War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s National Security Commission, has warned Iran will “deliver a decisive and painful response” to the Israeli attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs, Al Jazeera reports.

US President Donald Trump called for more “surgical” strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon in an interview, AFP reports.

“I’d like to see Lebanon have a better life. I’d like to see a more surgical attack on Hezbollah. I think it should be more surgical,” Trump said, according to a transcript of the interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” recorded on Friday.

An Israeli raid on Beirut’s southern suburbs has killed two people and wounded 11 others, Al Jazeera reports, citing Lebanon’s National News Agency.

The agency said the strike hit two apartments in the Mreijeh-Tahwita al-Ghadir area, in another Israeli attack on a densely populated civilian neighbourhood.

President Donald Trump says the US will seize and destroy Iran’s highly enriched uranium, either with or without Tehran, Al Jazeera reports.

“We’ll take it out and destroy it, whether it’s on-site or whether we take it off-site,” he says in an interview on the NBC News programme ‘Meet the Press’.

“He adds that he wants to keep US troops in the Middle East until “completion”, further stating he doesn’t “consider them in danger”.

The two sides are “very close” to agreeing to a deal, Trump says.

“We have a couple of points. They don’t even seem like big points.”

A draft resolution the prepared by the United States and sent to other countries on the board of the UN nuclear watchdog ahead of a meeting this week demands Iran provide “precise information” on its bombed nuclear sites and enriched uranium stocks.

Iran must “provide the [International Atomic Energy] Agency with precise information on nuclear material accountancy and safeguarded nuclear facilities in Iran” and “grant the Agency all access it requires to verify this information” without delay, the text seen by Reuters says.

US President Donald Trump has said in a recent interview with NBC News programme ‘Meet the Press’ that he will not unfreeze Iranian assets or lift any sanctions before a peace deal is reached, Reuters reports.

Trump says he will consider those steps after an agreement is reached.

“Comes after,” he says. “Yeah. If they behave, if they do a good job, we start talking. Yeah.”

Trump adds that he is not demanding that Lebanon be a part of a short-term deal with Tehran.

An Israeli attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs has hit two buildings in the area, AFP reports citing Lebanese state media.

“The raid on Beirut’s southern suburbs targeted two apartments in two buildings,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency says.

US Central Command says its forces have redirected 132 commercial vessels and disabled 6 others as part of a naval blockade on Iranian ports.

A plane carrying Iran’s World Cup football squad has landed in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, AFP journalists reports, after the United States kicked off a bitter diplomatic row over visas.

An AFP photographer has seen the plane, which departed from Turkiye with a stop in Spain, land around 5am local time in Tijuana (1200 GMT), where the Iranian team will be based during the tournament co-hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada.

Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem reports that, according to eyewitnesses, at least three explosions have been heard in Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb, including reports of a multi-story building being hit.

“The Israelis are saying it’s a Hezbollah military infrastructure targeted. So they’re putting aside the scenario of an assassination. The question is, did it have people in it or not? We don’t know for now; there’s no reports at the moment on casualties,” Hashem adds. “And now everyone here is anticipating what’s going to be next.”

The Israeli military has issued a statement saying it launched strikes on Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh.

Opec+ is set to agree on a fourth increase in oil output targets in as many months, three Opec+ sources say, even though the US war on Iran is still preventing several of the group’s members from pumping more, according to Reuters.

The war has cut oil flows via the Strait of Hormuz, creating the world’s biggest ever supply crisis as key Opec+ members, including Saudi Arabia, have been unable to supply customers in full since the end of February.

Seven core members of Opec+, which groups Opec and allied producers including Russia, have increased their output quotas from April to June by almost 600,000 barrels per day (bpd).

In reality, the group’s production has collapsed due to export cuts by Gulf members, with April output averaging 33.19 million bpd, down from 42.77 million in February, according to Opec figures.

The seven members will likely increase targets by about 188,000 bpd from July, the sources add. This is the same as the June hike, which was adjusted downward from monthly increases of 206,000 bpd in May and April to account for the UAE’s exit from the organisation.

Iran’s main problem in negotiating with the United States is Washington’s “changing and contradictory positions”, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei tells CNN.

Speaking with the US broadcaster’s senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen in Tehran, Baghaei says the exchange of messages continues through Pakistani mediators.

