After fourth night of US-Iran attacks, Trump threatens to hit Iran's power sector

This live blog has now ended. Make sure to follow us for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Morocco signed an agreement on Wednesday to participate in the International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza, state media reported.

The agreement was signed in Rabat at a meeting attended by Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, senior defence officials and Nickolay ​Mladenov, the Board of Peace envoy for ​Gaza, along with a delegation including the commander of the ISF, the state news agency MAP said.

The agreement "reflects the shared determination to contribute, through concrete humanitarian and security actions, to the establishment of a climate of peace and security in the region," MAP quoted a statement from the Moroccan defence administration as saying.

The Gaza Peace Council and ISF leadership welcomed Morocco's decision to join the initiative, citing its planned deployment of senior military officers, gendarmerie and police personnel, as well as the creation of a military field hospital, MAP said.

A close US ally, Morocco restored diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020 and supports a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.

 Iranian Health Ministry says recent US airstrikes have killed at least 35 people and wounded over 300 others.

Lebanon and Israel concluded US-brokered talks in Rome on Wednesday, with a US official saying they had made progress on implementing a plan that could see Israeli forces begin to withdraw from some parts of southern Lebanon within days.

The two parties held ambassador-level talks at the US embassy in Rome on Tuesday and Wednesday — their sixth round of face-to-face negotiations since a new war erupted on 2 March between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, triggered by the wider regional conflict.

In written comments distributed to journalists, a US official described the two days of talks as "productive and positive".

"We agreed on the structure and guidelines for the pilot zone process, to be finalized and implemented in the coming days," the official said.

Read the full story here.

Iran said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi travelled to Qatar on Wednesday to pay tribute to its deceased former emir, days after the Islamic republic launched salvos at the gas-rich emirate.

Araghchi is scheduled to "meet with Qatari authorities and offer his condolences", the foreign ministry said in a statement, following the death on Sunday of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who ruled the Gulf state from 1995 to 2013.

Mahmoud Khalil and his legal team have announced a lawsuit against US President Donald Trump and private organisations alleging a conspiracy to suppress pro-Palestinian speech, a move that could be an important case at a time of severe government crackdowns on dissent.

The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in New York on Tuesday, points to senior members of the Trump administration, including presidential advisor Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem; as well as and the heads of the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission and Betar, saying they have used doxxing and other forms of intimidation to target those critical of Israel.

Read more below:

 Israel's 2026 economic growth will be lower than previously forecast, and its debt will be higher, Moody's Ratings said, citing elevated geopolitical risks and fragile "ceasefire" agreements.

The ratings agency, in a report, maintained Israel's Baa1 credit rating and stable outlook. In January, Moody's changed its outlook to stable from negative, saying that Israel's exposure to geopolitical risk after a Gaza ceasefire had materially eased from very high levels, thereby reducing the risk of a further weakening of Israel's sovereign credit profile. Since that action, Israel launched a six-week war with Iran that began on 28 February, along with broadening its invasion of Lebanon and Syria.

"Although the Israeli economy has demonstrated its resilience to geopolitical shocks in recent years, the fragile security environment continues to pose risks to the economic and fiscal outlook," Moody's said in a report on Wednesday.

It noted that "fragile and tenuous" ceasefire deals should allow the economy to recover from a weak first quarter.

Israel returned on Wednesday the remains of Patrick Bakarian, a member of the Lebanese Presidential Guard who had been missing since 18 April, according to the Lebanese publication L'Orient-Le Jour. 

His death was officially confirmed yesterday, Tuesday.

Patrick Bakarian disappeared during a trip to Jdeidet Marjayoun in southern Lebanon.

UNIFIL's spokesperson told L'Orient-Le Jour that the body of a Lebanese national had been handed over earlier that day to Lebanon by Israel via the crossing point at a UN position in Lebanon's Ras Naqoura, near the border.

On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi went to Qatar to offer condolences on the death of its former emir, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

The United States completed a round of strikes on Wednesday targeting coastal defence systems and cruise missile storage and launch sites on Iran's Greater Tunb Island, Central Command said in a statement.

The 90-minute wave of strikes, they claimed, was aimed at curbing Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian television reported that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

They noted that over the past 23 hours, the Revolutionary Guard Navy stopped at least two ships by firing warning shots.

Israel's evolving strategy in southern Lebanon signals a shift from a wider physical presence to an occupation that relies heavily on technology, writes Louay Faour.

Read more below:

London's FTSE 100 slipped on Wednesday as investors remained cautious amid rising tensions in the West Asian region, while losses in precious-metal miners outweighed gains in energy shares despite rising oil prices.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index fell 0.1% to 10,515.73 points by 1013 GMT, while the midcap FTSE 250 slipped 0.09%.

Precious metals miners declined 2.3%, making them the worst-performing sector, with Fresnillo and Endeavour Mining falling 2.8% and 2%, respectively, among the top losers on the benchmark index.

