War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says consultations with Qatari mediators over reopening the Strait of Hormuz continue but the United States will need to respond to its offer, Al Jazeera reports citing state media.

“Consultations are ongoing but we have not yet reached a definitive conclusion because this conclusion depends on the answers the other side gives to our questions,” Araghchi said. “There was no plan to negotiate with the American side during this trip.”

He made the comments on the sidelines of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee meeting, according to state-run IRNA news agency.

Araghchi emphasised that Tehran remains firm on its seven previously stated conditions and is awaiting a US response. Iranian authorities have signalled that a deal remains possible, provided their demands are implemented.

State Department official Donald Blome says the United States has extended a hand in negotiations to Iran, but it’s prepared to go the opposite way if the Strait of Hormuz doesn’t return to normal, Al Jazeera reports.

Blome, US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, spoke at the Manama Dialogue, a security forum held in Bahrain.

“The hand of negotiation has been extended, and those channels have continued to be open and active,” Blome said.

“At the same time, we’ve been also prepared to go in another direction. We just can’t allow Iran to take this region and the global economy hostage.”

A drone belonging to Yemen’s Houthi group struck a family home in the Old Airport neighbourhood in western Taiz city, according to Al Jazeera, reportedly killing a mother and daughter.

Iran has submitted documents and photographic evidence of US and Israeli attacks on the country’s ports, civilian vessels, and maritime infrastructure to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), warning that the damage poses serious risks to maritime safety across the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Sea of Oman, state-run IRNA reports.

The report warns that damage to maritime traffic control systems could increase the risk of vessel collisions and secondary accidents, while the destruction of rescue facilities could undermine emergency response capabilities and endanger the lives of foreign seafarers.

A strike has hit an industrial site in Saudi Arabia’s Dammam, sparking a “major blaze” at the facility, Iran’s state-run IRNA reports.

Iranian negotiators are in Doha for a third consecutive day of talks with Qatari mediators aimed at pushing for a deal to end the war, an official briefed on the talks tells Reuters.

Yamaha has said it won’t participate in next weekend’s Qatar MotoGP, citing “the situation in the Middle East,” AFP reports.

“Yamaha has not identified sufficient grounds to change its existing company-wide travel restrictions,” the Japanese manufacturer said.

The UAE is hoping for a breakthrough in negotiations between Iran and the US while being prepared for the worst, a senior official said, following threats of a resumption of the Middle East war, according to AFP.

“We’re hoping that there is a diplomatic breakthrough,” diplomatic adviser to the Emirati president Anwar Gargash said during a conference in Manama.

“It is not the interest of the region to go through another round… But I think we’re also, as we’ve shown before, braced for the worst.”

Iran has warned that any new war with the US could last longer than the previous conflict and that US President Donald Trump would not be the one to determine its duration, AFP reports.

“A potential future war could last longer than previous conflict, and the American president would not be in a position to dictate the timing or the conditions of its conclusion,” said army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia, according to Iranian state television.

“Epic resilience” by Iran and its army’s “formidable power and iron will” have brought the US and its allies “face-to-face with the hard wall of reality”, says Ali Nikzad, deputy speaker of parliament, according to Al Jazeera.

Iran has designated Britain’s Royal Navy and Royal Air Force as “terrorist organisations” and its foreign intelligence agency MI6 as a “hostile group”, according to state-run news agency IRNA.

“The Iranian Foreign Ministry announced the measures on Sunday, citing Britain’s participation in the US-Israeli war against Iran and its decision to place the IRGC under the country’s State Threats Act 2026,” IRNA reported.

Iranian Army spokesperson Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia says renewed US aggression “will be met with an immediate, decisive response” on a “larger” scale than before, Press TV reports.

“In the event of a new war, its scope will not be confined to West Asia,” he added.

Two air raids hit oil facility in Yemen’s Hodeidah, media report says, according to Al Jazeera.

The Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV reports that the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebel group in Yemen has conducted two raids on an oil facility in Bajil district in western Hodeidah governorate.

It says at least three civilians were wounded.

There was no immediate comment from the Saudi-led coalition.

Brigadier-General Yadollah Javani, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ deputy for political affairs, says Iranian forces are operating on the assumption that the US or Israel could strike at any moment, Al Jazeera reports.

He has told the semi-official Fars news agency that the military is “fully prepared for any scenario the enemy may devise”, and that Iran will not be caught off guard and will respond as necessary.

Javani says Iran’s military capabilities now allow it to confront the enemy not only defensively but also through preemptive and offensive operations.

