Iran FM says Oman talks in final stage as Trump cancels attacks

One Iranian soldier was killed in a clash in Marivan, on Iran's western border, according to Al Jazeera, citing Mehr news agency, with another soldier reportedly wounded.

The foreign ministers of Qatar and Saudi Arabia have spoken on the phone, according to a statement from the Qatari Foreign Ministry on X.

During the call, Qatar "stressed the need for all parties to commit to dialogue and diplomacy, and to implement the understanding between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran, including ensuring freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, in order to maintain security in the region, preserve the progress achieved, and promote regional stability," the statement said.

Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Hold Phone Call

Doha | August 02, 2026

HE Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh @MBA_AlThani_ and HH Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Prince Faisal bin… pic.twitter.com/w84fMvjBbB

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) August 2, 2026

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said that negotiations between Iran and Oman over the Strait of Hormuz are in the final stages, according to state-run IRNA.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) has announced that as a result of the US blockade of Iran, it has "redirected 35 commercial vessels, disabled 2, and boarded 2" ships.

A U.S. Marine Corps F-35C stealth fighter jet launches from USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) as the aircraft carrier transits the Arabian Sea and supports the U.S. blockade against Iran. As of Aug. 2, CENTCOM has redirected 35 commercial vessels, disabled 2, and boarded 2. pic.twitter.com/Bh84WHh3nu

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) August 2, 2026

Israel will continue to attack Gaza despite Hamas agreeing to surrender its weapons, Energy Minister Eli Cohen said Sunday.

In an interview with Israel Army Radio, Cohen denied claims that Israel had agreed to end its assault and backed a full military takeover of Gaza.

Exiled Palestinian official Mohammad Dahlan had earlier claimed that the US would ensure Israel ends its assault on Gaza following Hamas's agreement to disarm.

In a post on Saturday, the former Fatah official said he had received assurances from Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner that Israel would from Sunday observe the ceasefire and end its attacks.

"Mr. Jared Kushner has assured us that he has reached an agreement with the Israeli side to cease the assaults on Gaza starting tomorrow morning," he wrote on social media on Saturday evening.

But he edited the post a few hours later, writing instead that Kushner "informed us that he is working with the Israeli side to halt the attacks on Gaza".

An Iranian lawmaker said on Sunday that mediators were seeking to revive a deal that briefly halted the war between Iran and the United States in June.

Hassan Ghashghavi, spokesman for parliament's national security commission, said in a video interview that "there is an effort underway to revive the 14-point Islamabad agreement, particularly by the mediators".

"They know that the main issue and, in fact, the key to the matter right now is the issue of the Strait of Hormuz, so yes, there is an exchange of views," he said.

A Palestinian has been injured in an attack by Israeli settlers in Masafer Yatta, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, which said that the man was injured after settlers stopped his vehicle in the Wadi Ma'in area, damaged his vehicle, and assaulted him.

Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed 14 people, according to Al Jazeera, with the latest strikes on the al-Rimal neighbourhood killing two Palestinians, including a child. 

Israel has shared "serious security concerns" with the White House regarding the proposed disarmament deal with Hamas, an Israeli official told The Associated Press on Sunday in some of the first public comments since U.S. President Donald Trump announced the agreement earlier this week.

Doron Spielman, spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister's office, told the AP that Israel's intelligence assessment is that Hamas remains committed to rebuilding its military rather than genuinely demilitarizing. He said the Israeli military would not withdraw from Gaza — where it controls more than 60% of the territory — before Hamas disarms.

"Our assessment is that if we redeploy before Hamas is truly disarmed, it will quickly expand its presence throughout Gaza, rebuild its terrorist infrastructure, once again threaten Israeli communities, and seek to carry out another Oct. 7-style attack," he said, referring to the attack in 2023 that triggered Israel's war in Gaza.

"Disarming means physically giving up the weapons. Nothing less," Spielman said.

An Israeli strike is reported to have hit Gaza City's western al-Rimal neighbourhood, according to Palestinian media, injuring multiple people.

Syrian authorities on Saturday announced the arrest of three brothers accused of taking part in the mass execution of 15 civilians who were detained during the rule of the former Assad regime.

In a statement, Syria’s Interior Ministry said its units arrested Akram, Fazrat and Ghayath Shamma over their alleged involvement in the killings.

The ministry said investigations, witness accounts, and video footage documenting the incident found that the three men were involved in detaining 15 unarmed civilians before executing them during the country’s nearly 14-year civil war.

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Israeli strikes in Gaza early Sunday killed at least nine people and injured 23 others, in the latest breach of the so-called ceasefire despite recent diplomatic breakthroughs.

Palestinian authorities reported multiple attacks on residential buildings overnight.

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Donald Trump on Saturday again pulled back from the brink from a devastating bombing campaign in Iran.

In an announcement on his Truth Social platform, the US president said he had cancelled attack plans having just hours earlier threatened a major escalation in the five-month conflict.

Trump's allies in the Middle East are believed to have played a key role in persuading him to hold fire amid fears Iran would mount a huge retaliatory attack in the Gulf.

A US official told Axios that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "expressed concern" over potential US strikes in a call with Trump on Saturday. A second source said he urged Trump to de-escalate the situation.

