War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi has condemned Iranian attacks against Bahrain and Kuwait, calling them a “dangerous and unprecedented escalation”, Anadolu reports.

In a statement, Albudaiwi denounces the attacks on “civilian objects, infrastructure, headquarters and diplomatic missions” in the two Gulf states.

He adds that the attacks constitute a “dangerous and unprecedented escalation” and reflect the “Iranian regime’s insistence on pursuing rejected hostile policies targeting the security, stability and sovereignty of the GCC states“.

Albudaiwi further says that the continued attacks demonstrate Iran’s persistence in pursuing policies aimed at undermining regional security “in blatant defiance of international law, the UN Charter and all international norms”.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has condemned the attack on civilians in the international airport in Kuwait.

“Our total solidarity is with the people of Kuwait and our partners in the Gulf who deserve security,” Cooper said. “It is vital the ceasefire is sustained and we urge Iran to engage fully in dialogue to achieve peace.”

Hezbollah claims it has shelled a gathering of Israeli soldiers near the southern Lebanese town of Adayseh, according to Al Jazeera.

In a statement published on their Telegram channel, Hezbollah claims its fighters targeted Israeli troops at Jall al-Hammar in the Adayseh area at 12:50pm local time using artillery shells.

The group says the attack was carried out “in defence of Lebanon and its people” and in response to Israeli breaches of the ceasefire.

The European Union (EU) has proposed that the bloc’s Aspides naval mission take “the primary role” in clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz, when conditions allow, as part of a Franco-British-led initiative, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The European External Action Service has written in a note dated May 26 and sent to member states that, “the situation requires the Union to provide a meaningful contribution” to a coalition led by France and Britain, “to be materialised once conditions allow and separated from the belligerents”.

Changing the Aspides mission’s mandate would require unanimity, and it remains unclear if the EUs 27 member countries would back such a change.

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Kuwait has demanded that two Iranian embassy staff leave the country within 24 hours after an Iranian attack on the country’s airport killed one person and injured dozens more, AFP reports.

Kuwait’s deputy foreign affairs minister Hamad Suleiman Al-Mashaan has summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in Kuwait, Hamed Hamid Yaqoubi Far, and “handed him an official protest note regarding the continued Iranian attacks and the decision to reduce the number of members of the Iranian embassy in the country and to consider two members of the Iranian diplomatic mission persona non grata, and request their departure from the territory of the State of Kuwait within a maximum period of 24 hours”, the ministry said in a statement.

At least two paramedics have been killed in the latest Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reports, citing Lebanon’s National News Agency.

The Public Health Ministry says in a statement carried by NNA that the pair were killed when an “Israeli enemy strike directly targeted an ambulance” that belonged to the Al-Risala Association in Shouhour, in Tyre.

Another paramedic was critically injured and required immediate attention in the operating room, the statement adds.

In the Al-Zahrani district, an enemy drone has launched an air raid on the town of Kawthariyat al-Ruz. Israel has also launched a raid on Maifadoun, NNA reports.

US President Donald Trump has brushed off criticism of his unpredictable approach in handling the Iran conflict, saying his positions change as facts on the ground shift, Al Jazeera reports.

“It’s good if they’re confused, and the Iranians are confused,” Trump says in an interview on the ‘Pod Force One’ podcast. “But no, it’s just the way I am. It changes. I could leave here, I could give you an answer, and then in 20 minutes go into the Oval Office, and I’ll realise my answer is now incorrect. Facts change and things change quickly.”

The US president has described the war on Iran as a deliberate choice he could not delay.

“I couldn’t, I know, because this is too important. If I did that, they would have had a nuclear weapon. They would have had a nuclear weapon two weeks after the B-2 bomber struck. So if I did that, they would have had a nuclear weapon.”

Trump described the unprovoked attack as a necessary “excursion”.

“They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, lots of other good things are going to happen.”

Kuwait can restore nearly 70 per cent of its oil production within six to eight weeks after the Strait of Hormuz reopens, Reuters reports citing the Kuwait Petroleum Company’s (KPC) managing director for international marketing, Shaikh Khaled Ahmad Al-Sabah.

