War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

US Vice President Vance has spent the past two weeks personally involved in indirect talks with Iran aimed at reaching a new ceasefire and resuming nuclear negotiations, Axios reports, citing two “sources with knowledge of the matter”.

Axios correspondent Barak Ravid claimed Vance has been “speaking almost daily” to key figures from mediating countries Pakistan, Qatar and others.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told US President Donald Trump by phone that Ankara will continue its peace efforts and that tensions between Iran and the United States should be resolved through diplomacy, Reuters reports citing Erdogan’s office.

Erdogan told Trump that Turkiye would also continue to contribute to efforts to end the war in Ukraine and that contacts with both Kyiv and Moscow should be intensified, according to a readout from his office.

Iranian naval commander Rear Admiral Mohsen Razzaqi says coordination and cooperation among the country’s armed forces is currently at its highest level, highlighting the “strong synergy” among branches, state news agency IRNA reports.

He also highlights Iran’s missile, drone, and naval capabilities, its geographical location, and the resilience of the people as key parts of national defence.

Houthi media has claimed that Saudi strikes killed 27 people, most of them women and children, in Yemen’s Sanaa province, as deaths mount in the country’s revived civil war, AFP reports.

The United Nations says more than 1,600 people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced since fighting resumed in the impoverished country.

The death toll from the strikes on Al-Shariya village has risen to 27, most of them women and children, with 36 people wounded, the Houthis’ health ministry said in a statement to their Saba news agency.

Saba said earlier on Saturday that operations to recover victims from the rubble were ongoing and that “aircraft targeted paramedics with two strikes”.

Syria has no plans to send military forces to Yemen, a Syrian diplomatic source told state news agency SANA, dismissing reports of a possible deployment as baseless, according to Reuters.

The source was outlining the scope of military cooperation with Saudi Arabia, which currently focuses on training Syrian forces, building their capabilities and exchanging military expertise.

Coordination visits by Saudi officials to Syria are set to begin next month, the person added.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed they had launched multiple missile and drone attacks against Saudi troops and infrastructure both in the Gulf kingdom and Yemen, AFP reports.

The group, which is fighting a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised government, launched six operations that targeted Aramco oil facilities in Khurais as well as Riyadh airport, Saudi troops in Najran and military facilities on both sides of the border, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree posted on X.

Iranian national security chief Mohsen Rezaei has warned the US: “Start a war, and you’ll face a devastating response.”

In a post on X, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said: “You lost the war and the election. Vance has conceded, Rubio is heading for the exit, Hegseth is about to be fired, and the Centcom commander is now a podcaster!

“So٫Who exactly in Washington do we need to get this message across to?” he asked.

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, in an interview with Al Jazeera, said the current circumstances suggest the potential for a renewed war in the region.

Iraq has informed Iran that it welcomes friendship and an alliance, but rejects any interference in its internal affairs, Hussein told Al Jazeera.

He further said Washington has formally requested the closure of all border crossings with Iran, with the exception of two.

Iraqi oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz have resumed following understandings reached with both Washington and Tehran, the minister added.

Yemeni government forces say they have repelled military movements by the Houthis in the past few hours within the Seventh Military Region on the northern front of Yemen’s Marib Governorate, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement, the forces said they were able to destroy combat equipment and “neutralise” groups that they said the Houthis had deployed to the front lines.

Iraq’s foreign minister has said his country has information indicating that external parties are using Iraqi territory to launch attacks against neighbouring countries.

Fuad Hussein told Al Jazeera that an investigation is underway into attacks targeting Gulf states that were launched from Iraqi territory.

Former US counter-terrorism chief Joe Kent has said that the country needs to end the war and fire the officials who enabled it.

In an article published in Responsible Statecraft, he writes, “It’s time to end the war in Iran. This is irrefutable, as Vice President Vance has admitted. Over 70 per cent of voters blamed the Iran war and our off-balanced relationship with Israel for the out-of-control inflation that affects their daily lives and have zero tolerance for more wars of choice.

“With this clear message from the American people, Trump must immediately end the war – today.”

Kent says that the US can end the war by withdrawing its assets from the region and ending the naval blockade on Iranian ports. He notes that most American bases in the Middle East are a “strategic liability” and that lifting the blockade would put the “diplomatic ball back in Iran’s court”.

After a months-long naval blockade on Iran, the US military is setting up a task force to bolster Washington’s efforts to restrict Tehran’s movement of advanced weapons systems and other sanctioned material across its land borders and the Caspian Sea, Reuters reports.

Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of Centcom, has directed the formation of Task Force Iron Gate, as it will be called. It will be based in Tampa, Florida, with internal staff of approximately 20 civilian and military personnel”, Centcom says.

It will coordinate with other US government agencies “on preventing the movement of advanced weapons systems, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials, and illegal revenue streams across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea”.

“Strengthening Centcom’s collaboration with US interagency partners will further constrain Iran’s ability to finance terrorism, rebuild weapons factories, and replenish their military,” Admiral Cooper insisted in the statement.

Centcom claimed that its naval blockade has prevented Iran from exporting more than $25 billion in crude oil.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says he has had phone calls with 12 foreign ministers over the past 48 hours to discuss regional developments, Anadolu reports.

In a post on the US social media platform Instagram, Araghchi says he outlined Tehran’s “fundamental positions” and discussed the need to “respect national sovereignty, end aggression and threats, avoid harmful foreign interference” and prevent “the spread of insecurity”.

Iran’s top diplomat adds that he also called for the establishment of “regional security arrangements without the involvement of powers from outside the region”.

Araghchi says he spoke with his counterparts from Pakistan, Turkiye, Qatar, Oman, Egypt, Jordan, the Greek Cypriot administration of Southern Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Tunisia, and Iraq.

Thousands of Syrian troops are set to deploy to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, with some already on the ground, multiple Yemeni officials tell AFP, as Riyadh rallies international help to repel the Houthis and bolster the government in Aden.

Hundreds have already been deployed to both sides of the border, according to three separate Yemeni military sources and a defence official.

A source from Yemen’s presidency and another from its defence ministry adds that thousands more are set to be deployed to help with the fight against the Houthis.

Iranian state broadcaster Press TV says its Instagram account has been disabled “without prior warning or any explanation of which post or posts violated its rules”.

Following a tanker hitting a mine in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s navy has issued a warning to other vessels, saying “This is the fate of all ships and vessels that ignore warnings and travel in prohibited areas,” Al Jazeera reports citing broadcaster IRIB.

News service Lebanon24 reports that Israel has shelled the town of Zoutar al-Sharqiya in southern Lebanon, though no casualties have been reported from today’s attack, according to Al Jazeera.

Saudi Arabia’s Directorate of Civil Defence has lifted a warning issued earlier in the kingdom’s Najran city.

Iraq produces more than 5 million barrels of oil per day (bpd), Oil Minister Basim Mohammed tells state news agency INA, according to Reuters.

Iraq is pushing for a higher OPEC production quota as the economic fallout from the Iran war and new investment by oil majors increase pressure on Baghdad to boost output, potentially putting it at odds with the producer group.

The conflict has hit Iraq particularly hard, forcing major export cuts and depriving the state of oil revenue, which accounted for 88 per cent of government income last year, compared with about 55pc in Saudi Arabia.

Two media outlets affiliated with Yemen’s Houthis claim that the death toll in Saudi strikes on Yemen’s Sanaa province has risen to 22, AFP reports.

“The number of victims of the Saudi enemy warplane massacre in the Al-Shariya area… has risen to 22 citizens, most of them children and women, while the number of wounded has risen to 30,” the Houthis’ Saba news agency reports, with the group’s Al-Masirah TV reporting the same toll.

Iran’s navy has said an oil tanker caught fire after hitting a naval mine in the eastern Strait of Hormuz, Iranian media reports, according to Reuters.

Houthi media claims that Saudi strikes have killed 11 people, including women and children, in Yemen’s Sanaa province, AFP reports.

“Martyrdom of 11 citizens, among them women and children, in Saudi enemy airstrikes” on homes in the Al-Shariyah area of Sanaa province, the Saba news agency says, adding that operations to recover victims from the rubble are ongoing and that “aircraft targeted paramedics with two strikes”.

An IRGC spokesperson has hinted at the possible unveiling of new weapons if hostilities with the United States and Israel resume, saying Tehran has “surprises that will astonish the entire world”.

In an speech shared by Russian broadcaster RT, the spokesperson said a potential third round of fighting could see the weapons deployed on the battlefield.

The spokesperson also claimed that Iran had transformed from an arms importer into an exporter, producing and selling domestically developed missiles, drones and air defence systems to countries around the world.

He further claimed that Iran’s Shahed drones had influenced drone development elsewhere, saying the US and other countries had copied Iranian technology.