Trump warns aides US planning for 'extended blockade of Iran'

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A surveillance drone flying near the US Embassy in Baghdad was shot down, Iraqi security sources said early on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear how it was shot down. The US embassy and Iraqi defence systems were activated.

US President Donald Trump said in an interview with Axios on Wednesday that he has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel should only take "surgical" military action in Lebanon and avoid a full resumption of the war.

iran has executed at least 21 people since the start of the war with the United States and Israel two months ago and has arrested more than 4,000 on national security-related charges, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Wednesday.

Turk said at least nine people have been executed in connection with protests in January, 10 for alleged membership in opposition groups, and two on espionage charges.

"I am appalled that - on top of the already severe impacts of the conflict - the rights of the Iranian people continue to be stripped from them by the authorities, in harsh and brutal ways," Turk said in a statement.

"I call on the authorities to halt all further executions, establish a moratorium on the use of capital punishment, fully ensure due process and fair trial guarantees, and immediately release those arbitrarily detained," he said.

Iranian authorities killed thousands of people during anti-government protests in January, Iran's worst domestic unrest since the era of its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Rights groups say the government has continued to crack down on opponents during the war.

Iran in January rejected condemnation by the U.N. Human Rights Council as "politicised".

Israel has begun taking control of aid ships bound for Gaza far from Israeli shores, Israeli army radio cited an Israeli source as saying on Wednesday.

The report did not specify the number of vessels involved or their exact location.

On April 12, a second flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza sailed from the Spanish port of Barcelona, aiming to try to break the Israeli blockade.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned his US counterpart against "damaging consequences" of a new military action in Iran, Kremlin aide told reporters on Wednesday after the two leaders spoke by phone.

Putin "highlighted the inevitable and extremely damaging consequences not only for Iran and its neighbours, but also for the entire international community, should the US and Israel resort to military action once again," said Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday welcomed the United Arab Emirates' move to pull out of OPEC and said he thinks the move could help lower oil prices.

"I think it's great," Trump said when asked by reporters at the White House what he thought of the UAE's decision.

The UAE - one of the group's biggest producers - said on Tuesday it was quitting OPEC, dealing a blow to the group as an unprecedented energy crisis caused by the Iran war exposes discord among Gulf nations.

"I think ultimately it's a good thing for getting the price of gas down, getting oil down, getting everything down," Trump said. "They're having some problems in OPEC." 

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday Iran talks are being conducted by phone after he canceled a trip over the weekend for US negotiators to travel to Pakistan to speak with Tehran officials.

An attack on a police patrol in Iran's restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan killed three officers on Wednesday, the Fars news agency reported.

The official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday morning that one officer was killed and three were injured when "armed individuals opened fire on a police patrol" in Zahedan.

State TV later said one of the injured officers died of his wounds, while several hours later Fars reported a third officer had died.

Sistan-Baluchistan, which shares a long border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been the site of frequent clashes between security forces and insurgents or smugglers.

The province, one of the poorest in Shia-majority Iran, hosts a significant population from the Baloch ethnic minority, which practises Sunni Islam.

In July last year, gunmen stormed a courthouse in the province's capital Zahedan, killing at least six people, in an attack that was later claimed by Jaish al-Adl, an outlawed militant group designated a terrorist organisation by the United States.

In one of the deadliest attacks in the province, 10 police officers were killed in October.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Wednesday that Israeli forces had shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

"A child arrived at the Red Crescent Hospital in Hebron with a live-bullet wound to the abdomen. He was 14 years old and was pronounced dead," the first responders organisation said, adding in a separate statement that he had been shot by Israeli army bullets.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry identified the deceased as Abdel Fattah al-Khayyat.

The Red Crescent said that another person was wounded in the thigh by gunfire during the raid.

Iranian football federation officials will not attend the FIFA congress in Canada, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday, citing what it said was "inappropriate behaviour of immigration officials" at Toronto airport.

Tasnim said that three federation officials arrived with visas to participate in Thursday's congress but returned on the next available flight.

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump held a phone call on Wednesday in which the Russian leader put forward ideas on resolving the conflict over Iran's nuclear programme and proposed a temporary Ukraine ceasefire to mark the anniversary of the end of World War Two next month, a Kremlin aide said.

