War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, assassinated on Saturday in US-Israeli strikes, will be buried in the holy city of Mashhad, Reuters has reports, citing he the Fars news agency.

No date for the burial was disclosed.

Authorities have put down a limited fire in vicinity of the US consulate in Dubai due to a drone strike, Reuters has reported, citing the Dubai Media Office.

The Dubai Media Office said no injuries have been reported in the incident.

Smoke has been seen rising from an area near the US consulate in Dubai, two witnesses have told Reuters.

The US State Department did not immediately return a request for comment.

The Israeli military has claimed it has struck a compound in Iran that it alleges aimed to develop “necessary capabilities” for nuclear weapons, reports Reuters.

The Israeli military did not provide any evidence for the assertion.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has emphasised that “even when schools are used for military purposes, international humanitarian law requires armed actors to take all feasible precautions prior to attack, to avoid or minimise incidental harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure”.

“Students are civilians. Teachers are too. Schools are civilian buildings. All of them are protected by the rules of war,” the ICRC said on X, adding, “Even wars have limits. Always.”

The statement comes after a girls’ school in Iran was struck on the first day of the US and Israeli attacks on ‌Iran. According to the state media, at least 160 people were killed in the attack.

The Trump administration is considering providing military protection to oil and gas tankers traversing the Strait of Hormuz, in a bid to cool energy prices that have surged since Iran warned it would attack ships at the choke point, Politico reports, citing two people familiar with the matter.

“Military support for oil and gas supplies,” one of the two sources who was granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations told the outlet when asked about the potential for US naval vessels to escort ships travelling through the waters.

“It’s becoming a growing concern that the energy markets could face pressures in the coming days as the military campaign intensifies and expands in geographic scope,” Politico reports.

“Access to the Strait of Hormuz is obviously vital for both natural gas and crude oil shipments, especially from Qatar and Saudi [Arabia].”

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the war’s impact on the global economy will depend on how long it lasts and how much damage there is to infrastructure and industries in the region, reports Reuters.

A particular concern is whether an energy price spike will be short-lived or more persistent, the IMF said.

IMF First Deputy Managing Director Dan Katz told the Milken Institute Future of Finance conference in Washington that the conflict “certainly has the potential to be very impactful on the global economy across a range of metrics, whether it’s inflation, growth and so on.”

The IMF will be looking at the physical damage to infrastructure, impact on tourism, air travel, and energy production facilities.

The Iranian government has formally complained to Unesco about the impact of US and Israeli bombing on some of the country’s heritage sites, including the Golestan Palace and Tehran’s famed Grand Bazaar, Al Jazeera reports.

Dating back to the 16th century, the Golestan Palace was also the former court and residence of the Qajar dynasty.

Israeli military claims it has killed Iran’s Quds force commander in Lebanon in a strike on Tehran, Reuters has reported.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz bas voiced support for the US-Israeli war on Iran but hopes it will end soon, saying it is hurting the global economy, reports AFP.

“This is, of course, damaging our economies. This is true for the oil prices, and this is true for the gas prices as well. So that’s the reason why we all hope that this war will come to an end as soon as possible,” Merz told reporters as he met US President Donald Trump at the White House.

A US official says that the State Department is in direct contact with nearly 3,000 American nationals abroad.

In a post on X, State Department official Dylan Johnson adds, “The State Department is actively securing military aircraft and charter flights for American citizens who wish to leave the Middle East.”

In Israel, US officials are in contact with about 500 Americans seeking to leave, Reuters reports quoting a separate statement from the department.

More than 130 citizens have left already and another 100 more are expected to depart today, it adds.

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Britain for not fully backing his attack on Iran, reports AFP.

“I’m not happy with the UK,” Trump said, as he said of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer: “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”

Britain, a steadfast ally of the United States throughout the two world wars and in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, decided not to join the assault on Iran that Trump launched with Israel on Saturday.

Starmer said that the United States was not authorised to use UK bases in Cyprus, one of which was struck by an Iranian-made drone.

“It’s taken three, four days for us to work out where we can land. There would have been much more convenient landing there, as opposed to flying many extra hours,” Trump said in apparent reference to Diego Garcia.

Trump, after a series of flip-flops, has criticized Starmer for agreeing to return the Chagos Islands, where Diego Garcia lies and whose people were expelled by Britain, to Mauritius and instead to lease the base.

