Middle East war live: Iran defiant as Trump makes new threat against its oil hub

Israel military says air defences responding to Iranian missiles

Israel’s military said its air defences were responding to Iranian missiles on Tuesday as sirens rang out in Jerusalem. 

“A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel,” the Israeli military posted on Telegram. 

Sirens sounded and several blasts were heard over Jerusalem, an AFP witness said. 

Young Iranian says Trump’s threats to destroy civilian infrastructure are ‘terrifying’

A 22-year-old resident of Karaj, a city just west of Iran’s capital, said his area lost power for several hours overnight following nearby strikes.

“I was really scared. I thought that they’d hit the power plants and that we are not going to have power anymore,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity out of security fears.

He said he’d already packed a go-bag with documents, chargers, a laptop and wads of cash in case “bank servers go down.” Power returned around 1 am Monday.

He and his friends have scant information about the war, he said, amid Iran’s blanket internet shutdown. “I am really confused. I don’t know what to feel or what to think.”

He added that security checkpoints are common in his area. “They search the car, they check the trunk, they ask for your ID, and they send you on your way.”

Rising gasoline prices are a double blow for drivers who use their own vehicles for work

Millions of people have jobs that require using personal vehicles for work, like delivery drivers and ride-share providers, as well as self-employed electricians, nannies, home health care aides and real estate agents.

The Iran war has pushed up the average US price for a gallon of regular gas by $1.

Some companies compensate employees for using their own vehicles, including the cost of gas. Ride-hailing and food delivery platforms like Uber and Instacart don’t reimburse drivers for gas, but some are offering temporary incentives in response to rising gas prices.

Leslie Sherman-Shafer, an Uber driver in the San Francisco Bay Area, said she’s putting in extra hours to cover the difference.

“With everything going up, it’s impossible to save a dime,” said Sherman-Shafer, a retired dental office assistant.

Security Council to hold emergency meeting on killings of UN peacekeepers

The United Nations’ most powerful body will convene an emergency session Tuesday after officials announced that three peacekeepers in southern Lebanon had been killed in the last 24 hours. The meeting was scheduled after a request from France.

It was unclear who was behind the projectile and explosion that killed the three peacekeepers, as the UN says the incidents remain under investigation.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix, under-secretary-general for peace operations, said Monday that all three peacekeepers who were killed were from the Indonesian army. That makes 97 fatalities of UNIFIL peacekeepers due to malicious acts since the mission began in March 1978 and a total of more than 330 fatalities — the most of any UN peacekeeping operation.

UN envoy says ‘Lebanon is a shadow of its former self’ since Israeli invasion

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaer, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, issued a scathing statement Monday, saying that the humanitarian impact in southern Lebanon as Israel trades fire with Hezbollah has reached devastating levels.

The envoy detailed the three UN peacekeepers and nine Lebanese paramedics killed in just the last few days as a snapshot of the death toll that now stands at more than 1,240.

“One thing is clear: the longer this goes on, the harder it will be to come back from,” Hennis-Plasschaer said. “As maximalist rhetoric abounds, the prospect of a negotiated settlement is a daunting one. But we must start somewhere.”

She added that while “tactical military gains may produce short-term wins, on and off the battlefield,” they do risk “long-term damage to the stability and prosperity both Lebanese and Israelis deserve.”

Gulf allies privately make the case to Trump to keep fighting until Iran is decisively defeated

Gulf allies of the United States are arguing that Tehran hasn’t been weakened enough by the monthlong US-led bombing campaign, according to US, Gulf and Israeli officials.

Officials from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain have conveyed in private conversations that they do not want the military operation to end until there are significant changes in the Iranian leadership or there’s a dramatic shift in Iranian behaviour, according to the officials, who were not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

While regional leaders are broadly supportive now of the US efforts, one Gulf diplomat described some division, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE leading the calls for increasing military pressure on Tehran.