Israel's military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir vowed to strike Hezbollah targets north of the Litani River and beyond the so-called "Yellow Line" during a visit to south Lebanon on Wednesday.

"Any threat, anywhere, against our communities or our forces - including beyond the Yellow Line and north of the Litani - will be eliminated," Zamir said, according to a military statement issued after his visit to troops stationed within Israel's security zone in southern Lebanon.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sought to defend the Iran war in fiery remarks to Congress on Wednesday, saying it was not a quagmire and attacking Democratic lawmakers as "feckless" for criticizing the unpopular conflict.

"You call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement," Hegseth said before the House Armed Services Committee, slamming "reckless, feckless, and defeatist" Congressional Democrats.

Three women have been killed and at least 11 others injured in an Israeli air raid on the village of Tayr Debba in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry.

The ministry said Israeli attacks in Lebanon since March 2 have killed at least 2,534 people, injured 7,863 and displaced more than 1.6 million.

The United States' war in Iran has cost $25 billion so far, a senior Pentagon official said on Wednesday, providing the first official estimate of the military's price tag for the conflict.

With just six months before mid-term elections in which Trump's Republicans may face an uphill battle to keep their House majority, Democrats are riding high in public opinion polls as they attempt to link the unpopular Iran war with affordability.

Jules Hurst, who is performing the duties of the comptroller, told lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee that most of that money was for munitions.

Hurst did not detail what that cost estimate included and whether it took into account the projected costs of rebuilding and repairing base infrastructure in the Middle East damaged in the conflict.

Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, responded to Hurst: "I'm glad you answered that question. Because we've been asking for a hell of a long time, and no one's given us the number."

The United States started carrying out strikes against Iran on Feb.28 and the two sides are currently maintaining a fragile ceasefire. The Pentagon has poured tens of thousands of additional forces into the Middle East, including keeping three aircraft carriers in the region.

Thirteen U.S. troops have been killed in the conflict and hundreds wounded.

New maps of Gaza quietly issued by Israel a little more than a month ago have put thousands of displaced Palestinians inside an expanded restricted area, within boundaries the military says it can continue to change.

The restricted area, marked on the maps with an orange line, makes up an estimated 11% of Gaza's territory beyond the "Yellow Line" demarcating the part of Gaza occupied by Israeli troops since an October ceasefire. The areas cordon off nearly two-thirds of Gaza's territory in total.

Israel's military sent the maps to aid groups in Gaza in mid-March, two aid sources said, but has not released them publicly.

Israel says the area between the orange line and the yellow truce line to which its troops withdrew under an October deal is a restricted zone to enable aid delivery, and that aid groups must coordinate their movements with the military. It says civilians are not affected.

The expanded zone has stirred fears from displaced Palestinians living there that they could be deemed targets by Israel, and shot. It has also stoked concerns that Israel may plan to hold the area permanently.

Israeli officials describe the territory they've seized in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon as "buffer zones" that can stave off potential militant attacks following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led, assault that set off the Gaza war.

"In Gaza, more than half of the Strip's territory" is under Israeli control, Netanyahu said in a March 31 video statement. "We are the ones who attack and initiate, and we are the ones who surprise our enemies."

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun has said Israel is mistaken "if it believes it can achieve security through violations and the destruction of border villages".

He stressed that lasting border security depends on the Lebanese state deploying its full authority across southern Lebanon.

Aoun said efforts are ongoing to resolve the situation, adding that a solution could be reached through negotiations.

He also emphasised that Israel must first implement a ceasefire before any talks can proceed, noting that Lebanon is now awaiting the United States to set a date for the start of negotiations.

 The conflict in Iran and the possibility of a jet fuel crisis are causing unprecedented levels of uncertainty for the travel industry ahead of the summer holiday season, Spanish airport operator Aena said on Wednesday.

Aena is waiting for greater visibility before providing an update on the current passenger traffic forecast of 1.3% growth for this year, CFO Ignacio Castejon said during a call with analysts.

