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
The Republican-led US House of Representatives has backed legislation directing President Donald Trump to halt US military action against Iran, the latest symbolic rebuke of the Republican president from Congress, Reuters reports.
The vote was 214-208 in favour of the war powers resolution as four Republicans joined Democrats in voting for it.
The resolution, introduced by Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, directs Trump “to remove the use of United States Armed Forces from hostilities” against Iran unless Congress authorises it.
However, it is largely symbolic; lawmakers have passed similar resolutions repeatedly in recent months, but they have not led to cessation of the war.
The four Republicans who voted in favour are Tom Barrett of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
The Senate is due to vote on a separate, but similar, resolution later today.
Israeli forces have continued military operations across southern Lebanon, carrying out explosions, shelling, drone strikes and ground incursions despite the Lebanese army’s deployment to Zawtar al-Gharbiya earlier this week, Al Jazeera reports.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reports that the Israeli military has carried out a large explosion in the town of Tiyri in the Bint Jbeil district. It adds that Israeli forces, backed by bulldozers and military vehicles, have advanced into the nearby town of Serbine while firing heavy machine guns.
A paramedic source in Zawtar tells Al Jazeera that rescue teams have so far recovered three bodies from the town, while civilians continue waiting to return to their homes.
France’s foreign ministry is demanding that Yemen’s Houthis stop attacking Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea after the rebel group announced a naval blockade against Riyadh, Al Jazeera reports.
“Houthi attacks on Saudi tankers are irresponsible and a serious escalation,” a ministry spokesperson says.
Qatar has condemned the Houthis’ attacks on a Saudi vessel “a serious violation of international law”, Al Jazeera reports.
In a statement, Doha “reaffirmed its solidarity with Saudi Arabia, urged the international community to enforce UN Security Council resolutions on Yemen and Red Sea navigation, and welcomed Oman’s efforts to revive the Yemeni peace process”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned that any base used by the US to launch attacks on the country will be treated as a legitimate target, according to Press TV.
The warning specifically refers to the United Kingdom, who are allowing US B-1 bombers to fly from Fairford Airbase in Britain.
Hezbollah has branded Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s recent visit to Washington a failure and said it shows the government’s submission to a foreign power, AFP reports.
In a statement, the group’s lawmakers say the visit reveals “the extent of subservience and submission to foreign tutelage”, adding that it “failed to achieve … an American commitment to the withdrawal of the enemy from our land”, referring to Israel.
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has pushed the region to the “edge of the unimaginable,” AFP reports quoting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“The situation is getting out of control. It is teetering on the edge of the unimaginable. The region is being pulled into an ever-widening circle of confrontation. One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next,” Guterres tells a Security Council meeting.
“As this dynamic spreads, the political objectives are becoming increasingly obscured by the confrontation itself.”
Germany is “very worried” that attacks on oil tankers in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi militants risk escalating conflicts in the region, AFP reports quoting the country’s defence minister.
“Recent developments, specifically concerning the Houthis and Saudi Arabian tankers, raise concerns that an escalation could be imminent,” Defence Minister Boris Pistorius says, adding that the situation has “dire consequences” for those living in the region and global energy supplies.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says that in response to a US airstrike on the Iran-Iraq border, where pilgrims were present, Tehran has struck and destroyed an American electronic warfare unit at the Al-Udayri Camp in Kuwait, state broadcaster Press TV reports.
According to the broadcaster, the IRGC states that the flight control tower of this base was also hit and sustained damage, and “punitive operations of our forces are ongoing”.
“The defeated United States on the battlefield is once again seeking, through deceit and trickery, to create another opportunity to catch its breath and replenish its forces for an attack, and in recent statements, it keeps talking about returning to negotiations,” the Corps is quoted as saying.
“The enemy must pay the price for its breach of promises, and this time we will not allow America to use deceptive ceasefires to replenish its oil and ammunition stockpiles and then resume attacks once again.”
Iran’s foreign ministry has condemned the UK’s decision to let the US use British bases and facilities for military strikes against Iran, calling it a violation of the UN Charter and international law, Al Jazeera reports.
“Such action could constitute participation in an act of aggression against Iran,” the ministry says, adding that assisting US-Israeli attacks amounts to complicity in aggression and war crimes.
The ministry accuses the UK of siding with the aggressors rather than condemning them, citing past UK actions against Iran, including the 1953 coup.
Iran says it will defend its sovereignty, and warns that any country aiding attacks will bear the consequences.
The spokesperson for Kuwait’s General Fire Force, Major General Muhammad Al-Ghareeb, says firefighting teams from Central Al-Subiyah and Al-Abdali have managed to control a fire that broke out at the Al-Abdali border crossing in the country’s north after it was targeted by hostile drones, according to the Kuwait News Agency.