The UAE has emerged as perhaps the most hawkish of the Gulf countries and is pushing hard for Trump to order a ground invasion, the diplomat said.

Trump says US is negotiating with Iran’s parliamentary speaker, who denies talks

US President Donald Trump on Monday threatened widespread destruction of Iran’s energy resources and other vital infrastructure, including desalination plants, if a deal to end the war with Tehran is not reached “shortly.”

Trump said the US is negotiating with Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, in an interview with the New York Post published Monday. The former Revolutionary Guard commander was previously floated as Washington’s negotiating partner, but has denied Iran is talking to the US and said Pakistan-facilitated discussions were merely a cover for American troop deployments.

Iranian attack sparks fire on Kuwaiti oil tanker at Dubai Port: state media

An Iranian attack sparked a fire on a Kuwaiti oil tanker at Dubai Port, state media reported on Tuesday, as Tehran continues its campaign in the Gulf in response to US-Israeli strikes.

“The Kuwaiti giant crude oil tanker was subjected to a direct and malicious Iranian attack while in the anchorage area of Dubai Port in the UAE,” official news agency KUNA reported, citing Kuwait’s state-owned oil company. 

There were no injuries, according to the report, and Dubai authorities later said firefighters had extinguished the blaze. 

KUNA reported the tanker was fully laden at the time of the attack, which had caused “material damage to the ship’s hull” and “the possibility of an oil spill in the surrounding waters.”

Kuwait’s military also said on Tuesday its air defences were responding to “hostile missile and drone attacks”, according to an X post. 

Israel military launches investigation after peacekeeper deaths in Lebanon

Israel’s military said on Tuesday that it had launched an investigation into separate incidents that killed three UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. 

“The incidents are being thoroughly reviewed in order to clarify the circumstances and determine whether they resulted from Hezbollah activity or from IDF activity,” the Israeli military posted on Telegram. 

“It should be noted these incidents occurred in an active combat area,” where it was operating against Iran-backed group Hezbollah, the post added.

“Therefore, it should not be assumed that incidents in which UNIFIL soldiers were harmed were caused by the IDF,” it said, referring to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said two of its personnel were killed Monday in an explosion and another had died late Sunday when a projectile hit their position.

Iran panel approves Hormuz toll plan

Iranian state media reported that a parliamentary commission had approved plans to impose tolls on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway vital to oil and gas shipments that has been effectively closed due to the Middle East war.

Citing a member of the parliament’s security commission, state TV said the plan involved, among other things, “financial arrangements and rial toll systems” and “implementing the sovereign role of Iran”, as well as cooperation with Oman on the other side of the strait.

NATO intercepts Turkey-bound missile

NATO forces intercepted a new missile fired from Iran towards Turkey — the fourth since the start of the Middle East war.

None of the four projectiles managed to hit Turkish soil, according to the authorities. 

US ‘hopeful’ in private Iran talks

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced hope for working with elements within Iran’s government, saying the United States privately had received positive messages.

Rubio said there were internal “fractures” inside the Islamic republic and that the United States hopes figures with “power to deliver” take charge.

Israel strikes Iran university

Israel’s military said it had struck the Imam Hossein University in Tehran run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, claiming the institution was used for advanced weapons research.

Israel kills three Hezbollah members

An Israeli airstrike on a residential building near Beirut’s southern suburbs killed at least three Hezbollah members, a security source told AFP.

The strike “targeted an office used by Hezbollah, killing three members and seriously wounding three others”, while the Israeli army, for its part, announced it had “begun striking Hezbollah terrorist infrastructures in Beirut”.

Trump threatens Iran oil hub

Trump threatened to destroy Iran’s oil export hub of Kharg Island, oil wells and power plants if it does not agree soon to a deal to end the war.

The US president wrote on his Truth Social network that while the United States is in “serious discussions” with “a more reasonable regime” in Tehran, if an agreement was not forthcoming Washington would set about “completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!)”.