The remaining 30pc would take about another month, he tells the S&P Global Energy Middle East Petroleum and Gas Conference.

Separately, Al-Sabah says the KPC can restore its refinery output to normal levels in around two to three weeks. KPC has about 1.4 million barrels per day of refining capacity, he adds.

The Indian embassy in Kuwait has expressed its condolences over the death of an Indian national in an attack on the Gulf state’s international airport.

“The embassy is in touch with the bereaved family and is closely coordinating with the Kuwaiti authorities to render all possible support and assistance to the bereaved family, as well as those injured in the incident,” it says in a post on X.

The Israeli military says it has intercepted two projectiles that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon, Reuters reports.

Earlier, it said it had intercepted a “hostile aircraft” that entered Israel from Lebanon, without attributing it to Hezbollah.

The group has declined to comment on either incident and referred Reuters to its official statements on military operations.

Kuwait says it detected 30 ballistic missiles and drones launched as part of a “heinous Iranian aggression”, AFP reports.

“Since dawn today, the armed forces have detected and engaged 13 hostile ballistic missiles within Kuwaiti airspace. These missiles were intercepted over several residential areas, resulting in some debris falling,” defence ministry spokesman Saud Abdulaziz al-Atwan says.

“The armed forces also detected and engaged 17 hostile drones. This heinous Iranian aggression targeted civilian and vital facilities.”

Bangladesh has raised electricity prices by 16 per cent, the latest increase as the government seeks to ease pressure on state finances caused by the conflict in the Middle East, AFP reports.

Jalal Ahmed, chairman of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission, announced the 16pc hike two days after fuel prices were raised, taking kerosene to 135 taka ($1.09) per litre up from 130, and petrol to 140 taka from 135. Diesel was unchanged.

According to the government’s Bangladesh Power Development Board, around 44pc of installed capacity comes from natural gas, 24pc from coal, and another 24pc from oil and diesel.

The South Asian nation of 170 million people depends heavily on imports for its energy needs. Repeated price hikes have added strain on people struggling with long-running inflation which hit 9.04 per cent in April.

Many airlines have been hit hard by price swings in the jet fuel market, while others are not in a position to hedge their exposure, the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s head of fuel Daniel Chereau says, according to Reuters.

Some airlines with more elaborate hedging strategies get a bit of a cushion, but the impact of soaring jet fuel refinery profit margins, known as crack spreads, has not been helpful for the airline industry, Chereau told the S&P Global Energy Middle East Petroleum and Gas Conference.

US President Donald Trump has rejected suggestions that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu manipulated him into launching the war on Iran, saying the decision was entirely his own, according to Al Jazeera.

“He tricked me? I’m the one that started it,” Trump says on ‘Pod Force One’, adding that he acted because “we can’t let them (Iran) have a nuclear weapon”.

Trump attributes the claims to political opponents. “They’re just the Dumbocrats. These are people that don’t know what they’re doing,” he says.

The US president adds that his concern over Iran’s nuclear programme dates back to his first term, when he withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated under the administration of President Barack Obama.

“That pertains to Israel because they probably would have been the first one to get hit. I’ll tell you what, if it wasn’t for me, there would be no Israel right now.”

Iran’s Tasnim news agency has disputed US President Donald Trump’s stance that the talks between the two sides were “rapidly evolving”.

“Tasnim‘s information indicates that over the past few days, Iran has given no response to the Americans regarding the text of the agreement, and due to the crimes of the Zionist regime in Lebanon, it has in practice also suspended the exchange of texts through intermediaries until Iran’s conditions regarding Lebanon are met,” the outlet said on X.

It added, “Therefore, Trump’s claim that Iran is confirming the matter is completely at odds with reality.”

Iran’s foreign ministry has strongly condemned overnight US attacks against an Iranian oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and a telecommunications tower on Qeshm Island, vowing that Tehran will use “all its capabilities” to confront acts of aggression, including by striking their origin and source, Press TV reports.

