War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

The Kremlin said that President Vladimir Putin relayed to US President Donald Trump Iran’s position on a possible resolution to the US-Iran war, with the backing of the Iranian president, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported, Reuters reports.

“In coordination with the president of Iran, Putin conveyed to Trump the Iranian side’s view on a possible resolution of the conflict,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying.

Forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government say they have killed several Houthi fighters north of Dhubab Airport, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, the Southern Giant Forces said they had repelled an attack by the Houthis, destroying a large amount of the group’s equipment. The Southern Giant Forces added that the Saudi-led coalition had also targeted Houthi reinforcements with air strikes.

Passenger and air traffic at King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital returned to normal Friday after two attacks by Yemen’s Houthis killed three Saudi citizens and injured others, Saudi state media reports.

State-run Alekhbariya TV said passenger movement at the airport is “flowing smoothly,” with operational services resumed and air traffic back to normal.

The broadcaster said the rapid restoration of flights reflected the readiness of the airport’s infrastructure and the flexibility of Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation system in dealing with exceptional circumstances and containing their effect, while prioritizing the safety of passengers and staff.

Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, says that “there is a glaring contradiction in Rubio’s recent speech: standing firm ‘to the last man’ is praised in the context of ancient Greece, yet the steadfastness of the great Iranian nation is disparaged with the label of a ‘death cult’.”

In a post on X, he criticised remarks made by Marco Rubio during a visit to Athens, where the US secretary of state drew parallels between ancient Greco-Persian conflicts and modern

“Mr Rubio, your problem is not with the Islamic Revolution; it is with a strong and independent Iranian civilisation.”

Velayati added that praising resistance when it applies to “one’s own” while disparaging it when it applies to “the other” is not civilisation, but dishonesty.

Velayati also stated that those who perpetrated the catastrophes of Hiroshima, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan have no right to lecture others on morality.

Israeli warplanes have launched a raid on the area between the towns of Nabatieh al-Fawqa and Kfar Tebnit in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reports, citing the Lebanese National News Agency.

There were no reports so far as to whether there had been any casualties or damage.

Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Commission, has denounced comments made by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about Iran’s history.

“A country whose history began with the massacre of indigenous peoples and has never ceased from colonialism and bloodshed accuses the Achaemenids – who wrote the world’s first declaration of human rights – of crimes!” Azizi said in a post on X.

“Your vile nature has a problem with Iran and Iranians.”

Regional diplomacy shouldn’t just be about holding meetings, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says, adding, “It must be a real tool: for crisis management, maintaining dialogue, preventing escalation, and driving practical cooperation.”

Iran must be addressed with respect, as it is a living civilisation and a great nation with an enduring place in world history, Tourism Minister Seyyed Reza Salehi-Amiri says in response to remarks by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the wars involving Iran and Greece, IRNA reports.

In a statement responding to Rubio’s remarks at the Acropolis in Athens, Salehi-Amiri said late Friday that a nation’s deep-rooted identity cannot be reduced to a single war, king, or government.

“Iran cannot be defined by one war, one king or one government,” he said, describing Iran as one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations and a major contributor to the development of order, culture, knowledge, and coexistence throughout human history

United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg says the country has slid back into “full-scale war” as fighting between the Houthis and internationally recognised government forces continues, Al Jazeera reports.

US President Donald Trump has said the Iran war will end “one way or the other, very soon”.

He added that the war will end either through battle or a negotiated settlement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, following a call with US President Donald Trump, said that Russia selling diesel supplies to US and global markets would benefit the world economy, Anadolu reports.

A Kremlin statement said Putin indicated that the two leaders discussed the global energy sector, prospects for resolving the Ukraine war, the situation on Iran, and bilateral relations.

“In discussing the state of the global energy sector, the Russian side reaffirmed its readiness to supply oil and petroleum products to the US and global markets. I am confident that this will have a positive impact on the global economy as a whole,” said Putin.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis said Saturday it destroyed more than 100 military targets in a “large-scale operation” against the Iran-backed group, AFP reports.

The conflict between the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognised government – which Saudi Arabia supports – reignited in July, and has since spilled over into the neighbouring kingdom.

In addition to seizing territory along the Red Sea coast in Yemen, the Houthis have attacked transport hubs, oil facilities and other civilian targets in the world’s largest crude exporter with drones and missiles.

Houthi media reports that Saudi strikes on the airport in Sanaa have killed two people, a day after the Yemeni group launched deadly strikes against Riyadh’s own air hub, according to AFP.

Separately, the civil defence agency in the city reports extinguishing four fires caused by Saudi strikes, including one it claims destroyed a factory.

