War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

A senior Iranian commander has warned that any new aggression against his country will be met with a response far more forceful than previous attacks, Al Jazeera reports.

“The enemy should know that any aggression against the country’s territory will be met with a response even more forceful than before,” Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, the deputy army commander for coordination, said, according to Press TV.

“Today, the army of the Islamic Republic stands firmly and resolutely against any hostile move by the enemy,” he added.

US President Donald Trump has said he had secured guarantees from Iran that it would not develop nuclear weapons, as reports emerged he had sent a tougher peace proposal back to Tehran, AFP reports.

“The one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons. They’ve agreed to that, and it was very interesting,” he told his daughter-in-law Lara Trump in an interview broadcast on her Fox News programme on Saturday night.

But Tehran has previously cast doubt on Trump’s assertions and the parties appeared far apart on their key priorities.

Israel’s military has said its forces were advancing in Lebanon as part of expanded ground operations to strengthen its military position in the south of the country, according to AFP.

“A significant number of IDF ground soldiers commenced offensive operations aimed at expanding the Forward Defence Line… The operation is currently expanding to additional areas,” the Israeli military statement said, adding its forces had crossed the Litani river.

The Israeli military said it launched an operation “a few days ago” in the Beaufort Ridge and Wadi al-Saluki area in southern Lebanon, “with the aim of removing direct threats to the communities of the Galilee Panhandle and Metula, and as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen operational control in southern Lebanon”.

Spokeswoman Ella Waweya has said Israel’s military has launched “a large-scale operation” in the Shebaa Heights and the Wadi al-Salouqi area in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, she said the operation was “aimed at destroying terrorist infrastructure and eliminating saboteurs, as part of enhancing operational control in southern Lebanon and removing the direct threat to the Finger of the Galilee and the Metula settlement”.

“The operation began several days ago, with large ground forces,” Waweya said, adding that troops are “executing an offensive activity to expand the forward defence line”.

The Israeli forces “have crossed the Litani River and expanded their attacks against Hezbollah north of the river, while operations in the meantime are expanding to additional areas,” she said.

Waweya said that Israeli forces are “operating in the vicinity of Nabatieh,” and are “prepared and ready to expand the attack as required”.

A provision in a bill before the United States Congress could tie the American and Israeli militaries far more closely together, Al Jazeera reports.

The proposal, titled the “United States-Israel Defence Technology Cooperation Initiative”, appears as Section 224 of the House Armed Services Committee’s version of the fiscal year 2027 National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), the annual US defence policy bill.

The measure is still at an early stage. The NDAA is passed by Congress each year to set US military policy and authorise defence programmes and spending levels.

“If enacted, the provision could mark a major change in one of the world’s closest military relationships, shifting the two countries from a partnership centred largely on American military aid towards one in which their defence industries are more deeply intertwined,” the report read.

British foreign minister Yvette Cooper will travel to China tomorrow, and then onwards to India later in the week, with the visits to focus on global issues from the Strait of Hormuz and the Russia-Ukraine war to the recent Ebola outbreak, Reuters reports.

Cooper will meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on June 2, before travelling to the southern tech hub of Shenzhen for a programme focused on science and technology a day later, the government said.

Cooper’s travel to China and India — the world’s second-largest and sixth-largest economies — comes at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions, soaring oil prices following the US-Israeli war on Iran, and as Britain struggles with sluggish economic growth.

US President Donald Trump has sought to change several terms of a proposal to end the Middle East war, US media reports, according to AFP, as a finalised deal remains elusive among the parties.

The New York Times reported that Trump’s changes involved toughening the terms of the deal, and has sent the new framework back to be considered by Iran, according to officials familiar with the proceedings.

The report said it was not immediately clear what the changes entailed, but news site Axios reported Trump wanted to reinforce multiple points of the deal that he personally felt were important, such as what is done to Iran’s nuclear material.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has shot down a US drone that entered Iran’s territorial waters, according to Al Jazeera.

