War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon have continued overnight and into the early hours of this morning, Al Jazeera reports citing Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

These include air attacks on the town of Qalawiya at dawn, and on the towns of al-Qatrani, Byblos and Rihan in the Jezzine district overnight. The town of Deir Kifa in the Tyre district was also struck, while Barashit and Chaqra in the same district were subjected to intermittent artillery shelling overnight.

NNA also reports artillery shelling in the towns of al-Mansouri and Bayt al-Sayyad in the Tyre district.

Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref says all senior officials are fully aligned on Iran’s negotiating strategy, dismissing the possibility of differences over the text or proposals under discussion, state broadcaster Press TV reports.

Speaking during a visit to the Iranian Customs Administration, Aref says Tehran has pursued a clear and coordinated approach in negotiations with the US.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has had a specific strategy in the negotiations, and all officials have pursued it with complete coordination,” he states, adding that officials have “no differences regarding the text and proposals of the negotiations.”

Aref also highlights that Iran has gained valuable lessons in crisis management during the current war, as well as a 12-day conflict with Israel last year.

The Israeli military claims it intercepted two projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory, after sirens sounded in the areas of Yiftah and Ramot Naftali, Reuters reports.

While a peace agreement remains elusive on the 100th day since the US and Israel first launched strikes on Iran on February 28, Washington and Tehran have appeared to come close to a deal on several occasions, according to Al Jazeera.

The war began with the joint Operation Epic Fury waged by the US and Israel at the end of February. Iran retaliated by attacking Israel and US military assets in the Gulf.

Armed hostilities largely subsided after the temporary Pakistan-mediated ceasefire began on April 8. Direct talks in Islamabad fell apart on April 12, and the two sides have exchanged a series of proposals for peace via Pakistan since then.

However, several flare-ups since have escalated fears that full‑scale fighting could resume.

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The Israeli military says four of its reserve soldiers were moderately injured in a drone attack in southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority, Al Jazeera reports.

The report came a day after the Israeli military announced the deaths of two soldiers in battle in southern Lebanon.

According to AFP, at least 29 Israeli soldiers and one contractor have been killed since hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel resumed on March 2.

Recent US intelligence reports have raised concerns about Israeli spy agencies eavesdropping on American negotiators working on a peace deal with Iran, amid rising concern over a more general counterintelligence threat by Israel, the New York Times reports.

It noted that while Israel and the US have “long known, and tolerated, that each was spying on the other”, some American officials say that an intensified Israeli effort to learn about US positions in talks with Iran has crossed a line.

The reports include concerns that Israel has stepped up its efforts to eavesdrop on senior American officials, including Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s top negotiator, Elbridge A. Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy official, and one of his main deputies, Michael P. DiMino IV.

Another report, written by the Defence Intelligence Agency and other military intelligence offices, said that the counterintelligence threat level posed by Israel had been increased in recent weeks to the top level, from high to critical.

The US-Israel war on Iran does not meet the standards for a “just war” in Catholic teaching, Pope Leo reiterates during a visit to the Spanish capital, Madrid, according to Al Jazeera.

“I believe this has already been made very clear: In Iran, the criteria for a just war are not present,” the head of the Catholic Church said, responding to a reporter.

“The theory of the just war dates back to centuries when it was impossible to imagine the weapons and the destructive capacity available to humanity today.”

The pontiff’s comments follow an earlier dispute with US Vice President JD Vance, who defended the war as a “just war”, a characterisation Pope Leo rejected.

The Palestinian foreign ministry has condemned Iran’s recent attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait, in which several ballistic missiles were launched and intercepted, Al Jazeera reports.

The ministry said this aggression was “an escalation in threatening security and stability in the Arabian Gulf region, and a direct assault on their security and safety”, further citing the “blatant breach of the provisions of the United Nations Charter, international law, and international norms”.

The ministry expressed Palestine’s “full solidarity” with Bahrain and Kuwait and its support “for all legitimate measures they take to protect their sovereignty, security, and stability”.

Jordan’s foreign ministry has called for an immediate halt to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and described the deadly assault on the Lebanese military convoy as “a blatant violation of the sovereignty, security, and stability” of the country, Al Jazeera reports.

Fouad Majali, a spokesperson for the Jordanian foreign ministry, sent condolences to Lebanon’s government and the families of the victims and reiterated Amman’s “unwavering support” for the country, according to the official Petra news agency.

Majali “also stressed Jordan’s support for the Lebanese government’s efforts to assert its sovereignty over all Lebanese territory, reactivate its national institutions, and ensure that weapons are solely in the hands of the state”, the agency reported.

