US-Iran continue talks, while both prepare for potential all-out war

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The Dutch government on Monday said it had summoned Israel's ambassador in the Netherlands, to protest against Israel's decision to revoke the diplomatic status of Dutch diplomats at the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.

Israel on Sunday said it made the move in response to Dutch sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The Netherlands had earlier said it regretted Israel's move, which it called "unnecessary".

The Israeli military set off a significant explosion in the southern Lebanese village of Mansouri on Monday, Lebanese state media and AFP correspondents said.

"A massive explosion rocked the town of Mansouri in the Tyre district a short while ago. The explosion was carried out by Israeli occupation forces," Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.

"The sound of the explosions was heard in the city of Tyre and several surrounding villages," the NNA added.

AFP correspondents saw large clouds of smoke emerge from the largely destroyed town after the loud explosion was heard.

The town of Mansouri, located around nine kilometres (six miles) south of Tyre and 10 kilometres north of Israel, and its surroundings were subjected to several Israeli strikes and to artillery shelling in recent weeks despite a ceasefire that took hold in June.

Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Monday the United States would be forced to leave the Middle East after suffering "painful blows", according to a statement carried by state television.

Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since the start of the Middle East war in late February, made the remarks despite attempts to revive talks aimed at ending the fighting.

"Today, having suffered painful blows at the hands of valiant fighters and the guardians of the Strait of Hormuz, they (the enemies) do not venture beyond the Arabian Sea," Khamenei said in the written statement attributed to him, without explicitly mentioning the United States.

"Whenever they have braved this risk, they have only brought harm upon themselves. It will not be long before the Arabian Sea, too, would rid itself of their presence," he added.

The Arabian Sea, stretching from the Arabian Peninsula toward India in the east, is a vital maritime corridor that leads to Iran's coasts and the Strait of Hormuz.

US forces have completed their withdrawal from Iraq, a government official told German news agency dpa on Sunday.

The Pentagon has not yet commented on the matter.

Around 2,500 US troops have been stationed in Iraq in recent years, according to the Pentagon.  US forces were stationed in Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, at a base near Baghdad airport and in the Green Zone.

Saudi Arabia's crucial East-West oil pipeline is back online after being repaired less than three weeks after a drone attack took it out of action, Bloomberg is reporting, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The pipeline has offered the kingdom an alternative route to export oil after Iran shuttered the Strait of Hormuz in March.

Israeli strikes killed at least two Palestinians and wounded several others on Monday in two separate attacks in the Gaza Strip, health officials in the enclave said.

A woman was killed and her husband and others were wounded in one Israeli strike on the rooftop of their building in Gaza City, medics said. Another strike killed a woman and wounded others in central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, they added.

Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza since October 2023.

At least 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed by Israel in Gaza since an alleged ceasefire took effect last October.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Yemen’s Houthi group were behind a drone attack launched from Iraq against Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline earlier this month, according to preliminary findings of an Iraqi investigation seen by The New Arab.

Three Iraqi officials told TNA that more than 15 explosive-laden drones were launched simultaneously from the Al-Tayyib border area in southern Maysan governorate on 10 September.

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Mediators are expected to hold separate talks with the United States and Iran tomorrow or on Tuesday,  an official source involved in the details of the negotiations told the Reuters news agency.

The source noted that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Qatari mediators are still in the United States.

The talks are expected to focus on a revised version of a proposal for a seven-day program that Iran presented on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the source said.

 Iran rejected the suggestion that it is linked to the five arrests made at Britain's Fairford airbase, according to Sky News on Monday, which cited a statement from the Iranian Embassy in London.

Five men held over a bomb scare at a British air base used by the US are all UK nationals aged in their mid-20s, British counter-terror police said Monday.

The five—a 25-year-old, three men aged 24 and a 23-year-old—all based in London, have been detained since Sunday on suspicion of offences including "preparation of a terrorist act" under UK anti-terrorism laws, according to police.

Oil futures surged more than four percent on Monday, alongside gains for natural gas and diesel prices, after US President Donald Trump rejected Iran's offer of a seven-day truce.

High inflation concerns lifted government bond yields as markets bet on the US Federal Reserve hiking interest rates in October after already tightening this month, supporting the dollar.

European stock markets steadied in midday deals after a mixed showing across Asia, with markets also reacting to Washington and Beijing extending their trade truce at the end of last week.

"There was renewed strength in oil prices after comments from President Trump that he had rejected Iran's latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz," noted AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.

With no sign of an imminent end to the US-Israel-Iran war, European natural gas prices also won support on Monday, while average diesel prices in the UK hit a record high just shy of two pounds ($2.65) per litre, according to the RAC motoring organisation.

On the downside, "gold prices have slumped from their summer highs as investors have reacted to the stronger dollar, which makes the metal more expensive for non-dollar buyers", Mould explained.

Iran set out a plan at the United Nations General Assembly last week for a halt in hostilities that would see the Strait of Hormuz reopened, easing a crippling supply crisis that has jacked up global costs.

The waterway is key to the world's energy supply and is now central to the conflict between the US and Iran, particularly with Houthis seizing Yemen's entire Red Sea coast, including the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a vital shipping lane.

Iran was standing by its conditions for reopening the Strait, including the release of frozen assets, the lifting of sanctions on its oil and an end to the United States' naval blockade.

Iranian forces have driven enemy forces back from waters off southern Iran to the Arabian Sea, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Monday according to his Telegram channel, warning that Iranian forces would soon push them out of the Arabian Sea as well.