Iran’s IRIB broadcaster, carried a statement from the IRGC which said the MQ1 drone “attempted to carry out a hostile operation”.

“It was immediately detected and targeted by the Revolutionary Guard’s modern defence missiles and shot down,” it said.

IRGC said that “any aggression will be dealt with decisively”.

Donald Trump has said the US was “close to a very good deal” with Iran to end the war.

However, he added: “If you’re going to be in a hurry, you’re not going to make a good deal, and slowly but surely, we’re getting, I think, what we want — and if we don’t get what we want, we’re going to end it a different way.”

Al Jazeera reports that at least one person has been killed in an Israeli air strike near Nabih Berri Governmental University Hospital in Nabatieh, Lebanon.

Israel’s military continues to attack health facilities and medics in southern Lebanon. Attacking hospitals is a war crime under international law.

Lebanon’s prime minister has accused Israel of pursuing a “scorched-earth policy” in his country’s south, urging a halt to incessant air and artillery strikes, according to Al Jazeera.

A day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces had advanced deeper into Lebanon, his counterpart Nawaf Salam warned the country is facing a “dangerous” escalation and called for “a swift and real ceasefire”.

In a televised address, Salam accused Israel of “collective punishment” by “destroying towns and villages, and forcing their inhabitants into exile”.

This will bring “neither security nor stability” to Israel, he said.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has posted a video calling on Israel’s prime minister to “level the southern suburbs in Beirut to the ground” as Hezbollah heavily bombards northern Israel, Al Jazeera reports.

Posting on his Instagram account, Ben-Gvir said he opposed the previous ceasefire with Lebanon, calling for targeting the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, where Hezbollah has a significant presence.

He addressed Israel’s leader directly in the video, saying: “Dear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, I love and appreciate you, but now is the time to level the suburbs to the ground. We have appreciation for Trump and we must say thank you for the partnership. But the red line is the harm to soldiers or civilians, and the suburbs must be levelled to the ground.”

Hezbollah claims it launched 24 attacks yesterday targeting invading troops, military vehicles, and infrastructure as well as firing multiple rocket barrages at the Kiryat Shmona settlement in northern Israel, according to Al Jazeera.

In a statement, the group outlined its extensive use of rocket salvoes, artillery fire and attack drones to strike Israeli forces.

Key targets included five Merkava tanks, a military bulldozer, and military infrastructure in Safad, Nahariyya and Karmiel, the Meron air surveillance base, and Israel army barracks at Liman, Shomera, and Yaara.

Strikes focused heavily on repelling advancing soldiers around the areas of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, Yohmor al-Shaqif, Debel and al-Ghandouriyah, where the Lebanese group claimed to have carried out multiple ambushes and multi-weapon attacks.

The economic fallout from the US-Israeli war on Iran has added hundreds of dollars to household expenses across the United States, Al Jazeera reports citing a new analysis.

Data from Moody’s Analytics finds that the average US household spent an additional $447.19 on fuel-related costs since the conflict began on February 28.

The increase, driven by higher petrol prices and rising air fares, cost US consumers almost $60bn collectively over the past three months, CNBC reports.

Economists warn that the financial strain is likely to intensify if the conflict drags on.

“Unless the war ends soon, financially pressed consumers will have no option but to turn more cautious in their spending, threatening the already soft economy,” says Mark Zandi, Moody’s chief economist.

The analysis suggests that if energy prices remain at current levels, the average household could face nearly $2,000 in additional costs by the first anniversary of the war.

Israel’s Home Front Command is tightening its guidelines, forcing schools to close in areas along the border with Lebanon, according to Al Jazeera.

No educational activities will take place in communities, including Kiryat Shmona, Meron, Bar Yohai, Or HaGanuz, Safsufa, Yesud HaMa’ala, Kisra-Sumei, Beit Jann, and Sde Eliezer, a statement published on Telegram says.

In the Upper Galilee and northern Golan, along with Katzrin and Kidmat Tzvi, educational activities “may be held in a structure or in a location from which a standard protected space can be reached within the required protection time”.

