Cautious calm in the region as Donald Trump claims deal with Iran to be signed 'shortly'

An emerging deal between the United States and Iran is "performance-based" and Tehran gets none of its frozen assets until it carries out its part of the agreement, a senior Trump administration official said on Friday.

 US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Iran's leaked comments on a deal with the United States do not represent what has been agreed to.

"What they said, including their weak and pathetic statement on having a deal, bears no relation to the truth. Very dishonorable people to deal with. With them, there is no such thing as dealing in good faith. AMAZING!," he wrote on Truth Social. 

Hezbollah claims it killed an Israeli soldier after targeting troops in a building in the town of Chamaa in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon earlier today.

In a statement, it said an "Ababil" drone killed the soldier during an attack in the town of Tayr Harfa in Tyre, southern Lebanon.

Iran's semi-official Fars agency, citing a source close to the Iranian negotiating team, says that reports circulating that an agreement with the US will be signed on Sunday in Geneva are false.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) claimed that US forces "redirected 136 [ships] and disabled 9 to ensure compliance" with the US's blockade against Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.

"US Navy warships and air assets continue to patrol regional waters enforcing the blockade against Iran," CENTCOM's official X account said.

While billions watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup across the US, Canada, and Mexico, Palestinians in Gaza experience it differently. Most Gazans, instead of celebrations, seek basic needs like electricity and internet amid over two years of Israeli war.

The tournament, with 48 teams, is a global milestone, but in Gaza, residents face displacement, hunger, and destruction, and football remains tied to war.

For many Palestinians, the tournament also carries political significance because it is being hosted primarily in the United States, a country that is Israel’s closest international ally.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that he and US President Donald Trump were in "full agreement" to keep Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, a day after Trump touted an imminent deal with Tehran.

"As long as I am prime minister of Israel, Iran will not have nuclear weapons. There is full agreement between me and President Trump on this issue," Netanyahu said in a statement.

According to Bloomberg News, "The US and Iran are close to reaching an agreement during the G7 meeting next week, adding that Geneva is a potential site for signing the agreement soon, perhaps on Sunday."

The Israeli military declared forced evacuation warnings to the villages of Sarfand, Tuffaha and Mazraat Sinai in southern Lebanon.

The United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) announced coordinated sanctions against enablers of Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank on 9 June, according to a press release. 

The TNA investigation, published in October 2024 and shortlisted for the 2025 Amnesty Media Awards, showed that Artzenu and Shivat Zion Lerigvey Admata had raised funds for armed rapid response squads (kitot konenut) and provided military training to settlers. 

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Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian, asserted today, Friday, that his country "despite all pressures and threats will continue to defend its independence, pride, and territorial integrity," adding that "harmony and unity are the country’s most important assets in the current circumstances."

For its part, the Iranian Foreign Ministry stated that Minister Abbas Araqchi held telephone discussions today, Friday, with his French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, to discuss the latest developments in the region and the US-Iranian negotiations.

Iran's state media said on Friday that, under a draft agreement with the United States, Tehran would not cede control of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

"Iran makes no commitment in this text to cede the management of the strait or the restoration of conditions that existed prior to the American and Israeli military aggression," according to the official IRNA news agency, which referred to "the broad outlines of the current text" being finalised.

India has summoned the US deputy chief of mission in Delhi to protest against US military strikes on commercial vessels off the coast of Oman, an Indian source says, the second time in three days New Delhi has expressed its displeasure.

A US strike killed three Indian seafarers on the Settebello tanker off Oman on Tuesday. At the same time, 20 crew members were rescued by the Iranian navy after a US attack on another vessel, Jalveer, on Thursday.

Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA)i reported that an Israeli air strike on the village of al-Bayyad in Lebanon's Tyre district has injured at least one person despite a US-brokered "ceasefire".