“I will say the UK has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have,” said Trump, who was speaking next to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House.

Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi says off-ramps are still “available” to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East, Al Jazeera reports.

“Oman reaffirms its call for an immediate ceasefire and a return to responsible regional diplomacy. There are off-ramps available. Let’s use them,” the top diplomat said on X.

Authorities in Dubai have confirmed that the sounds heard in various areas of the emirate are the result of “successful interceptions by air defences”.

“The relevant teams continue to monitor the situation and take necessary measures to ensure everyone’s safety,” the Dubai Media Office said in a post X.

The authorities urged the public to obtain information from official sources.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has discussed Iranian strikes with United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Reuters reports.

“We discussed how we can help in this situation and support the protection of lives. It was agreed that our teams will work on this,” Reuters adds, quoting Zelensky’s post on X after a call with the UAE leader.

After the call with al-Thani, Zelensky has said that Ukrainian and Qatari teams would remain in contact to “determine how we can jointly provide greater protection to people”.

Kyiv officials have said that Ukraine would be ready to send drone specialists to the Middle East to help down Iranian drones if its partners help to broker a ceasefire in its war with Russia.

US President Donald Trump says it would be better for someone within Iran, rather than Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah, to lead the country once the war has ended, Al Jazeera reports.

“He (Pahlavi) seems like a very nice person. But it seems to me that someone from within might be better” to take over, Trump told reporters as he met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House.

Kuwait’s Ministry of Defence has mourned the killing of two sergeants during the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

“With profound sadness and sorrow, the Ministry of Defence mourns the martyrs of the military operations who have passed away by the permission of Almighty God,” the Kuwait Army said on X.

The martyrs were identified as Sergeant Walid Majid Sulaiman and Sergeant Abdulaziz Abdulmohsen Dakheel.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said he has informed the Cyprus president that Britain is sending helicopters with counter-drone capabilities and HMS Dragon is to be deployed to the region.

“We’re continuing our defensive operations, and I’ve just spoken with the president of Cyprus to let him know that we are sending helicopters with counter-drone capabilities and HMS Dragon is to be deployed to the region,” Starmer said on X.

He said the UK “is fully committed to the security of Cyprus and British military personnel based there” and “we will always act in the interest of the UK and our allies”.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off trade with Spain, whose left-wing government refused to let US planes use its bases to attack Iran and objected to raising defense funding as part of Nato, AFP reports.

“Spain has been terrible,” Trump told reporters as he met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

“We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”

Loud explosions have been heard in Qatar and the UAE, according to AFP reporters and residents, as Iran presses a campaign of missile and drone barrages across the Gulf.

Journalists have heard loud explosions reverberating in the Qatari capital Doha and in Dubai in the UAE, while two residents have told AFP they heard explosions in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi.

US President Donald Trump says the war with Iran unfolded very quickly when asked why Washington did not have an evacuation plan for US embassies or to get US nationals out of harm’s way.

The spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, Majed Mohammed Al-Ansari, has asserted that the Gulf country “has not been part of the campaign targeting Iran”.

“We are exercising our right in self-defence and deterring Iranian attacks against our country,” Ansari said on X.

US President Donald Trump says that the American military has been successful against many Iranian defences, saying “just about everything has been knocked out.”

He has made his comments in the Oval Office ahead of a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Multiple users and accounts on social media platforms shared an image, claiming that it shows the funeral prayers of girls killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school in Iran. However, the photo is AI-generated.

A reverse image search was conducted to check whether the photograph was shared by any credible international or Iranian media outlets in their reporting of the funeral, but yielded no results.

A closer analysis of the image revealed visual inconsistencies; firstly, the photoframes placed next to two bodies are exactly the same. Secondly, the hand of the grieving man — on the top left of the photo — and areas where skin meets fabric show slight blending distortions, a known weakness in AI image generation.

A forensic analysis of the image showed that AI detection tool Truth Scan flagged it as having an AI probability of 97 per cent. Similarly, Undetectable AI gave the photo a score of being 3pc real, adding that it was likely created using AI.

Therefore, the claim that a viral image shows the funeral of girls killed in an Israeli strike on a school in Iran’s Minab city is false. The image is AI-generated.

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