Al Jazeera

By Enes Abuomer and Kristina Harazim

•     US President Donald Trump says there is “positive momentum” towards ending the war on Iran after talks with Qatar’s prime minister and top mediator, and that a resumption of strikes is “quite unlikely”, declaring the conflict “effectively over”.
•     Oil prices have fallen sharply on renewed hopes for diplomatic talks aimed at ending the US-Israel war on Iran, easing inflation concerns and helping fuel a broad rally on Wall Street.
•     Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has met Trump and US Vice President JD Vance in Washington, DC, citing “positive discussions on reaching a deal and bringing peace to the region”.
•     Iran’s top security official Mohsen Rezaei has called on the US to “surrender” to its seven conditions, accusing Washington of spreading “fake news” about “imaginary talks”.

Germany condemns cyberattacks on France blamed on Iran

    Germany’s Foreign Office has condemned cyberattacks on French supermarkets that Paris blamed on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

    “We have repeatedly asked Iran to stop its destabilizing behavior. Such attacks are unacceptable,” the Foreign Office said on X.

    The statement came after French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot accused the IRGC of carrying out cyberattacks on supermarket refrigeration systems on October 11 and 12.

    The attacks affected hundreds of supermarkets, causing refrigerators to heat up and forcing retailers to discard perishable food.

Yemeni rights group says 33 killed in Houthi attacks on Taiz

    The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms says at least 33 civilians have been killed and 58 others wounded in attacks it blamed on the Houthis in Yemen’s Taiz governorate over the past 73 hours.

    In a report released on Monday, the organisation said it documented 133 violations against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including 216 projectiles having been fired at residential areas.

    The organisation also blamed the Houthis for an attack on al-Hadara market in al-Waziiya district on Friday, which it said killed about 30 people, wounded 45 others and damaged 13 homes.

    However, the Houthis blamed Saudi air strikes for the market attack, while authorities aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government accused the Houthis. The competing claims have not been independently verified.

    The rights group also reported the abduction of six civilians, raids on 12 homes and damage to civilian vehicles and medical facilities.

    It warned that continued shelling, restrictions on movement and shortages of food, fuel and medicine were worsening humanitarian conditions in Taiz. It called for independent investigations into attacks on civilians.

Trump says renewed attack on Iran could be ‘five times bigger’

    Trump says a renewed US attack on Iran could be five times larger than previous strikes, but Gulf countries favour maintaining the current military approach rather than escalating the war.

    In a phone interview with C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Primetime, Trump also claimed Iran wanted to reach an agreement with Washington.

    Here are his key remarks:

•     “We won Venezuela, and we won Iran. We wiped out their Navy, we wiped out their Air Force, we wiped out everything – their anti-aircraft; we wiped out their leaders.”
•     “They want to make a deal. They don’t say that, you know, publicly.”
•     “We may have to hit Pickaxe Mountain if they’re going to do something there. We don’t see that.”
•     “The bottom line is we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon, because they’d use it.”
•     “In speaking with Qatar – as you know, the prime minister was in the Oval Office today – in speaking to Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait … they’d rather do it this way rather than another hit, which would be approximately five times bigger than the first hit.”

Saudi-led coalition destroys drone in kingdom’s east

    The Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted and destroyed a drone in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern province.

    Coalition spokesman Major-General Turki al-Maliki made the announcement on X on Tuesday. He did not specify who launched the drone or exactly where it was intercepted.

    The Houthis have attacked the Eastern province, the kingdom’s economic powerhouse, multiple times in the past few weeks.

    The region contains the ⁠majority of Saudi Arabia’s oil ⁠and gas ⁠reserves and is home to oil giant Saudi Aramco’s headquarters, ‌which suffered extensive damage in an October attack.

What are Iran’s 7 conditions to end the war

    As diplomatic efforts to end the US-Israel war on Iran gather pace, Tehran continues to demand that Washington meet its seven conditions before peace talks can begin.

    Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei told Al Jazeera that these conditions include:

• An end to military and hostile actions on all fronts, especially in Lebanon
• The release of Iranian frozen funds that run into billions of US dollars
• An end to the US’s naval blockade on Iranian ports
• An end to US interference in Iran’s internal affairs
•     An end to US cooperation with “the opponents of our revolution”
• An end to all US attacks on Iranian territory
• An end to economic sanctions

Trump calls on US Congress to stand up for Hegseth amid impeachment push

    US President Donald Trump has called on Congress to support US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after outgoing Republican US Representative Thomas Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against him.

    In a Truth Social post, Trump called Massie “a total loser” who “is trying to Impeach perhaps the most popular and successful military official in the Country”.

    Trump said under Hegseth, military recruitment was at an “all-time high” and that he had achieved “two victories in Venezuela and Iran”.

    “Pete Hegseth should be praised, not Impeached,” he said.

Can new US task force stop weapons reaching Iran

    A new US military task force aimed at disrupting weapons shipments to Iran is unlikely to seal the country’s borders without cooperation from its neighbours, analysts have told Al Jazeera, warning that the operation could also risk expanding the war.

    US Central Command announced Task Force Iron Gate on Sunday, saying it would target the movement of advanced weapons, dual-use technologies and sanctioned materials across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea.

    US President Donald Trump claimed the initiative, alongside the US naval blockade, had virtually cut Iran off from the outside world.

    But Andreas Krieg, an associate professor at King’s College London, said the small unit would largely operate as an intelligence coordination centre rather than physically policing Iran’s borders.

    “Twenty people cannot police thousands of kilometres of frontiers,” he told Al Jazeera.

    Other analysts questioned the task force’s effectiveness without US access to the Caspian Sea or troops on the ground.

Iran’s call for US ‘surrender’ casts doubt on ceasefire prospects

By Kimberly Halkett

Reporting from Washington, DC

    It’s clear from Mohsen Rezaei’s call for Washington to “surrender” to Iran’s seven conditions that Iran believes it has come out on top.

    But whether or not the United States will surrender – very interesting word choice – is up to the commander-in-chief, US President Donald Trump. And after having covered him for both of his terms, I can tell you that word alone will prick his back and send shivers up his spine.

    There’s no way that he would surrender.

    And so what I can tell you is that while the US president believes there is hope, in real time we’re watching this back and forth between the United States and the Iranians, and it’s clear that with each passing moment, a breakthrough may appear less likely.