At least four people have been killed, with 24 wounded, by Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip over the past 24-hours.

Gaza's Health Ministry reports that at least 1,421 people have now killed and 4,983 wounded by Israel since an alleged US-brokered ceasefire last October.

Israel has killed at least 74,022 Palestinians and wounded 175,980 since October 2023 when its genocidal war on Gaza began.

The European Union is applying for “observer status” in a new multinational maritime defense coalition led by Saudi Arabia and formed to protect the kingdom’s energy exports.

The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas made the announcement on Monday, ahead of a meeting in Brussels of defense and foreign affairs ministers. The energy-hungry EU is facing record energy prices due to the war in Iran.

Kallas said she will ask the assembled ministers to expand the bloc’s own small naval force in the Red Sea dubbed ASPIDES to help escort cargo vessels through the key strategic chokepoint of the Bab al-Mandeb strait against attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Kallas repeated that the “need is bigger than it’s ever been” for more ships than the six currently deployed under ASPIDES.

It’s unclear what observer status in the Saudi-led coalition would mean operationally for either the EU or ASPIDES.

In a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi on Monday, Netanyahu apparently asked bin Zayed to deny the report that he warned him before the 7 October Hamas-led attack, according to The Associated Press. 

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The head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation on Monday said the body has filed a complaint to the United Nations aviation agency against the United States for imposing restrictions targeting the country's airlines.

"To defend the legitimate rights of the aviation industry and counter illegal restrictions imposed by America, Iran has drafted and submitted a formal protest to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)," said Iran's civil aviation chief Abouzar Shiroudi, according to state news agency IRNA.

Qatar extended force majeure on liquefied natural gas shipmentsby another month as disruptions continue at the Strait of Hormuz, according to a report by Bloomberg.

State-owned QatarEnergy this week notified Pakistan and Bangladesh that LNG shipment cancellations would run through November, according to Bloomberg.

At least one Indian buyer was also told the measure would remain in place, according to two other people, while Italy’s Edison SpA said its deliveries would remain suspended until early December.

EU countries on Monday renewed the mandates of two missions supporting Palestinian border personnel and police forces.

The EU Border Assistance Mission for the Rafah Crossing Point and the EU Police Mission for the Palestinian Territories were extended by nine months, until the end of June 2027.

British police were questioning five men on Monday on suspicion of explosives and terrorism offences after they were detained near an air base that has been used by the US to strike Iran.

Officers detained the three men in the early hours of Sunday after they received a tip-off that three large white vans had been seen heading to the military airfield of RAF Fairford in the west of England.

US President Donald Trump said the suspects had been looking to do "big damage" and had been under investigation by British and US authorities. However, a local farmer said she had tipped off police after seeing a group of "hooded and masked men" running into the fields.

British counterterrorism detectives have not yet publicly stated who they assessed was involved but a source familiar with the investigation said an Iranian-linked motive was considered the most likely, while a Russian sabotage operation or an Islamist plot were also being looked at as possibilities.

Defence minister Wes Streeting told BBC News on Monday that he would not speculate about motives of a live investigation.

But he added on the general Iranian threat to the country: "We know that Iran and their proxies wish to do us harm. We know that they hate our democracy, and we know that we regularly have to thwart Iranian attempts to threaten either our interests or indeed our allies."

State media in Iran on Monday reported that no new talks were planned with the United States, after US President Donald Trump told media he expected more negotiations.

"Iran's delegation in New York (for the UN General Assembly) has no plans for negotiations with the United States," said the official IRNA news agency, citing an unnamed source close to the group.

Trump told Axios on Sunday that he expected talks to resume soon, a day after he rejected a proposal by Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days.

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The Netherlands said Monday it regretted Israel's decision to revoke the diplomatic accreditation of Dutch officials based in the occupied West Bank over the country's sanctions on goods from Israeli settlements; the settlements are considered illegal by international law.

"I deeply regret this unnecessary decision," Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said, adding that the decision by The Hague to suspend imports from the occupied territories in the West Bank was "not directed against Israel".

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan arrives in Washington for talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Saudi state news agency says, amid escalating hostilities between Riyadh and Yemen’s Houthis.

The two will discuss bilateral ties as well as key regional and international developments, the agency adds.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sought US military help this month against the Iran-backed Houthis, but Washington declined to launch strikes, though it agreed to supply intelligence and targeting support, sources had told Reuters.

Saudi airstrikes on Taiz in southwest Yemen caused dozens of casualties in an area controlled by the Houthis, the Iran-backed group said on Sunday, as fighting escalated further after a truce broke down.

The Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree accused Saudi Arabia of launching two air raids that hit a market on the outskirts of the city, saying nearly 50 people were killed or wounded without specifying the exact breakdown.

The spokesman said blood was "unjustly and aggressively spilled" in a statement posted online, vowing there would be consequences for the attack.

Earlier, the group's Al-Masirah TV channel said a strike killed seven people and wounded 40 more at a market in Taiz, minutes after reporting that a Saudi fighter jet had targeted the area.

In a subsequent statement, the channel, citing the Houthis' health ministry, said that five children were among those wounded.

Multiple Houthi sources later told AFP that nearly 30 fighters from the group were killed in the series of strikes, while eight civilians died.

Brent crude jumped more than three percent Monday after Donald Trump rejected an Iranian offer of a seven-day truce that Tehran said would see it reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The contract climbed 3.1 percent to $107.51 in afternoon Asian trade, while West Texas Intermediate climbed 2.1 percent to $94.32, putting fresh upward pressure on inflation.