International

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. ...

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was sworn in as president on Friday, AFP journalists saw, continuing his rule from a civilian post five years after snatching power in a military coup. “I will dedicate myself to the service of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar,” said Min Aung Hlaing, reading aloud the presidential oath at a parliamentary ceremony ...

Israel and Lebanon will hold talks next week in Washington after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered direct talks, a US official said Thursday. “We can confirm that the Department will host a meeting next week to discuss ongoing ceasefire negotiations with Israel and Lebanon,” a State Department official said, confirming an earlier account from a source familiar with the diplomatic ...

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan held a phone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, the Saudi foreign ministry said Thursday, in the first official contact between the countries since Tehran launched strikes against its Gulf neighbours in retaliation for Israeli-American attacks. “The call focused on reviewing developments in the situation and ways to slow the pace of ...

The United Nations secretary-general on Wednesday warned that deadly Israeli strikes on Lebanon posed a “grave risk” to the fragile US-Iran truce, his spokesperson said in a statement. “The ongoing military activity in Lebanon poses a grave risk to the ceasefire and the efforts toward a lasting and comprehensive peace in the region. The Secretary-General reiterates his call to all ...

Speaking in Budapest, Vice President JD Vance said the United States had tools “that we so far haven’t decided to use” against Iran, without explaining further. The White House later denied Vance was alluding to nuclear weapons, while Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to AFP that “only the President knows where things stand and what he will ...

The US military has paused its strikes on Iran after President Donald Trump announced he has agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Tehran in a last-minute offramp, allowing him to delay his threat to obliterate Iran’s power grid and bridges. Trump said the proposal, extended by Pakistan, would include opening the Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of ...

More than 14 million Iranians have said they are ready to give their lives to defend the country in the war against the United States and Israel, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X on Tuesday. “Over 14 million proud Iranians have, up to this moment, declared their readiness to sacrifice their lives in defense of Iran,” he wrote. “I, ...