War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

The spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says US aggression against the country exposed Washington’s strategic vulnerabilities, state-run Press TV reports.

Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi said that Iran had changed a long-standing US approach in which Washington sought through its military campaigns to shift the costs of war beyond its own borders by involving other countries.

“However, the Ramadan War saw those costs return to the United States itself,” Mohebbi stated.

“This power was the result of the capabilities of the armed forces as they were able to return the costs of the war to the opposing side,” he added.

Mohebbi also noted that Iran’s military operations demonstrated its ability to affect global supply chains, particularly in the energy sector, with consequences extending beyond the region.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, has told China’s ambassador that the Strait of Hormuz “will not be opened until the United States changes its behavior and accepts Iran’s conditions,” Al Jazeera reports citing Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

He said the US is “the source of insecurity” in the the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman, accusing it of imposing “an illegal war” that has put the entire region at risk. Rezaei said Washington “must end the war” and release Iran’s blocked funds, along with ending conflict across the region, including in Lebanon and Gaza.

He added that any Iran-Oman agreement on a route through the Strait of Hormuz would remain “separate” from the broader issue of the Strait’s closure.

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, commenting on the recently signed defence agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, has said that Qatar “welcomes any regional cooperation for the sake of security and stability and defence in the region”.

He said that Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye were all countries that Qatar shared good relations with, saying, “We welcome this step and we support it.”

Yemen’s coastguard says alleged strikes by the Houthi rebels on a cargo vessel killed at least six people near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait off the country’s southern coast, AFP reports.

The coastguard from Yemen’s internationally recognised government said four sailors aboard the cargo vessel — identified as the “Tihamah” — were among the dead along with two members of the forces deployed during a rescue mission to evacuate the ship.

The initial salvo targeting the ship “caused a fire to break out aboard the vessel and inflicted extensive damage, in addition to causing deaths and injuries among its crew, including three Pakistani nationals and one Indonesian national killed,” the coastguard said in a statement.

A second strike targeted the vessel as rescue workers carried out a mission to evacuate the ship.

“The attack struck the site of the rescue operation and resulted in deaths and injuries among the forces participating in the response operation,” the coast guard added, saying 10 people were injured over the course of the strikes.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has exchanged views on regional and international developments, including the “evolving situation concerning US-Iran engagements”, in a phone conversation with Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Sugiono, according to the Foreign Office (FO).

A statement by the FO said that Sugiono appreciated Pakistan’s role in promoting dialogue and facilitating efforts towards peace and stability.

The two ministers also discussed bilateral relations, reaffirming their commitment to further strengthening cooperation between the countries.

The newly-appointed secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, says Iran will prioritise strengthening deterrence, resisting the bullying of adversaries and responding “immediately and decisively” to any aggression, according to state-run Press TV.

In his first message following his appointment, he said that the objective was not simply to steer Iran through a difficult period, but to ensure that the country emerged from it “safer, more united, more powerful and with greater capacities for progress and development”.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran, Fars news agency reports.

The Iranian agency posted a photo on social media of the two ministers shaking hands, a few hours after Mehr news agency reported that Naqvi had arrived in Tehran for discussions on “bilateral ties and issues of mutual interest”.

Trump adds in his comments on the Iran conflict to Real America’s Voice that Iran is economically “a mess”.

“They can’t borrow money. We control their money … they had a lot, and we have total control,” the US president said, quipping, “I’m their banker.”

US President Donald Trump, in comments on right-wing US channel Real America’s Voice, says Iran’s negotiators are “devious” and “dishonest”.

“They’re very devious negotiators because they’ll agree to something, then they’ll go out and tell the press that they never agreed to it. They’re very dishonest people,” he said in an interview with Wayne Allyn Root.

He added that Iran’s economic situation and inflation was unsustainable, suggesting that the US could either wait and “just keep that going”, or “hit them really, really hard”.

The third option, he said, was to “beat them economically — but we’re doing that anyway”.

A former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency has claimed its spies had visited Iran’s Fordow nuclear site “many times” in the past in order to better understand the facility, AFP reports.

The US military briefly joined Israel during the 12-day conflict with Iran last year, and used its advanced aircraft to bomb three Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

“We toured the Fordow nuclear site many times to understand the site,” Yossi Cohen, who led the Mossad between 2015 and 2021, claimed during a conference of local authorities, Israeli media reported.

He didn’t elaborate on when exactly the visits took place or who made them.

An alleged strike by Houthis on a cargo vessel has killed at least four people near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait off the coast of southern Yemen, the country’s internationally recognised government says according to AFP.

The Yemeni government’s transport ministry accused the Houthis of launching the salvo that hit a cargo vessel named the “Tihamah” with “three successive ballistic-missile strikes while it was sailing through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait”.

“The Houthi attack on the vessel which was carrying food supplies sparked a fire on board, killed four crew members — three Pakistanis and one Indonesian — and injured four others, as well as a member of the rescue team,” said the ministry.

Meanwhile, a source from the Yemeni government forces based in the port city of Mokha said five people had been killed in the incident.

Iran’s acting defence minister says that although Iran has always sought peace and stability in the region, this peace “should not mean accepting illegitimate demands and imposing the will of the opposing side”, according to Fars news agency.

