Category Archives: Lebanon

Defence secretary reveals UK navy foiled secret Russian submarine operation in North Sea – UK politics live

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John Healey says navy forced Russia to abandon activity in month-long operation

In interviews this morning Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, declined to confirm reports that a Russian warship has been escorting two sanctioned Russian ships through the English channel.

Sanctioned Russian ships carry oil being sold to fund the war in Ukraine, and the UK government recently announced that the armed forces have been authorised to board these ships in British waters to stop them.

What I can tell you is that we have given permission now for action to be taken against the Russian shadow fleet. Operational decisions then have to be taken in the right way by the military.

There are indications of the way in which not just the Russian shadow fleet is operating, but also the way in which we are seeing increased Russian threats, not just to the UK, but across Europe as well.

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Lebanon must be included in US-Iran ceasefire deal, Yvette Cooper to say

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Foreign secretary to address City leaders in London as Israel intensifies bombing and Vance says Lebanon is not part of deal

Lebanon must be included in the ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran, the British foreign secretary is to say, as a two-week pause in the conflict hangs in the balance.

Addressing an event at the Mansion House in London, Yvette Cooper is expected to say there “must be no return to conflict” after the ceasefire announced by the US president, Donald Trump, late on Tuesday.

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US rescues second crew member of downed F-15E fighter jet from Iran

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Trump gives further details on rescue and threatens to bomb infrastructure if strait of Hormuz is not reopened

The second crew member of a downed F-15E fighter jet has been rescued from an Iranian mountain by US commandos overnight, ending a two-day search after the warplane crashed in south-west Iran.

The crew member, a colonel and weapons systems officer, had been wounded but was successfully rescued from a mountain hideout by US special forces, Donald Trump first announced in a social media post soon after midnight.

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Israel vows to occupy swathes of southern Lebanon to expand buffer zone

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Defence minister outlines plans to destroy all homes and villages in area ‘in accordance with the model in Gaza’

Israel says it will occupy swathes of south Lebanon and destroy the homes along the border to prevent the return of about 600,000 residents, prompting concerns of long-term forced displacement.

The defence minister, Israel Katz, said that when fighting with Hezbollah ended, Israel would occupy the area under the Litani River, about 19 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border, as part of its so-called buffer zone inside southern Lebanon.

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Middle East crisis live: oil spill warning after tanker attacked in Dubai; explosions in Tehran and Jerusalem amid wave of attacks

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Kuwait says fire broke out after Iranian attack on giant tanker and warns of possible oil spill in surrounding waters

Japan and Indonesia have agreed to step up coordination on energy security, Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi said on Tuesday.

“In light of the Iran situation, the strategic importance of resources and energy security is once again being recognized globally. Indonesia is a major resource-rich nation,” Takaichi said alongside Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto after they met for talks in Tokyo.

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Funeral held for three journalists killed by Israeli strike in Lebanon

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Lebanese government calls the killings a ‘blatant war crime’ while Israel says primary target was a Hezbollah ‘terrorist’

A funeral has taken place in Lebanon for three journalists killed by an Israeli strike on Saturday, after the Lebanese government called the killings a “blatant war crime”.

Ali Shoeib, of the Hezbollah-owned al-Manar television station, and Fatima Ftouni and her brother and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, of the pro-Hezbollah outlet al-Mayadeen, were killed in the strike targeting their car.

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Iran rejects US ceasefire plan and submits its own amid push for talks

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Tehran puts forward five-point counter-proposal and says war will end when it decides and on its terms

Iran dismissed a US ceasefire proposal on Wednesday and countered with a negotiation plan of its own as intermediaries sought to keep diplomatic channels between the warring countries open.

Iranian state TV quoted an anonymous official as saying Tehran had rejected the plan it had received via Pakistan, saying it would “end the war when it decides to do so and when its own conditions are met”, and until then would continue fighting across the region.

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Israel used white phosphorus to scorch earth in south Lebanon, researcher says

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Human Rights Watch and others say they have documented use of weapon in civilian areas during war on Gaza

When the M825-series 155mm artillery projectile bursts, expelling its felt wedges containing white phosphorus, it leaves a distinctive knuckle-shaped plume. That is how Human Rights Watch (HRW) researchers said they were able to verify that Israel was again using the notorious weapon over south Lebanon, reigniting accusations that it is breaking the laws of war.