In a statement, the ministry said the “aggressive actions” were launched in the early hours of Wednesday from “two countries in the region”, which it later identified as Kuwait and Bahrain.

“These aggressive actions not only violate the ceasefire understanding of April 9 but also constitute a flagrant violation of the fundamental principle prohibiting the use of force under Article 2, Paragraph 4 of the United Nations Charter and international law,” the ministry said.

The statement hit out at Washington’s “colonial use of the territory and facilities of regional countries to advance its aggressive plans against Iran” and noted the “direct and clear responsibility of the rulers of Kuwait and Bahrain in relation to last night’s aggressive actions”.

On the Iranian leadership that the US was negotiating with, Trump said, “We had various levels of people and the first set is gone, the second set is gone, part of the third set is gone.

“And the people that we’re dealing with, we know they’re the people that are leading the country right now,” he added.

Trump has said that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is “involved” in the US-Iran indirect negotiations.

“He’s involved. Absolutely,” Trump responded when asked if Khamenei was among the leaders the US side was in contact with.

“I think they have a lot of respect for him,” he said. Asked whether Khamenei was in good enough health, Trump said, “I don’t know. I haven’t had the privilege of meeting him. But I’m not hearing he’s doing great. You’re doing better.”

He further said, “We seem to be getting along quite well.”

Asked who was making decisions in Iran, Trump said, “They say he (Khamenei) is giving approval, because that’s the way it has been for a long long time.”

Asked if he would like to meet the Iranian supreme leader, the US president said, “It’s a very good question. I’ll think of it. Yeah, I’d like to meet him. I’d like to meet everybody […] We probably will meet at some point, depending on how it all works out.”

An Iranian attack on Kuwait’s airport has wounded at least 63 people, AFP reports quoting the health ministry, with authorities earlier reporting one person killed.

Health ministry spokesman Abdullah al-Sanad says 25 ambulances were dispatched at Kuwait International Airport, adding that “63 injured individuals were received and distributed among hospitals … This includes serious injuries … including head wounds, cerebral haemorrhages, amputations and injuries resulting from explosions.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has claimed an attack against Kuwait, which it says was in retaliation for US attacks on an Iranian oil tanker and island, AFP reports.

“In response to this aggression, the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, which hosts helicopters, as well as the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, were targeted with missiles and drones by the Guards’ forces,” the Guards add in a statement on their official Telegram channel.

Middle East oil refineries could return to more normal production levels in 40-60 days from the end of the current oil supply crisis linked to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports citing Vitol Bahrain’s regional head of research, Bader Nooruddin.

“That timeline would take production up to around 90-95 per cent of refinery production,” he says at the S&P Global Energy Middle East Petroleum and Gas Conference.

“Middle East Gulf refineries, including Oman, which sits to the south of Hormuz, have lost around 3 million barrels per day of oil refining capacity due to shut-ins,” Nooruddin adds.

Asked about whether his “other way” would involve only bombing, Trump said, “Yeah, you don’t have to. We don’t need boots on the ground.”

Claiming that the US “wiped out” much of Iran’s military with just bombing, Trump said, “We didn’t put anybody on the ground. You don’t want to do that. You’re so far away.”

US President Donald Trump has said in a podcast interview that gas prices in the United States would come down when the Iran conflict ends and that inflation at the moment is not “very much,” Reuters reports.

“We don’t have very much inflation. Look, if you take away just the price of gasoline, the energy, we have very little inflation,” Trump told the podcast.

US President Donald Trump has reiterated his claim that the US military wiped out Iran’s navy and air force.

“Their navy’s wiped out. Their air force is all gone after three days. Their military was virtually wiped out,” he said.

“Now we have to make a determination — do we sign a deal or we do it the other way. And the other way is not nice,” he added.

Asked what the “other way” would achieve, Trump responded that it would give “certainty” of the war being over.

“But I’d rather do it the nice way from a humanitarian standpoint,” the US president added.