The US and Israel on Feb 28 launched what they described as a “pre-emptive” joint strike against Iranian targets, with Trump announcing start of “major combat operations”
Pakistan hosted the first round of face-to-face talks between the US and Iran in 47 years in April; the talks ended without a breakthrough, but also without a breakdown
An Israeli army spokesperson has posted an evacuation warning for six towns and villages in southern Lebanon, saying attacks are forthcoming, Al Jazeera reports.
Due to “Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire agreement, the [army] is compelled to act against it forcefully”, the spokesperson said.
The social media post threatened the municipalities and towns of Habboush, Kafr Kila, Sahmar, Ain Qana, Nabatieh al-Tahta and Kafr Reman in southern Lebanon.
Israel continues to violate the ceasefire with daily deadly attacks and the occupation of Lebanon’s territory.
Oil prices have jumped more than 2 per cent after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it has targeted a US airbase, in response to an earlier American attack in the port city of Bandar Abbas, Reuters reports.
Brent crude futures were up $2.85, or 3pc, to $97.14 a barrel at 1150 GMT, while the more active August contract gained $2.81 or around 3.1pc, to $95.06. The July contract is set to expire on Friday.
US West Texas Intermediate futures were up $2.76, or 3.1pc, at $91.44.
Both benchmarks had slipped more than 5pc to touch their lowest in a month in the previous session on the possibility of a US-Iran deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Russia has called on the US and Iran not to slide back into armed conflict, but to continue talking, Reuters reports quoting Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
Russia is ready to assist in the removal of enriched uranium from Iran, she states, but Moscow “is not imposing its initiative.”
Washington has not taken Russia up on the enrichment offer which has been on the table for months.
A Lebanese military source tells AFP that an Israeli strike hit an apartment south of Beirut on Thursday, shortly after Israel’s military claimed it launched a strike on the capital.
“An Israeli strike targeted an apartment in the Choueifat area,” the military source says on condition of anonymity, while AFPTV footage shows smoke rising from the area on the edge of Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry has issued a statement denouncing the hostile missile and drone attack on Kuwait.
“The kingdom stresses its firm rejection of violations of the sovereignty of states and attempts to threaten the security and stability of the region,” the statement reads.
Riyadh has also expressed solidarity with the Kuwaiti government and people, renewing its “full support for all measures Kuwait takes to preserve its sovereignty, security, and stability, as well as the safety of its brotherly people”.
US forces deployed to war zones have been targeted using commercially available location data, according to reports fielded by military officials, an illustration of how the global surveillance economy is shaping the battlefield.
In a letter shared with Reuters by US Senator Ron Wyden — an Oregon Democrat — US Central Command (Centcom) says it received multiple threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data to target or surveil US personnel in theatre.
The message, sent on April 14, offered no further specifics, but Centcom’s area of responsibility includes the Gulf, where US forces are facing off against the Iranian military over the Strait of Hormuz.
The disclosure is the first official confirmation that US forces had been targeted in an active war zone, Wyden and a bipartisan group of legislators have said in a letter sent on Thursday to the Pentagon.
“Commercial location data can be used to identify where US troops congregate and their pattern of life, which can be exploited by adversaries to target attacks such as missiles, drones, and roadside bombs, as well as for counterintelligence purposes,” the letter warns.
A US soldier drives a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to a refueling station in the Middle East, in this photo released on May 22, 2026. — X/@CENTCOM
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has hailed Pakistan’s efforts to ensure peace between the US and Iran, according to the Foreign Office (FO).
Addressing a dinner in New York commemorating Eidul Azha, Dar noted that Pakistan, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, is “playing an active and constructive role in regional and global peace efforts, reflecting the country’s maturity, credibility, and steadfast commitment to international peace and stability”.
“He (Dar) underscored that a nation capable of defending itself with confidence is equally well-positioned to pursue sincere peacemaking efforts with credibility,” a transcript of the speech reads. “He conveyed that Pakistan is a country of immense potential, and that its best days lie ahead.”
Kuwait has condemned a drone-and-missile attack it blames on Iran, as the Islamic republic’s renewed exchanges with US forces heap pressure on the Middle East war’s fragile ceasefire, AFP reports.
A foreign ministry statement voices Kuwait’s “strongest condemnation and denunciation of the criminal Iranian attacks that targeted the territory of the State of Kuwait with missiles and drones, in a dangerous escalation”.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said that the US and Israel were seeking to destabilise the Islamic republic in a written message read on state television, AFP reports.
