As tankers struck in Hormuz, Trump deploys thousands of US soldiers

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The United States has granted sanctions exemptions for Iranian airlines to operate flights to Iraq's holy city of Najaf, the Iraqi prime minister's office said Friday, despite Washington targeting Iran's aviation sector to choke its economy in the Middle East war.

It said Baghdad had secured "an agreement allowing Iranian airlines, with the exception of Mahan Air, to operate 40 flights daily to and from Najaf", a city sacred to Shia Muslims.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Friday that Israel would impose a "very heavy price" on any power potentially behind the flydubai incident, without offering evidence that any country was responsible.

"As time passes, the picture is becoming clearer: The attacker underwent Islamist radicalisation. He came to crash the plane with all passengers on board," Netanyahu claimed in a statement.

"We are investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price," Netanyahu said of the co-pilot assailant.

Netanyahu did not identify any country as a potential culprit.

US oil prices dropped sharply Friday as G7 leaders held urgent talks to coordinate action on lowering fuel prices, after the EU said earlier it would work with the International Energy Agency on releasing further stocks to global markets.

West Texas Intermediate was down 4.0 percent at $89.15 a barrel, having fallen as far as five percent, while the international benchmark Brent crude was down 2.6 percent at $99.63 after several days of trading above the psychological threshold of $100 a barrel.

Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said on Friday that contributions to an EU naval mission protecting Red Sea shipping remain insufficient, as Rome presses allies to do more to safeguard traffic through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

In a statement issued after meeting in Rome with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Crosetto welcomed a decision by some member states to contribute additional assets to Aspides, without identifying the countries involved

However, those contributions are still not enough to guarantee the safe passage of merchant vessels, Crosetto said

Italy last month urged allies to increase their involvement, saying it was ready to deploy its own ships to avoid delays caused by the EU's decision-making process

Kallas said last month that Aspides would need more than 10 warships to effectively carry out its mission

The European Union's Aspides mission was launched in 2024 to protect commercial shipping from attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, with diplomats saying six warships are currently deployed

The Houthis have made rapid gains in recent weeks along the Red Sea coast, further complicating navigation in a region that also includes the Strait of Hormuz, where traffic had already fallen sharply amid the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced today, Friday, that one of its members was killed as a result of a roadside bomb in Sistan and Baluchestan province.

IRGC did not provide additional details regarding the circumstances of the explosion.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told reporters that an ⁠emergency ⁠meeting of the strategic political defence committee ⁠under the pact between Pakistan, ⁠Turkiye and Saudi Arabia will be held next week, focuing on Houthi attacks on the kingdom.

Three-in-four families in parts of Yemen are going hungry from the "absolutely devastating" impact of a surge in fighting, which has displaced tens of thousands of people and disrupted supplies to millions, the World Food Programme said on Friday.

Yemen is experiencing the most serious escalation in fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-aligned Houthi group since a UN-brokered truce largely halted cross-border attacks​in 2022. The renewed ​conflict could reshape control in Yemen, with implications for Red Sea shipping lanes.

Within just a few weeks, the fighting has driven the share of households without sufficient food to 74% in government-controlled areas accessible to WFP, the UN hunger body's Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations told reporters in Geneva. The total population of government-held areas is estimated at around 10 million people.

"The effect of this latest flare-up of insecurity on the food security situation threatens to be absolutely devastating," Hollingworth told reporters in Geneva via video link from Rome.

Israel's Supreme Court has overturned the ban on several Palestinian parties and a Jewish-Israeli candidate from running in the upcoming elections by Israel's Central Elections Committee (CEC).

In a decision announced on Friday, the court allowed the Joint-List—consisting of Hadash, Ta'al and Balad - alongside Ra'am, as well as Hadash MK Ofer Cassif, to run in the upcoming election set for 27 October.

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 An OPEC+ review to help to determine members’ 2027 oil output quotas has been delayed after the US-Israeli war on Iran disrupted projects to expand capacity across the Middle East, throwing estimates of future production potential into uncertainty, two sources close to the matter told Reuters.

OPEC+, which comprises the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries plus Russia and other allies, had ordered its production capacity review for all members in late 2025 before setting 2027 quotas, with completion due by the end of September 2026.

The deadline has slipped, the sources said, with one saying the review is now expected to be completed by mid-November.

Russia's A7 payment platform, sanctioned by the US for helping Iran evade sanctions as part of President Donald Trump's operation Economic Outcast, denied any links to Iran in a statement on Friday.

The US Treasury Department said on Thursday it was prohibiting any transactions with A7 and its sub-agents, calling the company "a significant transnational criminal organisation" and expanding previously imposed sanctions to the whole network.

A7, set up in 2024 by the defence sector-focused bank PSB, has become the leader in Russia's cross-border payments market as the country seeks to develop alternative payment systems with its main trading partners, such as China and India, spanning cryptocurrency, gold, and non-Western currencies.

"A7 categorically rejects any allegations that it has worked with Iran or terrorist organisations," the company said in a statement.

It added that it was providing "uninterrupted payment settlements for the Russian market, which has been subjected to unlawful restrictive measures".

The European Union on Friday slammed a threatened US ban on diesel exports, an idea floated by President Donald Trump, warning it would undermine trust in Washington as a reliable partner.

"We fully reject any ban on diesel. A ban would not be beneficial to anyone. It would undermine our trust in the United States as a reliable partner," said European Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, adding the bloc was ready to work with the International Energy Agency on the possible release of fuel reserves to bring down energy prices.

"The European Union is ready for collective action in the context of the International Energy Agency. It is their role to organise possible stock release," she told a press conference.

