War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

The website of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, with the address rahbar.ir, has been launched, Tasnim reports.

Two members of Iran’s security forces were killed in an attack in the northeast city of Mashhad, where the funeral of late supreme leader Ali Khamenei was held, AFP reports, citing Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

The two people killed were “members of the Basij forces”, a paramilitary force affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the Iranian military, Tasnim said.

Tasnim did not specify the date of the incident or the identity of the attackers, but said that “the perpetrator or perpetrators of this act will be punished”.

According to the agency, the two men were killed while “patrolling in the city of Mashhad, about fifteen kilometres (nine miles) from the shrine” of Imam Reza, where Ali Khamenei was buried.

“A pedestrian was also wounded by the attackers and taken to hospital,” the Iranian agency added.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah discussed the latest regional developments during a telephone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

According to the Saudi foreign ministry, the two sides underscored the importance of continuing coordination and consultations to promote security and stability across the region.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said that avenging his slain predecessor and father was “the demand of the nation” and “must certainly” take place, according to a written message released on his Telegram account, Reuters reports.

“We pledge to avenge the blood of the martyred leader and all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraced killers,” Khamenei said in the message.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei recalled that the former Supreme Leader’s life and leadership were shaped by the principles of Imam Hussain.

“The Islamic Revolution of Iran was fundamentally Hussaini in nature, built and nurtured upon the slogans and principles of Imam Hussain (pbuh). The martyred Leader of Iran also grew under these very same principles,” he said in his message.

A legislator from Hezbollah’s political wing has highlighted Iran’s unflagging support for Lebanon, saying Tehran has emphasised an end to the Israeli regime’s military offensives in Lebanon alongside ending the war against itself as one of its primary demands in the agreement with the United States, Press Tv reports.

“The first clause of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Iran and the United States underlines ending the Zionist regime’s military operations against Lebanon, and ensuring the withdrawal of occupying forces from all occupied Lebanese territories,” Hassan Fadlallah, a member of the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc, stated.

Iranian media will shortly release Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s message on the funeral and burial of his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Israeli army has targeted the Hula municipality in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh district, blowing up homes, according to the National News Agency.

A drone attack in the municipality of Kfar Tebnit has also been reported.

Iranian authorities have said the bridge in Golestan province’s Aqqala County, damaged in an earlier US strike, has reopened for operations, reports Iran’s Radio and Television News Agency, according to Al Jazeera.

Ali-Asghar Tahmasbi, the governor of Golestan, said the reopening of the damaged bridge less than 24 hours after the attack “is the province’s practical response to the threats and actions of the enemies”.

Iranian state media had previously reported that a railway bridge near Aqqala was hit early on Wednesday, damaging the Gorgan-Incheh Borun railway line, a part of Iran’s northern rail connectivity with Turkmenistan and wider Central Asian networks.

Iranian judiciary’s head Mohseni-Eje’i has said a “war crime has been committed against our country and our people by the United States and the Zionist regime”, ISNA reports.

“We are determined to prosecute and punish the war criminals. The criminals must be both punished and paid compensation commensurate with the crime they committed,” he was quoted as saying.

ISNA, citing the judiciary, said Mohseni Ejei met with a group of experienced and prominent international and foreign lawyers and jurists in order to diligently pursue the case of war crimes allegedly committed by the US and Israel against Iran.

He said: “The Zionists have been engaged in crimes, massacres, genocide, and infanticide in Palestine and Lebanon for nearly eight decades; we will fight the savage and savage Zionists with all our might, and wherever the flag of the fight against these anthropomorphs is raised, we will not hesitate to accompany and assist.”

He asserted that the “criminals should also be sure that we will recover from them the damages they have inflicted on the Iranian nation”.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva has filed a formal complaint with the International Intergovernmental Organization for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF), demanding urgent action over US attacks on the country’s railway infrastructure, including a strike on a railway bridge in Golestan province, Press TV reports.

“The attack is yet another example of strikes against facilities serving public transport, economic activities and regional connectivity,” the letter stated, urging OTIF to pursue the matter seriously through its legal and institutional mechanisms.

