War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Oil flows through Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline have not been interrupted, a source has told Reuters, following media reports of a recent disruption and amid hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis.

Ship-tracking firm TankerTrackers.com says satellite imagery showed at least 19 ship-to-ship transfers of oil and other energy products in the Gulf of Oman yesterday, Al Jazeera reports.

It said 11 of the transfers involved crude oil, two involved liquefied natural gas, and the rest were of refined products, including petrol and diesel.

Analysts have cited a surge in ship-to-ship transfers as one of the main reasons for the rebound of oil exports out of the Middle East despite the ongoing war and blockades by Iran and the US.

It involves the use of tankers that shuttle back and forth across the Strait of Hormuz to offload their cargo onto other tankers waiting in the Gulf of Oman.

The Yemeni military announced a broad set of strikes against Houthi targets, after the government declared a new campaign to retake all territory even as the Iran-backed group made fresh gains on the ground.

The government strikes, however, have yet to blunt ongoing Houthi advances on the ground.

The Special Representative of Pakistan for Afghanistan Affairs and the Director-General for South Asia of Iran’s Foreign Ministry have reviewed ongoing developments in the region, IRNA reports.

Sadiq Khan, the head of the Pakistani delegation, and Mohammad Reza Bahrami met yesterday on the sidelines of the Moscow Format on Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said the fifth Moscow Format meeting on Afghanistan is scheduled for today, hosted by the Russian Federation, with Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan affairs and its ambassador to Kabul set to attend.

Israeli military shelling has targeted the outskirts of the Haddatha and Baraachit municipalities in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reports, citing the National News Agency.

The report said shelling also targeted the municipalities of al-Mansouri and Majdal Zoun overnight.

It did not elaborate on the results of the attacks.

Oil prices edged lower as rising Middle East crude exports and a release of oil stocks by the Group of Seven nations boosted supplies, offsetting concerns about further damage to Gulf oil infrastructure amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, reports Reuters.

Brent crude futures fell 66 cents, or 0.65 per cent, to $101.59 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $90.12 a barrel, down 95 cents, or 1.03pc.

Brent gave up most of its gains last week while WTI was 1.6pc lower after G7 countries agreed on Friday to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude from emergency reserves and pledged to refrain from energy export restrictions after pressure from US President Donald Trump.

Saudi Arabia unexpectedly cut its oil prices for sale to Asia in November to six-year lows while raising them for northwest Europe and the Mediterranean, a pricing document showed on Monday.

The largest Middle Eastern crude exporter set the November Arab Light crude oil official selling price to Asia at $5 a barrel below the average of Oman and Dubai prices, down $3 from the previous month.

The discount for November is the widest since June 2020, Reuters data showed.

The Pentagon has confirmed reports that the United States has withdrawn all B-1 bomber planes from Royal Air Force Fairford, the UK airbase where a suspicious incident triggered nearby evacuations, AFP reports.

A statement from a Pentagon official said “We can acknowledge now that all US bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home stations in the United States.”

The statement noted that “operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real-time.” Police were called to the base in southwest England last Sunday after a local farmer reported a group of men with several vans engaged in “suspicious” activity.

The scare forced evacuations at 85 homes near the airbase, which was used to launch strikes on Iran.

Crude oil exports from the Middle East rose above pre-war levels in four of the seven days of the final week of September, shipping data showed, despite attacks on vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports.

Crude exports from the region exceeded pre-war levels on September 24 and between September 27 and 29, rising to between 19.5 million barrels per day and 22.5 million bpd, provisional data from ship-tracking firm Kpler showed.

Exports averaged 18 million bpd between March 2025 and February this year beforethe US-Israeli war with Iran began.

The 7-day moving average for crude exports was at 18.5 million bpd on October 1, the data showed. These include transits via the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea, exports from terminals and ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman.

The overall tally for crude, oil products, chemicals and non-gas liquids averaged 22.4 million bpd in the seven days to September 30, Kpler data showed.

Iran’s state-run Irna reports that an “explosion could be heard on Qeshm Island, coming from the sea” a short while ago.

An Irna correspondent reported that nothing on the island appears to have been hit.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reports that Israeli jets have struck the town of Haddatha in Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil district, according to Al Jazeera.

Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have reaffirmed the US-Saudi strategic defence partnership and pledged to work together “to strengthen regional security and stability”, according to the US embassy in Riyadh.

