War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

US Secretary of State Rubio has said that Iran’s stance of charging fee for navigating the Strait of Hormuz is “all semantics”, Al Jazeera reports.

“You can call it a toll, you can call it a fee, at the end of the day, it’s all semantics,” he said during his visit to Bahrain.

He further said that the US will not accept that Hormuz belongs to any nation-state.

“We want a deal with Iran, we don’t want a deal at any price,” he added.

US doesn’t want a deal with a price, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says.

“We want a deal that’s good. We want a deal that’s real. We want a deal that’s verifiable. And we want a deal that’s adhered to.”

Rubio adds that Iran won’t be allowed to charge a toll or fee for using the Strait of Hormuz, adding that Iran will never have any nuclear weapons.

As long as these two conditions are met, the US is open to reaching a deal with Iran, Rubio has said.

Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani welcomes Oman’s announcement of a corridor for the safe passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters.

Al Zayani made the remarks as he chaired a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting during US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to the country.

Shipping group Maersk has said the Maersk Baltimore and a vessel time-chartered to Maersk successfully exited the Persian Gulf late on June 24 and into the early hours of June 25, Reuters reports.

“The transits were completed in close coordination with our security partners and followed thorough security assessments,” Maersk said in a statement.

The Danish company has three remaining vessels in the Gulf and will pursue one additional transit through the Strait of Hormuz at a later stage, it added.

US is going to pursue constructive dialogue and agreements with Iran, hoping that it will lead to “a positive outcome”, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says while speaking at the Gulf Cooperation Council-US joint ministerial meeting.

If Iran is interested in becoming a “nation-state that focuses on the well-being of their own people,” US would be willing to help despite their differences, Rubio has said.

Colombia’s outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, an outspoken critic of Israel’s war on Gaza, has criticised incoming President Abelardo de la Espriella, a far-right lawyer, for his pledge to resume relations with Israel.

“Starting relations with Israel and forgetting the Palestinian genocide as one forgets the Colombian genocide is an invitation to repeat it,” Petro wrote online.

Petro severed ties with Israel in 2024, a month after Colombia joined a case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Top US diplomat Marco Rubio is in Bahrain after promising Gulf allies that Washington would protect their interests as it seeks to hammer out a final settlement to end the war with Iran, AFP reports.

Rubio is due to attend a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Bahrain today after sitting down with the leaders of Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates yesterday.

Rubio is on a regional tour to reassure the Gulf states, which were targeted by Tehran’s missiles and drones during the conflict and saw their crucial oil and gas shipments effectively cut off by an Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

During a visit to Kuwait City, Rubio said Washington would be on the same page as Gulf states as it wrangles with Iran over a permanent settlement to the conflict.

Israeli military said that Basil Sweid, 32, a driver in the 75th battalion of the 7th armoured brigade, was killed when his refueling truck overturned in an accident during operational activity in southern Lebanon, AlJazeera reports.

Another solider was also injured in the incident, with moderate wounds, it said.

New “geopolitical facts” cannot be imposed on the Arab Gulf states as a result of a “treacherous aggression against them”, says the UAE’s presidential adviser Anwar Gargash, Al Jazeera reprots.

“For imposing a fait accompli from the womb of aggression does not establish stability; rather, it sows new seeds of discord and conflict for the future. And this is precisely what applies to the Strait of Hormuz,” he said in a post on X.

Middle Eastern fuel oil exports are set to rebound to a four-month high in June as Iraq and Saudi Arabia diverted supply to other ports while shipments through the Strait of Hormuz are set to pick up, according to trade sources and shipping data, according to Reuters.

Supply from the region could rise further as more cargoes gradually exit the strait after the US and Iran reached an interim deal to end their conflict, sending high-sulphur fuel oil prices tumbling at key trading hubs like Singapore.

Middle East exports are set to hit about 2.4 million metric tons (508,000 barrels per day) this month, up over 20 per cent from May, data from Kpler and LSEG showed. However, this remains well below a monthly average of 5.5 million to 6.0 million tons before the war.

“Fuel oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz are expected to increase over the next 60 days, but the recovery is unlikely to be substantial,” said Palash Jain, Middle East oil consultant at FGE NexantECA.

The Israeli military said that a soldier was killed the previous day in southern Lebanon, where clashes with Hezbollah militants have been reported despite a ceasefire, AFP reports.

Master Sergeant Basil Sweid, 32, a driver, “fell during operational activity”, the military said.

A spokesman told AFP that he was killed when his vehicle overturned.

