Israel has launched more deadly strikes on towns across southern Lebanon, pressing on with its invasion despite a diplomatic push in Washington for direct talks between the two countries.
Lebanon’s
state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that Wednesday’s attacks
killed at least 13 people, just one day after a sit-down between
Lebanese and Israeli envoys to the United States.
An
Israeli bombing of the town of Jbaa hit a family home, killing a man
and his wife, their son and their daughter-in-law, according to NNA,
which reported that another five people were killed in the town of
Ansariyeh and four in the town of Qadmus.
In parallel, Israel
launched more strikes south of Beirut, hitting two vehicles – one in the
seafront town of Saadiyat and another on a coastal highway in
neighbouring Jiyeh, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of the capital.
Reporting
from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said: “There is anger here.
People believe the Lebanese government should not have sat down with
Israel, the enemy, which has already killed more than 2,000 people in
the past few weeks alone.
“What people want here is an end to the
attacks,” she said, noting that the neighbourhoods had been “repeatedly
targeted in Israeli strikes in recent weeks.”
Residents, she
added, were asking why the November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and
the armed group Hezbollah, which the former repeatedly breached with
near-daily violations, had not been implemented.
Hezbollah lawmaker slams Beirut’s ‘concessions’
The
meeting between the Lebanese and Israeli envoys was hosted by US
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, marking the first direct contact in
decades between the two countries.
Both sides said the talks were
positive, though ahead of the meeting, Israel had ruled out any
discussion of Lebanon’s demand for a ceasefire in the latest war, which
erupted on March 2 when Hezbollah opened fire in retaliation for the
US-Israeli killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
As
Israel doubled down on its offensive against the armed group, issuing
another forced displacement order to residents in the south, Hezbollah
lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the “option of negotiations with the
enemy is wrong”.
Speaking at a news conference, he accused the
Lebanese government of “squandering Lebanon’s political and military
strength”, criticising it for withdrawing its army from the south and
“leaving it vulnerable to occupation and giving the enemy free rein”.
“The
current government has not lived up to the people’s expectations and
has failed to grasp the resistance of the young fighters,” he said,
slamming Beirut for its “concessions” and for “inciting internal
division” in the country.
He added that the Iran-aligned group wants a comprehensive ceasefire, not a return to near-daily Israeli strikes and assassinations as seen after the November 2024 ceasefire deal.
Earlier
on Wednesday, the Israeli military had issued an evacuation order to
residents in the south. NNA said attacks also hit the southern towns of
Baraachit, Souaneh, Babliyeh, Seddiqine, Nabatieh El Faouqa and areas
along the Litani River.
The outskirts of the town of Bint Jbeil,
which has been hit especially hard by a recent Israeli operation that
claimed to have killed at least 100 Hezbollah fighters, were also struck
by shelling, said NNA.
Homes were also blown up in the southern town of Hanine.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron will co-host a summit in Paris on Friday focused on efforts to reopen the strait of Hormuz,
Downing Street said. A spokesperson said: “The summit will advance work
towards a coordinated, independent, multinational plan to safeguard
international shipping once the conflict ends.”
Macron said on Tuesday he had spoken with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian and US president Donald Trump on Monday and called for talks to restart between Washington and Iran and for a halt of any possible escalation. He added in a post on social media platform X that the strait of Hormuz must be reopened unconditionally as soon as possible.
As the Iranian-linked militia Hezbollah
urges Lebanon to pull out of talks with Israel later today, Reuters has
some more details, including the news that US secretary of state, Marco
Rubio, will attend. Talks will be held in Washington at 11am
ET (3pm GMT, 4pm BST) between the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel
Leiter, and his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, officials
say.
Three Iran-linked tankers have passed through the strait of Hormuz
on the first full day of the US blockade of Iranian ports, Reuters has
reported, citing shipping data. The news agency reported that the three
vessels were not heading to Iranian ports, and so they were not covered
by the blockade.
The marine intelligence platform Windward has detected a “new potential blockade breaker” in the strait of Hormuz. In
a post on X, Windward said a Comoros-flagged bulk carrier has appeared
in the waterway after being “dark” – had its communications turned off
to hide its exact location – since the start of the war on 28 February.
