Al Jazeera

By Faisal Ali and Daniel Khalili-Tari

    Qatar reports “positive progress” as the US and Iran conclude indirect technical talks in Doha on issues related to the memorandum of understanding signed on June 17.

    Tehran says a “communication channel” will be established with Washington to report and discuss breaches of the MoU.

    A foreign ⁠container ship has run aground ⁠in the Strait of Hormuz after entering shallow waters outside ‌the shipping routes designated by Iranian authorities.

    Israeli forces kill five Palestinians in Gaza, and continue to launch attacks on southern Lebanon despite so-called “ceasefire” agreements.

    The move is yet another blow to the hopes of a future Palestinian capital.

Iranian official slams US-led regional security dialogue

    Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, has dismissed a US-led regional security dialogue held in Bahrain, where participants from 12 nations discussed the Strait of Hormuz.

    “Hormuz is defined under Iran’s command, not CENTCOM,” he wrote, adding that “a military summit in Bahrain cannot establish legal order and security for the Persian Gulf”.

    “The region’s security will be ensured through the end of interventions and the US withdrawal from the area, respect for countries’ sovereignty, and acceptance of new geopolitical realities – not under the military umbrella of America,” he said.

    His comments came after the US announced that senior military officials from 12 countries – including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Lebanon and Syria – had met in Bahrain and affirmed their “commitment to the free flow of commerce” through the strait.

Psychological toll mounts as Lebanese villages erased by Israel’s war

By Justin Salhani

Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

    In February 2025, Ali stood outside his house in Naqoura, in southern Lebanon, and pointed at the crack in the foundation and fruit trees pulled up by the Israeli military.

    The Israeli military had recently withdrawn from the town as part of a ceasefire agreement, but had left behind detonated homes, a graffiti-laden school, and power lines pulled out of the ground.

    Ali, an elderly man from the town, said at the time that he would fix it all.

    But a little more than a year later, Israel has completely razed the area of Naqoura, one of many towns and villages in southern Lebanon that the Israeli military has made completely uninhabitable. Forced to flee when the Israelis invaded again in March, Ali has traded his garden and family home by the sea for a room on a rooftop in the heart of Beirut.

Israeli forces carry out drone strike in southern Lebanon

    Israel continues to launch attacks on southern Lebanon despite signing a framework agreement to end hostilities last week.

    According to our colleagues on the ground, over the past 24 hours:

    Heavy gunfire has been heard from Khiam.

    An Israeli drone strike targeted Nabatieh al-Fawqa in southern Lebanon.

    Israeli forces carried out controlled demolitions in Haddatha and Beit Yahoun, both villages in the Bint Jbeil District near the Israeli border.

    An Israeli drone dropped three stun grenades on Yater, a village in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border.

TankerTrackers says grounded Hormuz tanker tied to Iranian oil magnate

    As we’ve been reporting, Iranian state media has reported that a foreign cargo ship using a “US-suggested route has run aground” in the Strait of Hormuz.

    Now, TankerTrackers.com, a maritime traffic monitor, says the ship had “actually been stuck in this same spot since March”.

    It identified the vessel as Arista, and said that while the ship is Comoros-flagged, it is part of an operation managed by Iranian oil magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of the late senior Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani.

What we know about the US-Iran talks in Qatar

    As we’ve been reporting, Qatari and Pakistani mediators have wrapped up separate meetings with the US and Iran in Doha.

    Here’s what we know:

    The indirect talks followed days of tit-for-tat military strikes by the US and Iran amid a dispute over shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz.

    US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, attended, but Iran’s top negotiators – Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf – did not.

    Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who heads the country’s technical team, attended instead.

    US Vice President JD Vance said discussions were held on the Strait of Hormuz, while informed sources said Tehran’s nuclear programme, its frozen funds and the conflict in Lebanon were also on the table.

    Gharibabadi told Iranian media that two meetings were held, one addressing the US’s “violations of its obligations”. The sides decided to establish a communication channel to resolve disputes. The second meeting addressed the release of $6bn in frozen Iranian funds.

    Qatar hailed “positive progress” and said the next meeting will follow funeral processions for former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US-Israeli strike on the first day of the war.

Traffic in Strait of Hormuz ‘holds steady’

    Kpler, a data and analytics firm, says traffic in the Strait of Hormuz held “steady” on Tuesday, July 1, “with 34 verified crossings recorded and traffic evenly split by direction”.

    The report followed data from another maritime tracker, WindWard AI, which recorded 42 transits in the waterway on Monday.

    Both figures mark a drop from last week, particularly on June 24, when 70 transits were recorded, the highest since the US-Israel war on Iran began. Traffic fell after the US and Iran exchanged tit-for-tat attacks over the weekend over a dispute on the waterway’s management.

    Before the conflict, roughly 130 to 140 ships passed through the strait daily.

    “They played really well in the enemy’s country,” one supporter said.

