Iranian attacks hit Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain amid US strikes on Iran

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The US military fired on a tanker that was trying to breach its blockade of Iranian ports, a US official said on Friday, disabling the vessel.

American forces disabled the M/T Lavine in the Gulf of Oman on Friday after the ship attempted to run the blockade , the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Yemeni Houthi media on Saturday said two people were injured by Saudi air strikes -- a worker in the city of Hodeida and a woman on Kamaran island.

"A worker at the telecommunications building was injured in the Saudi aggression on the city of Hodeida," al-Masirah televison said.

Sirens sounded Saturday in Bahrain, where Iran has been conducting regular strikes, the interior ministry said.

"The siren has been sounded, Citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place," the ministry said in a statement on X.

President Donald Trump on Friday said he would not go forward with a civil nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia unless the Saudis agreed to a normalisation in relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords.

The U.S. Department of Energy said on Wednesday that Energy Secretary Chris Wright and his Saudi counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman had signed an agreement on developing the first commercial nuclear reactors in oil-rich Saudi Arabia and that it would next go to Congress for review.

Trump has been working since his first term on a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia.

Former President Joe Biden also pushed for a deal and wanted to tie it to the accords, which would normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

But Saudi Arabia has not signed the accords because it wants an irreversible path to a Palestinian state before recognising Israel.

On Thursday, Trump suddenly publicly added the condition to the deal, saying in a post on social media that Saudi Arabia would have to join the accords.

Saudi Arabia launched strikes on Yemen's Houthi-held Hodeida, rebel media said on Friday, with a security source telling AFP Houthi sites were hit as tensions rise after the group announced a maritime blockade of the kingdom.

The flare-up followed an attack on a Saudi ship, as the rebels announced this week a maritime blockade of the kingdom, threatening the top oil exporter's ability to supply the world following Iran's parallel blockade of the Strait of Hormuz -- Riyadh's only other maritime route

"A Saudi aggression targeted Hodeida province," the rebels' Al-Masirah TV channel reported in a post.

People in Hodeida also heard the sounds of explosions, with one witness saying the sounds were heard close to the port.

A Yemeni security source said facilities belonging to the Houthis had been hit, while rebel media cited facilities belonging to the telecoms authority and Kamaran island as having been targeted.

Earlier Friday, Saudi state media cited a transport authority official as saying "the vessel (NCC MASA), belonging to a Saudi company, was targeted while sailing in the Red Sea today... resulting in minor damage to the vessel's hull".

The ship resumed its course, the SPA added.

 A Saudi vessel, NCC MASA, sustained minor hull damage after it was attacked while sailing in the Red Sea on Friday, Saudi state news agency SPA reported, citing an official source at the General Transport Authority.

The vessel continued to its destination after checks confirmed it and its crew were safe, SPA said.

President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States and Iran were in talks to negotiate an end to their conflict, but repeated that Tehran was not yet ready for a deal.

"We are talking to them. I think they're being serious. I think ... they are being by far the most serious that we've seen them, but that doesn't mean we get there. We'll see what happens," Trump said in remarks to reporters at the White House.

The Palestinian Authority's presidency on Friday condemned violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank after a clash that left four Palestinians and two Israelis dead.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas' office said it "condemns Israeli colonists' terrorism across (the) West Bank", according to a statement published by the official news agency Wafa.

"The Presidency denounced in particular the killing of four Palestinians by colonists... and subsequent attacks by colonists on civilians and their property in the towns and villages of Urif, Surra, Imatin, Far'ata, Umriha, and Masafer Yatta" later on Friday, the statement added.

Iran's FM Abbas Araghchi has held talks with Egypt's top diplomat Badr Abdelatty to discuss regional developments, Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency said.

The top diplomats discussed the ongoing tensions between Tehran and the US, as fighting continues to escalate.

Ways to establish security, peace, and stability in the region were also discussed.

 US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he does not believe China or Russia are "participating" in the ongoing Iran conflict, but warned that if they did get involved "it would be very bad for them."

"President Xi, at our recent meeting in Beijing, China, told me that he would not, under any circumstances, give or sell Weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran — And that statement included Chinese Companies," he wrote on Truth Social. Trump said it would not be in Beijing or Moscow's best interest to supply weapons to Tehran.

He also warned China and Russia on Friday against selling weapons to Iran -- while saying he believed assurances from Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin that they were not yet doing so.

Trump's comment on Truth Social comes amid reports that Washington is investigating whether Moscow and Beijing are giving Iran targeting information, following a series of strikes on US bases.

The US leader said Chinese president Xi had told him when they met in Beijing in May that he would not arm Iran under any circumstances, adding: "considering our relationship, I take him at his word."

Trump added that Putin had made a similar promise despite the war in Ukraine.

"He understands that I do not sell Weapons to Ukraine, but to NATO Countries. They pay full price, and how those Weapons are distributed, I have no idea," Trump said.

Trump has frequently taken a more deferential tone towards Xi and Putin than he has towards Washington's own allies, saying that they must be respected as the leaders of major world powers.

Pakistan is exploring a path towards a resumption of stalled US-Iran talks over ending their nearly five-month-old war, three Pakistani sources said, following a push initiated by China.

Exploratory discussions took place during a visit by Iran's Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni to Islamabad this week — his second within the last 10 days, the sources said.

Momeni, who is considered close to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, met with Pakistani government leaders and army chief Asim Munir this week, according to Pakistani government statements.

