War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Hundreds of truckers and bus drivers in Chile launched an indefinite strike on Tuesday to protest high fuel prices, blocking roads and major highways, AFP reports.

Hndreds of transport workers gathered at various points of Route 5, which runs the length of Chile from north to south, to demand relief from surging diesel prices, which are widely relied on in the sector.

The average price of diesel has risen 74 percent since March — driven by the war in Iran — threatening many transport companies, according to industry groups.

A Tuesday afternoon meeting between government officials and protest leaders failed to reach a resolution.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has recently moved from his Washington, DC residence to a US military base after Iranian threats against his life, reports Reuters, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The New York Times first reported the move.

“The secretary will not be deterred by the Iranian regime’s threats and remains committed to executing Operation Economic Outcast and maintaining the blockade, which together are collapsing Iran’s economy,” a US Treasury spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

The Times reported the severity of the threats to Bessent was not immediately clear.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says lawmakers need to show up and do their jobs, after 11 Democrats missed a House vote that effectively killed an effort to impeach Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Al Jazeera reports.

“The people send us here to do a job,” the New York Democrat tells CNN. “I don’t know if anyone had any real health issues or anything significant. So I want to leave room for that. But that being said, at the end of the day, we’re here to do a job. And the same way I had to clock in when I worked at a restaurant, we got to clock in and do our work here.”

She says she hoped Congress would not have to wait for the new session to move against Hegseth.

Republicans in the US House of Representatives blocked an effort on Tuesday to impeach Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, winning a reprieve for the polarising Pentagon chief before Democrats take control of Congress next year and possibly try again.

The vote on a procedural motion came just hours after Hegseth blasted efforts to impeach him as a farce and delivered a defiant defence of his record at the helm of the US military, winning praise from US President Donald Trump.

The chamber voted 211 to 204 in favour of a motion to refer eight articles of impeachment to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, a move that the sponsor of the impeachment push, US Representative Thomas Massie, warned would kill it.

Massie, an outgoing Kentucky Republican, had hoped to draw votes from Republicans upset with Hegseth’s policies and wary of the unpopularity of the war on Iran, but no other Republicans joined him.

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said he will use the COP31 UN climate summit in Turkiye to highlight what he described as US and Israeli crimes against Iran’s environment, Al Jazeera reports.

“The UN climate summit is a good opportunity to discuss the actions the US and Israel have taken to damage the environment in Iran and the region,” Pezeshkian says before departing for Antalya, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

He also says he would raise Tehran’s position during bilateral meetings with other world leaders. “We will discuss the legitimate positions of the Islamic Republic and the crimes the US and Israel have committed in the region,” he says.

Pezeshkian claims Washington had already seen the consequences of its actions in its own elections and among the American public. US President Donald Trump is not attending the summit, with Washington sending no official delegation for the second consecutive year.

Russia and Iran have held consultations in Moscow on regional issues, with a focus on resolving conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, the Russian Foreign Ministry says, Al Jazeera cites Iran’s state news agency IRNA.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Borisenko has met Mehdi Shoushtari, the director general for West Asia and North Africa at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, who travelled to Moscow to take part in consultations between the two foreign ministries on regional issues.

Borisenko has also met the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s deputy secretary-general for political affairs, Yousef Aldobeay, who was in Moscow for an international forum on collective security, according to IRNA.

They have discussed rising tensions in the Gulf and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and stressed the need to resolve crises through political and diplomatic means, in line with international law, it adds.

Oil prices rise after falling to two-month lows in the previous session, as the market swung between hopes for a de-escalation in the Iran war and concerns about ongoing attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports.

Brent futures have climbed 71 cents, or 0.78 per cent, to $92.20 a barrel by 0119 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude have risen 49 cents, or 0.57pc, to $86.53.

New data shows that 37 ships were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waterways in October, the highest monthly total since the start of the war, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. And 10 attacks have been recorded so far in November.

The American military is “luring helpless oil tankers into walls of fire” by saying that the Strait of Hormuz is open, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency cites the IRGC Navy commander as saying on X.

Mohsen Rezaei, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, says Washington has not given an “acceptable response” to Tehran’s conditions and that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

US House speaker Mike Johnson says the impeachment effort against Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth is “a political gambit for attention” and that he has done a good job.

“The idea that you would impeach the Secretary of War at a time of international conflict sends a terrible message to our enemies and our allies, and we’re not going to play that game … It’s shameful,“ he tells reporters.

Iran’s national security chief Mohsen Rezaei, in an interview with Lebanese broadcaster Al-Mayadeen, says there are currently no negotiations taking place between Tehran and Washington, Reuters reports.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency says it received a report at 1338 GMT (6:38pm PKT) of a tanker being struck by an unknown projectile about 35 kilometres northeast of Lima in Oman, according to Al Jazeera.

“The crew are safe and there is no environmental impact reported. Master will conduct damage assessment at first light,” the organisation says in a post on X.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says that the unveiling of the country’s new underground “missile city” reflects Tehran’s resolve to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to state news agency IRNA.

“The IRGC Aerospace Force’s new missile city is unquestionably a step along the road to durable deterrence, a deterrence built on defensive preparedness, steady advancement, and national unity, and one that takes root in the enemy’s mind,” he is quoted as saying.