US President Donald Trump said it may never be known who was at fault for a ​deadly strike on a girls’ school in Iran on February ‌28, the first day of the Iran war, that killed scores of children, Reuters reports.

Reuters reported in March that an initial internal US military investigation showed US forces were likely responsible ​for the fatal strike in Minab in southern Iran.

The Pentagon ​has since elevated the probe but it has not acknowledged any ⁠preliminary findings.

US soldiers and their families are accusing the US military and Pentagon of downplaying injuries they sustained during the US-Israel war on Iran, according to CBS News.

In one case, it was alleged that a service member who experienced a concussion, hearing and vision loss, and lung damage was classified as “not seriously injured”.

Tehran accused Nato on Thursday of “complicity” in the US-Israeli war against Iran, after the bloc’s chief noted its support for the United States in the conflict, AFP reports.

Responding to US President Donald Trump’s criticism of allies for not supporting the war, Nato boss Mark Rutte told Fox News that hundreds of American planes launched from bases in Italy.

“Country after country, ally after ally after ally, have made their bases available for Epic Fury,” Rutte told US TV channel Fox News, referring to the US military operation in Iran.

“Five hundred US planes took off from US bases in Italy to support Epic Fury,” he said, referring the US name for the operation against Iran.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei condemned the Nato chief’s admission of “active complicity” in the “unlawful war”.

“This is a clear and damning admission of Nato’s active complicity in an unlawful war of aggression against a sovereign UN Member State,” Baqaei wrote on X.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says his country’s armed forces responded to the US-Israeli attacks in a way that neither of the attacking countries “could have imagined,” Al Jazeera reports.

Pezeshkian said Iran is now “recognised throughout the world as a powerful and dignified nation”.

“Our enemies believed … they could bring the Islamic Republic to an end within three days and install their proxies.

“However, our armed forces… created an epic the enemy could never have imagined,” Pezeshkian said.

US President Donald Trump faced pointed criticism over the Iran war in a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans, shortly before his administration asked Congress for tens of billions of dollars to pay for the conflict, Reuters reports.

Several Republicans in the closed-door meeting said Trump engaged in a shouting match with Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who said the administration needed to explain a framework deal Trump signed last week that provides financial incentives for Iran but does not accomplish any of the goals he laid out at the war’s beginning.

“The American people need to know more than we are being told,” Cassidy told reporters. “It does not appear, although I don’t know for sure, that the course of this is going the way that we were told.”

Brent crude fell more than one per cent, slipping below its closing level on the eve of the Middle East war, as investors grow optimistic about US-Iran peace talks and tankers continue through the Strait of Hormuz, AFP reports.

The contract for August hit a low of $72.44 a barrel, compared with the February 27 close of $72.48. Brent soared as high as $119 in the weeks after the United States and Israel began their strikes on Iran on February 28.

US President Donald Trump met with munitions makers at the White House as his administration pushes to expand weapons production after military operations in Iran and other conflicts drew down US stockpiles, Reuters reports.

The United States has supplied large quantities of weapons to allies while also using munitions in its own military operations, raising concerns about inventories of key air-defence and precision-guided weapons, and increasing pressure on contractors to boost output.

Two people briefed on the meeting said it ran longer than expected because everyone was given time to speak. The sources said Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg at times pushed back on industry claims about production progress, citing delays on key programmes.

South Korea has said that five more South Korean-run vessels have crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the latest sign that restrictions on passage are easing, Al Jazeera reports.

The ministry said 13 South Korean ships remain in the strait.

US President Donald Trump said a deal with Iran that included fees in the Strait of Hormuz would be “unacceptable”, Reuters reports.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps has said said safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz is only possible through routes designated by Iran, and that a new route announced without coordination with Iran is unacceptable and a safety risk, Reuters reports.

IRGC said it will take action against vessels that fail to comply with the requirements.

Saudi FM Prince Faisal bin Farhan has held a phone call with Iran FM Abbas Araghchi, the Saudi foreign ministry says.

During the call, the two ministers reviewed the latest developments in the negotiations between Iran and the US, as well as the “progress made to implement the agreed understandings”.

“They also discussed regional developments and emphasised the importance of continuing efforts to advance dialogue and diplomatic solutions that serve the shared interests of all countries and peoples of the region,” the Saudi ministry says.

US President Donald Trump has said, in comments to the media after a lunch with Republican senators, that “Iran is agreeing to everything I want, and they have to.”

“Otherwise, we just go back and do what we have to do,” he added.