Read the full story here.

There can be no security for Israel or any country in the region without a just solution to the Palestinian cause, Egypt said Sunday, expressing hope that Israel would respond to Cairo's proposals for the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Speaking at the seventh edition of the Egyptians Abroad Conference in Cairo, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said military solutions only bring destruction and instability, stressing that Egypt would continue working to prevent the conflict from expanding.

Abdelatty said there had been "positive developments" on the Palestinian side following recent talks in Cairo between mediators and Palestinian factions, and voiced hope that Israel would agree to move forward with the second phase of the ceasefire.

He said the next phase envisages the collection of arms, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the full and unconditional entry of humanitarian aid, and the launch of early recovery and reconstruction projects.

The minister also reiterated Egypt's rejection of any Israeli plans to annex the occupied West Bank or forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza or other Palestinian territories.

Iran has denied claims that an agreement has been reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, insisting the strategic waterway will remain closed while the US maritime blockade of Iranian ports continues, according to Fars news agency.

Tehran argues that any ceasefire is meaningless as long as Washington maintains what it describes as an "illegal" naval siege.

According to the Fars report, Iranian officials also dismissed suggestions that nuclear negotiations with the United States are imminent, saying no date has been set for talks.

The Lebanese Army said five of its soldiers suffered minor wounds on Sunday after a "suspicious object" exploded in the southern village of Kafra.

"An inspection carried out by the specialised unit found that the explosion was caused by a suspicious object," a statement said.

An earlier report had said the soldiers came under Israeli attack. Israeli strikes have killed and wounded dozens of Lebanese Army soldiers since the war with Hezbollah began in October 2023.

At least 72 people died during last week's mass influx of migrants into Spain's Ceuta enclave, when tens of thousands of people mostly swam around the border post from Morocco, local officials said on Sunday.

Most of the estimated 60,000 people who rushed into Spain's north African territory have returned to Morocco since the territory's largest mass migrant crossing.

"The latest figure that we have is 72," the government's delegate to Ceuta, Miguel Angel Perez Triano, told reporters, when asked about the number of fatalities.

The previous toll was 67 deaths.

The Vatican has appointed an administrator to provisionally govern the Archdiocese of Rabat while it investigates Archbishop Cristobal Lopez Romero, who stepped aside after AFP revealed allegations of sexual assault.

According to a statement from the 74-year-old cardinal, seen by AFP, Vatican officials have appointed Father Mario Leon Dorado, currently Apostolic Prefect of Western Sahara, as apostolic administrator of the archdiocese, with "all the rights and faculties granted to resident bishops".

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Iran's Mehr news agency on Sunday denied President Donald Trump's claim that the Islamic republic asked the United States to refrain from conducting new strikes.

Citing military officials, the agency said the allegation "was nothing but a new lie" and that the Iranian armed forces were "on high alert and ready for any eventuality".

Turkey is seeking to join southern Lebanon’s post-war security arrangements once UNIFIL’s mandate expires later this year, but analysts say growing tensions with Israel make Turkish participation far from certain.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday, where the two discussed bilateral ties, the Israel-Hezbollah war, and other regional developments.

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Beginning last Thursday, over 60,000 migrants tried to get into the disputed Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa, causing a major crisis.

The Spanish government announced on Saturday that at least 67 people have been killed while declaring that the crisis was over, with migrants returning from the enclave.

The Moroccan armed forces have been accused of facilitating the movement of thousands of migrants to the border and standing by as they stormed the enclave.

Ceuta and another Spanish-controlled enclave, Melila, have long been a point of dispute and tension between Spain and Morocco, which claims them and views them as territories under occupation.

Amid the dramatic scenes of desperate migrants storming Ceuta’s border, attention online has turned to Israel’s alleged role in the events.

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Iraq and Turkey signed a deal Saturday to increase oil exports through a pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, as Baghdad seeks to diversify its oil export routes and reduce reliance on Gulf shipping lanes.

Iraqi Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair al-Abadi said in a statement that the agreement will remain in effect for one year while the two countries finalize a broader framework agreement covering cooperation in the oil, electricity and water resources sectors.

The agreement comes as Iraq moves to strengthen the resilience of its oil export infrastructure following disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S.-Iran war began in February.

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Tehran views every threat from its adversaries as "real and credible" even if made as part of psychological warfare, Iran's acting defence minister, Majid Ibn al-Reza, said on Sunday according to state media.

"We will neither be caught off guard nor remain passive," he said, adding that Iran would use threats as a basis to increase its military readiness, strengthen deterrence and enhance its military capabilities. 

Gaza civil defence officials said Sunday eight people were killed in strikes around midnight that hit multiple residential buildings.

In one attack near the central Gaza Strip, a man and his wife were killed and several others were wounded when an Israeli military helicopter struck an apartment, a civil defence spokesman said.

An elderly man and a child were killed in another attack on an apartment west of Gaza City, and three people, including a child, were targeted when a strike hit another apartment northwest of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Authorities reported earlier Saturday that eight other people had been killed in strikes that damaged a hospital's medical supplies and targeted a rooftop.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stressed in a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump the "necessity of prioritizing dialogue to de-escalate tensions" in the Middle East, according to Saudi Arabia's state news agency.