Diplomatic efforts intensify as US and Iran trade threats of war

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that one of the pilots of a flydubai plane bound for Tel Aviv had planned to crash it and kill its mostly Israeli passengers, who stopped a "major disaster".

"During the flight, as they approached the country, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot, and apparently tried to crash the plane with everyone on board," Netanyahu said in a video message, saying the passengers "prevented a major disaster".

“We are in continuous contact with the relevant authorities to guarantee the continued safety of the passengers and their safe return home,” said Netanyahu, adding that Israel is also carrying out regular situational assessments.

The Saudis are interrogating the suspect, he added.

The Houthi group said on Wednesday that Saudi aircraft launched a series of air strikes, some of which targeted communications networks and  farms in areas under its control in the governorates of Hodeidah, Saada, and Amran.

The Houthi-linked Al-Masirah channel said that an air strike targeted citizens' farms in the village of Al-Shajn in Al-Durayhimi District, south of Hodeidah Governorate, without providing information about casualties or the extent of damage. In Saada Governorate, the channel said that Saudi aircraft launched three raids targeting a communications network in the Sahar District.

In Amran Governorate, Al-Masirah reported that four raids targeted a communications network in Jabal Dhain in the Ayal Surih District, while two raids targeted the Harf Sufyan District, and two other raids targeted a communications network in Jabal Qarn al-Ajam in the Raydah District.

It was not possible to independently verify the accuracy of Al-Masirah TV's reports regarding the raids or their objectives, and no official Saudi comment had been issued so far.

Israeli strikes killed at least six Palestinians in two separate attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the territory's health officials said.

Earlier medics said an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle killed at least four people and wounded 14 others in the Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City, while another Israeli airstrike on an apartment elsewhere in the city killed a woman.

Later on, an Israeli airstrike outside a mosque in Khan Younis killed one person and wounded others, medics said, taking the day's death toll to at least six.

The internationally-recognised, Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces announced, on Tuesday evening, the neutralisation of Houthi members and equipment, after 414 military operations during the past 24 hours.

The spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Majid Al-Nuzaili, said in a brief statement published by the official Yemeni news agency, Saba: "Our forces carried out 414 precise targeting operations against reinforcements and military capabilities of the terrorist Houthi militia during the past 24 hours."

The spokesperson added: "During these attacks, the government forces used diverse and modern capabilities on various fronts," noting that "the targeting operations achieved their goals by successfully neutralizing many elements and equipment of the terrorist Houthi militia."

There was no immediate comment from the Houthis regarding what the Yemeni military spokesman said.

Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a "war criminal", stressing that what is being committed in the Gaza Strip constitutes "war crimes", during an interview with British broadcaster Piers Morgan on on Tuesday, 29 September.

During the interview, Sheikh Al Thani remarked: "What is being committed in Gaza is war crimes, and everyone responsible for that is a war criminal," and responded with a "yes" when Morgan directly asked whether the description applied to Netanyahu.

He further pointed out that media reports revealed that the Israeli government was organising an official campaign against Qatar, including funding institutions, academic circles, media outlets and content creators, to pressure Doha and undermine its role as a mediator to end the US-Israeli war on Iran.

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Explosions were heard in the city of Zahedan in southeastern Iran, the Iranian news agency Fars reported. No other details were provided so far.

The Lebanese military said on Wednesday that the explosion of an unknown object wounded a soldier and three civilians, after initially saying it was an Israeli strike.

"A soldier and three civilians were wounded in the Nabatieh al-Fawqa area as a result of an explosion while the army was escorting residents to inspect their properties in the area," the army said in a statement.

"Following investigations and an engineering inspection, it was determined that the incident was caused by the explosion of a suspicious object," it added.

The military had initially said the soldier and civilians were wounded by an Israeli strike on a military vehicle.

Hezbollah denied on Wednesday any connection to a cell that Syrian authorities said they had dismantled in the country's south and which they accused of being affiliated with the Lebanese militant group.

A statement from the Iran-backed movement's media office said it "categorically denies any relationship or connection between Hezbollah and the alleged cell" and emphasised that "it has no presence whatsoever on Syrian territory and has no involvement in any security or military activity there".

