Al Jazeera

By Daniel Khalili-Tari and Faisal Ali

    US Secretary of State Marco Rubio promises to protect Gulf allies’ interests as he arrives in Bahrain ahead of a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

    The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says visits to Iran’s nuclear sites will take place, but Tehran says inspections will only happen once a final deal is reached with the US.

    In Lebanon, an Israeli attack has killed two people in the city of Nabatieh, as Israel’s defence minister says the military will not withdraw from southern Lebanon even if the US demands it.

    The number of vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz continues to pick up under a new UN-backed plan to evacuate 11,000 stranded sea farers.

Colombia’s Petro condemns de la Espriella’s pledge to restore ties with Israel

    Colombia’s outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, an outspoken critic of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, has criticised incoming President Abelardo de la Espriella, a far-right lawyer, for his pledge to resume relations with Israel.

    “Starting relations with Israel and forgetting the Palestinian genocide as one forgets the Colombian genocide is an invitation to repeat it,” Petro wrote online.

    Petro severed ties with Israel in 2024, a month after Colombia joined a case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice.

    The UN has released a report finding that Israel has continued to deliberately target and kill Palestinian children, resulting in genocide.

US Democratic senator questions progress in Iran talks

    Democratic Senator Chris Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has criticised claims that talks with Iran are going well.

    “How do you know the Iran negotiations are going poorly ” Coons asked rhetorically in a video posted online.

    “Because JD Vance says one thing, Iranian negotiators say another, and Trump tweets about algae in the reflecting pool.”

Lindsey Graham agrees with Trump team’s push to end Iran war

    US Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading Iran hawk in Congress, says former House Speaker Newt Gingrich “got it right” in saying that Americans want Trump to end the war on Iran while curbing its nuclear ambitions.

    Gingrich – citing polls that showed support for ending the conflict – said US negotiators’ efforts had “paid off” and that Washington now needs a “system that monitors… and ensures the compliance of the Iranian dictatorship”.

    Referencing Gingrich’s comments on X, Graham wrote: “The American people would like to see the Iranian conflict end honorably and without further violence, if possible.”

Iranians cautiously optimistic about thorny deal with US

By Maziar Motamedi

Reporting from Tehran, Iran

    The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Iran and the US has survived its first few rocky days, raising hopes for a potential long-term resolution to the war launched on Iran by the US and Israel.

    Iranians will be watching closely over the months of negotiations still ahead, keeping their optimism in check.

    “We got from daily bombing to talking about buying corn from the US,” Ehsan, who lives in central Tehran, said. “So, that’s a good change, but our quality of life is still getting worse by the day.”

    Under the agreement, Iran will reportedly be able to access some of its funds frozen overseas, which it can use to buy humanitarian goods.

Recap of some of Trump’s comments on Iran

    Trump made several remarks about Iran to journalists on Wednesday. Here’s a recap of his key comments:

    Regarding a deadly strike on the girls’ school in Minab, Iran, which killed more than 150 people, Trump said: “I don’t think it was us”, and that he wasn’t sure if the cause would ever be established. Growing evidence suggests it was a US attack that struck the school.

    Trump said a deal with Iran that included a toll in the Strait of Hormuz would be “unacceptable” to the US.

    He also said that although the US “didn’t need help” with the war on Iran, “it would’ve been nice” for European countries to offer it.

Iran warns ships away from an ‘unapproved’ Hormuz route

    Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) Navy has rejected a new shipping lane through the Strait of Hormuz, warning that any vessel using it will be in danger.

    In statements carried by Press TV on Thursday, the IRGC Navy said that “certain authorities” had created the route without notifying or coordinating with Tehran, but did not specify the “authorities”.

    The IRGC said only routes designated by Iran are authorised, and that ships must coordinate with the IRGC Navy. Vessels straying outside those corridors, it said, would face enforcement action.

    The warning follows an earlier statement from Oman, which shares the strait with Iran:

Five South Korean ships cross Strait of Hormuz as passage restrictions ease further

    South Korea has said that five more South Korean-run vessels have crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the latest sign that restrictions on passage are easing.

    The ministry said 13 South Korean ships remain in the strait.

Three ICC judges sue Trump admin over ‘unlawful’ sanctions

    Three judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have filed a lawsuit ‌in the federal court in Manhattan, suing the Trump administration over sanctions imposed on them last year.

