Al Jazeera

By Enes Abuomer and Ali Mustafa

    President Donald Trump says the United States will seek compensation from Iran for casualties in the war. The move came days after Tehran demanded that Washington pay for damages from the five-month conflict as a condition for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

    Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei conveyed a message of unity during a recent seven-hour meeting. Pezeshkian confirmed that Khamenei is in perfect health despite making no public appearances since taking power.

    Khamenei’s office has announced several new key appointments, including naming a former wartime commander and veteran political insider to head the nation’s highest security body.

Israel authorises new settlement following West Bank land grab

    Israel has issued new administrative orders to officially legalise a settler outpost near Sinjil, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

    Quoting a statement from the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Wafa reported that Israel’s so-called Civil Administration approved the “jurisdictional boundaries of the Givat Har’el” outpost, effectively authorising it to be transformed into an independent “settlement, with its own planning and expansion powers”.

    The measure is part of a process initiated by the Israeli government in February 2023 to regularise the status of both the Givat Har’el and Givat Haro’eh outposts.

    The move aims to consolidate a settlement belt around Sinjil and al-Lubban Asharqiya, linking local outposts to the larger settlements of Shilo and Ma’ale Levona, according to the commission.

Iranian trade official warns against adapting to US maritime blockade

    Majid Reza Hariri, head of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce, said Iran cannot afford to adapt to the US maritime blockade and must break it.

    “Whether through negotiations, requests, threats, or even using force and starting a war again, this maritime blockade must end,” he told the Iranian news outlet KhabarOnline.

    Hariri warned that trying to circumvent the blockade would repeat Tehran’s previous experience of attempting to bypass sanctions, which increased trade costs, weakened the economy, and fuelled major corruption.

    “The worst thing that could happen today is to think we can bypass the maritime blockade and try to run the country despite it,” Hariri said. “We must not allow our economy – or the enemy – to get used to the maritime blockade.”

    Hariri estimated that transporting a container from China to Iran costs about $3,000 by sea, compared with roughly $12,000 by land. With about 2 million containers entering Iran annually through its southern ports, he said replacing maritime trade with land routes could add about $18bn a year to import costs.

    He also warned that Iran’s roughly $50bn in annual non-oil exports could become economically unviable if forced onto more expensive overland routes.

    Hariri said rail and road links could cover urgent needs for weeks, or perhaps months, but they were not a sustainable substitute for maritime trade.

    “The settlers are the proxies of the government and the occupation forces. This is a clear ‘state terrorism’. They finance that, they support it, and they encourage it,” he said.

    Watch the full report from Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh in Taybeh, in the occupied West Bank.

UNIFIL reports heaviest Israeli fire in months in southern Lebanon

    Israeli forces fired 455 projectiles into southern Lebanon and breached Lebanese airspace 97 times between Friday and Sunday, the heaviest fire seen in months, according to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL.

    UNIFIL said Saturday alone accounted for 229 of those projectiles, “the highest single-day total since 21 June”.

    The UN secretary-general’s deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq, said that “most of the airspace violations came from drones, though helicopters and fighter jets were also involved”.

    The UN says Israel’s activities violate Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted as the internationally agreed framework for peace and stability in southern Lebanon following the 2006 conflict.

US Senator Schumer slams Trump’s ‘illegal war’, says his leadership a ‘total failure’

    US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has accused Trump of lacking strategy and discipline in his war on Iran while endangering American troops and driving up prices.

    “Donald Trump got us into an illegal war, is losing his illegal war, and has no way out of his illegal war,” Schumer wrote on X.

    “His lack of strategy, discipline, and any ability to seriously negotiate is endangering our troops and raising prices for everyday Americans,” he said.

    “Trump’s leadership is a complete and total failure. We must end this war and begin to repair the damage he has wrought,” he added.

Who are the commanders appointed by Iran’s supreme leader

    Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has appointed six senior commanders across the armed forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Basij domestic security force, formalising a wartime leadership structure after several top commanders were killed.

    Ali Abdollahi was named chief of staff of the armed forces, replacing Abdolrahim Mousavi. A senior IRGC commander, Abdollahi had already been overseeing the General Staff during the war, and has been tasked with improving coordination across Iran’s military command.

    Kioumars Heydari, the former commander of the army’s ground forces, was appointed deputy chief of staff.

    Ahmad Vahidi was confirmed as commander-in-chief of the IRGC, succeeding Mohammad Pakpour. Khamenei instructed him to strengthen deterrence and readiness for “powerful offensive operations”, language analysts say reflects a more assertive military posture.

    Mostafa Izadi became Vahidi’s deputy, with responsibility for organisational and operational readiness.

    Ali Ozmaei was appointed commander of the IRGC Navy, a key position given the continuing confrontation around the Strait of Hormuz.

    Hossein Taeb, a former IRGC intelligence chief, took over the Basij, with orders to strengthen popular mobilisation and domestic intelligence networks.

    The appointments came a day after former IRGC chief Mohsen Rezaee was named secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, pointing to a wider consolidation of experienced IRGC figures across Iran’s wartime security establishment.

US senator calls on ambassador to Israel to resign

    US Senator Chris Van Hollen has called on Mike Huckabee, Washington’s ambassador to Israel, to step down, accusing him of failing to protect American citizens and becoming a mouthpiece for the Israeli government.

    “A US ambassador’s job is to protect & defend the citizens & interests of the United States. @USAmbIsrael Mike Huckabee has failed to do so,” Van Hollen wrote on X.

    “As violence consumes the West Bank & extremists call for a Greater Israel, he’s become a mouthpiece for the Israeli govt,” he said.

    “He should resign.”

Oil prices steady at one-week highs above $87 a barrel

    Oil prices are holding steady at more than one-week highs, with Brent crude futures flat at $87.81 a barrel as of 00:13 GMT.

    US West Texas Intermediate futures held at $82.20 a barrel.

    The steady prices follow a surge on Monday, when both benchmarks rose more than 5 percent to their highest levels since July 31. The gains came after Trump responded to Iran’s conditions for a peace deal by demanding compensation for damages incurred by the US, dampening hopes for a negotiated settlement to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Zelenskyy discusses trilateral pact, drone deal with Saudi crown prince

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has discussed a bilateral drone agreement and global food security with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).

    In a post on X, Zelenskyy said he had a “very substantive conversation” with the crown prince, during which MBS outlined Saudi Arabia’s recent agreements with Turkiye and Pakistan and their related prospects.

    Zelenskyy also said the two sides discussed “the steps we will take in the near future as part of the Drone Deal between our countries”.

    Ukraine and Saudi Arabia signed a bilateral defence cooperation agreement in March.

Trump advisers push low-key Iran approach as elections loom

By Mike Hanna

Reporting from the White House

    President Trump’s advisers have been pushing the message that it’s a good idea to take a low-key approach to this ongoing conundrum and not to escalate warfare.

    His advisers are saying to the media that Iran is suffering economically and that might have an impact on the war or the divisions that happen between moderates and hardliners within Tehran.

    In addition, they say heightened conflict would divert people’s attention, as they put it, from the economic hardships they are suffering. Outside observers claim that’s wishful thinking.

    President Trump himself, publicly at least, says he’s quite happy in the position he is in. He says he has stopped Iran from getting the bomb, something he says repeatedly, and he doesn’t appear publicly concerned about the impact of all of this on those elections that are looming in November.