On Tuesday, Syria said intelligence services and security forces "thwarted a sabotage plot in the Yarmuk basin in Daraa (province) and arrested a Hezbollah-affiliated cell composed of three individuals".

Authorities said the cell attempted "to prepare rocket launch platforms with the aim of carrying out attacks to destabilise security and stability", without specifying the target.

The Yarmuk basin area, where state media has previously reported Israeli invasions and shelling, borders the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, as well as Jordan.

Saudi Arabia's Tabuk airport announced on Wednesday that the pilot and copilot of a Flydubai flight that was rerouted to the kingdom were both injured and had been hospitalised.

The flight that was bound for Tel Aviv in Israel landed at Tabuk airport "at 9:45 am (0645 GMT) and its captain and copilot were found to have injuries and were transported to hospital", a statement from the company operating the airport said, adding that passengers received the necessary care.

Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in two separate attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the territory's health officials said.

Medics said an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle killed at least four people and wounded 14 others in the Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City, while an earlier airstrike on an apartment elsewhere in the city killed a woman.

Israel conducts near daily strikes since an alleged ceasefire last year. At least 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire.

Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, launched in October 2023.

A British maritime agency said on Wednesday that unknown projectiles struck three ships in the Strait of Hormuz the previous day.

A crude oil tanker, LNG tanker and a third vessel had each "been struck by an unknown projectile", the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) said, without elaborating.

The Strait of Hormuz is currently at the centre of the Middle East war between Iran and the United States.

Around a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passed through the strategic shipping lane before the war.

But since the conflict broke out, Tehran has been blocking the passage of commercial ships, firing on vessels it accuses of unauthorised crossings.

Washington has responded with a counterblockade of Iranian ports in an effort to prevent Tehran from exporting its oil.

Iranian officials told Reuters that the current main sticking point between the United States and Iran is "over sequencing, not about elements of the seven-day plan". 

Gaza's ministry of health reported 24,650 deaths in the besieged coastal enclave in 2025,  the first official release of mortality indicators since 2022.

Direct attacks by Israeli forces were the leading cause of death at 70.1%, followed by heart disease at 7.7%, according to the report, with males accounting for 73.4% of deaths and females 26.6%.

Gaza City recorded the highest share at 37.3%, followed by North Gaza (20.2%), Khan Younis (19.5%), the Middle Area (12.3%) and Rafah (10.7%).

The report also noted that the under-5 mortality rate climbed to 33.4 per 1,000 live births in 2025, up from 13.6 in 2022.

A senior Israeli official told Israeli Channel 12 that “the most severe disaster was prevented” on the flydubai flight from the UAE to Israel that made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

According to the unnamed official, the copilot is being investigated amid growing indications that he tried to take over the plane in order to crash it.

According to the Lebanese MTV channel, Lebanese officials say that negotiations between Lebanon and Israel under US auspices will resume in Tampa, Florida ahead of the Israeli elections.

The report notes that the talks will likely take place on 20 October in the presence of Ambassador Simon Karam, who will head the Lebanese delegation, and Ambassador Nada Hamada Mouawad.‎

A Saudi official denied to AFP reports that representatives of the kingdom had taken part in a meeting on Sunday in Abu Dhabi between Israel's premier and the UAE president.

Israeli media had claimed that Saudi officials attended an expanded meeting after the talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Emirati President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, saying the focus was security cooperation, Iran, Yemen's Houthis and regional defence systems.

"No official meetings. No talks. Nothing whatsoever. Our stance on Israel remains unchanged," a Saudi official told AFP on Tuesday.

The United Arab Emirates is a top US ally in the region and one of a handful of Arab nations with official ties to Israel after signing the Abraham Accords during US President Donald Trump's first term in 2020.

Saudi Arabia has maintained that it will not normalise relations with Israel without a clear path to Palestinian statehood.

The United States said Wednesday it had "formally concluded" its mission in Iraq, following the withdrawal of troops from Erbil airbase in the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

"Today, the United States and our Coalition partners formally concluded Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq, consistent with the September 2024 US-Iraq joint statement and US national interests," the Pentagon said in a statement.

Iran's judiciary announced that two men were hanged on Wednesday over charges relating to anti-government protests that peaked in January, having begun a month earlier over economic grievances.