The New York-based rights group said it had verified and geolocated eight images showing airburst white phosphorus munitions exploding over residential areas in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor in the opening days of Israel’s assault during the war on Gaza.

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Middle East crisis live: Starmer calls emergency meeting on UK economy; IEA open to releasing more oil stocks

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British PM to chair Monday meeting including chancellor and Bank of England head on fallout from Iran war; International Energy Agency chief says it will release more stockpiled oil ‘if necessary’

British prime minister Keir Starmer is set to chair an emergency meeting on the economic fallout from the war in Iran on Monday, with chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves and Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey also attending, the UK government has said.

Financial markets face another turbulent week after Iran said it would strike its Gulf neighbours’ energy and water systems if Donald Trump followed through on his threat to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if it doesn’t fully open up the crucial strait of Hormuz.

Topics expected to be covered are the economic impact of the crisis on families and businesses, energy security and the resilience of industry and supply chains alongside the international response.

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Middle East crisis live: Trump considering ‘winding down’ war as US eases sanctions on Iranian oil; Israel launches retaliatory strikes

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Move to allow shipments already at sea comes amid a supply crisis and after US president says he does not ‘want to do a ceasefire’; IDF says it is attacking regime targets in Tehran after missiles fired at Israel from Iran

Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran and its repercussions for the Middle East, the world and the global economy.

President Donald Trump said on Friday he was considering “winding down” military operations against Iran, as the US temporarily eased sanctions on Iranian oil shipments to stem a global supply crisis.

Iran is willing to help Japanese ships sail a vital route for global fuel supplies, foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told Kyodo News in an interview published on Saturday. Japan depends on crude oil imports from the Middle East, most of which transits the strait of Hormuz.

Iran fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia but neither of them hit the joint US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, the Wall Street Journal and CNN reported, citing multiple US officials. The WSJ said one of the missiles failed in flight, and a US warship fired an SM-3 interceptor at the other. Neither outlet confirmed when Iran launched the missiles.

One person was killed and two others wounded after an Israeli airstrike hit a house in a town in southern Lebanon early on Saturday, state media said.

Trump continued to make his disappointment with the British government known, saying the UK “should have acted a lot faster” in allowing the US military to use its bases in the Middle East.

Earlier, Downing Street approved US use of its bases “for the collective self-defence of the region”, including “defensive operations” degrading Iranian missile sites targeting ships in the strait of Hormuz. Britain had previously only allowed US forces to use its bases for operations to prevent Iran firing missiles that put British interests or lives at risk.

Araghchi said UK prime minister Keir Starmer “is putting British lives in danger by allowing UK bases to be used for aggression against Iran”.

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Israel strikes Iran’s South Pars gasfield hours after forces kill intelligence minister

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Death confirmed of Esmail Khatib, the third senior Iranian figure killed in 24 hours, as Israel also launches intense airstrikes on Lebanon

Israel struck Iran’s giant South Pars gasfield on Wednesday, marking a major escalation of the war, hours after Israeli forces killed the regime’s intelligence minister and launched some of the most intense airstrikes in Beirut for decades.

The attack on the Pars site in the Persian Gulf, which Iran shares with Qatar and constitutes the world’s largest natural gasfield, prompted Tehran to warn neighbouring states that their energy infrastructure could be targeted “within hours”, and triggered furious rebukes from Qatar and other nations in the region.

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Zelenskyy says Europe is a ‘global force’ that can stand against any other power in address to MPs – as it happened

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Keir Starmer previously reassured that the war in Iran would not distract the UK from supporting Ukraine

Nigel Farage is speaking now at the Reform UK event.

The website promoting the lottery is up. It is called nigelcutmybills.com.

