Iran urged against ‘weaponising’ Hormuz as ceasefire hangs in balance

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EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas said Tuesday the bloc could expand a naval mission it has in the Red Sea to cover the Strait of Hormuz, once the Iran war ends.

"Operation Aspides already makes a crucial contribution in protecting shipping in the Red Sea but its activities could also be extended to the strait," Kallas said after a meeting of European Union defence ministers.

Kallas said that some countries were already promising to contribute more ships to the mission and that could help if the decision is taken to extend its scope.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi discussed regional developments and Islamabad's ongoing efforts to mediate an end to the Iran conflict on Tuesday.

"Both sides underscored the importance of continuing a durable ceasefire and ensuring normal passage through the Strait of Hormuz," the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement.

The phone call came ahead of planned talks in Beijing later this week between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards held military exercises in capital Tehran to prepare for any confrontation, state media reported Tuesday, after US President Donald Trump warned a ceasefire in the Middle East war was on the brink of collapse.

The drills involved the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC, the ideological arm of Iran's military, as well as the Basij, a paramilitary force affiliated with the Guards, according to state TV.

"Enhancing combat capability to confront any movement of the American-Zionist enemy was one of the goals and scenarios implemented in this drill, which was successfully carried out," Brigadier General Hassan Hassanzadeh, commander of the Tehran Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying by state TV.

Lebanon's civil defence agency said two of its personnel were killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday while they were on duty in the country's south.

The personnel were killed in "an Israeli airstrike that targeted them while they were carrying out a rescue mission" after a previous strike in the city of Nabatieh, a civil defence statement said.

Before the announcement, Lebanon's Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine told a press conference Tuesday that 108 emergency and health workers had been killed and 249 others wounded in Israeli strikes since war erupted between Hezbollah and Israel on 2 March.

The United States' war in Iran has ​cost $29 billion so far, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday, an increase of $4 billion from an estimate provided late last month.

Jules Hurst, who is performing the duties of the​comptroller, told lawmakers that the cost included updated repair and replacement of equipment and operational costs.

Iran should not use the Strait of Hormuz, which it has blocked since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, as a means to blackmail Gulf states, Qatar's top diplomat said Tuesday.

"Iran should not use this strait as a weapon to pressure or to blackmail the Gulf countries," said Qatari Foreign Minister and Premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says he’s “very optimistic” that additional countries in the Middle East will soon join the Abraham Accords and establish formal relations with Israel.

Many Arab states, however, remain incensed by Israel’s wide-ranging military campaigns in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, and most recently Iran.

Huckabee at a speech in Israel also sought to shore up US support for the war on Iran, suggesting “Israel is the appetizer, America has always been the entrée” for Iran’s theocracy.

“The Gulf states now understood they will have to make a choice – is it more likely they will be attacked by Iran or Israel?” Huckabee said.

“They see that Israel helped us and Iran attacked us. Israel is not trying to take over your land and is not sending missiles to you.”

Kuwait's interior ministry said on Tuesday it had arrested four infiltrators affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards after they attempted to enter the Gulf state by sea, according to the state news agency KUNA.

The ministry added that one member of Kuwait's armed forces was injured in clashes with the infiltrators.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed 380 people since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war began on 17 April, Lebanon's health ministry told AFP on Tuesday.

A ministry official said that "380 people, including 22 children and 39 women, have been killed in strikes on Lebanon since the ceasefire came into effect", out of a total of around 2,900 people killed since the war erupted on 2 March.

Under the terms of the truce released by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks".

In addition to carrying out ongoing airstrikes, Israeli troops have been operating behind a so-called "yellow line" that runs around 10 kilometres (six miles) north of the border between the two countries.

Iran has expanded its definition of the Strait of Hormuz into a "vast operational area" far wider than before the Iran war, according to a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy.

The strait is no longer viewed as a narrow stretch around a handful of islands but instead has been greatly enlarged in scope and military significance, said Mohammad Akbarzadeh, deputy political director of the IRGC Navy, the state-affiliated Fars news agency reported on Tuesday.

"In the past, the Strait of Hormuz was defined as a limited area around islands such as Hormuz and Hengam, but today this view has changed," Akbarzadeh said.

Iranian authorities did not reply to a Reuters request for immediate comment.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said Tuesday that his Iran-backed group's weapons were not part of upcoming negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, and vowed his fighters would turn the battlefield into "hell" for Israeli forces.

"Nobody outside Lebanon has anything to do with the weapons, the resistance... this is an internal Lebanese matter and not part of negotiations with the enemy," Qassem said in a written statement ahead of a third round of talks in Washington between Lebanese and Israeli representatives this Thursday and Friday.

"We will not surrender and we will continue to defend Lebanon and its people, however long it takes and however great the sacrifices... we will not abandon the battlefield and we will turn it into hell for Israel," he added in the statement, which was addressed to the group's fighters and broadcast on its Al-Manar television channel, as fighting continues in Lebanon despite a ceasefire.

The United Nations decried Tuesday the toll from "escalating" Israel military operations in the occupied West Bank on children, with 70 Palestinian children killed since the start of 2025.

"Children are paying an intolerable price for escalating military operations and attacks across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem," UN children's agency spokesman James Elder told reporters, pointing out that "between January 2025 and today, at least one Palestinian child has been killed on average every single week" there.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Tuesday that Israel had sent an Iron Dome battery and personnel to operate the air defence system to the United Arab Emirates.

Huckabee was speaking at an event in Tel Aviv.

The Israeli army has issued new displacement orders for four villages in south Lebanon: Arzoun, Tayr Debba, Bazouriyeh, and al-Haush.

Iran could enrich uranium up to 90 percent purity, a level considered weapons-grade, if the country is attacked once more, parliamentary national security and foreign policy commission spokesperson Ebrahim Rezaei said on Tuesday.

"One of Iran's options in the event of another attack could be 90 percent enrichment. We will review it in the parliament," Rezaei posted on X.

Israel has continued its bombardment of south Lebanon, striking the town of Jebchit in the Nabatiyeh region with four consecutive airstrikes, according to Al Jazeera.

The attacks were followed by artillery strieks on  the area.