Iran official says return to war 'likely' as Israel strikes Lebanon

Israel carried out strikes across southern Lebanon on Saturday, with its military claiming to have hit dozens of Hezbollah targets.

The attacks have become a regular occurrence, despite a ceasefire theoretically in place since April 16.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah targets, adding that "approximately 70 military structures and approximately 50 Hezbollah infrastructure sites were dismantled across several areas" on Saturday.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) also reported a series of Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army had earlier issued displacement orders for nine southern villages.

The Israeli military said Saturday that its forces damaged a "religious building" in south Lebanon, drawing condemnation from a Catholic charity, which identified it as a convent and denounced the "deliberate" targeting of a place of worship.

The military said troops operating in the village of Yaroun had damaged a structure inside a religious compound while dismantling what it claimed was "terrorist infrastructure" in the area.

"It was determined that during the forces' operations to destroy terrorist infrastructure, one of the houses located in a religious compound was damaged," the military's Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, said on X.

Lebanese armed forces commander General Rudolf Haykal and US General Joseph Clearfield met in Beirut to discuss the security situation in Lebanon and regional developments, the army said on Saturday in a statement.

Clearfield heads a committee monitoring a US-backed ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The participants at the meeting underlined the importance of the Lebanese army's role and the need to support it during the current phase, the statement said.

Iran said Saturday that it was up to the United States whether to pursue a negotiated settlement or to return to open war, but that Tehran was ready for either outcome.

"Now the ball is in the United States' court to choose the path of diplomacy or the continuation of a confrontational approach," deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi told diplomats in Tehran, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

"Iran, with the aim of securing its national interests and security, is prepared for both paths," he said.

(AFP)

Iranian authorities must release Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to her dedicated medical team so she can urgently receive treatment as her life remains at risk, the head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee told Reuters on Sunday.

The health of Mohammadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her campaign for human rights in Iran in 2023, has "deteriorated seriously", said Joergen Watne Frydnes, citing her family and lawyer.

(Reuters)

Spain's foreign minister on Saturday condemned the "illegal detention" of a Spanish activist who was taken to Israel after being seized in an Israeli military operation against a Gaza aid flotilla in international waters.

Saif Abu Keshek, who was taken to Israel along with a Brazilian activist, "must be released immediately so that he can return to Spain", Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Rac1 radio.

(AFP)

China will not comply with US sanctions against five firms targeted for purchasing Iranian oil, Beijing's commerce ministry said on Saturday.

China is a key customer for Iranian oil, mainly through independent "teapot" refineries that rely on discounted crude from the Islamic republic.

The United States, seeking to choke off revenue to Tehran, has ramped up sanctions on such refineries.

The commerce ministry's injunction, relating to sanctions announced separately since last year, states that the US measures "shall not be recognised, implemented, or complied with".

The sanctions "improperly prohibit or restrict Chinese enterprises from conducting normal economic, trade and related activities with third countries... and violate international law and the basic norms governing international relations," the ministry said in a statement.

Yemen’s coast guard said on Saturday that an oil tanker had been hijacked off the coast of Shabwa province by unidentified armed men who boarded the vessel, seized control and steered it towards the Gulf of Aden in the direction of Somali waters.

The coast guard added that the tanker’s location had been identified and efforts were under way to track it, take necessary measures to recover it and ensure the safety of its crew.

(Reuters)

The UAE's aviation authority said air traffic in the country has returned to normal, the state news agency reported on Saturday, after precautionary measures implemented on 28 February at the start of the Iran war were lifted.

The decision followed a comprehensive assessment of operational and security conditions in coordination with relevant entities, the General Civil Aviation Authority added.

(Reuters)

A bulk carrier reported a suspicious approach by a skiff accompanied by a fishing vessel on Saturday, 84 nautical miles southwest of the port of Mukalla on the southern coast of Yemen, Britain's maritime security agency UKMTO reported.

Two activists who participated in a Gaza-bound aid flotilla have been brought to Israel for questioning, the Israeli foreign ministry said Saturday, after the vessels were intercepted by Israeli forces this week.

Spaniard Saif Abu Keshek, and Thiago Avila, a Brazilian, are now in Israel and "will be transferred for questioning by law enforcement authorities", the ministry said on X, adding that the two activists were affiliated with an organisation sanctioned by the US Treasury department.

Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon kill at least seven people and wounded others on Saturday as hostilities continue between Israel and Hezbollah despite a ceasefire.

The Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon Saturday came as Israel’s military issued a new warning for residents of nine southern villages to evacuate.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported an airstrike on a car in the village of Kfar Dajal that killed two people, while another hit a home in the village of Lwaizeh killing three. NNA also reported a strike on the village of Shoukin that killed two people.

Israel’s military Arabic-language spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ella Waweya, posted on X that the Israeli air force carried out about 50 airstrikes over the past 24 hours, saying that they targeted Hezbollah infrastructure and members.