Iran’s oil minister Mohsen Paknejad has resigned, the president’s office says in a statement, as the country faces long queues at petrol stations due to the impact of the Middle East war, AFP reports.

“Following the acceptance of Mohsen Paknejad’s resignation, Hamid Bovard has been appointed as acting Minister of Oil by a decree from the president”, the statement, carried by state broadcaster IRIB, reads.

Bovard is the chief executive of the National Iranian Oil Company.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei warns that any future use of regional countries’ territory to attack Iran will provoke a “different response”, according to Iran’s state-run Press TV.

Speaking at a press conference in Tehran, Baqaei said countries in the region must reconsider their actions, especially those that allowed their facilities to be used by the US and Israel during the war.

“If in the future we witness another aggression by America and the Zionist regime and their soil is used to attack Iran, certainly the response will be different,” he said.

More than 70 people have been killed over the past day by fighting in and around the western Yemeni province of Taiz, sources from both sides tell AFP, following days of clashes between the Houthi group and Yemeni government forces.

Sources from the internationally recognised government report that 34 government troops have been killed — 20 on the edge of Taiz province in neighbouring Lahj — while Houthi military sources claim 39 of their fighters have been killed in fighting across Taiz and in border areas with Lahj.

A committee of the Makkah Defence Pact between Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will hold talks in Riyadh on Monday, with Turkish ministers among those attending, Reuters reports citing the Turkish foreign ministry.

The development comes after the leader of Yemen’s Saudi-backed government announced the beginning of a major military operation against the Houthis earlier today, aimed at seizing the territory under their control.

“The meeting will address recent developments in the region and the stage reached in the Alliance’s institutionalisation efforts,” the Turkish statement says, adding that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defence Minister Yasar Guler and chief of the general staff General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu will attend the meeting of the pact’s strategic political and defence committee, along with officials from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright says President Donald Trump was “well aware” of the fact that energy prices would rise in the short term due to the Iran war.

“He knew it was going to elevate energy prices in the short run, he (Trump) said, ‘I’m going to take a hit there, but I’ve got to do the right thing,’“ Wright says. “He was well aware of the risk to energy flows that were coming out of the Persian Gulf region. He said, ‘The world cannot sustain a nuclear-armed Iran, and I’m not going to do it.’”

US Energy Secretary Christ Wright claims that increasing supplies are exiting the Strait of Hormuz.

“We’ve got increasing supplies coming out of the Strait of Hormuz, and they’ve continued to rise over the last months, over the last recent weeks,“ he tells CBS programme ‘Face the Nation’.

Asked if fuel prices will go down within the next four weeks, Wright replies in the affirmative.

“Diesel prices have been going down, gasoline prices have been going down. I expect that to continue,” he says.

Saudi authorities are earmarking a new instalment of 224 million Saudi riyals ($59.7m) to Yemen’s internationally recognised government, Al Jazeera reports citing the Saudi Press Agency.

“This will stimulate economic and social development towards a more sustainable path, and will positively impact purchasing power, ensure stable incomes for families, and revitalise commercial markets,” it adds, citing a statement.

Iranian airlines have resumed flights to Iraq’s Najaf after the United States granted Baghdad an exemption allowing sanctioned Iranian carriers to operate to the city, an AFP correspondent reports.

Najaf airport official Hussein Muhanna tells AFP that “flights between Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran have resumed via Najaf International Airport.”

The first flight was operated by Caspian Airlines, with AFP’s correspondent at the airport reporting seeing the plane land at 5:15pm local time (7:15pm PKT).

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejects a US claim that Iranian diplomats attending the UN General Assembly were expelled from the US.

“All Iranian diplomats who attended UNGA, except one who departed earlier, left as scheduled,” Araghchi said in a post on X on Sunday.

He added, “Taking pride in fake diplomat ‘expulsion’ is inappropriate for the head of any diplomatic corps. It oozes of desperation and defeat, and is inconsistent with UN host nation obligations.”

The proposal Iran put forward at UN meetings in New York City, which was outlined by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, has received a US response through intermediaries and is under discussion, Al Jazeera reports.

“These views are currently under review in Iran. If the Islamic Republic of Iran’s final response is prepared, the necessary steps will be taken through the appropriate channels,” it quotes Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi as saying.

Yemen’s Houthis said they launched ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and the Khurais area, claiming the attacks caused major fires, in response to what they said were 50 Saudi-led coalition air and missile strikes in Yemen over the past 12 hours, Reuters reports.