Category Archives: Iran

US and Iran launch fresh strikes amid stalled ceasefire talks

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US military says it struck tanker and sites on Iran’s Qeshm Island and defended Kuwait and Bahrain from missile attacks

The US and Iran have exchanged fresh missiles and drone strikes, further jeopardising efforts by Washington to secure a new ceasefire agreement with Tehran.

US forces fired a Hellfire missile to disable a tanker attempting to break through the American blockade of the strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, and later said they repelled Iranian reprisal attacks in the region and attacked sites on Iran’s Qeshm Island.

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Israel strikes southern Lebanon despite Trump’s effort to shore up ceasefire

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Warplanes carry out dozens of airstrikes and Israeli army issues evacuation warning for city of Nabatiyeh

Israeli warplanes have launched dozens of strikes across southern Lebanon despite a new agreement supposedly brokered by Donald Trump aiming to bolster the tattered ceasefire in Lebanon.

The US president said on Monday that he had stopped an imminent Israeli strike on Beirut and that he had spoken to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and representatives of Hezbollah and both agreed that “all shooting will stop”.

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Could Trump’s Iran ‘excursion’ be a bigger global turning point than Vietnam?

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The far shorter Middle East war has rapidly revealed the strategic weakness of US firepower in an interconnected world

In a 1965 speech justifying the war in Vietnam, Lyndon B Johnson argued that the goal was to ensure “every country can shape its own destiny” since only in such a world could the US secure its own freedom. However, he also admitted “such were infirmities of man that force must often precede reason, and the waste of war, the works of peace”.

It was the kind of elegant justification of the country’s moral mission to which successive US presidential speechwriters have turned at times of war.

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Looming Iran peace deal shows how Trump’s maximalist goals have shrunk

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Sobering reality for president after three-month odyssey that threatens to take him back to where he started

After the hubristic beginnings came the reality.

The road travelled since the most momentous foreign policy decision of his presidency seems to have delivered Donald Trump to a sobering destination: that Iran has been the nemesis of several US presidents before him for a reason and is an adversary not to be taken lightly.

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US ‘more than capable’ of resuming war against Iran, Pete Hegseth says

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Pentagon chief also tells Singapore defence summit of ‘alarm’ at China’s military buildup but says US does not seek ‘needless confrontation’

The US warned on Saturday it was “more than capable” of resuming war with Iran after President Donald Trump said any peace deal must adhere to his red lines, including Tehran never being able to develop nuclear weapons.

The White House had signalled Trump was close to a decision on an initial deal on Friday after weeks of mixed signals in tenuous negotiations, though Tehran denied there was a final agreement on ending the Middle East conflict that has jolted the global economy.

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A broken economy and an emboldened regime: Iranians abandoned to endure fallout from war

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Some Iranians hoped foreign intervention would unseat the regime but instead the US-Israel war has damaged livelihoods and strengthened those in power

As Donald Trump swung this week between threats of new military action against Iran and predictions that a lasting ceasefire deal was imminent, many Iranians were left exhausted and gripped by uncertainty.

Despite the partial lifting of an internet shutdown that began when the war started on 28 February, fears of worsening repression at home have also fuelled pessimism about the future among some of those to whom the Guardian spoke.

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Donald Trump shares draft Iran peace agreement with Israel and other allies

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US president’s move comes as both sides try to prevent fresh ceasefire breaches scuppering a potential deal

Donald Trump has circulated a draft peace agreement for the war with Iran among allies including Israel as both sides try to prevent fresh breaches of the ceasefire escalating out of control and scuppering any deal.

In an attempt to speed up the negotiations, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Mohammad Ishaq Dar, will fly to Washington on Friday to meet his US counterpart, Marco Rubio.

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‘This isn’t freedom’: anger, anxiety and tears as Iran’s internet flickers back

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After 88 days of near-total blackout, first reactions to the return of partial connectivity were not celebratory

After 88 days of near-total internet blackout in Iran, long-delayed messages, images and poems flooded phones and social media feeds at about 5pm on Tuesday, when still-limited connectivity flickered back to life.

The first reactions, however, were not celebratory. Many new posts were threaded with scepticism, anxiety and anger.

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Israel launches more than 120 airstrikes against Lebanon in a day

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One of heaviest days of bombing in weeks complicates peace talks as Israel targets sites linked to Hezbollah

Israel launched more than 120 airstrikes against Lebanon on Tuesday in one of the heaviest days of bombing in weeks, as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his military was escalating its offensive against Hezbollah.

A ceasefire brokered by the US last month between Israel and the militant Islamist movement now appears close to total collapse, complicating negotiations to bring a definitive end to the war with Iran.

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Iran remains in peace talks despite ‘bad faith’ US bombings of Iranian targets

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Tehran condemns ‘definitive violation’ but announces no specific reprisals as negotiations near decisive stage

A proposed peace agreement between Iran and the US seemed to remain on the table on Tuesday despite US bombings of Iranian targets.

The Iranian foreign ministry denounced the US attack – aimed at missile launchers and efforts to lay fresh mines in the strait of Hormuz – as “an act of bad faith” and “a definitive violation of the ceasefire” and said it would not leave aggression unanswered. But it did not pull out of the talks that were continuing under the joint mediation of Pakistan and Qatar.

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Iran’s access to global internet starts to resume after 88-day blackout

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End of shutdown comes despite interim court order questioning authority of body overseeing the move

Iran’s access to the global internet slowly restarted on Tuesday, ending a record 88-day blackout that has contributed to thousands of Iranians losing their jobs and provided cover for the Iranian security services to mount a large-scale wartime crackdown.