Hezbollah said that it attacked on Saturday Israeli troops who gathered inside a house in the coastal village of Bayyada with a drone.

An Iranian proposal so far rejected by US President Donald Trump would open shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and end the US blockade of Iran while leaving talks on Iran's nuclear programme for later, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday.

Trump said on Friday he was "not satisfied" with Iran's latest proposal, without spelling out in detail which elements he opposes.

"They're asking for things that I can't agree to," he told reporters at the White House.

Four weeks since the United States and Israel suspended their bombing campaign against Iran, no deal has been reached to end a war that has caused the biggest disruption ever to global energy supplies.

Iran has been blocking nearly all shipping from the Gulf apart from its own for more than two months. Last month the US imposed its own blockade of ships from Iranian ports.

(Reuters)

Turkish authorities have released more than 500 protesters arrested at May Day rallies in Istanbul, a lawyers' association said Saturday.

Police cracked down on Friday's demonstrations, firing tear gas to break them up and arresting hundreds of people.

All 576 people arrested were released by Saturday morning, including union official Basaran Aksu, the lawyers' association CHD said on X.

The association's Istanbul branch had deployed members into the city's streets to document arrests and aid those detained.

The Istanbul governor's office put the number of arrests at 575.

(AFP)

President Donald Trump said on Friday the US Navy was acting "like pirates" as he described an operation seizing a ship amid the tit-for-tat American blockade of Iranian ports.

"We... land on top of it and we took over the ship. We took over the cargo, took over the oil. It's a very profitable business," Trump said at a rally in Florida.

"We're like pirates," he added to cheers from the crowd. "We're sort of like pirates. But we're not playing games."

Trump's comparison of US naval activity to piracy comes as legal experts raise alarms about Iran's blockade of the vital Strait of Hormuz and its plans to charge a fee for ships passing through it.

(AFP)

The United States said Friday it had approved a $4 billion sale of Patriot missiles to Gulf ally Qatar, as well as the sale of precision weapons systems to Israel for nearly $1 billion.

Qatar and other Gulf states expended thousands of interceptors defending against Iranian missiles and drones during the war started by the US and Israel on 28 February.

The conflict has triggered fears of a shortage of US missile interceptors, with American military officials warning it could take years to replenish stockpiles following the six-week conflict.

Both sales were deemed to support US "foreign policy and national security" objectives, the State Department said in a series of notices to Congress, amid ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

(AFP)

The United States is warning shipping companies that they could face sanctions for making payments to Iran to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

The alert posted Friday by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control adds another layer of pressure in the standoff between the US and Iran over control of the strategic waterway.

Iran effectively closed the strait to normal traffic by attacking and threatening to attack ships after the US and Israel launched a war on 28 February. It later began offering some ships safe passage by detouring them through alternate routes closer to its shoreline, charging fees at times for the service.

The payment demands could include transfers not only in cash but also "digital assets, offsets, informal swaps, or other in-kind payments," including charitable donations and payments at Iranian embassies, OFAC said.

"OFAC is issuing this alert to warn US and non-US persons about the sanctions risks of making these payments to, or soliciting guarantees from, the Iranian regime for safe passage. These risks exist regardless of payment method," it said.

(Associated Press and TNA staff)

Iran executed two men on Saturday accused of spying for Israel, including one accused of gathering intelligence near the Natanz nuclear site in central Isfahan province, Iranian media reported.

They quoted the judiciary as saying Yaghoub Karimpour and Nasser Bakarzadeh were hanged after being found guilty of intelligence cooperation with Israel and its spy agency, Mossad.

They said Karimpour passed sensitive information to a Mossad officer, while Bakarzadeh was accused of collecting details on government and religious figures and key sites, including in the Natanz area. 

(Reuters)

An Iranian military official said Saturday that a renewed conflict with the United States was "likely", after President Donald Trump criticised Iran's latest proposal in negotiations.

"A renewed conflict between Iran and the United States is likely, and evidence has shown that the United States is not committed to any promises or agreements," Mohammad Jafar Asadi of the military's central command centre, Khatam al-Anbiya, was quoted as saying by Iran's Fars news agency.

(AFP and TNA staff)

US President Donald Trump on Friday snubbed a new Iranian proposal to end the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, diminishing already faint hopes of fresh negotiations to break the weeks-long deadlock.

Iran handed the plan to mediator Pakistan on Thursday evening, Iranian state media reported, without detailing its contents.

"At this moment I'm not satisfied with what they're offering," Trump told reporters, blaming stalled talks on "tremendous discord" within Iran's leadership.

The war, launched by the United States and Israel on 28 February, has been on hold since 8 April, with only one failed round of direct talks since.

Iran has maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, choking off major flows of oil, gas and fertilizer, while the United States has imposed a counter-blockade on Iranian ports.

(AFP and TNA staff)