Pakistan hosts the first round of face-to-face talks between the US and Iran in 47 years in April; the talks end without a breakthrough, but also without a breakdown
US, Iran hold high-level talks in Switzerland on June 20 after signingpreliminary agreement to end the war; hold talks in Doha on July 1, with mediators citing “positive progress”
US launches strikes on Iran on July 8 in response to attacks on ships in Hormuz, Tehran retaliates as strait heats up again
Yemen’s civil war flares up after Saudi-backed government attacks Sanaa airport
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Saudi FM Prince Faisal bin Farhan have “underscored the importance of continued dialogue and diplomatic engagement in promoting regional peace and stability”, the Foreign Office says.
US President Donald Trump has ruled out firing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, despite suffering bruising midterm election losses that the US president has blamed on the war against Iran, AFP reports.
“No, I think he’s doing a very good job,” Trump says when asked if he was considering replacing Hegseth.
US President Donald Trump has acknowledged that the Iran war was the key factor in his party’s sweeping midterm election losses, after Vice President JD Vance urged Republicans to be “honest” about the unpopular conflict’s impact, AFP reports.
Asked if he agreed with Vance’s remark that the way was “the reason we lost,” Trump, speaking to reporters at his White House ballroom construction site, says: “I think it’s largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit short term. But at the same time, if I had it to do again, I’d have to do it again. Because long term, it’s the only answer. You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
US President Donald Trump says the Iran war has been worthwhile despite acknowledging its role in losses in US midterm elections in which his Republicans were driven from control of Congress, Reuters reports.
“The Iran thing we had to do, and we continue to do it,” he tells reporters.
The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, has commented on the Democrats sweeping the US midterm elections, saying that the Iranian nation “handed Trump a strategic defeat on the battlefield and in the Hormuz — and a political defeat in Washington”.
“Meanwhile, Americans got stuck with the bill for his war,” he writes on X.
He warns that anyone who takes on Iran “will pay the price — from the battlefield to their own doorstep”.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it has brought medical supplies into Yemen’s Taiz for the first time in weeks since the Houthis surrounded the city, AFP reports.
The ICRC “delivered four trucks of essential medical supplies to Taiz city, including surgical kits to help hospitals treat weapon-wounded patients,” it says in a statement.
“This is the ICRC’s first delivery of medical supplies to hospitals in Taiz City since 23 September, just before the intensification of fighting in the area,” ICRC spokesman Hachem Osseiran tells AFP.
Iranian Ambassador Reza Amiri Moghadam has called on Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar at the foreign ministry, where the two discussed regional developments as well as bilateral relations, the Foreign Office (FO) says.
Dar “reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to further strengthening its close and brotherly ties with Iran” and underscored the importance of dialogue and diplomacy to promote regional peace and stability, it adds.
Oil prices have fallen below $100 a barrel in volatile trading as investors await Washington’s next move in the US-Israeli war with Iran after President Donald Trump’s Republican Party lost control of Congress in midterm elections, Reuters reports.
Brent futures were down $4.50, or 4.3 per cent, to $99.07 a barrel at 1619 GMT (9:19pm, PKT), while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures are down $4.13, or 4.3pc, to $92.02.
Iran has slammed “biased” reports on the ongoing shipping crisis by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), emphasising that seafarer protection should not be selective and that difficult conditions facing Iranian sailors must also be addressed, state news agency IRNA reports.
At the 138th session of the IMO Council in London, the Iranian delegation has slammed “the organisation’s incomplete and unbalanced reports on maritime security and seafarer protection”, demanding an impartial assessment of threats to maritime safety.
It stresses that IMO reports should not overlook the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, as well as military attacks on vessels and maritime infrastructure.
Majid Heidari, a 62-year-old fabric producer, argued the resulting rise in oil prices had “impacted the American vote”, as thousands gathered in Tehran for an annual anti-US rally, AFP reports.
“When Europe and the US unite against us, we must use our tool (closing Hormuz),” he said.
“There is nothing we can do but put some pressure on governments by making their own people feel the consequences.”
Still, he doubted the US election result would really change much for ordinary Iranians. Mohammad, a 42-year-old civil servant, shared this view. “I believe whether it is the Democrats or the Republicans, there is no difference for us,” he said.
Iranians hold a portrait of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and an anti-US placard depicting US President Donald Trump during a rally in front of the former US embassy to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, in Tehran on Nov 4, 2026. — AFP
Hours after US voters stripped President Donald Trump’s Republicans of control of Congress, partly over the Iran war, thousands gathered outside the former US embassy in Tehran for an annual anti-American rally, AFP reports.
Chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” echoed through central Tehran as demonstrators waved Iranian flags and carried banners denouncing Washington and Israel.
“America has been tormenting us for years, but it has not been able to do anything to Iran,” said Mahmoudkhani, 40, who attended the rally marking the 1979 seizure of the embassy and the hostage crisis that followed.
One banner depicted Trump as a blood-stained bulldog on a leash held by a devil-like figure resembling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Others called for revenge for martyred supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed by the US-Israeli strikes that sparked the regional war in late February.