International humanitarian groups said
they had sent emergency relief through overland routes to Iran, some of
their first deliveries of aid since US-Israeli strikes began in late
February. Aid workers say needs are high in the wake of six
weeks of strikes, but stocks of emergency humanitarian supplies became
stuck in Dubai warehouses as shipping and air routes were blocked by the
expanding conflict.
The Egyptian foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, is heading to Washington to meet US secretary of state Marco Rubio
to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East, the Egyptian
foreign ministry said in a statement on its website. Egypt joined
Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to form a four-nation bloc that seeks
to de-escalate the US-Israel war on Iran.
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, announced she was suspending Italy’s defence agreement with Israel. “In
light of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend
the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with Israel,” she said on
the sidelines of an event in Verona, according to Italy’s Ansa news
agency, without giving further details.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said it expects the steepest quarterly decline in demand for crude oil since the Covid-19 pandemic slashed fuel consumption. The IEA noted that its forecasts assume a “base case” of oil shipments resuming in May through the strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed since the start of the war on 28 February.
The UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves has said she was “very frustrated and angry” over what she said was the United States’ failure to have a clear exit plan or objectives for the war in Iran,
according to the Mirror newspaper. “This is a war that we did not
start. It was a war that we did not want. I feel very frustrated and
angry that the US went into this war without a clear exit plan, without a
clear idea of what they were trying to achieve,” the British finance
minister told the newspaper.
China said it will impose “countermeasures” after Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on its goods
entering the US if Beijing provided military assistance to Iran. “If
the US insists on using this as an excuse to impose additional tariffs
on China, China will definitely take resolute countermeasures,” the
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, told a news conference, according to AFP news agency.
US president Donald Trump
criticised Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, a political ally, in
an interview published on Tuesday for her unwillingness to help in the
Iran war.
“I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” he told Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Iran war escalation could trigger global recession, IMF warns
A
further escalation in the Iran war could trigger a global recession,
spiralling inflation and a sharp backlash in financial markets, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned.
Against
an increasingly volatile backdrop, the Washington-based fund said the
economic damage from the Middle East conflict was steadily rising as it
cut its growth forecasts for 2026 based on the impact from the war so
far.
In its half-yearly update, the IMF said
the UK would suffer the sharpest growth downgrade and joint highest
inflation rate in the G7 this year, even if the fallout from soaring
energy costs can be contained by the middle of 2026.
However,
under a worst-case “severe scenario”, involving a drawn-out war and
persistently higher energy prices, it said the world would face “a close
call for a global recession” for only the fifth time since 1980.
In today’s episode of Today in Focus, Beirut-based journalist William Christou reports on the historic talks between Lebanon and Israel and whether it could help steer the Middle East towards peace.
Christou says it is hard to overstate how surprising the talks are. “Lebanon and Israel
have been at war in some form since the early 1980s. You’re not allowed
to enter Lebanon if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport. The two
don’t have diplomatic relations. So the fact that these talks are
happening directly between the two governments is something that’s
really astonishing,” he tells Nosheen Iqbal.
The Israeli foreign ministry has sought to downplay Italy’s decision to suspend the defence agreement between the two countries (see post at 11:38), saying it “will not affect Israel’s security”.
“We have no security agreement with Italy,” the ministry told the Times of Israel. “We have a memorandum of understanding from many years ago that has never contained any substantive content.”
Here are some of the latest images from across the Middle East:
Workers
at the scene of residential buildings which were destroyed by
US-Israeli airstrikes at the Shahid Broujerdi residential complex in
southern Tehran, Iran. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA
Israeli soldiers stand among destroyed buildings in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border. Photograph: Florion Goga/Reuters
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the al-Hosh area near the coastal Lebanese city of Tyre. Photograph: Kawnat Haju/AFP/Getty Images
A vessel at the strait of Hormuz, as seen off the coast of Oman’s Musandam province. Photograph: Reuters
People stand in silence as a siren sounds to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day along a major road near Tel Aviv, Israel. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock
What will the UK’s role be in the strait of Hormuz when the Iran war ends?
The
UK will co-host an international summit of more than 40 nations this
week to discuss how to safeguard shipping through the strait of Hormuz
when the Iran conflict finally comes to an end.
