Al Jazeera

By Faisal Aziz Khan and Kristina Harazim

    US President Donald Trump has rejected a news report claiming his administration offered Iran sanctions relief and access to frozen funds, calling the story a hoax on social media.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran has held further indirect talks with the United States through Qatari mediators in New York, with Washington’s formal response expected by Tuesday, “hopefully”.

    The United Arab Emirates has confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during a visit to the Gulf state over the weekend.

    The head of the UK’s national counterterrorism force says they’ll look into whether a foreign state may be involved. Iran has strongly denied any involvement.

US suspects ‘foreign actor’ in UK air base alleged bomb plot

    US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says a suspected bomb plot near a British military airbase used by the US was “a very serious situation” involving a “foreign actor”.

    Speaking to Fox News, Rubio suggested that additional information about suspected foreign involvement could come out in the coming days.

    “There’s some things I cannot say on the air for a lot of different reasons,” he said.

    Rubio said he acknowledged that some people were “disturbed” by the news that the five male suspects, arrested near the RAF Fairford airbase on Sunday, had been released on bail.

    He said that the US was engaging with UK investigators.

    He thanked the British authorities for their cooperation and help in breaking up the alleged plot.

    Citing Iran’s threats against US interests as an example, Rubio said there would be repercussions for an attack or attempted attack.

    “What happened this weekend could have been – and was, I think – a very serious threat,” he said.

Iran’s FM vows pursuit of justice for US, Israeli ‘war crimes’

    Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi has told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Tehran will not abandon its pursuit of justice against the orchestrators of “war crimes”, referring specifically to the US and Israel.

    “The Iranian nation will never give up on demanding justice, holding accountable, and punishing the orchestrators and perpetrators of war crimes by the US and the Zionist regime,” Araghchi told Guterres in a meeting on Monday, according to the Tasnim report.

    Guterres urged both Tehran and Washington to continue diplomatic efforts to end the conflict and achieve peace. However, Araghchi said the US has betrayed diplomacy multiple times over the past decade.

US pushes to advance 14-point framework as Lebanon talks continue in Washington

By Tanya Noury

Reporting from Wahington DC, US

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at the State Department on Monday.

    The Lebanese released a readout saying the two sides discussed developments in Lebanon and the path forward.

    Washington is trying to advance the 14-point framework that was signed by Israel and Lebanon and brokered by the United States in June. It calls for an end to the fighting, Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory, and for the Lebanese state to take full control of its territory and disarm non-state armed groups.

    But the implementation of it remains a challenge as fighting continues in southern Lebanon, with millions displaced and thousands killed.

    After Rubio and Salam met, lower-level discussions continued at the State Department, with further talks between Israel, Lebanon and the United States scheduled for October in Rome.

Rubio warns Iran with nuclear weapon would ‘blackmail the world’

    US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told US media that the Strait of Hormuz is open and, with the exception of Iranian oil, there is almost as much oil flowing through as there was before the start of the US-Israel war on Iran.

    He said, however, that if Tehran had a nuclear weapon, it would use it to “blackmail the world and to kill people”.

    “It would control the straits, charge a toll, and decide who got energy and who did not,” Rubio said during an interview with Fox News, adding that such a scenario represented “an unacceptable risk”.

    He said Iran’s governance was problematic.

    “Who calls the shots in Iran are radical Shia clerics with an apocalyptic vision of the future. They believe that it is a religious calling to trigger about the last days of the world, the apocalypse,” he said.

    Rubio said Iran used money received through sanctions relief or economic selling to build weapons and “export the revolution” rather than to “improve the lives of the Iranian people”.

    “They use the money to fund Hezbollah, they use the money to fund Hamas, they use the money to fund Shia militias in Iraq… they use the money to sponsor terrorism and assassination plots,” he said.

Oil prices climb to $106 a barrel

    Oil prices are rising for a second successive session, with Brent crude futures gaining 63 cents, or 0.6 percent, to reach $105.91 a barrel as of 00:30 GMT.

    US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude went up 72 cents, or 0.8 percent, to trade at $93.32.

    The gains came as lingering concerns over Middle East supply disruptions brought about by the US war on Iran outweighed signs of recovering crude exports from the region, Reuters reported.

Palestinian killed, children wounded in Israeli drone attack west of Gaza City

    We have reported that an Israeli drone attack hit a residential apartment in the Nassr neighbourhood west of Gaza City.

    Now, a source at Al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera that the attack killed one Palestinian and injured others, including children.

Mapping Israel’s 300 checkpoints: Where they are and how they work

    Israel has sealed off the occupied West Bank for a week, shutting its crossings and tightening restrictions on Palestinian movement, citing the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

    Defence Minister Israel Katz on Sunday ordered the closure on the military’s recommendation, and it will remain in place until Saturday.

    Palestinians already face severe restrictions on their movement due to hundreds of Israeli checkpoints and barriers across the occupied territory. Now, controls at checkpoints and barriers across the territory will tighten further, cutting off access to holy sites such as the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in the West Bank.

US will honour defence agreement with Saudi Arabia

By Tanya Noury

Reporting from Washington DC, US

    US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

    A readout has not yet been released from either side, but we know that the agenda for those face-to-face talks were broader security discussions, including closer Gulf defence coordination and maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz.

    The meeting comes shortly after the US military’s top commander for the Middle East, Admiral Brad Cooper, made a visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this month to discuss Saudi Arabia’s security situation and fight against the Houthis.

    A senior administration official tells me that the US military will honour its defence agreement with Saudi Arabia if needed, emphasising that the US will live up to their commitments.

Israeli drone strike targets apartment west of Gaza City

    An Israeli attack using drones has targeted a residential apartment in the al-Nasr neighbourhood west of Gaza City, according to medical sources at the al-Shifa Hospital.

    Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed children with severe injuries being treated by medics following the attack.