War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

The mayor of the Lebanese town of Froun has contradicted a statement issued by the Lebanese army where it said it had retaken southern towns from Israeli control, Al Jazeera reports.

Hassan Bazzi told Al Jazeera that the Lebanese army has not yet begun deploying in the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiya, because Israeli forces are yet to withdraw from the outskirts of the town.

“This is just talk. There have been no new developments in the town of Froun. The situation remains unchanged,” he said.

Oil prices have hit one-month highs today before scaling back as Iran said diplomatic exchanges with the United States were ongoing via mediators to dial back renewed conflict in the Middle East, AFP reports.

That helped give a positive tone to sentiment on Wall Street, while European equity markets largely stabilised.

However, Asian stock markets ended the day mostly lower under the weight of higher oil prices which briefly shot above $91 per barrel, alongside lingering concerns that the AI sector may be overbought.

“The Iran war has escalated and driven oil prices back above $90 a barrel,” noted Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“That means inflation fears are back on the table.”

Jordan’s armed forces say three missiles launched from Iran have been intercepted, Al Jazeera reports citing Jordan’s state TV.

Sirens sounded in the Jordanian capital Amman on Monday evening, an AFP correspondent says, as the United States and Iran exchange attacks in the region.

The state-run Al-Mamlaka channel also said that sirens had sounded in the kingdom.

The deputy security officer of Iran’s central province governorate has said that an industrial unit on the outskirts of Khomein County was targeted in an US-Israeli attack earlier today, which resulted in no loss of life, student-run news agency ISNA reports.

An assessment of potential damages is underway, the officer added.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations says a vessel has been struck 17 nautical miles east of Dibba, near the UAE’s Fujairah port, Al Jazeera reports.

Crew aboard the ship told UKMTO that an unknown projectile hit their ship, damaging the steering gear. All crew aboard the vessel are reportedly safe.

US President Donald Trump has warned Iran that it will pay “many times over” for every US soldier it killed, AFP reports, after Washington announced over the weekend three new military fatalities and one service member missing in action.

“Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!” Trump posted on his platform, Truth Social.

“This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military.”

On Truth Social, Trump has claimed that Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting against Iran, which has “recently killed 52,000 innocent protestors” and has been killing US soldiers “and others” for 47 years.

“The only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented SPIRAL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, something that should have been dealt with years ago, by previous Presidents!” he said.

US President Donald Trump has said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will not be arrested, in any way, shape or form, while in the United States of America”, in a post on Truth Social.

Air raid sirens have sounded in Bahrain for the fifth time, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency has reported.

The US military says it has disabled one ship and redirected seven in its continuing naval blockade against Iran.

“As of July 20, the US military has redirected 7 commercial vessels and disabled 1 to prevent the ships from leaving or entering Iranian ports,” Centcom wrote on X.

Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni has arrived in Islamabad on an official visit.

Upon his arrival in Pakistan, the senior Iranian official was received by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi.

Earlier reports had suggested that Momeni was likely to engage with Pakistani officials who previously mediated a now-collapsed interim ceasefire between the US and Iran.

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Two French diplomats in Iran suffered “an extremely serious act of intimidation” by its security services, with one of them physically abused, France’s foreign minister says according to AFP.

Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement sent to AFP that the two diplomats were targeted by the Iranian officials late on Sunday “in flagrant violation of diplomatic immunity”.

Both were “detained for several hours without reason, interrogated and one of them was physically abused” before they were able to return to the embassy, he said.

The assistant to the US Secretary of War, Sean Parnell, has rejected the New York Times’ earlier report that the Pentagon withheld “dozens” of US military injuries in the Iran war.

In a statement on X, Parnell termed the claims “baseless and malicious accusations” and “outright lies from partisan hacks”.

“Injuries in the military encompass everything from minor sprained ankles during routine training to incidents entirely unrelated to combat operations,” he said. “Cherry-picking raw numbers without context paints a deliberately misleading and incomplete picture.”

He added that the military’s casualty information is publicly available and regularly updated online on the Defence Casualty Analysis System.

Lebanon’s health ministry says 4,328 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since it began its air strikes and ground invasion in March.

During the same period, 12,230 others were wounded in Israeli attacks.

Israeli officials have vowed troops will remain in a “security zone” 10km deep along the frontier for as long as Hezbollah remains armed.

Israel’s military continues launch strikes on southern Lebanon and carry out demolitions of villages it occupies near the border despite an ongoing “ceasefire”.

US gasoline prices have jumped back to an average of $4 per gallon, AFP reports citing the AAA motor club, as Iran says it is fighting a “full-scale war” with the United States while both sides intensified attacks.

The uptick underscores the political risks faced by US President Donald Trump ahead of crucial midterm elections in November, with affordability shaping up to be a key worry among voters.

Kuwait’s military says it was responding to renewed missile and drone salvos as Tehran pressed its attacks against Gulf countries and the United States expanded its strikes across the Islamic republic.

“Kuwaiti air defences are currently confronting hostile missile and drone attacks,” the Gulf state’s army said in a statement blaming Iran, while an AFP journalist confirmed hearing explosions in Kuwait City. In neighbouring Bahrain, air raid sirens also sounded, according to the island kingdom’s interior ministry.

A deal to secure an Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah faces its first test on the ground, as the Lebanese army begins taking charge of security in three southern villages, Washington says according to AFP.

The United States said operations had started in “pilot zones” in Froun, Srifa and Zawtar al-Gharbiya “in accordance with the Trilateral Framework and under the auspices of the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon”.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei says the US has targeted Iran’s civilian facilities and infrastructure in several provinces during its ongoing military aggression, revealing “America’s destructive logic”, according to Tasnim news agency.

“We condemn the attacks on infrastructure in the strongest possible terms,” Baqaei said in his weekly press conference. “Today we stand alongside the people of southern Iran not as a slogan, but out of friendship. Our coasts are not distant frontiers; they are the closest place to the hearts of Iranians.”

He also praised the resilience of the southern population, lauding the Iranian military forces for protecting the country.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree says the continued blockade of Yemen’s Sanaa airport “is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated”, according to Al Jazeera.

Saree vowed to retaliate “to the blockade with a blockade and to respond to all escalation with escalation”.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces affirm their complete readiness for all options and any foolish act committed by the reckless Saudi enemy,” said Saree.

“We call upon the people of our great nation to continue the general mobilisation and general call to arms, and to be fully prepared for all scenarios and developments, and to support the fronts with fighters.”

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have announced a maritime embargo of their foe Saudi Arabia, after the pair traded fire last week for the first time in years, AFP reports.

The rebels “declare a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye,’ effective immediately upon the issuance of this statement,” military spokesman Yahya Saree said.