Keir
Starmer has said the continuing closure of the waterway is “deeply
damaging” and that getting global shipping moving is crucial to ease
cost of living pressures.
Iran is believed to have laid at least a dozen mines to prevent oil tankers and other vessels from passing through the strait, through which about 20% of global oil flows.
But
Tehran has thousands of naval mines in its arsenal, and while the US
bombing campaign may have destroyed much of Iran’s naval capacity, mines
can be dropped from relatively small boats.
With a depleted Royal Navy,
the UK is likely to play a more limited role in keeping the strait safe
and open for commercial shipping once hostilities do cease.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron will co-host a summit in Paris on Friday focused on efforts to reopen the strait of Hormuz,
Downing Street said. A spokesperson said: “The summit will advance work
towards a coordinated, independent, multinational plan to safeguard
international shipping once the conflict ends.”
Macron said on Tuesday he had spoken with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian and US president Donald Trump on Monday and called for talks to restart between Washington and Iran and for a halt of any possible escalation. He added in a post on social media platform X that the strait of Hormuz must be reopened unconditionally as soon as possible.
As the Iranian-linked militia Hezbollah
urges Lebanon to pull out of talks with Israel later today, Reuters has
some more details, including the news that US secretary of state, Marco
Rubio, will attend. Talks will be held in Washington at 11am
ET (3pm GMT, 4pm BST) between the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel
Leiter, and his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, officials
say.
Three Iran-linked tankers have passed through the strait of Hormuz
on the first full day of the US blockade of Iranian ports, Reuters has
reported, citing shipping data. The news agency reported that the three
vessels were not heading to Iranian ports, and so they were not covered
by the blockade.
The marine intelligence platform Windward has detected a “new potential blockade breaker” in the strait of Hormuz. In
a post on X, Windward said a Comoros-flagged bulk carrier has appeared
in the waterway after being “dark” – had its communications turned off
to hide its exact location – since the start of the war on 28 February.
International humanitarian groups said
they had sent emergency relief through overland routes to Iran, some of
their first deliveries of aid since US-Israeli strikes began in late
February. Aid workers say needs are high in the wake of six
weeks of strikes, but stocks of emergency humanitarian supplies became
stuck in Dubai warehouses as shipping and air routes were blocked by the
expanding conflict.
The Egyptian foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, is heading to Washington to meet US secretary of state Marco Rubio
to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East, the Egyptian
foreign ministry said in a statement on its website. Egypt joined
Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to form a four-nation bloc that seeks
to de-escalate the US-Israel war on Iran.
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, announced she was suspending Italy’s defence agreement with Israel. “In
light of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend
the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with Israel,” she said on
the sidelines of an event in Verona, according to Italy’s Ansa news
agency, without giving further details.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said it expects the steepest quarterly decline in demand for crude oil since the Covid-19 pandemic slashed fuel consumption. The IEA noted that its forecasts assume a “base case” of oil shipments resuming in May through the strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed since the start of the war on 28 February.
The UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves has said she was “very frustrated and angry” over what she said was the United States’ failure to have a clear exit plan or objectives for the war in Iran,
according to the Mirror newspaper. “This is a war that we did not
start. It was a war that we did not want. I feel very frustrated and
angry that the US went into this war without a clear exit plan, without a
clear idea of what they were trying to achieve,” the British finance
minister told the newspaper.
China said it will impose “countermeasures” after Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on its goods
entering the US if Beijing provided military assistance to Iran. “If
the US insists on using this as an excuse to impose additional tariffs
on China, China will definitely take resolute countermeasures,” the
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, told a news conference, according to AFP news agency.
International
humanitarian groups said they had sent emergency relief through
overland routes to Iran, some of their first deliveries of aid since
US-Israeli strikes began in late February.
Aid
workers say needs are high in the wake of six weeks of strikes, but
stocks of emergency humanitarian supplies became stuck in Dubai
warehouses as shipping and air routes were blocked by the expanding
conflict.
Iranian authorities say more than 3,000 people have been killed in Iran during the war and the UN refugee agency says up to 3.2 million have been displaced, Reuters reported.