“He confirmed that no human injuries were recorded and that the losses were limited to material damages,” the agency adds.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde says that an attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on a Saudi vessel in the Red Sea is “alarming”, as the bank monitors the inflationary impact of the Iran war, AFP reports.
While the Houthi attack came too late to affect the ECB’s deliberations on interest rates, “it is having an impact — we can see that on the price of Brent as it evolves almost by the hour,” Lagarde tells reporters.
The price of the benchmark international oil contract, Brent North Sea, has reached $100 a barrel in trading after Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck oil tankers in the Red Sea, AFP reports.
Brent has soared more than six per cent to hit the $100 level, as the attacks potentially open a new front in the Middle East war with President Donald Trump threatening the rebels with “major military punishment”.
The main US oil contract, West Texas Intermediate, rallies 5.0pc to $91.19 a barrel.
Coal-fired power generation is set to increase in 2026, driven by supply difficulties and soaring natural gas prices linked to the war in the Middle East, AFP reports citing the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The conflict in the Middle East, pitting the United States against Iran, has led to regular blockages of the Strait of Hormuz since March 2026, through which 20 per cent of liquefied natural gas transits, pushing some economies back toward coal.
As a result, “global coal-fired generation is expected to increase by 1.4pc in 2026, after remaining roughly constant in 2025,” the IEA writes in a new report.
The increased use of coal-fired power plants is also explained by a surge in energy prices in 2026.
Up 30pc compared with the first half of 2025, they are “at their highest level since the energy crisis of 2022 and 2023,” which was triggered by the war in Ukraine, the IEA says.
United States President Donald Trump has threatened to attack a site linked to Iran’s nuclear programme known as Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Tehran’s main nuclear sites.
The threat reflects escalating tensions as Tehran and Washington trade fire in the Gulf, setting back efforts to end the conflict.
Pickaxe Mountain is located 220 kilometres south of Tehran and 2km from the Natanz nuclear complex.
A satellite view shows tunnel entrances at Pickaxe Mountain, of the Natanz nuclear facility, near Natanz, Iran, on June 30, 2026. — Vantor via Reuters/File
US President Donald Trump has warned that his country will hold Iran responsible for attacks on commercial vessels by Yemen’s Houthis.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump recalls American strikes on the Houthis last year “for their interference with commerce and trade, by shooting at ships”.
“Since that time, and during our conflict with Iran, they have acted very responsibly. Unfortunately, now they are starting up again, shooting at two Saudi Arabian ships last night,” he writes.
“Please let this truth (social media post) serve to represent that if they do this again, the US will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a surrogate and/or proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves, who I am very disappointed with in that they have, until now, acted very professionally and smart,” he adds.
Kuwait’s Ministry of Defence says the Al-Abdali border crossing was targeted by drones this afternoon, Al Jazeera reports.
The attack caused material damage but no casualties, the ministry’s spokesperson, Saud Abdulaziz Al-Atwan, says in a statement.
“Specialised teams have taken all necessary measures to secure the site in coordination with the relevant authorities … Drone debris is being cleared,” he adds.
Located in Kuwait’s northern Al-Jahra Province, Al-Abdali is the country’s main land border crossing for passenger and commercial traffic with Iraq.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has denounced what he calls the United States’ “irrational” and “domineering” approach in dealing with Tehran, AFP reports.
“The problem is the type of approach of America, and that is their irrational, excessive and domineering approach, which has been met with strong reactions from us,” he tells state TV.
The United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry has “strongly condemned the renewed Iranian aggression” on the three Middle Eastern countries, Al Jazeera reports.
In a statement, the minister affirms that these attacks “constitute a blatant violation of the sovereignty of these brotherly nations and a threat to their security and stability”.
It reiterates the UAE’s “full solidarity” with the three nations.
An Iranian Army officer has been killed in US strikes on the Iranian town of Shalamcheh, in Kuzestan province, semi-official news agency Tasnim reports.
“Captain Martyr ‘Amir Mohammad Salami’, from the army’s telecommunications site forces … was martyred last night during US airstrikes in Shalamcheh,” the agency writes on X.
Yemen’s Houthis must cease all actions that endanger international shipping and the lives of seafarers, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said, Reuters reports.
Recent threats by the rebel group to impose a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia “pose a direct threat to regional stability and constitute a dangerous escalation”, Kallas says in a statement.
The Houthis claim they struck two Saudi oil tankers as part of a blockade on Saudi Arabia, threatening to create a second chokepoint on global oil supplies alongside the Strait of Hormuz.
Kallas deems such attacks “unacceptable”, adding that they inflame the already fragile situation in the region.
“Navigation must be unimpeded, in the Strait of Hormuz as well as in the Red Sea,” the EU’s top diplomat adds.
She further says that the EU’s ASPIDES naval operation remains committed to protecting freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and surrounding international waters.