The US military said it had begun a new wave of strikes against Iran at 6 a.m. ET (1000 GMT) on Wednesday, as part of an increasing tempo of attacks.

"The strikes are designed to further degrade military capabilities Iranian forces have used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz," the US Central Command said in a post on X. 

Iraq's ports authority said operations in Faw Port were "unaffected" after a drone crashed, the state news agency reported. 

A drone came down in Iraq's Faw port without causing any damage, the state news agency reported earlier on Wednesday.

Following Bahrain, Kuwait's military said it intercepted attack drones and blamed "nefarious Iranian aggression".

The family of British couple Craig and Lindsay Foreman, who are serving a 10-year prison sentence in Iran on espionage charges that they deny, said on Wednesday that a judge had extended Craig Foreman's sentence by two years for speaking to the media.

The couple were arrested in 2025 while travelling through Iran by motorcycle as part of a round-the-world journey. Britain has described their original sentences as "totally unjustifiable".

Joe Bennett, Lindsay Foreman's son and the family's spokesperson, said they had received reports that Craig Foreman had been taken before a judge and informed that his sentence had been extended because he had spoken to the media.

"We understand he was told he was being taken to see his lawyer, but was instead brought before a judge and informed of the additional sentence," Bennett said in a statement.

He said Craig Foreman had been denied access to a lawyer and a translator and was given no opportunity to defend himself.

Bahrain's military said it had intercepted aerial attacks from Iran on Wednesday after warning sirens sounded in the early hours in the Gulf nation.

"The General Command of the Bahrain Defence Force announces that Iran continues its systematic hostile approach through its criminal attacks that target civilians," it said in a statement, adding the military "succeeded in intercepting and destroying a number of the treacherous Iranian aerial attacks this morning".

The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had sentenced an active-duty soldier to five years in prison for sending videos of missile interceptions to an Iranian agent.

The soldier sent two such videos during Israel's "12-day war" with Iran in June last year and "received payment for them," the military said. It added that he had also shared several videos filmed in civilian locations with the Iranian agent.

The footage sent from civilian locations included one documenting a missile impact that the soldier had found online, the military said.

Military prosecutors had sought a seven-year prison sentence for the soldier, whose identity was not disclosed.

An Israeli airstrike killed a man, his wife and their six-year-old daughter in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Palestinian health officials said as talks to advance the U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal faltered.

The strike on an apartment building in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza killed Omar Abu Qassem, his wife, Asma, and their daughter, Habeeba, medics said. Their son survived but was injured, medics said.

 The deaths add to a toll of more than 1,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed by Israeli attacks since an alleged October 2025 "ceasefire".

Israel has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians since it launched its genocidal war in October 2023.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to the United States on Saturday, a senior Israeli official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Netanyahu wants to meet US President Donald Trump, but it is not clear if he will, the official added. 

He will reportedly attend the funeral of the late US Senator Lindsey Graham on Tuesday.

According to Israeli media, citing unnamed official sources, the meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump is likely to take place on Monday at the White House.

The Iranian representative to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani, sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, and the rotating President of the Security Council, President of the Assembly of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zenon Mukongo-Ngai, in which he said that “America is an aggressor, not a victim.”

Iravani wrote that the United States, along with Israel, committed grave violations of the United Nations Charter by launching two wars against Iran without any prior provocation.

Iravani also rejected the American claim that Washington is committed to the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, saying that this claim is “completely baseless and lacks any evidence.”

He further said that the United States has consistently refrained from fulfilling its obligations, from shortly after signing the memorandum until today, and has actively and deliberately worked to undermine their implementation.

US strikes killed seven military personnel in the southeast of Iran, according to a statement by the Iranian army.

“A decisive response will be given to this crime at the appropriate time,” a statement cited by the Tasnim news agency said.

Fresh US strikes hit Iran's southern port city of Bushehr, home to the country's only civilian nuclear plant, state news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday.

"The American enemy attacked three locations in Bushehr today," the city governor, Mohammad Mozafari told IRNA, the day after another attack as Washington and Tehran stepped up their military confrontation.

The United States on Tuesday expanded its sanctions targeting Iran's oil sector, taking further aim at the network of petroleum shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the Treasury Department said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department had also frozen $130 million held in digital wallets linked to Iran's central bank, hitting a sector that has seen increased activity since the start of the war.

The move came after US forces carried out a fourth straight day of strikes against Iran and reimposed a naval blockade, with Iran in turn hitting ships in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the International Maritime Organisation.

"This action is part of Treasury's ongoing efforts to ramp up economic pressure on the Iranian regime after it resumed destabilising attacks in the Strait of Hormuz," the Treasury Department said in a notice Tuesday.

It charged that the Shamkhani network remains a key force behind Iran's oil exports and has expanded into global commodities trading.

The latest move targeted more than 50 individuals, entities and vessels that it said enabled Iranian authorities to profit.

The Treasury Department added that it has now imposed sanctions on over 200 individuals, entities and vessels operating under Shamkhani's patronage.