The resumption came despite an interim administrative court order questioning the authority of the body overseeing the move, called the “special headquarters for leading the country’s cyberspace”. The body had been set up by the president, Masoud Pezeshkian, a week ago.

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Middle East crisis live: US attacks Iran missile sites as Tehran negotiators hold talks in Qatar

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US Central Command claims targets also included boats trying to lay mines, rattling ceasefire, while Iranians meet with Qatari prime minister in Doha

Welcome to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

US forces attacked missile sites in southern Iran and boats trying to lay mines on Monday, US Central Command said, as top Iranian negotiators arrived in Doha for talks to end the war.

Trump said the enriched uranium held by Iran could be destroyed inside the country, in a process overseen by an international nuclear agency. Experts said his announcement could amount to a major concession to Tehran.

Trump also said any deal to end the war with Iran should require certain countries in the region – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan – to sign up to the Abraham accords. The agreements aimed at normalising relations with Israel were brokered by the US during Trump’s first term.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “crush” Hezbollah in Lebanon, dealing another blow to hopes for a US-Iran deal. Tehran has demanded that any peace accord apply to the fighting in Lebanon as well.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi praised Hezbollah for the Tehran-backed militant group’s ongoing resistance in Lebanon against Israel.

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US strikes Iran missile sites and mine laying vessels as Trump’s promised peace deal remains elusive

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Negotiators from Iran travelled to Qatar on Monday, with the fate of the country’s nuclear programme and access to frozen assets under discussion

The US has launched strikes on southern Iran in a test of the seven-week long ceasefire, as both sides played down hopes for an imminent peace deal even as negotiators from Tehran began new talks in Qatar.

US forces targeted missile launch sites and boats attempting to lay mines, US central command (Centcom) said on Tuesday, but stressed that the strikes did not indicate the ceasefire with Iran was over.

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President Sheinbaum allows Iran team to stay in Mexico during World Cup after US refusal

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Fifa approached Mexico after US declined to host Iran squad despite it playing group games in the United States

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said on Monday her government agreed to allow the Iranian national football team to stay in Mexico during the World Cup, adding that the US did not want to host the team.

The team will still play its group stage matches in the US but its base has been moved to Tijuana, Mexico, just south of San Diego, California, a move that Iran’s football federation announced recently and that was formally confirmed by Fifa, the sport’s governing body, on Monday.

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Iran denies deal with US is imminent despite some progress

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Tehran says ‘contradictory statements’ from US and Israeli interference hindering negotiations

Iran has poured cold water on suggestions that a deal with the US is imminent, pointing to the confusion in US positions and Israeli interference as key factors in why a complete agreement is proving difficult to secure.

Speaking at the weekly foreign ministry press briefing, Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s negotiating team, also said future management of the strait of Hormuz was a matter for Oman and Iran to reach agreement on, and that it was not tolls that were being proposed but “fees for navigational services”.

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Opposition divided: battle among Iranian regime’s opponents plays out on London streets

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Supporters of Reza Pahlavi, exiled son of the late shah, are clashing with those who oppose a return of monarchy

Wearing a bucket hat, a blue Adidas hoodie and khaki shorts, Tony Mohraz, also known as 021kid, chest-bumps a friend in front of a memorial wall in Golders Green, in north London.

Photographs can be seen behind him of those who were killed protesting against the Iranian regime. As a large lion and sun flag used in Iran before the Islamic revolution is waved overhead, Mohraz starts to rap.

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Trump says he does not make bad deals, but even Republican hawks doubt that now

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The US has apparently had to agree to unfreeze billions of Iranian assets for a regime more hardline than before the war

On 24 May each year, Iranians celebrate a historic victory in the war with Iraq: the liberation of Khorramshahr in 1982.

This year, some were hoping a peace deal looking likely to be signed with the US might mark a similar turning point in their country’s history.

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Republican hawks warn of ‘disastrous mistake’ as Trump nears deal with Iran

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Trump insists US won’t rush talks with Tehran after rebukes from Republicans, including Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham

Republican hawks have issued a rare rebuke of Donald Trump over his planned peace deal with Iran, describing it as a “disaster” and questioning why the US president launched the war in the first place.

Allies of Trump who strongly backed his controversial decision to order war on Iran alongside Israel urged him to “hold the line” this weekend, despite mounting economic costs and no sign of progress on many of the the initial objectives set out by his administration.

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US and Iran inch closer to peace deal as Trump faces criticism from GOP hawks

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American president says he is not rushing into a deal after proposed plan to end war prompts Republican backlash

Donald Trump defended himself against criticism from fellow Republicans on Sunday as he appeared on the verge of agreeing a deal with Iran to end the war.

As hawks in his party called the proposed agreement a disaster and questioned why the US president had launched the conflict in the first place, Trump claimed on social media that his deal would be “THE EXACT OPPOSITE” of the one agreed by Barack Obama, which Trump pulled out of in 2018.

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What may be included in proposed Iran ceasefire deal?

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Proposed framework hinges on a 60-day truce, reopening strait of Hormuz, and revived talks on limiting Iran nuclear programme

• Middle East crisis: live updates

Donald Trump has said a “memorandum of understanding” in talks to end the US-Israel war on Iran “has been largely negotiated”.

Official details of the deal remain scant and it remains possible some aspects of the memo could change, but here is what we know so far about the potential agreement that could bring an end to the war.

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