He said Iran can inflict heavy, devastating strikes on US warships and warned that any region that enemy forces try to enter — whether by air assault or across a border — would become a “killing ground” for them.

President Donald Trump says that the United States has knocked out much of Iran’s military but it still has to “take care of” one or two targets including a suspected nuclear site known as Pickaxe Mountain, AFP reports.

Trump maintains that negotiations with Iran are “going fine but you know they’re not very reliable.” The US president reiterates that the US is not in a hurry to take offensive action because it has decimated Iran’s military and nuclear program.

“We’ve knocked out their nuclear. We still have to take care of, I would say one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes,” Trump has told reporters at his Florida residence.

“You probably could look at Pickaxe Mountain, and you have to take care of that. We can do that all very quickly,” he adds, referring to a suspected underground nuclear complex.

The Iranian government has denied any nuclear work is carried out there.

Iran’s national security chief Mohsen Rezaei says Tehran has repeatedly stated that the seven conditions announced by it must be fulfilled.

“If the conditions are met, the path of diplomacy will be open,” he said in an X post, adding that, however, “if any action is taken against the country, in accordance with the supreme leader’s […], we will deliver devastating blows to the aggressor using new weaponry”.

Iran’s national security chief claims that during the quadrilateral meeting in Tehran with the Makkah Alliance members, Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman told him that Israel “will target Turkiye and then Saudi Arabia after Iran”, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

Iran’s national security chief Mohsen Rezaei tells state TV the country is debating whether to maintain its longstanding ban on nuclear weapons if hostilities resume, although no decision on any changes has been taken, according to Reuters.

Secretary of the Iranian National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei says that he has read but not responded to a letter sent to Tehran by US Vice President JD Vance.

“Their tone has completely changed, and this is a very good sign that … the Iranian nation has consolidated victory and authority,” he tells state broadcaster Press TV in an interview.

Rezaei has refrained from speaking further about the letter since it has not been made public yet.

The Iranian Navy says a tanker operating in the “prohibited and unsafe area” in the eastern Strait of Hormuz has hit a sea mine and caught fire, the Fars News Agency reports.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says President Donald Trump has not made a decision about fresh strikes on Iran amid stalled peace talks, AFP reports.

“We can achieve military objectives if we seek to. He hasn’t made a decision. I have no announcement in that regard with you today, and nor do we take any of it lightly,” Rubio says at a G20 press conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

The internationally recognised Yemeni government’s forces say they have secured control over strategically important positions and terrain in the northeastern al-Jawf governorate, Al Jazeera reports.

The spokesperson for the government forces, Majed al-Nazili, added in a social media post that government and allied forces continued to repel Houthi attacks in Taiz, southwest of Yemen.

“Over the past few hours, the armed forces have executed 1,119 targeting operations against the Houthi terrorist militia,” al-Nazili said.

He added that the operations “neutralised” 427 Houthi fighters.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary-General Jasem AlBudaiwi has said that Iran has attacked GCC member states despite those countries not taking part in the war against Iran, Al Jazeera reports.

“GCC countries were subjected to Iranian attacks targeting civilian and vital infrastructure, despite not participating in the war and their efforts toward mediation and restraint,” AlBudaiwi told the Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain.

AlBudaiwi said that negotiations are “the steadfast option” to resolve regional crises.

“Disrupting navigation in the Straits of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb poses a threat to global economic interests. The international community must restore normal maritime traffic and hold those responsible for the attacks accountable,” he added.

Iranian strikes on more than two dozen US bases across the Middle East targeted early-warning systems before hitting aircraft and buildings, causing billions of dollars in equipment damage, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

The AP has independently verified damage to US facilities using satellite imagery and speaking to four regional officials briefed on what was hit. The news outlet has found that more than 115 drone and missile strikes in August, claimed by Iran or pro-Iran militias, damaged or destroyed structures on 26 military bases and other sites with American equipment.

The AP has found that Iran initially targeted aircraft hangars and air defence systems that detect incoming strikes, clearing the way for further attacks on warehouses, aircraft troop housing, hangars and other facilities.

Two regional officials say the US has moved many of its assets out of the Persian Gulf, including aircraft, air defence systems, communications systems and other equipment crucial to base operations.

Major General Ali Abdollahi, Chief of the General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, says Tehran is monitoring the US’ movements and preparations using our full intelligence capabilities, and “continuously updating our target database”, according to a statement carried by the ISNA news agency.

“Should signs of a hostile act by the enemy be confirmed, the armed forces will not wait for the enemy to initiate their action before determining the timing and manner of our response. Our response will be immediate, effective, and without geographical limitations,“ he warns.