    In the lawsuit, the judges – Kimberly Prost of Canada, Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, and Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin – accuse Trump of exerting “extra-judicial pressure” by “targeting their financial and other personal interests”.

    They allege the US president is attempting to “punish them for prior judicial decisions” by the court, which include arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a decision to open an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by US troops in Afghanistan.

    US sanctions can severely restrict a person’s ability to carry out everyday activities. Sanctioned people are generally unable to bank with financial institutions linked to the US and lose access to a range of online services, including Amazon and Google.

    The restrictions can make it extremely difficult for those affected to receive payments from their employer or travel internationally.

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Democrats slam Trump’s request for $87.6bn in funds, mostly for war on Iran

    The White House’s request for $87.6bn in supplemental funding from Congress, most of it related to the war on Iran, is drawing criticism from the Democratic Party.

    The request asks for $67.15bn for the military, including to cover operational costs of the war on Iran and to rebuild weapons stocks and classified programmes.

    “We should be lowering costs for the American people, not writing another blank check for Trump,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer posted on X after Congress received the request.

    Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the chamber’s appropriations committee, said she would review the request to ensure that US troops are taken care of.

    “But I will not rubber-stamp tens of billions more for this disastrous war of choice,” she said.

    Progressive Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal declared her response to the request as an “absolute HELL NO” and blamed the bill on Trump’s costly war on Iran.

    The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-partisan group, meanwhile, urged lawmakers to “carefully review and fully offset every dollar” of the request with new taxes or spending cuts, warning that the country cannot keep borrowing as its debt nears record levels.

Iran accuses NATO of complicity in US and Israel’s ‘unlawful war’

    The spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accused NATO of “complicity in an unlawful war of aggression” after the alliance’s chief said European allies had helped support the US and Israel’s strikes on Iran.

    Esmaeil Baghaei said that Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s remarks were “a clear and damning admission of NATO’s active complicity” in the war.

    Baghaei said that NATO and the individual member states that took part “must be held accountable for all the consequences”. Italy and Romania are among those that should explain “why they chose to collude”.

    Speaking to Fox News earlier, Rutte said Italy had allowed 500 US aircraft to take off from US bases on its soil to “support” Trump’s “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran, while the Romanian capital, Bucharest, had to cut flights because “they had to use the airports for tanker facilities”.

Israeli strike kills 2 in southern Lebanon despite ceasefire

Reporting from Tyre, Lebanon

    These two people were killed in a strike on their car in an area close to the city of Nabatieh. But it’s not the only Israeli military activity that happened on Wednesday.

    There was also a reported strike on Nabatieh al-Fawqa, and we don’t have confirmation if there were any casualties.

    The Israeli military has also been active on the ground in an area called Ain al-Arab, which is a village in southern Lebanon. People have been returning to their homes there over the course of the past two days after the Lebanese military opened the roads to the village.

    That deadline has passed, and most people have left that village once again.

    All of this comes in the context of the discussion in Washington between Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors about establishing pilot zones, where exactly this kind of thing is supposed to happen – the Israeli military is supposed to withdraw, and the Lebanese army is supposed to deploy.

    But instead, what we’ve actually seen today is the reverse. Part of that is because we’re not going to get an exact timeline or any detail about where these zones are, at least until Thursday.

    The cost of rebuilding will likely run into hundreds of billions of dollars.

A recap of recent developments

    US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on a tour of the Gulf, promising allies that Washington will protect their interests as talks with Iran continue.

    Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, says visits to Iran’s nuclear sites will take place in accordance with the recently signed memorandum of understanding.

    But Iran says inspections by the nuclear watchdog will “solely be examined and resolved within the framework of a final agreement” with the US.

    The number of vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz continues to pick up under a new UN-backed plan to evacuate 11,000 stranded seafarers.

    In Lebanon, an Israeli attack has killed two people in the city of Nabatieh, as Israel’s defence minister says the military will not withdraw from southern Lebanon even if the US demands it.

    Talks between Lebanon and Israel continue in Washington, DC, with the US proposing “pilot zones”, where Israeli forces transfer territory to vetted Lebanese army units.

Welcome to our coverage

    Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of the efforts to end the United States and Israel’s war on Iran.

    Stay with us for the latest news and analysis from across the Middle East and beyond.