The two, Ali Hemmati and Majid Nik-Andish, were found guilty of involvement "in the riots of January that resulted in the martyrdom of four security personnel" in the northeastern city of Mashhad, said the judiciary's Mizan Online website.

It added that they also "inflicted extensive damage on public property by setting fire to shops, banks, buses, etc, and even torching trees".

They "were executed by hanging early Wednesday, following the Supreme Court's confirmation of their sentences".

In late December, a protest movement initially sparked by the high cost of living rapidly evolved into widespread anti-government demonstrations that peaked on 8 and 9 January.

Iranian authorities reported more than 3,000 deaths, attributing the violence to "terrorist acts" orchestrated by the United States and Israel, while foreign-based NGOs maintain that security forces fired on protesters.

The Lebanese military said on Wednesday that an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon wounded a soldier and three civilians, as Israel continues to stall the implementation of a deal.

"A soldier was seriously wounded as the result of an Israeli targeting of an army vehicle" in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, Lebanon's army said in a statement, adding that three civilians were also injured.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that "an enemy drone attacked Nabatieh al-Fawqa", a town that has been under repeated Israeli strikes in recent weeks despite a ceasefire.

Israel's war on Lebanon since March has killed more than 4,300 people.

Lebanon and Israel concluded a framework agreement in June under US auspices, which involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon's south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as "pilot zones".

Lebanon's military deployed in two of the "pilot zones" in July, but the implementation of the agreement has been stalled since then as Israel continues to attack and kill Lebanese on a near daily basis and still occupies Lebanese villages and towns in the south.

Iraq's average daily oil exports in September were 2.65 million barrels per day, including 250,000 barrels per day via Turkey's Ceyhan port, an oil ministry spokesperson told Reuters on Wednesday.

The diversion to Saudi Arabia of a Flydubai flight to Israel on Wednesday is not believed to be a hijacking incident, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister's office said.

According to Israeli media, a commercial aircraft flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv signaled an emergency a short while ago, while turning around over Saudi Arabia.

The flight reportedly sent a "squawk code" of 7700, an international emergency signal, according to flight tracking data, and then apparently sent a 7500 code, meaning a hijacking or unlawful interference, a short time later.

Israeli media added that Israeli Air Force fighter jets have been scrambled toward the plane, according to security sources and the Israeli prime minister and defense minister are holding emergency consultations.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Monday called for the further implementation of a framework agreement with Israel in his meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington.

Lebanon and Israel concluded a framework agreement in June under US auspices, providing for the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces and the disarmament of Hezbollah, but its implementation has stalled.

In a statement, Salam's office said that in his meeting with Rubio, he "stressed the need to move to the stage of implementation of the tripartite framework and translation of the principles of reciprocity and phased implementation into practical steps and tangible results on the ground, leading to the restoration of Lebanon's full sovereignty, the achievement of a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory, and the confinement of weapons to the state throughout its territory."

In a post on X, Rubio said he reaffirmed "strong US support as Lebanon implements the Trilateral Framework - the only path to a durable peace with Israel."

"The United States stands with a sovereign Lebanon, free from Hezbollah and Iranian influence," he added.

 Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met Qatari mediators in Doha on Tuesday night and received US feedback on a proposed seven-day trust-building plan, which he will discuss in Tehran on Wednesday, an official briefed on the talks told Reuters.

The main disagreement is over the sequencing of the plan, which aims to build trust and return to an enhanced version of a US-Iran memorandum of understanding signed in June, the official said.

The United States has stepped up economic pressure on Iran by imposing new sanctions against individuals and entities accused of supporting Tehran's weapons programs.

The US Treasury Department said on Tuesday that the new measures freeze any assets in the United States belonging to 10 individuals and entities, and prohibit transactions with those on a sanctions list. Those targeted by the sanctions reside in China, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

The ministry said that the sanctions aim to weaken Tehran's ability to restart its weapons programs, and to increase the costs borne by people and entities that help Iran obtain military components. Washington imposed a wide range of sanctions on entities accused of supporting Iran.

Previous measures included VTB Bank, the second largest bank in Russia, and the Turkish Golden Global Bank, in addition to individuals and organizations accused of supporting the Iraqi “Hezbollah Brigades” and the Lebanese Hezbollah.