War in the Middle East: latest developments

Iran reportedly delivered, via Pakistan, its response to the latest US proposal for extend
AFP

Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

Iran sends response

Iran has sent its response to a US proposal to end the war in the region via Pakistan, Iranian state media reported.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran sent today (Sunday) through Pakistani mediators its response to the latest text proposed by the United States to end the war,” the official IRNA news agency said, without offering details.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “We will never bow down to the enemy, and if there is talk of dialogue or negotiation, it does not mean surrender or retreat.”

Iran warns UK, France over warships

Iran warned Britain and France that its armed forces would launch “a decisive and immediate response” if they sent warships to the Strait of Hormuz.

London and Paris have both dispatched vessels to the region, as part of international efforts to secure the strategic waterway after a peace deal between the United States and the Islamic republic.

Drone attacks

Drones were launched at several targets in the Gulf on Sunday, with one hitting a freighter sailing towards Qatar from Abu Dhabi.

Qatar’s defence ministry said a small fire was sparked on the commercial vessel but there were no casualties.

Kuwait’s military said it repelled a dawn drone attack.

Iran’s ‘pressure card’

Qatar’s prime minister told Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi in a phone call that using the Strait of Hormuz as a “pressure card” will only deepen the Middle East crisis, the Qatari foreign ministry said.

Israeli PM says war ‘not over’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran’s stockpile of uranium must be “taken out” before the US-Israeli war against Iran can be considered over.

“It’s not over because there’s still nuclear material — enriched uranium — that has to be taken out of Iran. There’s still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled,” the Israeli leader told CBS’s “60 Minutes” programme.

Trump says Iran ‘militarily defeated’

US President Donald Trump said it would only take two weeks to hit “every single target” in Iran, and described the Islamic republic as “militarily defeated”.

“In their own minds, maybe they don’t know that,” he said in an interview with independent journalist Sharyl Attkisson. “But I think they do.”

Israeli forces operated from Iraq

Israeli forces established a makeshift base using an old airstrip in Iraq early in the war against Iran, two security officials told AFP, confirming a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Troops set up at the facility that dates back to the time of Saddam Hussein in the Najaf desert, one official said. Forces are no longer there, they added.

Paramedics killed

Lebanon’s health ministry said two paramedics from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee were killed and five others wounded in Israeli strikes on the country’s south despite a ceasefire.

‘Unidentified aircraft’ hit ship

South Korea said that one of its cargo vessels damaged days ago in the Strait of Hormuz was hit by “two unidentified aircraft” and analysis was being conducted on engine debris and fragments to determine the origin of the attack.

Iran denied responsibility for the May 4 attack. Trump at the time said Iran had “taken some shots” at the cargo vessel.

Iran threatens US sites

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened to target US sites in the Middle East and “enemy ships” if its tankers come under fire, Iranian media reported.

“Any attack on Iranian tankers and commercial vessels will result in a heavy attack on one of the American centres in the region and enemy ships,” it said, a day after US attacks against two Iranian tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

Rubio meets Qatari leader

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met the leader of ally Qatar to discuss “security across the Middle East”, the State Department said.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.