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US not ready to seek deal to end war with Iran, Donald Trump says

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Tehran wants ceasefire but terms ‘not good enough yet’, US president claims, as both sides launch new waves of strikes

Donald Trump has warned he is not ready to seek a deal to end the US-Israeli offensive against Iran, saying that though he thought Tehran was keen to negotiate a ceasefire, the US would fight on for better terms.

Trump’s comments came as Iran launched fresh missile and drone attacks on countries in the Gulf and on Israel, and Israeli and US warplanes launched new waves of strikes on Iran.

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Middle East crisis live: Trump ‘surprised’ Iran has targeted Gulf countries and claims US ‘decimated’ Kharg Island

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US president said he did not want to make a deal with Iran yet, while claiming that he might hit Kharg Island again ‘just for fun’

The Trump administration’s communications licensing tsar fired a warning shot over the US broadcasting industry Saturday, threatening to cancel the spectrum permits of broadcasters pushing what he termed “hoaxes and news distortions”.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr posted on social media that broadcasters running “fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

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Israeli strike kills 12 healthcare workers in southern Lebanon

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The facility was attacked on Friday night, bringing the toll of medical staff to 31 killed in past 12 days

Israel killed 12 medical workers in a strike on a medical centre in south Lebanon on Friday night, bringing the toll of healthcare staff killed in the country by Israel to 31 over the past 12 days.

A primary healthcare facility in the town of Burj Qalaouiyah was hit by an Israeli strike late on Friday, setting it ablaze and causing the structure to collapse on top of the staff inside. The strike killed doctors, paramedics and nurses on duty, according to the Lebanese ministry of health, which said it “violated all international humanitarian laws” in a statement.

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The escalation trap: how the Iran war could become more costly and complex

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Iran is trying to create wedges between Gulf states and the US, but Trump is very comfortable on the ‘escalatory ladder’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

In its current phase, the Israeli-US war against Iran and its proxies has become a proving ground for two competing concepts of military escalation, each of which threatens to become a trap.

On one side, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have failed thus far in their ill-defined and shifting strategic aims. Despite killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and other key leaders in the opening salvo of the campaign, the clerical regime remains and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is unsecured. Airstrikes are intensifying and hitting a greater number of targets.

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Suspect in Michigan synagogue attack had lost family in Israeli strike on Lebanon

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Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, who was born in Lebanon and became a naturalized US citizen, lost two brothers, a niece and a nephew in the airstrike

The armed suspect who drove a vehicle into the hallway of a large Michigan synagogue complex that includes a school had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon just last week, an official said on Friday.

A potential mass-casualty event was averted when security guards already in place at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township on the outskirts of Detroit killed the driver before any harm could come to the synagogue’s staff, teachers and 140 children at the early childhood center there on Thursday afternoon.

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Middle East crisis live: Iran steps up campaign to disrupt energy markets as oil price spikes above $100 a barrel

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Iran has set ablaze two tankers in Iraqi waters as it increased attacks on oil and transport facilities across the Middle East

An Iranian source is denying the country will allow India-flagged tankers to pass through the vital strait of Hormuz, Reuters is reporting.

The news agency a little earlier quoted an Indian source as saying Iran would in fact allow such tankers to pass through the strait, a key artery for global oil trade.

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Middle East crisis live: Iran steps up campaign to disrupt energy markets as oil price spikes above $100 a barrel

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Iran has set ablaze two tankers in Iraqi waters as it increased attacks on oil and transport facilities across the Middle East

An Iranian source is denying the country will allow India-flagged tankers to pass through the vital strait of Hormuz, Reuters is reporting.

The news agency a little earlier quoted an Indian source as saying Iran would in fact allow such tankers to pass through the strait, a key artery for global oil trade.

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Trump says Iran war is ‘very complete, pretty much’ as economic toll rises

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President reassures Republicans that conflict is intended to be short lived but also says ‘we haven’t won enough’

Donald Trump has said that the war in Iran is “very complete, pretty much”, as the economic toll of the joint US-Israeli operation has risen, disrupting global oil trade and threatening to engulf the Middle East in a regional war.

Trump made the comments before a speech and press conference in Florida where he sought to emphasise that the US military campaign would be ending soon amid concerns from Republican allies that the US was being dragged into another long-term conflict in the region.

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