Opec+ ministers are to meet today to weigh higher production quotas in a bid to cap oil prices that have surged since the Iran war effectively choked off Gulf crude shipments, AFP reports.

But even if the cartel members vow to ramp up output by thousands of barrels per day, analysts say geopolitical realities mean they probably won’t move the needle on prices.

Ministers from the 21 member states of Opec+, the main oil-producing nations and their allies, are holding their quarterly meeting online.

The group is likely to beef up its production quotas by “188,000 barrels a day”, said Jorge Leon, analyst at Rystad Energy, similar to recent increases.

But in reality, only seven members — Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman — have the capacity to do so.

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Etihad Airways is ordering more widebody planes as the Middle East carrier expects to be flying about 8pc more than a year ago by June 15, CEO Antonoaldo Neves said in an interview, Reuters reports.

He said on the sidelines of a global gathering of airline CEOs in Brazil on Saturday that the Abu Dhabi carrier is buying widebody planes in the double digits, declining to specify further.

Etihad is restoring flights after making cuts in March as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran turned regional, raising fuel prices, Neves said.

He said Etihad does not plan to trim costs by cutting flights at the moment.

“The biggest cost we have is an empty plane,” he said. “So the way I cut cost is I don’t have empty planes.”

Hezbollah says its fighters have attacked an Israeli Merkava tank on the outskirts of the town of Haddatha as well as soldiers near the town of Yohmor al-Shaqif, Al Jazeera reports.

The latest attacks came after Hezbollah claimed to have launched at least 25 operations against Israeli troops and sites yesterday.

The group said it was committed to defending Lebanon and its people, adding that “this is the least that can be done to deter” Israel and prevent it from “pursuing its dangerous objectives” against the country.

Hezbollah claims it has attacked a “command headquarters” belonging to the Israeli military in the Lebanese town of Naqoura with Ababil drones, Al Jazeera reports.

It also said its fighters targeted a group of Israeli soldiers on the southern outskirts of the town of Haddatha with two Ababil drones and on the outskirts of Yohmor al-Shaqif with rocket salvoes and artillery shells.

The Israeli army has announced the deaths of two soldiers who had been fighting in southern Lebanon, AFP reports.

One, a 23-year-old captain, died yesterday after succumbing to wounds sustained in combat, while a 21-year-old sergeant died on Friday “during operational activity in southern Lebanon”, the military said.

Israel has lost 29 soldiers since the start of the latest war in Lebanon, as well as one civilian contractor, according to official figures.

Its bombing campaign and invasion of Lebanon’s south have killed more than 3,500 people there, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

The United States will make Iranian assets available to Gulf allies to support rebuilding and repairs for future damage caused by Iran, a source familiar says according to Reuters.

The US will also consider using those assets to support repairs for past damages, the source said, adding that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has directed a team to assess costs for damage already inflicted on Gulf allies by Iran.

An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon has killed two women and wounded 22 people, Lebanon’s health ministry says according to AFP, despite a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

“The Israeli enemy raid on the town of Saksakiyeh, Sidon district, on Saturday morning resulted in two martyrs and 22 wounded, including three children and a woman,” the ministry said in a statement.

The US military says it has shot down two Iranian attack drones threatening Strait of Hormuz shipping traffic, AFP reports.

“Earlier today, US forces in the Middle East shot down two Iranian one-way attack drones that threatened international maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz,” US Central Command said on its X account.

“American forces remain postured and ready to continue defending against Iranian aggression.”

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has said he is in Tehran to “deliver a special letter” from Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

Speaking to media in Tehran, Naqvi further said he will also deliver a “message from prime minister [Shehbaz Sharif] regarding the current situation”.

The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (Unifil) has expressed “heartfelt condolences” to the relatives of the Lebanese army members who were killed today in Israel’s attack in the Nabatieh area, Al Jazeera reports.

“Such attacks in Lebanese territory constitute gross violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and Security Council Resolution 1701,” it says in a post on X.

That UN resolution ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. It also formed the basis of a November 2024 truce between the two sides.

Iran’s World Cup squad has been notified they must enter and leave US soil on the same day as any match they must play in the United States, the country’s ambassador to Mexico said, reports Reuters.

Due to the ongoing US-Israeli conflict with Tehran, Iran’s team is now based in Mexico, instead of their intended site in Tucson, Arizona.

“We can enter in the morning and we must leave the same day,” Iran’s envoy Abolfazl Pasandideh told reporters.