"We are seeing news about flights being cancelled or airlines confirming flight tickets going up ... We are seeing many trends. It is too early to put a number on it given the uncertainty, which in my opinion is at the highest levels that I have seen in my career," he said.

Spain's tourism industry has continued to benefit from strong demand as holidaymakers avoid the Middle East, prompting airlines operating in Spain to add capacity for the summer season, although the tourism industry has flagged potential risks from a fuel supply crunch, which could curtail travel.

Several European airlines have warned about the impact of high jet fuel prices while the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's oil is transported, remains closed.

Castejon said that supplies of jet fuel and kerosene had been secured for the coming weeks. "Of course, everything is going to depend on the length of the war," he said.

Aena, which operates all of Spain’s airports as well as some in Latin America and Britain, said earlier on Wednesday its first-quarter net profit rose 9.3% from a year ago as passenger traffic to and from Spain increased 3.2% in the first quarter.

Russia has not yet taken a decision on whether to return its personnel to the Bushehr nuclear power plant, Alexei Likhachev, head of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying on Wednesday.

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, Israel's military and the Palestinian health ministry said.

The military said in a statement that during a raid in Silwad, east of Ramallah, "two terrorists attacked two [Israeli military] soldiers, who were injured and evacuated to receive medical treatment at a hospital".

"The soldiers responded by opening fire. One terrorist was eliminated, and the other was neutralised and apprehended by the soldiers", the statement added.

The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli authorities had indirectly informed it of the man's death, and identified him as 37-year-old Abdel Halim Hammad.

Israeli authorities usually inform the Palestinian health ministry of deaths when soldiers take the dead body with them.

Official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Hammad was killed in his home when soldiers raided it at night.

Wafa added that Hammad's brother, Mohammad Hammad, was also killed by Israeli forces in 2021, with his body held by Israeli authorities since.

Violence has surged in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

At least five people have been killed and seven others injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza over the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The ministry added that since the start of the “ceasefire” in October, 823 people have been killed and 2,308 wounded.

Since Israel launched its devastating war on Gaza on 7 October 2023, a total of 72,599 people have been killed and 172,411 injured across the besieged territory.

The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely still at its Isfahan nuclear complex, which was bombarded by airstrikes last year and faced less intense attacks in this year's US-Israeli war, the head of the UN nuclear agency told news agency The Associated Press.

Rafael Grossi told the AP on Tuesday that the International Atomic Energy Agency has satellite images showing the effects of the latest U.S.-Israeli airstrikes against Iran and that “we continue to get information.”

IAEA inspections ended at Isfahan when Israel last June launched a 12-day war that saw the United States bomb three Iranian nuclear sites.

The UN nuclear watchdog believes a large percentage of Iran's highly enriched uranium “was stored there in June 2025 when the 12-day war broke out, and it has been there ever since,” Grossi said.

“We haven't been able to inspect or to reject that the material is there and that the seals — the IAEA seals — remain there,” he said. “I hope we'll be able to do that, so what I tell you is our best estimate.”

Images from an Airbus satellite show a truck loaded with 18 blue containers going into a tunnel at the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center on June 9, 2025, just before the start of the June war. Those containers, believed to contain highly enriched uranium, likely remain there.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump remained good despite a row between the two men over the Iran war, but he reiterated his worries over the economic impact of the conflict.

The spat reflects diverging views between the Trump administration and its European NATO allies on Iran and other issues, including the Ukraine conflict.

"From my perspective, my personal relationship with the US President remains good. I simply had doubts from the start about what was begun with the war in Iran. That is why I have made that clear," Merz told reporters.

"In Germany and Europe we are suffering from the consequences, such as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. This has a direct impact on our energy supply and a huge impact on our economic performance," said Merz, adding that Washington and Berlin were speaking to each other.

On Tuesday, Trump criticised Merz over his stance, saying in a social media post that the German chancellor thought it was "OK" for Iran to have a nuclear weapon and that he didn't know what he was talking about.

Merz has said Iran must not have a nuclear weapon.

German premium automaker Mercedes-Benz warned Wednesday that a drawn-out conflict in the Middle East could cause shortages of key inputs as it reported tumbling quarterly profits due to fierce Chinese competition.

Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has slowed to a trickle as Iran and the United States maintain competing blockades, restricting global supplies of energy and raising the cost of smelting industrial metals like aluminium.

Oil is also a key input for plastics and other petrochemical products.

"We're continuously monitoring (the war) and analysing the implications for the supply chain," Mercedes finance chief Harald Wilhelm told reporters on a call.

"If it were to last longer, you could not rule out the possibility of shortages in certain areas, whether of energy or certain commodities that are heavily sourced from the region."

Mercedes said net profit for January to March fell 17 percent from the previous year to 1.43 billion euros ($1.67 billion), hit by difficulties in China.

Stiffer competition in the country, long a steady source of profits for German carmakers, has hurt Mercedes and fellow German automakers.

"We take Chinese competition very, very seriously," Wilhelm said.

"The vehicles, the technology, the packaging -- and of course the price. To be clear, you get an incredible amount of value for very little money."

Iran’s national rial currency hit a record hit Wednesday of 1.8 million to $1 as a shaky ceasefire with the US and Israel still holds.

The rial had remained stable for weeks during the war, which began Feb. 28, in part because there was little trading or imports coming into the country.

The rial began to slide two days ago, hitting the record low Wednesday.

Experts warn the fall of the rial is likely to further fuel inflation in a country where many imported goods, from food and medicine to electronics and raw materials, are affected by the dollar rate.

The war is now in a ceasefire, but a US blockade has continued to increase pressure on Iran’s already-battered economy, cutting into a key source of government revenue and hard currency by stopping or intercepting oil shipments.

Lebanon's army said Wednesday that one of its soldiers was among two people killed in an Israeli strike in the country's south, the latest deadly raid despite a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

"A soldier and his brother were killed in an Israeli strike that targeted them in the town of Khirbet Selm in Bint Jbeil (district) while they were travelling on a motorbike" heading home from the soldier's post, the army statement said.

Iran has executed at least 21 people and arrested more than 4,000 since the beginning of the Middle East war, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Since the US-Israeli strikes sparked the war in late February, "at least nine people have been executed in connection with the January 2026 protests, ten for alleged membership in opposition groups, and two on espionage charges," the UN's rights office said.

"Since 28 February, more than 4,000 individuals are estimated to have been arrested on national security related charges in Iran," the agency added in a statement.

US President Donald Trump has criticised Iran’s latest proposal to end the war, saying it "better get smart soon".

In a fresh sign he is unwilling to accept Tehran’s offer to negotiate over the Strait of Hormuz while setting aside its nuclear programme, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the Islamic Republic "can’t get their act together".

"They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal," he added, alongside an AI-generated image of himself holding a firearm in front of explosions, captioned: "No more Mr. Nice Guy."

China's Sinopec on Wednesday said its refinery and petrochemical utilisation rates dropped in the first quarter as the US-Israeli war on Iran disrupted feedstock supplies, but its chemical exports are set for strong growth this year.

Sinopec, the world's biggest refiner by capacity, cut refinery utilisation rates between January and March by 7.6 percentage points on an annualised basis to average at around 83%, the company said at an earnings briefing.

Its ethylene utilisation rate stood at 89% in the first quarter, 1.5 percentage points lower than a year earlier, a company executive said.

The war on Iran, which started on February 28, has led to weeks of near-full closure of the Hormuz Strait, through which about 20% of the world's oil and gas flows, disrupting crude oil and petrochemicals feedstock supplies to many Asian refiners.

However, the conflict also created an opportunity for the refining giant to boost exports of chemical products, which it expects to rise 26% to 3.65 million tons in 2026.

To help cover a crude oil supply gap and restore refinery processing margins, Sinopec has in recent weeks sought policy support to tap into commercial oil reserves and has obtained a full-year government quota for refined fuel exports this year, the company added.

It exported 4.32 million tons of refined fuel in the first quarter, including 3.82 million tons of jet fuel. Its Asian refining processing margins have soared due to the war.

To safeguard domestic fuel supply, China issued a ban on fuel exports in March and the restriction was extended into April.

However, the restriction excluded exports to Hong Kong and Macau, as well as aviation fuel refuelling for international flights and bunker sales for shippers on international voyages. Sinopec estimated China's ethylene consumption would rise 2.7% in 2026.