The rally came a day after Trump’s blistering US midterm bashing, widely viewed as a referendum on his turbulent second term, with frustration over living costs, a rollercoaster of tariffs and the conflict with Iran playing a major role.
An Iranian carries an anti-US poster depicting President Donald Trump during a rally in front of the former US embassy to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, in Tehran on November 4, 2026. — AFP
In his post on X, JD Vance also backed “political advice” given by TV personality Rachel Campos Duffy who he said called for a “diplomatic resolution” to the Iran conflict.
Admitting that the reason the Republicans lost was the Iran war, the US vice president wrote, “Everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”
He added: “I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, ‘I told you so’: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.”
US Vice President JD Vance has commented on the midterm results that have been a blow to his Republican party, saying the “real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone”.
“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” he wrote in a lengthy post on X.
He said in a poll conducted by a pollster, “a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats”.
“He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were:
The Houthis claim to have struck Saudi-led forces near an iron factory in Yemen’s Lahij governorate with a ballistic missile, according to spokesperson Yahya Saree.
He adds that the strike was “precise, resulting in a large number of dead and wounded.”
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has promised to push for de-escalation in the Middle East following the Democrats’ victory in the US midterm elections, Al Jazeera reports.
Asked whether he thought the results would make President Donald Trump more unpredictable, the UK prime minister replies, “Trump has accepted the results, and I feel the world has an opportunity now to unite around the issue that is affecting us all, and that’s the cost of living.
“That has been the issue that I have put front and centre in my first three months in Downing Street, and we’ve made moves. But I can’t get people’s cost of living pressures down until the conflict in the Middle East is resolved.”
When asked if he is worried about a possible escalation in the Middle East following the results, he says “Well, I’ll be working for de-escalation to make it very clear. You know, we want to see a resolution, the Strait of Hormuz fully opened again.”
An Israeli strike has killed a motorcyclist in southern Lebanon, the first such death since September, AFP reports citing the country’s health ministry.
A drone carried out the strike in the Qabrikha area, killing one man and wounding another, the official National News Agency also says.
Oil prices are down more than $3 a barrel in volatile trading as investors await Washington’s next move in the US-Israeli war on Iran after President Donald Trump’s Republican Party lost control of Congress in midterm elections, Reuters reports.
Brent futures are down $3.20, or 3.09 per cent, to $100.40 a barrel as of 1417 GMT (7:17pm PKT). US West Texas Intermediate crude futures are down $3.01, or 3.13pc, to $93.08.
Yemen’s Houthis claim they targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a ballistic missile, though there has been no confirmation from Saudi authorities, Reuters reports.
Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree claims the strike was successful and caused “significant damage to the airport”.
In a post on X, he reiterates the group’s call to all airlines, staff and travellers to refrain from flying through Saudi airspace, “as it is not secure”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has destroyed a US MQ-1 drone over Qeshm Island, according to the Fars News Agency.
It claims that the drone, the 15th MQ-1 shot down since the start of the war, was destroyed by its “advanced, innovative air defence system”, which operates under Iran’s intergrated defence network.
Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree has announced that the group carried out multiple drone and missile attacks on military facilities within Saudi Arabia.
In a post on X, Saree says three attacks were carried out, with the first being a “direct” drone strike targeting a radar facility in the Al-Qahma Peninsula north of Jizan.
“The second operation targeted the Aakefah camp in Najran with a ballistic missile and successfully achieved its objective,” Saree adds.
He also says a ballistic missile targeted a command and control building of the Saudi Border Guard in Jizan, “resulting in dead and wounded among the soldiers and officers of the Saudi enemy”.
Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree says the group carried out an operation against Saudi-led forces in Yemen, using six ballistic missiles.
The strikes, east of Al-Jawf Governorate, resulted in “direct hits that resulted in dozens of dead and wounded and the destruction of several vehicles”.
“Pride comes before a fall,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei says in a post on X, referring to the US.
“You dragged your country into an unlawful and atrocious war against Iran. Your calculations failed, your assumptions collapsed, and your strategic misjudgments became painfully evident — all because you fundamentally misunderstood Iran,” he says.
“The American people have now sent you a clear message.”
He warns that if the US persists with the war, “the consequences of this grave miscalculation will extend far beyond what you have already witnessed”.
“Attacking Iran does not bring victory. It only results in defeat,” the spokesperson adds. “Iran is not a nation that can be understood through arrogance, intimidated through threats, or brought to its knees through aggression.”
Oil prices fell on Wednesday in volatile trading as investors awaited Washington’s next move in the US-Israeli war with Iran, after the Democrats captured control of Congress from President Donald Trump’s Republicans in the midterm elections, Reuters reports.
Brent futures were down $1.49, or 1.44 per cent, to $102.11 a barrel at 1155 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 89 cents, or 0.93pc, to $95.20. Both had risen $1 earlier.
Brent in the previous session settled at its lowest level in nearly four weeks as traders weighed talks to end the wars in Ukraine and Iran.
