War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Israeli forces remain deployed in all the areas they recently occupied, AlJazeera reports, citing a Lebanese military source.

The statement came after the Reuters news agency reported a US State Department official as saying Israel had withdrawn from parts of the area as an act of “good faith” towards Lebanon’s government.

Senior Israeli and Lebanese officials denied that there had been any Israeli withdrawal from occupied southern Lebanon, after a US official said Israel had pulled some of its troops back in a good faith gesture toward Lebanon’s government, Reuters reports.

The “pilot zone” proposal has been part of the latest round of Israeli-Lebanese talks in Washington, which have gone on even as they appear to be eclipsed by Iran’s move to make Lebanon central to its own talks with the United States.

Dutch and British gas prices were flat on morning as the market waited for further developments in the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports.

The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub was flat at 40.90 per megawatt hour (MWh) or around $13.63/mmBtu, by 0829 GMT, ICE data showed.

The British June contract was up 0.30 pence at 97.48 pence per therm.

“We expect the TTF day-ahead to trade broadly sideways today, supported by the absence of fresh geopolitical developments and a stable fundamental outlook,” said LSEG analyst Yuriy Onyshkiv.

US President Donald Trump voiced frustration with several Nato allies over insufficient support during the war with Iran, Anadolu reports.

Speaking alongside Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House, Trump was asked whether he still believed some European allies had treated the US unfairly and what they could do to improve relations.

Trump said he had been “disappointed” by the response of several key Nato members, including Italy, the UK, Germany and France.

“I was disappointed with Italy. I was disappointed with the UK,” he said. “We were disappointed with Germany and France. We’re disappointed with most of them.”

Israel has withdrawn from some of the southern Lebanese territory it has occupied in its war with Hezbollah, a US State Department official said, adding that Lebanon’s armed forces should now step in, Reuters reports.

There was no immediate comment from Israel. A senior Lebanese security official said they were unaware of any withdrawal of Israeli troops from Israel’s so-called “buffer zone” in southern Lebanon.

The State Department official did not say how much territory Israel withdrew from or where exactly the pullback occurred. Israel and Lebanon have been holding US-brokered talks in Washington aimed in part at halting fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.

China’s state-owned refiners are considering resuming Iranian oil purchases, but competing alternative supplies and falling domestic fuel demand will temper their interest, Reuters reports.

PetroChina and Sinopec are examining the banking, insurance and shipping considerations needed to resume their Iranian transactions, said three of the sources, officials at Chinese state oil companies who spoke on condition of anonymity as the subject is sensitive.

Iraq will consider all available options if its OPEC quota is not significantly increased and has weighed leaving the producer group, sources with knowledge of Iraqi oil policy told Reuters.

The prospect of OPEC’s second-largest producer considering an exit would be a further blow to the group after the departure this year of the United Arab Emirates.

Iraq is one of the five founding members of OPEC, which was formed in the Iraqi capital. Iraq is suffering a financial crisis as a result of the Iran war and a significant rise in its OPEC quota should be treated seriously, a senior Iraqi oil ministry official told Reuters.

Iraq had considered leaving OPEC, but the current plan was to remain a member and seek a higher quota, he added.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warns that Iranian tolls on ships passing the Strait of Hormuz would spread to other waterways, risking “total chaos”, AFP reports.

“International waterways do not belong to any nation state. This is a foundational principle in the world today, without which the world would be in total chaos,” he has said at a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Bahrain.

“If in fact we accepted that you can charge money to use an international waterway because it happens to be near your territorial space, well then this will spread throughout the world like a contagion. “

No part of the US-Iran deal undermines the security and stability of US allies in the Gulf, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio assures the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

“We are open for peace but a peace that is enduring, that is real and that in no way undermines our security, our prosperity or the security or prosperity of our allies in the Gulf region,” Rubio says in his speech at the GCC-US joint ministerial meeting in Manama, Bahrain.

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 at the Gulf Cooperation Council-US joint ministerial meeting in Manama, Bahrain.

“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.