Iran raises ‘US violations of obligations’ at Doha talks

    We have more on the technical talks that just wrapped up in Doha.

    Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told state media the Iranian delegation held two rounds of meetings with mediators Qatar and Pakistan.

    The first was a session of the Monitoring and Implementation Working Group, one of four bodies established under the US-Iran MoU. According to the IRIB broadcaster, Iran’s delegation used the meeting to raise the “US’s violation of its obligations under Article 1 of the MoU”, which calls for an end to war across all fronts. They also discussed “news reports about US actions to strengthen equipment and forces in the region, and threatening and interventionist statements by US officials”.

    The meeting decided to establish an immediate communication channel within a day, and to formally document the MoU’s shortcomings so the issues could be reviewed and resolved.

    The second meeting, with Qatari officials and the country’s central bank, addressed the release of some $6bn in frozen Iranian funds. According to Gharibabadi, the talks covered issues related to the cost of part of the initial $6bn, with an agreement that Iran would use the funds to buy goods according to its “declared needs”.

Somaliland cabinet approves strategic declaration with Israel

    Somaliland’s Council of Ministers has unanimously approved the Somaliland–Israel Strategic Cooperation Declaration, announced by President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi during a visit to Israel in June.

    The agreement lays the foundation for expanded cooperation in areas including security, investment, technology, and economic development, according to the presidency.

    Israel is the first country to formally recognise Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991.

    Experts say the recognition, granted last year, was meant to secure a strategic footing on the Gulf of Aden – at the Red Sea’s southern gateway – to counter Iran and its regional allies, including the Houthis.

Ghalibaf denies reports that IAEA has access to Iran’s nuclear sites

    We can now bring you more from Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf’s comments on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s access to the bombed nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

    He said reports that Iran has granted access are “false” and that “IAEA inspectors do not have the right to inspect nuclear sites bombed by the US”.

    According to the IRIB broadcaster, he said: “Currently, inspectors only have access to two locations: Bushehr power plant and Tehran reactor.”

    Ghalibaf added that Parliament had passed a law prohibiting such access.

    “Parliament itself passed the law, and the Supreme National Security Council has also adopted a corresponding resolution,” he said.

    Ghalibaf’s comments came after IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the agency’s inspectors will “have to have access and inspect” Iran’s nuclear sites under the Iran-US MoU. “We hope to be ⁠there soon,” Grossi said.

Is Israel killing the US-Iran MoU by staying in Lebanon

By Nils Adler

    As he visited troops in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the military “will not leave” the area as long as the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah remains a “threat” to his nation.

    A day earlier, Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel’s military will not withdraw “a millimetre” until Hezbollah is disarmed.

    But the Israeli stance is squarely at odds with the first clause of the US-Iran MoU, which provides for an immediate, permanent halt to fighting on “all fronts”, including in Lebanon, where Israeli forces occupy approximately one-fifth of the country.

    The provision has since been undercut by a separate US-brokered framework agreement between Israel and the Lebanese government, which doesn’t require Israeli forces to leave southern Lebanon or halt attacks – a deal Hezbollah has denounced.

    The result has been an entrenchment of Israel’s military presence in Lebanon, even as strikes have eased to avoid reigniting direct conflict with Iran.

That leaves an open question: Is Israel’s position bluster for a domestic audience, or a hard line that could unravel the fragile MoU

US-Iran talks in Qatar show ‘both sides do want the ceasefire to hold’

    Gordon Gray, a former US diplomat, says the fact that the US and Iran held talks in Qatar, even if indirectly, “is a step in the right direction”.

    “There were indications that one side or the other wasn’t going to join, and I think it demonstrates that both sides do want the ceasefire to hold and that both sides do want to come to an agreement,” Gray told Al Jazeera.

    The former deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs says there are “several difficult issues” ahead for Washington and Tehran.

    “For the United States, I think the paramount immediate interest is getting the Strait of Hormuz reopened. I think for the Iranian side, their most pressing need is sanctions relief, because their economy is in such terrible shape due to the war, due to sanctions, and due to their gross economic mismanagement.”

A recap of recent developments

    The US and Iran wrap up indirect technical talks in Doha, with Qatari authorities reporting “positive progress” on issues related to the memorandum of understanding signed on June 17.

    US President Donald Trump also said earlier that the talks were going “very well”.

    Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi says a communication channel will be established between Tehran and Washington to report and discuss breaches of the MoU.

    A foreign ⁠container ship has run aground ⁠in the Strait of Hormuz after entering shallow waters outside ‌Iran’s designated shipping route, according to Iranian media.

    Israeli forces continue attacks in southern Lebanon, with Lebanese media reporting a large explosion in Rachaf and a bombing in Beit Yahoun.

    Israeli forces kill five Palestinians in Gaza as Defence Minister Israel Katz says the Israeli military will continue to occupy so-called “security zones” in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza “until further notice”.

Welcome to our coverage

    Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of the United States and Israel’s war on Iran, as well as Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

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