in a single shot, according to the forces and Yemeni media, Al Jazeera reports.

Footage circulating in Yemeni media showed the armed forces boasting about what they called the “ghost” drone being brought down, while an incapacitated device lay in the sand.

A suspected plot involving Iran to launch a complex drone attack on a key British airbase led the United States to remove its B-1 bomber aircraft from the base, two US officials told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Iran has denied any involvement in any alleged plot at RAF Fairford, the preferred European base for US bombers. British police said they had arrested a 22-year-old British man in London on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts as part of their investigation into the suspected plot.

A spokesperson for the US military’s European Command declined to comment, saying: “It is inappropriate to discuss matters of intelligence, and we will not discuss specific force protection measures.

“As demonstrated across multiple operations, America’s bombers, including B-1s, B-2s, and B-52s can deliver precision global strike capabilities including through operations that launch and recover from the continental United States anywhere, anytime,” the spokesperson said.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) raised its oil price forecast for this year and next year, as global stockpiles fall rapidly and diesel markets remain tight due to the ongoing Iran war, Reuters reports.

Global benchmark Brent crude is now expected to average about $98 a barrel in 2026, up 8 per cent from the EIA’s previous forecast, the agency said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook.

Oil and fuel prices have risen dramatically due to the US-Israeli war on Iran, which in turn has disrupted oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about 20pc of global oil supplies before the war.

The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Houthis said that its forces intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the group at the kingdom’s southwest.

The coalition’s spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki said it “intercepted and destroyed” the missile launched towards Khamis Mushait, which is home to an airbase.

The League of Arab States has denounced what is said were Houthi attacks on two airports in Saudi Arabia, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement, the league condemned the attacks on the airports near the Yemeni border – King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International in Jazan and Najran – adding that putting travellers and staff in danger was a clear violation of Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty.

The league, consisting of 22 members across the Middle East and North Africa, also reaffirmed their support for the internationally recognised Yemeni government.

The White House has pushed back after Democrats accused President Donald Trump of suggesting Iran should “take out” the major US cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, AFP reports.

Viral footage showed comments by Trump at a midterm elections rally in Nebraska on Monday, where he said high oil prices from the Iran war were justified by the need to stop Tehran getting nuclear weapons.

The White House insisted Trump was talking about the threat posed by Iran, branding it a “media freakout” that was “not rooted in reality.”

“He was clearly stating US cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said on X.

The West’s energy watchdog will meet next week to work out the details of a diesel stock release as market confusion grows over how many barrels Europe and the US plan to make available to address shortages and record-high prices, sources say according to Reuters.

The governing board of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which advises industrialised countries and manages their strategic oil reserves, is expected to decide the details of the stocks release at an Oct 14-15 board meeting, two people close to the matter say.

The IEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what was expected to be decided at the board meeting.

Mohsen Rezaei, the chairman of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, says that the US has lost the military war and “will fail in the economic war, too”.

Commenting on the US Treasury secretary’s forecasts on the Iranian economy, he said that these “delusional forecasts never had any credibility in the first place”. “His latest propaganda will have an equally short shelf life.”

“You lost the military war. You will fail in the economic war, too,” he declared, adding, “Hormuz will not be opened by threats or pressure. Iran will not back down.”

Iran’s defence ministry spokesperson says that the country’s weapons capacity has greatly increased since before the war began, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

“Iran’s capacity to produce weapons and defence equipment has increased 2.5 times compared with before the Ramadan war,” IRIB quoted the spokesperson as saying.

He added that the production of some weapons had risen more than threefold.

US Central Command (Centcom) refutes Iranian media’s claim that a US Navy MH-60R helicopter crashed in the Red Sea last night.

In a post on X, Centcom said, “Reports of a downed US Navy helicopter in the Red Sea are not true. All US military aircraft and personnel across the Middle East are safe and accounted for.”

More than 2.2 million children under five in Yemen are acutely malnourished, over half a million of them severely, the UN says, according to Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera reports that France has pledged an additional €3 million ($3.36m) to support Yemen following the internal displacement of nearly 200,000 people, according to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

Fighting across Yemen has killed more than 270 government troops and Iran-backed Houthi fighters over the past day, sources on both sides told AFP.

Fighting has intensified in Yemen since the internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, launched a counter-offensive aimed at recovering territory seized by Houthi fighters last month.

Government sources told AFP on condition of anonymity that 115 troops had died over the past 24 hours, and that dozens of others were wounded in fighting, and by Houthi missile and drone attacks.

The focus of the violence is on southwest Yemen, around the Bab al-Mandab strait that is crucial to global energy flows.