All three sources cautioned that the obstacles to any talks with the US remain high.

Pakistan has found itself in an increasingly complicated situation as a potential future mediator. Earlier this week, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi movement declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Islamabad that signed a mutual defence treaty with Pakistan last year.

Pakistan relies on Saudi financial support, and Islamabad has firmly condemned recent Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia. Being seen as too receptive to Iranian arguments could risk frustrating Riyadh.

But Islamabad is similarly dependent on Beijing, which has also been a key financial backer of Islamabad, and which has economic interests in finding a diplomatic solution to reopening key Middle Eastern trade routes.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar, also discussed the new Middle East effort with Chinese officials when he visited China last week, all three Pakistani sources said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

"The Chinese are unhappy because Iran's attacks on other Gulf states and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz are hitting their interests," a Pakistani government official said. Disruptions in the Red Sea would hit another key trade route Beijing relies on.

A diplomatic delegation from Oman has arrived in Iran to discuss mechanisms to manage ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

This is a developing story...

The United Nations chief is "deeply alarmed" after Yemen's Houthi rebels struck oil tankers in the Red Sea, his spokesman said Friday, as fears rise of a new front in the Middle East war.

"The attack on commercial vessels, claimed by the Houthis, risks further heightening regional tensions and widening the current cycle of escalation," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's spokesman said in a statement.

"Further hostilities in Yemen will undermine prospects for peace, and cause serious economic, humanitarian and environmental consequences across and beyond the region."

The United States launched fresh attacks on Iran after the strikes by the Tehran-backed Houthis, marking an escalation that pushed crude prices past $100 a barrel.

A Houthi spokesman said on Friday that the rebels were not blocking traffic through the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait, after declaring a maritime blockade earlier this week on their foe Saudi Arabia.

"There is no closure of Bab al-Mandab as some are suggesting," said Mohammed Abdusalam, who is also a top Houthi negotiator, adding that the rebel position was "limited to a maritime blockade that only affects the Saudi side".

The United States on Friday announced further sanctions against nine firms and four individuals associated with sanctioned Iranian financier Babak Zanjani for their efforts to evade US sanctions.

The US Treasury Department said the new designations target Zanjani's Iran-based operations under his "Dot One" conglomerate and several firms based in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates that have supported his already designated digital asset exchanges, as well as top executives at those firms.

Treasury said Zanjani had leveraged a diverse portfolio that includes financial services, digital asset trading and gold and precious gem production, along with major infrastructure projects, to launder revenue and move funds covertly for Iran.

“The Iranian regime continues to pay a steep economic price for its reckless behavior, with the rial plunging to another record low and inflation up massively,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. "Treasury will continue cutting off economic access for corrupt Iranian regime elites, along with their financiers and facilitators.”

Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control first designated Zanjani and his two largest digital asset projects, Zedcex Exchange Limited (Zedcex) and Zedxion Exchange Limited (Zedxion) in January.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed he is due to meet with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday at the White House, his office said in a statement. Netanyahu will also attend US Senator Lindsey Graham's funeral, his office said. 

The two leaders were closely aligned when Trump returned to the White House, launching a joint war against Iran in late February that both sides initially hailed as a success.

Netanyahu has often described Trump as "the greatest friend" Israel ever had in the White House.

But their alliance has shown signs of strain in recent months, particularly over whether to keep up military pressure on Iran or seek a diplomatic solution.

"We get along very good. (Netanyahu) knows who the boss is," Trump said earlier this month in a phone interview with Axios, referring to himself.

Relations between the two leaders reached a low point in April during negotiations on an initial US-Iran ceasefire -- which has since collapsed -- with Trump unleashing profanity-laced tirades against his Israeli ally.

The European Union sanctioned five Iranian judges over alleged human rights violations, as well as a leading figure in a cyber group accused of helping the regime suppress information, the EU Council said on Friday.

The Council said it had sanctioned Nima Salehi, the Iranian founder of the Ashiyane cyber group, which it said cooperates closely with the EU-listed Cyber Police (FATA) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The statement did not specify the names of the sanctioned judges.

"As Tehran intensifies its domestic crackdown, the EU will continue to hold those responsible to account," EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said in a statement on social media platform X.

The European Union has so far sanctioned 269 individuals and 53 related entities.

The Israeli military said on Friday that a second Israeli had been killed during a violent attack involving Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, where four Palestinians were killed.

Major Yuval Ezra, 27, "fell during operational activity in the area of the village of Tell," the military said. Earlier, Israel's emergency service had reported the death of another Israeli in the incident.

Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, faces a historic removal vote later today in a case that has become one of the court’s most serious internal crises in years. The secret ballot at the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties in New York will decide whether member states strip him of office over sexual misconduct allegations that he denies.

Khan’s position has already been severely weakened by months of disciplinary proceedings. He has been on leave since the allegations surfaced publicly, and in June the ICC’s governing body moved to suspend him after an internal process found grounds to advance the matter to member states.

The vote will require an absolute majority of at least 63 of the ICC’s 125 member states to remove him. That threshold makes the outcome uncertain, but the fact that the tribunal has even reached this point is in itself unprecedented.

Read the full story here.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his government would establish new settler outposts in the occupied West Bank and legalise more existing ones, after a deadly settler attack on Tell, west of Nablus, left one Israeli and four Palestinians dead.

Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz announced "a series of steps" including raids in Palestinian villages suspected of hosting militants and "accelerating the legalisation of farm outposts and establishment of new ones".

All the settlements are illegal under international law.