“The main problem of negotiating with this administration is that you have to face so many changing positions, moving the goalposts, different statements, contradictory remarks by different officials, so it makes the whole process very cumbersome,” Baghaei says.

There are quite a number of sticking points, he adds, “but the main issue is that the Americans must understand that they have to recognise Iran’s rights,” including its right to peaceful nuclear enrichment under the international non-proliferation treaty.

“At the same time, when they are talking about our blocked assets they’re not going to give us any concession,” Baghaei says.

Read more here.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has discussed bilateral relations and the state of the US-Iran peace process during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, according to the Iranian government.

“During the meeting, alongside reviewing bilateral relations, both sides exchanged views on the latest status of the ongoing diplomatic process mediated by Pakistan to end the imposed US-Zionist war against Iran,“ it says in a post on X.

The Israeli army has announced its latest forced evacuation orders for residents living in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, a spokesman said the urgent warning also applied to the surrounding neighbourhoods of Tyre, specifically the camps al-Bas and Zakuk al-Mufdi.

“You must evacuate your homes immediately and move north of the Zahrani River,” the message said.

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese people have been forced from their homes in southern Lebanon by Israel’s air strikes and ground invasion since March 2.

Iran’s ambassador to Russia says global energy security is currently largely determined by countries of the Global South, particularly Brics members, Al Jazeera reports citing remarks carried by Iranian state media.

Speaking at a gathering on energy cooperation and security within the Brics framework, Kazem Jalali has called on the bloc to help shape a fairer and more stable energy order.

Jalali says geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, global market volatility and rising demand in emerging economies have made energy security a cornerstone of global stability and development.

He adds that energy security goes beyond access to resources and encompasses the security of supply, demand, investment, technology, infrastructure, and finance.

“The extensive capacities of Brics member states entail shared responsibilities, and these countries must play a role in shaping a more just, stable, and inclusive global energy security system,” Jalali states.

Israeli air strikes targeted a motorcycle on Zifta Road in the Nabatieh district, killing one person in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reports.

Warplanes also launched two attacks and destroyed a house in Ghamiqah neighbourhood in the town of Duwair, while the city of Nabatieh was also targeted, the National News Agency reported.

Another motorcycle was attacked by a drone on Wata Abba Road between the towns of Abba and Duwair, killing two Syrians and wounding another.

An Israeli drone also carried out an air raid on the town of al-Kafour, it said.

Fourteen weeks after President Donald Trump ordered an attack on Iran, the US military is adjusting to an unusual state of conflict that is not full-scale war, but also far from peace, Reuters reports.

On ships and bases in the Middle East, US troops, some recovering from injuries, operate amid exchanges of fire with Iran every few days as the Navy blocks Iran’s ports. At home, the Pentagon is scrambling to bolster production of depleted munitions as families of service members cope with the stress of extended deployments.

The threat requires US troops to maintain an acute state of readiness.

“To maintain this constant state of ‘Level 10’ alert vigilance, to be ready to go at the drop of a hat, is a very stressful and difficult operational mission,” said one US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Joseph Votel, the former commander of the US military’s Central Command, described the current conflict phase as “a very, very dangerous period for us.” He said keeping troops ready during the ceasefire is no small challenge.

“It puts on a lot of pressure on leaders to make sure that people are still at their edge,” Votel said.

Read the full story here.

The enormous costs of Israel’s multi-front war and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s determination to turn his country into a “super-Sparta” of the Middle East are driving up the defence budget and raising fears of cutbacks in education and healthcare.

The total cost of the series of interconnected regional conflicts that began with Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 stood at 405 billion shekels ($138bn) as of late April, according to the governor of the Bank of Israel, Amir Yaron.

“That’s a huge figure, more than 17 per cent of GDP,” he said during a recent economic conference in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.

Following the adoption of the 2026 budget in late March, the government noted the defence ministry’s budget had more than doubled since October 2023. To support the war effort, the government borrowed heavily on international markets in 2024 and 2025.

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Israeli warplanes have attacked the town of Srifa in the Tyre district, whil local media has reported that Israeli fighter jets attacked Dweir, near Nabatieh, north of the Litani River, according to Al Jazeera.

During his visit to Tehran, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has delivered a letter from Pakistan to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, according to the Fars news agency.

Naqvi handed the letter to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during their meeting.