Ghlibaf has also warned the US and Israel not to carry out any acts of aggression, saying, “Make no miscalculations, and should you stumble even slightly, Iran will not waver in mounting a swift and unthinkable defence, and this time, Iran’s armed forces will set the geography of war.”

Israel’s caretaker prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again urged a national unity government as he warns of threats from Iran, acknowledging an international shift following US elections last week, AFP reports.

“In the very near future, we’re going to be confronted by international pressure to accept a nuclear-armed Iran and the preservation of this terror regime that seeks to annihilate us,” says Netanyahu, who has led two major bombing campaigns since last year with US support.

Israel’s caretaker prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again urged a national unity government as he warned of threats from Iran, acknowledging an international shift following US elections last week, AFP reports.

“In the very near future, we’re going to be confronted by international pressure to accept a nuclear-armed Iran and the preservation of this terror regime that seeks to annihilate us,” said Netanyahu, who has led two major bombing campaigns since last year with US support.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has accused Iran of being the main source of instability in the Middle East.

“If you guys go through the Middle East and talk about all the instability … Houthis, the militias in Iraq, Hezbollah, Hamas, the civil war that occurred in Syria … what do all of these things have in common?” he tells reporters.

“Behind every single one of these destabilising activities in the Middle East there’s one common denominator: the Iranian regime. They are behind all the instability in the region. They are the source of instability in the region. I think the countries of the region realise that as well,” he adds.

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree claims that the group carried out four attacks using missiles and drones on Saudi Arabia, in response for coalition airstrikes on their territory in Yemen.

“The first operation targeted King Khalid International Airport and several pumping stations along the East-West pipeline in the Saudi … capital, Riyadh. The strikes were direct, causing fires and damage at the targeted sites,” Saree says in a post on X.

He says the second operation targeted an Aramco facility in Abqaiq and “successfully achieved its objectives”, while the third targeted Saudi troops in Al-Mudarribah and Ras Al-Arah District, “leaving a large number of dead and wounded”.

“The fourth operation targeted the financial centre in the Saudi enemy’s capital, Riyadh,” the spokesperson says, adding that it was “direct”.

Saree has urged investors to avoid the kingdom, saying, “We advise them to move them (investments) to peaceful and safe countries, because Saudi Arabia is not a safe country for investment until it ends its aggression and blockade against our country.”

Yemen’s Houthis have denied attacking Saudi Arabia’s vital East-West pipeline in the Madina region, saying they attacked the pipeline in the capital Riyadh, Reuters reports.

On Monday, a Saudi Energy Ministry source said the pipeline was attacked in the Madina region and that operations were not affected, according to state media.

The risk of a new escalation between the United States and Iran “has not been completely ruled out”, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says, after Washington suggested there was currently no need for major combat operations, according to AFP.

“The risk of a resumption of strikes and an escalation has not been completely ruled out — otherwise, we would not have devoted so much time and energy over the past two days to addressing these issues with our American counterpart [Marco Rubio],” Barrot says after chairing a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Paris.

Iran says French accusations that it was responsible for cyberattacks on supermarket fridges last month are “baseless”, AFP reports.

“Iran’s foreign ministry categorically rejects the French government’s baseless and one-sided accusations against Iran regarding alleged cyber activities in France,” the ministry says in a statement, adding that it “strongly condemns this hackneyed policy of levelling accusations against the Islamic republic”.

Hundreds of French supermarkets were hit in the October 11 and 12 cyberattacks, which raised the temperatures in their refrigerators and freezers, forcing many to throw away entire inventories of perishable food.

Oil prices have extended losses from the previous session after US President Donald Trump has downplayed the need for additional military action against Iran, easing fears of sustained Middle East supply disruptions, with prospects of oversupply also in focus, Reuters reports.

Brent crude futures are down $2.92, or 3.15 per cent, at $89.65 a barrel as of 1334 GMT (6:34pm PKT). US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures are down $2.33, or 2.68pc, to $84.52.

The final races of the Formula One season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi will go ahead as planned despite tensions in the Middle East, AFP reports citing the president of motorsports’ governing body, the FIA, Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

The last two Grands Prix of the year are scheduled for November 29 in Qatar and December 6 in Abu Dhabi.

The Saudi Arabia Grand Prix earlier this year was scrapped following the outbreak of the United States and Israel’s war with Iran, while the Bahrain race was delayed and moved to Malaysia.

“We are ready for Qatar and Abu Dhabi,” FIA chief Ben Sulayem says on social media. “We are fully prepared and committed to delivering two outstanding Grands Prix weekends and a spectacular conclusion to the Formula One World Championship.

“We look forward to welcoming drivers, teams and fans to two iconic circuits for an unforgettable finish to the season. See you on the grid.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he told G7 allies that economic sanctions and the naval blockade are working “so well” that President Donald Trump does not have any need to conduct major combat operations in Iran, Reuters reports.

Speaking to reporters in Paris, Rubio says the economic pain Washington has inflicted gets worse over time, but that the US is still open to a “real deal”, though he notes the conditions Tehran keeps imposing are “absurd”.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says he would launch the Iran war again and that it was a “necessary undertaking”

The Pentagon chief is answering questions at a press conference and has been asked about comments by US Vice President JD Vance suggesting the Republicans lost the recent midterm elections due to the Iran war and its consequences.

“The vice president has been a critical member of the team,” Hegseth tells reporters, adding that the department will take his input going forward and apply it. “It was done for the right reasons to ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.”