US President Donald Trump claims that Russia will “immediately supply” over 300,000 tonnes of diesel fuel to the American and global markets, with another 500,000 tonnes next month and “1,000,000 tonnes immediately thereafter”.

“Russia will then deliver, within a short period of time, 3,000,000 tonnes of diesel fuel. Between our total control of the Strait of Hormuz, and this great announcement on Russian energy, diesel prices for Americans and, indeed, the world will be coming down, in record numbers, and fast!” he writes on Truth Social.

US Central Command (Centcom) says on X that American forces have redirected 133 vessels as part of the naval blockade of Iran.

Oil prices are down as Middle East supply concerns ease after President Donald Trump said the US would not attack Iran before midterm elections next month, and talked of “productive” talks to end their war that has disrupted global energy markets, Reuters reports.

Brent crude futures have slid 52 cents, 0.50 per cent to $103.76 a barrel as of 10:11pm PKT. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures are down 22 cents or 0.2pc to $91.28.

Trump has also teased an upcoming, undisclosed announcement on diesel and says he is considering suspending the federal gasoline tax.

US President Donald Trump will soon issue a directive to some of his department heads to find ways to control prices of diesel fuel, which are near record highs in the weeks before the November 3 congressional elections, Reuters reports citing three industry sources.

The directive, which could take the form of a presidential memo, will push officials to find ways to bypass local and state regulations blocking energy production and use the Cold War-era Defence Production Act to increase output of oil and fuel, the sources add.

Iranian national security chief Mohsen Rezaei has warned the US that Persians have stopped Western civilisations in the past.

“When, after suffering defeat and humiliation at the hands of Iran, they go to Athens to construct a narrative of a civilisational war, they would do well to read another important chapter of history as well: the one in which the Roman emperor knelt before Shapur I of the Sasanian Empire,” he writes.

“Those who invoke history must also be prepared to see it repeat itself!” he adds, referring to remarks by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio a day prior.

US President Donald Trump says “We’re doing a very good job” as far as the war on Iran is concerned, reiterating that Tehran can never possess a nuclear weapon.

“If we didn’t attack them with the B-2 bombers early on, they were two weeks away, maybe three weeks away from having a nuclear weapon,” he says at an event at the White House, referring to bombing raids on suspected Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025.

“And if they had a nuclear weapon, they would have used it and they would have used it fast,” he adds. “They would have blown up the Middle East, they would have totally blown up Israel … and then they would have headed for our country.

Trump claims that the Iranians “would probably hit places like San Diego and Los Angeles first because the route for a missile is much more convenient”.

US President Donald Trump says there will be “big news” on diesel, as prices remain at near-record highs in the weeks before the Nov 3 congressional elections that will determine control of Congress, Reuters reports.

“We have a big announcement coming up on diesel,” Trump says without elaborating at a White House event. “We have, I think, some big news on that diesel situation. We’re going to be knocking the hell out of it.”

Germany will release up to 15 million barrels of diesel, heating oil and crude from emergency reserves, its economy minister told Reuters on Friday, making Europe’s largest contribution under a G7-backed effort to ease fuel shortages and curb soaring energy prices caused by the wars in Iran and Ukraine.

“Diesel and heating oil will be the first, with crude oil to follow,” Germany’s Economy Minister Katherina Reiche tells Reuters, adding that Germany will fully implement the G7 agreement.

“We must always have the entire supply chain in mind. Available crude oil alone is not enough,” she says without specifying the breakdown between diesel, heating oil and crude or the timeline of the release.

US President Donald Trump has again claimed that fuel prices will come down and the war on Iran will be over soon.

“The prices will come tumbling and it’s going to be over soon, one way or the other,” he says, addressing an event at the White House, reiterating his claim that Iran’s military has been largely destroyed.

“We took out, yesterday, 28 million barrels” of oil from the Strait of Hormuz, he adds.

Residents report hearing a powerful boom in the vicinity of Aden airport in southern Yemen, according to Reuters.

There have been no immediate reports of casualties or damage, and the cause of the sound is not immediately clear.

Yemen’s transport ministry says the airport was attacked earlier this week by the Houthis with ballistic missiles and explosive-laden drones.

The European Union could face a natural gas shortfall of up to 14 billion cubic meters this winter, equivalent to around seven per cent of the bloc’s demand, amid depleted storage levels and disruptions to global energy supplies, Anadolu reports.

A report by the US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), shared with Politico, warns that the EU’s gas reserves have fallen to just above 70pc — their lowest level for this time of year since records began in 2011.

The potential deficit could affect energy supplies equivalent to the consumption of 10 million to 12 million European households, raising concerns over higher electricity bills and possible energy-saving measures.