Sinopec's first-quarter liquefied natural gas (LNG) import business incurred an 830 million yuan ($121.46 million) loss due to reduced supplies under term contracts and higher spot imports, a company official said. Sinopec is a regular LNG buyer from Qatar under a long-term agreement, but the war has damaged Qatar's production facilities and brought its gas exports to a halt.

($1 = 6.8335 Chinese yuan)

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Britain's King Charles did not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, introducing the fraught subject of the Middle East conflict into comments at a White House state dinner for the visiting royal.

The event was held on the second day of a four-day visit to the United States at a tense time in ties, after Trump has repeatedly criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for what Trump calls lack of help in prosecuting the Iran war.

"We're doing a little Middle East work right now and we're doing very well," Trump said at the dinner.

"We have militarily defeated that particular opponent, and we're never going to let that opponent ever - Charles agrees with me even more than I do - we're never going to let that opponent have a nuclear weapon."

In his own comments following Trump, Charles did not speak about Iran or the war. The king is not a spokesman for the British government.

In a speech to Congress earlier, Charles made no direct mention of the Iran war, but referred to Trump's criticism of NATO, highlighted the importance of continued US help for Ukraine in its war with Russia, and the dangers of isolationism.

Both Britain and the United States have maintained over the years that Tehran should not develop nuclear weapons.

Tehran, which does not have nuclear weapons, denies seeking them but says it has the right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Malaysia's treasury has ordered all government ministries and agencies to cut their operating budgets for 2026 due to the impacts of the Middle East conflict, according to news agency Reuters- citing  a government directive.

The directive, said to be dated Wednesday and sent by Treasury Secretary-General Johan Mahmood Merican, said a sharp spike in energy prices stemming from the conflict has had a direct impact on living costs, causing a rise in subsidy needs to be met by the government.

The government's public subsidy bill was expected to reach 58.4 billion ringgit ($14.79 billion) this year, far surpassing the 15 billion ringgit originally allocated under the 2026 budget, Johan Mahmood said in the internal document.

As such, all ministries, departments and agencies were to review their operational expenditures for the year and submit their proposals for spending cuts by May 15, he said.

The finance ministry did not immediately respond following the latest report.

The ministry has said it now costs the government 7 billion ringgit a month to fund fuel subsidies and other aid measures, a 10-fold increase from its spending prior to the outbreak of the conflict in late February.

 European airlines are facing their biggest challenge since the COVID-19 pandemic as the Iran war pushes up jet fuel prices and buffets travel through the Middle East, casting a shadow over the summer holiday season, according to a report by news agency Reuters.

Carriers have been largely riding out the crisis with hedges that have tamed costs even as the price of jet fuel has risen nearly 84% since the start of the conflict on February 28, but they could face shortages if the war does not end soon.

"There is a risk that we'll see rationing of fuel supply, particularly in Asia and Europe," Willie Walsh, head of the International Air ​Transport Association, told Reuters on Tuesday, while adding that supply remained robust for now.

Walsh said, however, that the situation was not yet as bad as the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which led to travel demand plummeting and hundreds of billions of dollars in losses for the aviation sector.

"I think COVID was on a completely different scale," Walsh added. "What we're seeing here is, in effect, a cost issue for the airlines. The underlying demand for aviation remains robust, and that's a positive."

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will face tough questions from lawmakers about the Iran war on Wednesday during his first testimony to Congress since the start of the conflict.

Hegseth's appearance before the House Armed Services Committee -- for a hearing on President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion defense budget request -- comes with the war still unresolved and the economic fallout from it continuing around the globe.

Lawmakers from both parties have previously expressed dissatisfaction with the information provided in classified briefings on the war, setting up a potentially fiery public hearing in which top US military officer General Dan Caine is also set to testify.

"Finally, Secretary Hegseth will come before the House Armed Services Committee this week. It is time to answer for this war of choice," Representative Maggie Goodlander, a Democratic member of the committee, said in a post on X.

Trump and his administration have yet to publicly provide a plan for winding down the war, which has led Iran to close the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway, sending oil prices skyrocketing.

Washington hit back with a blockade of