Pakistan hosts the first round of face-to-face talks between the US and Iran in 47 years in April; the talks end without a breakthrough, but also without a breakdown
US, Iran hold high-level talks in Switzerland on June 20 after signingpreliminary agreement to end the war; hold talks in Doha on July 1, with mediators citing “positive progress”
US launches strikes on Iran on July 8 in response to attacks on ships in Hormuz, Tehran retaliates as strait heats up again
US-Iran continue to exchange fire amid a deadlock in the six-month war
Iraq’s Oil Tankers Company transported 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude aboard a very large crude carrier through the Strait of Hormuz, its director general has said in a statement, terming it the company’s first such operation in decades, Reuters reports.
Iran’s rial has continued its decline, as the central bank announces an injection of up to $2 billion to support the currency while the economy faces US sanctions and a naval blockade, Reuters reports.
The US dollar has been sold at around 2.688 million rials, up from 2.632 million on Friday, according to free-market tracking website bon-bast.com, while alanchand.com reports 2.695 million rials per dollar.
State television says state banks have begun selling up to $2bn to support the currency, which has lost more than half of its value in the past year.
Mehdi Darabi, an aide to the central bank’s governor on foreign exchange affairs, blames the decline of the rial partly on what he calls false predictions by US officials of the collapse of the Iranian economy.
“It is suggested that the Iranian economy is about to crash … The enemy is using this to affect the exchange rate of our currency,” Darabi tells state TV, adding that the current fall of the rial was temporary.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA reports that flights between Iran and Iraq will resume on Sunday, citing comments by the head of Iran’s civil aviation organisation.
The health ministry in Yemen’s Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, claims 72 people have been killed and 125 wounded in Saudi attacks on the country since the escalation began, Al Jazeera reports citing the Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah news outlet.
The Houthi foreign ministry has issued a statement warning of a “reciprocal response” to strikes and a naval blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia, Iranian state news agency IRNA reports.
The ministry says Saudi Arabia’s “continued violations of Yemen’s sovereignty and airspace, along with its targeting of the country, necessitate a reciprocal response”, IRNA reports citing the Lebanese Al Mayadeen news outlet.
Additionally, the statement emphasises the need for “continuing resistance and retaliatory strikes aimed at lifting the illegal blockade on Yemen”.
Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB reports that an oil tanker, which sources told the channel was “in violation” and had switched off its tracking system, has exploded in the Strait of Hormuz, Al Jazeera reports.
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 quoting the sport’s Chief Executive Officer Stefano Domenicali.
“Based on the information we have, everything is confirmed for [us to stay in] Qatar and Abu Dhabi,” Domenicali tells French broadcaster Canal Plus on the sidelines of the Bahrain Grand Prix, which has been relocated to the Sepang circuit in Malaysia this weekend.
Speaking to Sky Sport Italia, the boss of motorsport’s premier series “confirmed the schedule for the final two Grands Prix” of the year in Qatar on November 29 and Abu Dhabi on December 6.
The Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Grands Prix were scrapped earlier this season due to the start of the US-led war with Iran.
Yemeni government forces have taken control of the Samaa fort after heavy clashes with the Houthi rebels southeast of the city of Taiz, Al Jazeera reports citing the government-run Saba news agency.
A military source tells Saba that government forces, backed by local popular resistance fighters from the Samaa district, took the fort after “violent battles” with Houthi fighters, with dozens of Houthi fighters killed or wounded and others fleeing.
Iran’s Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics has emphasised that space and emerging technologies will become drivers of power in the future, with competition among countries extending beyond traditional domains, Irna reports.
In a statement marking World Space Week 2026, the ministry said this year’s theme, “Rocket Revolution”, highlights the importance of space in development, communications, and national security.
It stressed that independent and sustainable access to space requires the capability to design, build, and launch satellites, as well as develop indigenous satellite launch vehicles.
The ministry described satellite launch vehicles as products of advanced technologies and the accumulated expertise of the country’s specialists, and as part of strategic technology development.
Referring to modern warfare, the Ministry of Defence said space has become part of security calculations and described dependence on space infrastructure as a factor that can leave countries vulnerable and constrain their national capabilities.
Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has taken a jibe at the UAE, saying that countries which “have entrusted their stability to Washington and Tel Aviv have ultimately been left alone with confusion in their domestic and foreign policies”.
In a series of posts on X, Velayati said “geography does not change with declarations” and reaffirmed that the islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa “have been Iranian and will remain Iranian”.
“A country whose political lifespan doesn’t even reach half a century claims from the United Nations podium about islands that have been registered with the name of Iran in historical documents and maps of past centuries,” he wrote, referring to the UAE, which claims the islands.
“One week after the warm reception of Netanyahu, speaking of ‘Arabs’ rights’ and ‘Islamic solidarity’ is more a contradiction than a claim. Public opinion, from Cairo to Beirut, judges this duplicity,” the Iranian official added.
“Regional experience has shown that imported security has an expiration date.”