The average pump price of a litre of diesel fuel hit £2 ($2.64) in Britain for the first time on Friday, according to data compiled by the RAC motoring organisation, the latest landmark in a global surge in fuel prices.

The UK-wide average pump price of a litre of diesel reached 200.01 pence

Prices have been inching steadily higher after on Monday passing the previous high of 199.09 pence, which was set in June 2022 shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said the rise in prices was "showing no signs of slowing"

A bipartisan US civil rights report found anti-Zionism is not inherently antisemitic, challenging Trump's crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activism.

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Yemen's Houthis and Saudi-backed forces fought over an area located not far from a waterway that is crucial to global energy flows, killing 80 combatants over the past day, sources on both sides told AFP on Friday.

Fighting in Taiz has raged since the Iran-backed Houthis began a lightning offensive against the internationally-recognised, Saudi-backed government.

In their offensive, the Houthis also took control of the whole of the Red Sea coast, notably the area around the Bab al-Mandeb strait, which is crucial not just for Saudi energy exports but for global shipping as a whole.

According to Houthi military sources, at least 55 anti-government fighters have been killed over the past 24 hours in fighting against government troops in the Taiz area.

Government sources meanwhile told AFP that 26 troops on their side had been killed.

Fighting around Taiz is raging on several fronts, including in highlands overlooking the coastal areas seized in recent weeks by the Houthis.

Sami Abu Shehadeh, the chairman of the left-wing Balad party, said he would withdraw from Israel’s upcoming election after the country’s Supreme Court president said a majority of justices were prepared to uphold his disqualification.

Abu Shehadeh’s candidacy was challenged over an editorial he wrote in the newspaper The New Arab the day after Hamas-led 7 Oct. attack on Israel. The article did not condemn Hamas and argued that, given conditions in Gaza, it was surprising violence hadn’t erupted earlier.

In a subsequent article, Abu Shehadeh, a former member of Israel’s Knesset, called Hamas’ attack both unacceptable and a crime. He said he hadn’t known the scale of the violence when he wrote the first.

The court weighed whether his remarks violated an Israeli law barring candidates who reject Israel’s existence, incite racism or support armed struggle against Israel. His lawyers said that barring him would reinterpret the law and create a new threshold.

For Abu Shehadeh, who was running on the Arab parties’ Joint List, withdrawing avoids a court precedent that could be used to disqualify Palestinian candidates in future Israeli elections, his party said.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday urged G7 countries to avoid export restrictions to help ease fuel prices, as President Donald Trump suggested tapping Europe's strategic diesel reserves and backed curbs on US gas exports.

"The president stressed that G7 countries had a common interest in acting in a coordinated way, without export restrictions," the Elysee said after a call between the French and US leaders.

The US military has sent two Patriot missile batteries to the Gulf region in recent weeks, aimed at protecting oil and gas infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to Axios, citing two US officials and an additional regional source.

The Yemeni Ministry of Interior announced the killing of the Chief of Staff of the Emergency Forces of the Ministry of Interior, Major General Muhammad Salem Abdullah Al-Khawlani, during confrontations with the Houthi group on the Al-Kadha front in Taiz Governorate, southwest of the country.

The ministry indicated that Al-Khawlani was killed while "performing his national duty" against the Houthis, considering that his killing represents a "loss for the security establishment," stressing that government forces will continue their confrontations against the Houthis.

Al-Khawlani is considered the highest-ranking security and military official whose death the Yemeni government has announced since the return of the military escalation last July.

EU ⁠Commissioner for energy Dan Jorgensen said ⁠on Friday the bloc ⁠is discussing with all members of the IEA when it is time to release ⁠diesel.

“This is one ⁠of the opportunities that we ⁠have, we ⁠have used it ⁠before and it is likely ‌that we would use it ‌again,” ‌he told Euronews.

 12 EU member states have recorded new all-time highs for diesel prices since the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam made a visit to the Nabatieh area in southern Lebanon which has been at the forefront of Israel's near-daily attacks despite an alleged ceasefire agreement. 

Israel's flag carrier El Al said Friday it had cancelled repatriation flights from Dubai, which it had planned due to flydubai suspending service to Tel Aviv following an in-flight attack.

An El Al spokeswoman told AFP that flights Friday were cancelled with no new date set. The transportation ministry said Israel had not yet secured the approval it needed in the United Arab Emirates to run the flights.

A man with dual UK-Iranian citizenship was arrested Thursday over a mysterious "major incident" at an airbase in southwest England as Israel said it had warned London about an attack.

The sixth arrest came after British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the BBC there were "strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford", a base used by the US military in its war against Iran.

Iran denounced the British government's "baseless accusations" and condemned London for making military bases and facilities under its jurisdiction "available for the planning and execution of the US-Israeli military aggression against Iran".

Counter Terrorism Policing said in a statement Thursday that a "25-year-old man, a dual UK/Iranian national, was arrested" in Westminster in central London "on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts".

Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman Majid Al-Nuzaili said that the air force’s warplanes carried out 20 precise air strikes during the past three hours, targeting “movements, reinforcements, gatherings, elements, vehicles and military vehicles” belonging to the Houthis in Taiz Governorate.

US President Donald Trump warned on Thursday that Iran will be "hit very hard" if it is found to be linked to a pilot's attack on a flydubai flight to Israel.

Trump's warning came as the United Arab Emirates opened an investigation into whether the incident was linked to terrorism and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the suspect had undergone "Islamist radical indoctrination".

"I would say the answer, based on what I'm hearing, is yes but we're working on it right now," Trump told reporters Thursday when asked at the White House whether Iran was involved in what happened on the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

On whether the United States would retaliate against Iran if it was found responsible, Trump replied: "Oh, they'll be hit very hard, don't worry."