NNA reported that the strike happened near the Ali Kamal Suleiman Volunteer Centre, which is affiliated with the al-Risala Health Ambulance Association.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 3,711 people and wounded 11,483 others since 2 March, including at least 247 children and 132 health workers, Lebanon's health ministry said.

 A German government official said on Friday that there had been progress over the last few days towards a diplomatic solution to end the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Britain's economy contracted in April as the US-Israeli war on Iran hit growth, official data showed Friday, dealing a setback to Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he grapples with a political crisis.

Gross domestic product fell 0.1 per cent in April following growth of 0.3 per cent in March, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.

The reading matched analysts' expectations and followed a stronger-than-expected first-quarter performance.

Surging energy prices triggered by the war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, have reignited inflationary pressures and threatened to derail growth.

"Before the conflict in the Middle East, growth was higher than expected, and inflation was falling," finance minister Rachel Reeves said in response to the figures.

"This is not a war we wanted or joined, but one that will have an impact at home," she said.

The weak economic showing dealt a fresh blow to Starmer, who is facing calls to step down.

Britain's defence and armed forces ministers quit on Thursday in a row over military spending, further weakening Starmer's authority just a week before a by-election that could prompt a bid to replace him.

According to local Syrian media, Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, before a delegation of the people of the Damascus countryside, said, " What is being circulated regarding Syria’s intervention into Lebanon is nothing more than rumours, and our approach stems from seeking to stop the war in Lebanon and not to expand it or get involved in it."

This is in response to US reports and comments by Donald Trump about trying to pressure Syria to enter into military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

According to the Iranian Mehr agency, the alleged memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran includes: US commitment to lifting sanctions, withdrawing its forces from around Iran, and lifting the naval blockade. 

The memorandum, according to Mehr, will also include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, cancelling oil sanctions, and releasing Iran's frozen funds. 

Apparently, the final negotiations to focus on nuclear and economic issues will exclude discussions about Iran's missile program. 

Mehr notes this all requires "finalisation by relevant authorities". 

According to the Israeli Kan broadcaster, an unnamed country in the region blocked Israel from using its airspace during attacks on Iran earlier this week, despite having granted it access during previous rounds of fighting.

The decision caught Israel off guard, the report said, and the Israeli authorities believe the decision was a political message.

Youssef Baalousheh has covered roughly 40 international and regional tournaments across his career, travelling between six and nine months a year to photograph stadiums around the world. Today, the 54-year-old father of eight follows what sports coverage he can on his phone when he has a signal.

Those 40 tournaments were the architecture of his professional life. They took him across football, volleyball, basketball, tennis, cycling, and athletics, a career built on movement, on being present at the moment a body crosses a finish line or a ball hits the back of a net.

He was one of Gaza's most widely travelled sports journalists, and the circuit of international competitions was not an occasional perk but the rhythm his year was built around. Six to nine months away, then home, then away again.

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Tehran announced on Friday that it has not yet decided on the agreement announced by Donald Trump to end the war, mitigating the blow of the US President's announcement, which indicated the possibility of signing the memorandum of understanding by the end of the week.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Iranian state media, "Until now, Iran has not taken a final decision regarding the agreement."

Arab fans will watch the 2026 World Cup with pride and resentment, finding joy in a tournament that has often excluded them, writes Melo Doumani.

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The US military was about three hours away from attacking Iran when US President Donald Trump called them off, claiming an agreement to end the war had been reached and would soon be signed, NBC News reports.

Had they gone ahead, the strikes would have been similar to those carried out by the US the two previous nights, the NBC report noted, stressing that despite Trump's claim that the US would soon be "taking" Iran's Kharg Island, it was not on the list of targets.

The report added that the decision to call off the strikes left the military "confused."

A cautious calm prevailed since the morning hours in most of the villages and towns of Tire and Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon was broken by an Israeli drone strike on the southern Lebanese town of Jebchit in the Nabatieh district.

The extent of the damage and the number of casualties were not immediately known.