Media outlet Al-Masriah, which is linked to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, says that a missile attack has targeted the city of Saada in the country’s north, according to Al Jazeera.
The development comes after Yemeni government forces announced that they were targeting “legitimate vital military targets” in Sanaa.
Iranian military spokesperson Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia says that the country’s armed forces are monitoring the situation closely and are “fully prepared” to deal with any scenario, state news agency IRNA reports.
Noting that the military has been “continuously enhancing its capabilities”, Akraminia says the armed forces and “steadfastness of the Iranian nation shattered all the enemies’ calculations, as they had imagined they could dismantle the country’s defensive capabilities and achieve their objectives in just a few days”.
Yemen’s Houthis said Saudi forces launched 26 strikes on capital Sanaa on Saturday, the group’s media reported, as the country’s revived civil war escalated further, AFP reported.
Al-Masirah TV said “Saudi enemy aircraft” targeted the Houthi-held capital, without providing details on casualties.
Saudi forces hit Sanaa for the first time in years on Thursday, Houthi media reported.
An emergency alert blares from a loudspeaker, and Damon Dennard and other sailors on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington are scrambling.
Dennard, 23, is readying bombs for loading onto aircraft as his crewmates race to their positions. “It has been eventful,” says Dennard, an aviation ordnanceman airman apprentice.
Dennard was one of dozens of sailors Reuters spoke with in September on a rare visit to a US warship that is central to the Iran war. The visit began at a particularly tense moment, just three days after the US military blew up five Iranian oil tankers in retaliation for Iran targeting a US Navy warship.
The George Washington’s mission near the Strait of Hormuz which has no defined end-date came as a surprise to the crew, who were deployed from Japan at the end of August to relieve another carrier.
The aircraft carrier is effectively a floating city of around 5,000 personnel, each with their own mission, from Majesta Ochoa, who operates a cash register, to Lieutenant Commander Brody Samaha, a “shooter” who helps oversee the launch of aircraft from the carrier’s catapults.
But there is a sense of synchronisation as the sailors go about their jobs, crew say.
King Abdullah II of Jordan has spoken with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about regional security in a phone call, according to a statement on X from the US Embassy in Amman.
Al Jazeera reports the two men discussed bilateral and regional issues, including implementing the US-brokered Trilateral Framework in Lebanon, which promises the conditional withdrawal of Israeli troops and the disarming of Hezbollah.
Rubio thanked King Abdullah for “Jordan’s steadfast role in advancing regional security”.
Al Jazeera notes reports of Israeli fire targeting the outskirts of the Syrian villages of Maariya and Abidin in the Deraa governorate, in the country’s southwest.
There were no immediate details on any damage or casualties, Al Jazeera added.
The internationally recognised Yemeni government’s forces have announced attacks “on legitimate vital military targets” in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa, Al Jazeera reports.
The official spokesperson for the Armed Forces, Colonel Majid al-Nuzaili, said in a statement on X that “the Armed Forces possess the capabilities to conduct strategic attacks against the Houthis”.
Government-affiliated media reported that warplanes had launched airstrikes on sites in the Al-Nahdain and Jabal Attan areas of Sanaa, targeting Houthi positions.
According to Al Jazeera, several loud explosions were heard in the capital as Houthi-affiliated media reported air strikes in the area.
US Senator Chris Van Hollen says President Donald Trump is preparing to expand the country’s military presence in the Middle East, accusing the administration of concealing service member casualties and pursuing an “illegal war of choice” in Iran, Anadolu reports.
“The president, who continues to hide service member casualties, is now sending up to another 10,000 troops to his illegal war of choice in Iran,” Van Hollen writes on X. “When Trump says he’s planning on renewing his war next month, believe him. Congress must cut off funding.”
The remarks come after reports said the Pentagon is preparing to deploy a third aircraft carrier strike group and additional Marine Corps ships to the Middle East, as Trump considers resuming strikes on Iran after the midterm elections in early November.
Lebanon’s National News Agency says Israel is continuously targeting the southern towns of Tallousa and Bani Hayyan with artillery shelling, Al Jazeera reports.
Reports of any casualties or damage caused by the attacks are not immediately clear.
The International Energy Agency says member countries have so far released 325 million barrels of oil and oil-derivative products from strategic reserves, out of 400 million barrels promised in March, AFP reports.
The update comes a day after G7 countries, in coordination with the IEA, agreed to immediately release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil to ease global energy supply concerns caused by fallout from the US-Iran war.
The G7 has not said whether the 100 million barrels included the outstanding 75 million barrels from the March IEA commitment, or came on top of that.
US President Donald Trump’s senior national security officials gathered on Friday at Camp David for closed-door discussions on the Iran war and the Saudi-Houthi conflict in Yemen, Anadolu reports citing Axios.
Citing three American officials, Axios reports that Vice President JD Vance presided over the undisclosed meeting, which ran for hours and was attended by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, special envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA chief John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen Dan Caine.
One official says issues were settled or discussed at length.