“The enemy’s blind plan, after the imposed war, the economic pressure, and the political and propaganda siege, is to create divisions and disintegration in order to compensate for military defeats and bring the nation to its knees,” said Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since before he took office in March.
US Central Command has said that Iran launched a ballistic missile toward Kuwait that was successfully intercepted by Kuwaiti forces.
In a post on X, it said this “egregious ceasefire violation by the Iranian regime occurred hours after Iranian forces launched five one-way attack drones that posed a clear threat in and near the Strait of Hormuz”.
“All drones were successfully intercepted by US forces which also prevented a sixth drone launch from an Iranian ground control site in Bandar Abbas,” it said.
“US Central Command and regional partners remain vigilant and measured as we continue to defend our forces and interests from unjustified Iranian aggression,” it added.
The jet fuel market in the EU is expected to “become increasingly tighter” if disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz continue in the coming weeks, according to the European Commission’s energy department, Al Jazeera reports.
The department said that while all EU countries have been affected by price changes for crude oil and other petroleum products, there have not yet been “physical supply disruptions at the consumer level”.
“However, if the situation does not improve in the next weeks, markets are expected to become increasingly tighter, especially for jet fuel,” it said.
NetBlocks has said that metrics indicate that Iranian internet users still face heavy filtering despite the connectivity has largely returned.
In a post on social media platform X, it said: “Three months ago today Iran shut off access to the global internet. While connectivity has now largely returned, metrics indicate that users still face heavy filtering, similar to the interim period between the January protests and the start of the war.”
Hezbollah has launched a series of attacks on Israeli forces across southern Lebanon, AlJazeera reports.
The group fired a rocket barrage at a group of Israeli army vehicles parked near the town hall of al-Qussair, in the Marjayoun District, the report cited the Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).
It also launched a missile strike on a building housing “the secret command of the armed vehicles” situated “near the reservoir” in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, said NNA. An Ababil attack helicopter belonging to Hezbollah also hit a Merkava tank, stationed near the town’s pond.
Further, “the Numira mechanism in the town of Qantara with the Ababil attack helicopters achieved a confirmed hit,” said NNA.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares has lashed out at Israel as its heavy bombardment of Lebanese territory continues, AlJazeera reports.
“Israel must accept that other countries have exactly the same right as Israel to have their own state and to have it in peace and security. Israel has the right to its state in peace and security, but the Palestinian people and the Lebanese people have exactly that same right,” Albares said.
Albares has made the comments to reporters before participating in the meeting of EU Foreign Ministers being held in Cyprus.
Albares denounced Israel’s decision to declare southern Lebanon a “war zone” and demand all residents leave the area as “completely unacceptable” as well as being “contrary to international law”.
Iran’s football federation expects FIFA to facilitate multiple-entry visas for the US for the Iranian national team ahead of the 2026 World Cup, its president said in a video broadcast by Iranian media, AFP reports.
“FIFA is expected to deliver a multiple-entry visa so that the players can enter (the US) and return (to Mexico),” federation president Mehdi Taj said.
“It is certain now that we will go to Mexico. The team is preparing,” Taj said.
Tehran condemns the US attack on areas in Bandar Abbas, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement, Reuters reports.
Iran also expresses solidarity with Oman after “US officials’ threats”, Baghaei added, following US President Donald Trump’s threat to blow up Oman if it did not “behave just like everybody else” in regards to the control of the Strait of Hormuz.
The United Nations has added Israel to a blacklist of perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict zones, AlJazeera reports, citing Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
In a social media post on X, Danon reveals the UN’s decision, adding the world body had made “a political decision” to add Israel to the list.
“This is a political decision! Disconnected from the facts and reality!” he wrote, adding that Israel has submitted evidence to refute the UN reports.
The Israeli military has said that a soldier was killed the day before by a Hezbollah drone near the Lebanon border, taking to 24 the number of its troops killed in the war with Hezbollah, according to AFP.
A military statement named her as 20-year-old Sergeant Rotem Yanai, who “fell during operational activity in northern Israel”.
It added that one reservist soldier was severely injured and another moderately so in the same incident.
The military told AFP that Yanai was killed by a Hezbollah explosive drone.
A total of 24 Israelis have been killed since hostilities began on March 2, including 23 soldiers and one civilian contractor.
At least two people have been killed in a targeted Israeli drone strike on the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, AlJazeera reports, quoting Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).
The victims were riding a motorcycle when they were killed, NNA said.