The
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said
it had delivered some 200 trauma kits as well as tents and blankets on
trucks sent along a new route from Turkey.
The
trucks crossed the Iranian border on Sunday and are set to arrive in
the capital Tehran on Tuesday, said IFRC spokesperson Tommaso Della
Longa.
“For us it’s very important as it
represents a new route for getting aid into Iran and we’re very
optimistic to scale up,” he told a Geneva press briefing.
“Before it was very easy to take a flight or a boat and bring aid directly to Iran in a couple of hours.“
French president Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday he had spoken with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian and US president Donald Trump on Monday and called for talks to restart between Washington and Iran and for a halt of any possible escalation.
He added in a post on social media platform X that the strait of Hormuz must be reopened unconditionally as soon as possible.
“Under these circumstances, negotiations should be able to resume quickly, with the support of the key stakeholders,” he said.
'Potential blockade breaker' in strait of Hormuz as some ships transit waterway - Windward
The marine intelligence platform Windward has detected a “new potential blockade breaker” in the strait of Hormuz.
In
a post on X, Windward said a Comoros-flagged bulk carrier has appeared
in the waterway after being “dark” – had its communications turned off
to hide its exact location – since the start of the war on 28 February.
“Its last traceable port call was Bandar Imam Khomeini (BIK), Iran, and its recent history includes transporting grain from Russia-occupied Ukrainian ports to Iran and Syria,” Windward said.
“Despite the current blockade, this vessel is back on the grid and navigating this high-stakes corridor.”
The US Central Command said yesterday that it would seek to stop only vessels transiting to or from Iranian ports, but how it will enforce the blockade remains to be seen.
News agencies reported a handful of ships have transited the strait towards the Gulf of Oman today (see post at 09:02),
but they noted that, as the vessels were not heading to Iranian ports,
they were not covered by the blockade. Windward said their movements “provide a critical test of blockade enforcement and corridor dynamics”.
The Egyptian foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, is heading to Washington to meet US secretary of state Marco Rubio to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.
Egypt joined Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to form a four-nation bloc that seeks to de-escalate the US-Israel war on Iran. Their coordinated efforts in recent weeks led to Saturday’s meeting between US and Iranian negotiators in Islamabad.
Abdelatty’s
trip to the US coincides with rare talks between Israel and Lebanon,
which is expected to be held in Washington today. Israel has already
stated it will not negotiate a ceasefire with the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, which in turn said it will not follow any agreements that come as a result of the talks.
In
a since-deleted post, Trump uploaded an AI-generated image of himself
as a Jesus-like figure, appearing to “cure” a man. Commenting on the
image, the UK’s Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch said it was “preposterous”.
“It should have been, at best, a funny joke that somebody else had done,” she told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“It was very bizarre seeing the president tweet it himself.”
You can head over to our UK politics blog to get the latest UK reaction to the Iran war and other news here:
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, announced she was suspending Italy’s defence agreement with Israel.
“In
light of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend
the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with Israel,” she said on
the sidelines of an event in Verona, according to Italy’s Ansa news
agency, without giving further details.
The
Italian Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that the agreement, first
launched in 2005 and automatically renewed every five years, was
designed to promote trade deals between Italy and Israel, particularly
in the defence sector, and to facilitate military research and
development.
In further comments, Meloni responded to Donald Trump’s lengthy tirade on his Truth Social app against Pope Leo XIV,in which he accused him of being “weak on crime”. Meloni said such statements were “unacceptable”, adding: “I have expressed and continue to express my solidarity with Pope Leo.”
Starmer and Macron to host summit on reopening strait of Hormuz
UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron will co-host a summit in Paris on Friday focused on efforts to reopen the strait of Hormuz, Downing Street said.
A
spokesperson said: “The summit will advance work towards a coordinated,
independent, multinational plan to safeguard international shipping
once the conflict ends.”
Macron has previously
said the countries participating in the initiative would work on a
“strictly defensive mission, separate from the warring parties to the
conflict” which “is intended to be deployed as soon as circumstances
permit”.
The announcement came as the US began its naval blockade of Iranian ports, with White House officials defending it as a just response to Iran effectively shutting the strait of Hormuz.