A commemorative ceremony in honour of Iran’s martyred supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was organised on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) at the Imam Reza Shrine, Fars news agency reports.

It further says that the ceremony will also be held tonight and on Sunday night.

An Israeli drone has dropped a sound bomb on the municipality of al-Mansouri, in southern Lebanon’s Tyre district, the country’s National News Agency reports, according to Al Jazeera.

Governor of Iran’s Pakdasht city says the explosion sounds in the eastern part of Tehran province were related to a controlled operation to destroy explosives, according to Fars news agency.

“The sounds that were heard were the result of a controlled operation to dispose of munitions left over from the war,” the governor says, adding there was no incident or threat to the public.

The report adds the operation was pre-planned and carried out in full compliance with all safety regulations.

Residents of Iran’s Pakdasht and Qiamdasht report they heard sound of explosions from the eastern part of Tehran, according to Fars news agency.

The source and exact location of the explosions have yet to be determined, the news agency says.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in the Omani capital Muscat for talks, Al Jazeera reports, citing Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

The Israeli army has hit the outskirts of Nabatieh in an air raid, Lebanon’s National News Agency reports.

The report said Israel followed up with another drone attack at the same location five minutes later, coinciding with machinegun fire on Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, a municipality overlooking the Litani River.

Hossein Afshin, the Iranian president’s deputy for science, technology and knowledge-based economy, says the country’s research infrastructure has suffered about $300m in damage in the war, Al Jazeera reports.

“We were working on emerging technologies in the country that had no military application, and the enemy had targeted Iran’s scientific and technological authority, which will be rebuilt with strength,” he said, IRNA reports.

“We are trying to be a powerhouse of science and technology in today’s world, because any country that invests in this field will be successful.”

China has announced a temporary export ban on helium, effective immediately, as the resumption of military conflict in the Middle East threatens to trigger new shortages of the gas critical for chip manufacturing, Reuters reports.

Earlier this year, the US-Israeli war on Iran led to helium shortages, disrupting companies globally, including in China, where the AI industry increasingly relies on domestic chips for training and running AI models. Helium is essential for heat management in semiconductor production.

“The helium export ban is a clear effort to protect domestic supply after the Iran conflict reignited,” said Cory Combs, head of supply chain and critical minerals research at policy research firm Trivium China.

The spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaeil Baghaei, has highlighted the continuous surveillance of enemy movements by the nation’s armed forces, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, he said: “The valiant defenders of the noble homeland in the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, on the coasts, islands, borders and other sensitive points of the country, with vigilant and watchful eyes, keep the enemy’s movements under surveillance.”

He added that these forces “safeguard the security and tranquillity of dear Iran” through their actions.

Iran thanks Pakistan for abstaining from a vote that allowed a UN Security Council meeting on its nuclear programme to go ahead, as Tehran rejected the session as “legally unfounded”.

Iranian Ambassador and Permanent Representative Amir Saeid Iravani, in a statement after the meeting, specifically acknowledged Pakistan and Somalia for “not supporting the convening of this meeting”, while praising Russia and China for opposing the session.

The meeting was requested by Bahrain and five European members of the Security Council — Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia and the United Kingdom — to discuss implementation of Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, and the secretary-general’s latest report on the matter.

US President Donald Trump said the country would “completely decimate” Iran if it attempted or succeeded in assassinating him, AFP reports.

“1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

“Orders have already been given, and the US Military is ready, willing, and able, for a one year period of time, subject to extension, to completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran,” he said.

Iran denied that it had requested negotiations with the United States after President Donald Trump said that Washington and Tehran had agreed to continue talks despite a recent escalation of hostilities, Reuters reports.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran had not sought negotiations with the US, but had accepted a visit by the Qatari mediator to Iran, according to Iranian state TV.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will travel to Oman for talks on the Strait of Hormuz, state media said, according to AFP.

The visit “will be focused on the Strait of Hormuz and shipping safety” and is “a continuation of the consultations that we started with Oman over the past one or two months,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei as saying.