International

The US military began a blockade of Iran’s ports on Monday, President Donald Trump said, and Tehran threatened to retaliate against its Gulf neighbors’ ports after weekend talks in Islamabad on ending the war broke down. A US official said there was continued engagement with Iran, and forward motion on trying to get to an agreement. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz ...

A chorus of top-ranking Iranian officials threatened retaliation. Mohsen Rezaeiilitary adviser and a former Revolutionary Guard Commander, wrote on X that the country’s armed forces had “major untouched levers” to counter a Hormuz blockade. He said Iran would not be coerced by “tweets and imaginary plans.” Iranian parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who led Iran’s side in the talks, addressed ...

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who was part of peace talks with the United States this weekend, said on Sunday that Washington was “unable” to win Tehran’s trust during the discussions. “My colleagues in the Iranian delegation… put forward constructive initiatives but ultimately the other side was unable to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation in this round ...

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar insisted on Sunday Washington and Tehran must uphold a ceasefire agreement, after marathon talks between the two sides to end the war in the Middle East ended without an agreement. “It is imperative that the parties continue to uphold their commitment to ceasefire,” said Ishaq Dar, whose government hosted the talks and acted as a ...

Iraqi lawmakers elected Nizar Amedi as the country’s new president on Saturday, following political disputes that delayed the vote and the formation of the next government. Amedi now has 15 days to appoint a prime minister, who is expected to be former head of government Nouri al-Maliki, despite US concerns over the choice in previous weeks. The election came against ...

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said on Friday that 13 state security personnel were killed in an ⁠Israeli strike on ⁠a governmental building in the southern city ⁠of Nabatieh. In a statement, Aoun condemned continued Israeli attacks and said targeting state institutions would not ⁠deter ⁠Lebanon from defending its sovereignty. Meanwhile, Iran-backed Hezbollah fired around 30 projectiles from Lebanon into Israel ...

More than 100,000 Muslim worshippers performed Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem, the holy site’s Islamic authority reported, after it reopened the previous day following a truce agreed between the United States and Iran. Jerusalem’s Old City is home to major holy sites for all three Abrahamic religions, which had been shuttered since the start of the ...

Lebanon has signaled its willingness to engage in direct negotiations with Israel as early as next week, provided a comprehensive ceasefire is established beforehand, a senior official from the Lebanese presidency confirmed. The announcement, first reported by the BBC, marks a significant potential shift in diplomatic engagement between the two neighboring nations, who are technically in a state of conflict ...

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned ships to keep to a route passing through its territorial waters when crossing the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz as traffic on Thursday remained well below 10% of normal volumes. Mitsui OSK Lines, one of Japan’s big three shipping firms, is among those caught up in the confusion as firms try to work out ...

US First Lady Melania Trump made a surprise statement on Thursday denying any knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, or that she herself was a victim of the convicted sex offender. The 55-year-old’s rare on-camera remarks at the White House came out of the blue, in an extraordinary intervention in a scandal that has long haunted her husband President Donald Trump. ...