Still,
reports suggest there could be a path for a second round of
negotiations between the warring parties, with Reuters news agency
citing Iranian sources as saying talks could resume in Pakistan later this week or early next week.
Associated Press also reported the same, quoting US officials as saying
discussions were still underway about a new round of talks, which could happen on Thursday.
The UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves has said she was “very frustrated and angry” over what she said was the United States’ failure to have a clear exit plan or objectives for the war in Iran, according to the Mirror newspaper.
“This
is a war that we did not start. It was a war that we did not want. I
feel very frustrated and angry that the US went into this war without a
clear exit plan, without a clear idea of what they were trying to
achieve,” the British finance minister told the newspaper.
“And as a result the strait of Hormuz is now blocked,” she added.
Marco Rubio to attend Lebanon-Israel talks in Washington
As the Iranian-linked militia Hezbollah
urges Lebanon to pull out of talks with Israel later today, Reuters has
some more details, including the news that US secretary of state, Marco
Rubio, will attend.
Talks will be
held in Washington at 11am ET (3pm GMT, 4pm BST) between the Israeli
ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, and his Lebanese counterpart, Nada
Hamadeh Moawad, officials say.
As well as Rubio, the US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, and the state department’s counsellor, Michael Needham, would attend, a department official said.
Lebanon, Israel and the US have issued conflicting statements on what the talks would cover.
Lebanon’s
presidency has said the talks would focus on announcing a ceasefire and
setting a start date for bilateral talks. A ceasefire was the only
substantive issue Moawad is authorised to discuss, Lebanese Culture
Minister Ghassan Salameh said on Sunday.
Israel
would not discuss a ceasefire during the talks, which would focus on
disarming Hezbollah and establishing peaceful relations between Israel
and Lebanon, Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said on
Monday.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said it expects the steepest quarterly decline in demand for crude oil since the Covid-19 pandemic slashed fuel consumption.
The IEA noted that its forecasts assume a “base case” of oil shipments resuming in May through the strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed since the start of the war on 28 February.
This
would lead to a decline in demand of 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd)
in the second quarter, “the sharpest since Covid-19 slashed fuel
consumption”, the IEA said.
Overall demand is forecast to have contracted by 800,000 bpd in March and is seen dropping by 2.3 million bpd in April.
Further to its earlier news alert on the possible second round of US-Iran talks in Islamabad (see post at 08:06), Reuters is now citing an Iranian embassy in Pakistan as saying negotiations could take place this week or early next week.
“No
firm date has been set, with the delegations keeping Friday through
Sunday open,” a senior Iranian source said, according to the news
agency.
Three Iran-linked tankers pass through strait of Hormuz - Reuters
Three Iran-linked tankers have passed through the strait of Hormuz on the first full day of the US blockade of Iranian ports, Reuters has reported, citing shipping data.
The news agency reported that the three vessels were not heading to Iranian ports, and so they were not covered by the blockade.
They were:
Panama-flagged Peace Gulf, a
medium-range tanker that was heading to Hamriyah port in the UAE. The
vessel typically moves Iranian naphtha, an oil product that is used for
making plastics and chemicals.
US-sanctioned tanker, Murlikishan, that was sailing to Iraq to load fuel oil. The vessel, formerly known as MKA, has transported Russian and Iranian oil.
Rich Starry, a US sanctioned and Chinese flagged vessel,
which would be the first to pass the strait of Hormuz. It is carrying
about 250,000 barrels of methanol, which it loaded at its last port of
call, the UAE’s Hamriyah. The New York Times reported the vessel picked
up the methanol from an unspecified port in the Persian Gulf and was
bound for China.
US-sanctioned Chinese tanker passes Strait of Hormuz despite US blockade
In further comments, Guo said the US blockade of Iranian ports “further jeopardises safety of passage through the strait [of Hormuz]”, calling it “dangerous and irresponsible behaviour”.
China said it will impose “countermeasures” after Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on its goods entering the US if Beijing provided military assistance to Iran.
“If
the US insists on using this as an excuse to impose additional tariffs
on China, China will definitely take resolute countermeasures,” the
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, told a news conference, according to AFP news agency.
Guo added that reports China was providing weapons to Iran“are completely fabricated”.