Workplaces can operate in all of those areas, provided an adequate shelter can be reached in time. According to the guidelines, gatherings are restricted to 50 people outdoors and 200 indoors, and beaches are closed.

The guidelines remain in effect until 1800 GMT on Monday.

Hezbollah claims its fighters have carried out a series of attacks against Israeli military positions and infrastructure in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reports.

In separate statements, the group says the operations included the destruction of an Israeli military vehicle near the Lebanese village of Yohmor al-Shaqif, after it was targeted by Ababil attack drones.

A drone attack on the Yaara barracks in northern Israel was also reported, with Hezbollah claiming to use a squadron of drones.

Additionally, a strike on an Israeli army command headquarters in the southern Lebanese village of Naqoura was also claimed with a squadron of drones, along with a missile barrage targeting Israeli military infrastructure in the city of Nahariyya, in northern Israel.

US Central Command (Centcom) says it has disabled another commercial vessel reportedly attempting to run the naval blockade of Iranian ports.

In a post on X, Centcom says US forces observed the Lian Star merchant vessel transiting international waters toward an Iranian port in the Gulf of Oman, and issued more than 20 warnings informing the vessel it was violating the US blockade.

“A US aircraft disabled the vessel by firing a Hellfire missile into the ship’s engine room after Lian Star’s crew failed to comply. The ship is no longer transiting to Iran,” the statement reads. “US forces have disabled five commercial vessels and redirected 116 to fully enforce the blockade as a ceasefire with Iran remains in effect.”

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has stressed that diplomatic efforts need to be intensified to achieve a ceasefire with Israel, Al Jazeera reports.

“What we have witnessed is not just an Israeli expansion and crossing, as Israel does not target specific locations but rather adopts a policy of total destruction,” he says, speaking from the government palace. “What Israel is doing is not only a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty but an act of erasing history.”

Regarding the ongoing truce negotiations, he says the “decision of war and peace remains a national decision”.

He has also addressed the people in the south of the country who have been displaced from their homes because of Israel’s ground invasion. 

“Your pain is the pain of all of Lebanon,” said Salam. “Trust that the Lebanese state will spare no effort to establish a ceasefire, the return of prisoners, and reconstruction.”

Austria’s coalition government says it will further shrink its recently introduced “petrol price brake”, an inflation-fighting measure aimed at cushioning consumers from the rise in oil prices caused by the Iran war, according to Reuters.

The mechanism, which combines trimming retailers’ margins and returning an increased value-added tax take from higher fuel prices to consumers in the form of lower petrol tax, requires the government to set the size of those two elements each month.

Currently, the reduction in margins is set at €2.5 euro cents per litre and the tax reduction at €2 cents per litre. From June 1, the margin cut will be scrapped and the tax reduction trimmed to €1.7 cents per litre, the economy ministry says in a statement.

Lebanon’s health ministry says Israeli attacks on the country have killed at least 3,371 people and wounded 10,129 others since March 2, Al Jazeera reports.

On Friday, at least 14 people were killed in Israeli air raids in southern Lebanon.

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters has reasserted Tehran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, warning commercial and military vessels to comply with regulations governing passage through the strategic waterway, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement reported on Iranian media, the command says: “The management of the Strait of Hormuz is exercised with full authority by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“All ships, commercial vessels, and tankers are only required to travel through the designated routes and obtain permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. Any violation of these regulations will seriously jeopardise the security of their traffic,” it adds.

Iran has also issued a warning to foreign military forces operating in the area, saying any attempt to interfere with maritime management or shipping movements would trigger a response.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has denounced what he calls a “dangerous and unprecedented” Israeli escalation in the south, urging an immediate ceasefire and insisting that a “scorched-earth policy” will not ensure Israel’s security, AFP reports.

In a televised address, Salam has also defended his government’s direct negotiations with Israel, saying that the talks are the “least costly path” for Lebanon.