In a phone conversation with Malaysia’s defence minister, Ibn-i-Reza said that the continued aggressions by Israel was considered one of the primary factors of insecurity in the region.

The Malaysian defence minister, meanwhile, said that his country stood alongside Iran to help establish global peace and security.

Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Naqvi has arrived in Tehran for talks with Iranian officials, Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reports.

Local Iranian media, citing diplomatic sources, said Naqvi departed Islamabad for the Iranian capital earlier today for talks on bilateral ties and issues of mutual interest.

The visit comes a month after Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni travelled to Islamabad for talks with Naqvi.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Iran has won on both the battlefield and the diplomatic front during the recent US-Israeli aggression and last year’s 12-day war, stressing that Iranian resistance ultimately forced the enemy to seek negotiations, state-run IRNA reports.

“Iran rendered the world’s largest conventional army incapable and defeated it. This is not a slogan; it is a reality,” Araghchi said.

He noted that the same enemy that called for “unconditional surrender” on the first day of the war was seeking negotiations about 20 days later.

He added that Iran also demonstrated during the diplomatic process that it knew how to defend its interests.

The United States and Iran are close to “some sort of an arrangement”, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has told Bloomberg News in an interview published today, according to Reuters.

“Things are shaping up again in favour of a peace arrangement or a deal,” Asif told Bloomberg News.

“The signals in the last two three days are that we are close to some sort of an arrangement,” he added.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun says negotiations with Israel are “making progress”, but insists that his country will not accept any continued Israeli presence on its territory, Al Jazeera reports.

“There is no disagreement among the Lebanese on the goals, from the Israeli withdrawal and the return of the prisoners, to the reconstruction of what has been destroyed,” Aoun said, according to a statement from the Lebanese presidency following a meeting with a delegation from the Maronite Institution for Propagation.

“In the end, we will not allow Israel to remain, not even on a single inch of our land, nor a single soldier of its army to stay on our soil,” he added.

Aoun said negotiations remained preferable to “the outcomes of the destructive war waged against us”, adding that Israeli attacks had been reduced since the signing of the framework for talks.

The chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces has congratulated Major General Ahmad Vahidi on his appointment as commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), stressing the armed forces’ readiness to provide strategic support to the IRGC, state-run IRNA reports.

In a message congratulating Vahidi on his appointment and promotion, Major General Ali Abdollahi said “greater unity, coordination, and strategic cooperation among the Armed Forces would help reinforce Iran’s deterrent power and strengthen its ability to confront threats and hostile plots”, according to IRNA.

He said the General Staff would mobilise its capacities to strengthen the IRGC’s defence and security capabilities in response to “emerging regional and extra-regional threats”.

An attack on a small cargo ship by Yemen’s Houthis in the Bab el-Mandeb strait has killed three crew members, two Yemeni coast guard sources and two military officials in the government say according to Reuters.

If confirmed, the fatalities on the Tanzania-flagged Tihamah would be the first deaths in a Houthi strike on a ship since the Middle East conflict was triggered.

A cargo vessel in the southern Red Sea has been struck by an unknown projectile off the coast of al-Makha, Yemen, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) on X, Al Jazeera reports.

UKMTO says it had been informed that the vessel “has been hit by an unknown projectile resulting in casualties… Authorities are investigating”.

“Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity to UKMTO,” it has added.

Majed al-Ansari, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, says negotiations between Oman and Iran have reached an advanced stage, Al Jazeera reports.

The negotiations are at a critical juncture, he says, adding that Doha supports all efforts for deescalation in the region.

“As mediators, we want the Strait of Hormuz reopened as soon as possible,” the official has added.

Israeli military vehicles have pushed from the village of Haddatha towards the eastern edge of Aita al-Jabal village in south Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil district, Al Jazeera cites Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.

The advance on Tuesday is accompanied by machine gun fire sweeping Aita al-Jabal’s eastern outskirts, NNA has said.

The vehicles then pulled back to Haddatha, where they took up a position on a hill overlooking the village.

The incursion is the latest in a series of Israeli movements around Bint Jbeil, a border district that has seen repeated ground activity and shelling despite a fragile ceasefire.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) says it has received a report of an incident “involving a container ship and military forces in the Gulf of Oman”.

The UKMTO has not given any further details of the incident but says authorities are aware and relevant investigations remain ongoing.

Lebanon’s Civil Defence says its personnel were targeted by an Israeli drone while responding to a fire in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon, as more details emerge about a series of attacks there earlier today, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the Lebanese General Directorate of the Civil Defence has condemned the “targeting of Civil Defence personnel while performing their humanitarian duty”.

“While personnel from the General Directorate of the Civil Defence were extinguishing a grass fire in the Nabatieh area, they were targeted by a drone,” it says.

The attack forced the firefighting teams to withdraw to a safe location, the statement adds. No members of the team were injured.

The Middle East cannot remain indefinitely in a state of neither war nor peace, Anwar Gargash, a senior diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, has said, adding that the region’s stability and the future of its peoples “require clarity in vision and direction”, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, Gargash says the coming phase cannot be built on “shaky foundations or arrangements detached from international law”.

“The goal is to transition to sustainable stability governed by clear and shared rules,” he writes.

Gargash has also stressed the principles of “peaceful coexistence, respect for sovereignty, and the logic of peace” as essential pillars for any durable settlement.