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Middle East

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on Tuesday confirmed the deaths of its chief, Ali Larijani, and Basij commander Gholamreza Soleimani, after Israel said they were killed in airstrikes.

All you need to know about Day 18 of US-Israeli war on Iran

LONDON: US President Donald Trump said the historical relationship between his country and Britain was &quot;not like it used to be&quot;, in an interview to British daily newspaper The Sun, amid a major transatlantic fall out over US-Israeli strikes against Iran. &quot;This was the most solid relationship of all. And now we have very strong relationships with other countries in Europe,&quot; he said, singling out France and Germany, after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer&#39;s initial refusal to allow the United States to use British military bases in its war with Iran. Trump said Starmer &quot;has not been helpful&quot;, adding: &quot;I never thought I&#39;d see that. I never thought I&#39;d see that from the UK. We love the UK.&quot; In a telephone interview from the White House on Monday evening, Trump said: &ldquo;This was the most solid relationship of all. And now we have very strong relationships with other countries in &nbsp;Europe.&rdquo; &quot;It&#39;s a different world, actually. It&#39;s just a much different kind of relationship that we&rsquo;ve had with your country before. &quot;It&rsquo;s very sad to see that the relationship is obviously not what it was,&quot; he added. The scathing comments come a day after Trump described Starmer&#39;s reaction as &quot;very disappointing&rdquo; in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. He added that Starmer&rsquo;s later decision to allow the use of UK bases on specific grounds as &quot;useful&quot; but said it &quot;took far too much time&quot;. Any potential military action in the Middle East is politically sensitive in the UK following former prime minister Tony Blair&#39;s disastrous support for the US-led invasion of Iraq. &#39;National interest&#39;&nbsp; Starmer defended his position to parliament on Monday. &quot;President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the initial strikes, but it is my duty to judge what is in Britain&#39;s national interest,&quot; he told lawmakers. &quot;That is what I have done and I stand by it,&quot; he added. After initially refusing to have any role in the strikes, Starmer on Sunday announced that he had agreed to a US request to use British military bases for a &quot;specific and limited defensive purpose&quot;. His Downing Street office said Starmer took the decision after Iran fired missiles over the weekend that put British interests and people &quot;at risk&quot;. &quot;We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learnt those lessons. Any UK actions must always have a lawful basis and a viable thought-through plan,&quot; he added in parliament. The prime minister also said that British military bases in Cyprus &quot;are not being used by US bombers&quot; during the US-Israeli war with Iran. Britain&#39;s Akrotiri air force base on Cyprus came under attack by an unmanned Iranian drone that hit the base&#39;s runway early on Monday. Starmer said the strike &quot;was not in response to any decision that we have taken,&quot; adding that the British government believed the drone &quot;was launched prior to our announcement&quot;. Iran&#39;s approach is becoming &quot;more reckless and more dangerous&quot;, Starmer said. &quot;They are working ruthlessly and deliberately through a plan to strike, not only military targets, but also economic targets in the region, with no regard for civilian casualties. That is the situation we face today and to which we must respond,&quot; he added.

Americas

United Kingdom

Trump told The Sun the US-UK relationship is “not like it used to be,” criticizing PM Keir Starmer for denying Cyprus base access in the Iran war, while praising ties with France and Germany.

Trump says US-UK relationship 'not like it used to be'

PARIS: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been Iran&#39;s hardline spiritual guide and top political authority since 1989, when he succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader. Here is a look at his life in key dates: - July 17, 1939: Khamenei is born in the shrine city of Mashhad to parents from Iran&#39;s Azeri minority. - 1957: Meets Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who will emerge as a key influence. - 1977: After several stays in prison due to his opposition to the shah, he is exiled to Iranshahr, a remote desert city close to the Pakistan border. He returns to Mashhad in 1979 for the Islamic Revolution. - 1979: His rapid ascent to power begins when he is named deputy defence minister and subsequently head of the elite Revolutionary Guards by Khomeini. - 1981: Becomes the first cleric to be elected president of the Islamic republic. Re-elected in 1985. - June 27, 1981: Survives a bomb attack by the outlawed People&#39;s Mujahedeen group in a Tehran mosque, but his right hand is never the same. Learns to write with his left. - June 4, 1989: Upon the death of Khomeini, he is elected supreme leader just a year after the end of the war with Iraq (1980-1988). - January 2005: Confirms the &quot;death sentence&quot; fatwa handed down on writer Salman Rushdie by Khomeini. - September 8, 2014: Undergoes prostate surgery after two decades of speculation about his health. - July 14, 2015: Supports the Vienna accord with world powers on Iran&#39;s nuclear programme. - January 17, 2020: Leads Friday prayers in Tehran for the first time since 2012. Uses the occasion to condemn anti-government protests. - October 3, 2022: Blames the United States and Israel for fomenting the widespread nationwide unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini. - June 13-24, 2025: Going into hiding during the 12-day war with Israel, which the United States briefly joins, but emerges from the conflict unscathed. - January 17, 2026: Says &quot;Iran must break the back of the seditionists&quot; as the clerical authorities brutally repress the biggest protests against the Islamic republic in more than three years. - February 28, 2026: Killed in the wave of strikes launched by the United States and Israel.

Important dates in the life of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei

Iran's supreme leader Khamenei in dates

Vienna: The United Nations&#39; nuclear agency will hold an extraordinary meeting on Iran on Monday in the wake of the US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic, aimed in part at Tehran&#39;s atomic programme. In a statement late on Saturday, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the meeting was at the request of Russia, a key ally of Tehran. Iran had made the same request in a letter to IAEA chief Rafael Grossi on Saturday following the strikes, which led to the death of Iran&#39;s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. As a result, the agency will hold a &quot;special session of the IAEA Board of Governors on matters related to military strikes of the United States and Israel against the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran&quot;, the IAEA said in a statement. That extraordinary meeting will precede an already scheduled session of the board, which represents 35 countries. Following the strikes, the &nbsp;IAEA said it was &quot;closely monitoring developments in the Middle East, and urges restraint to avoid any nuclear safety risks to people in the region&quot;. The UN nuclear watchdog had also stressed on Friday the &quot;utmost urgency&quot; of its request to verify all nuclear material in Iran, according to a confidential report seen by AFP. Western countries led by the United States and Israel, Iran&#39;s arch-enemy, accuse the Islamic republic of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. Tehran denies having such military ambitions, but insists on its right to this technology for civilian purposes.

IAEA will convene an extraordinary Board of Governors meeting Monday, requested by Russia and Iran, after US-Israeli strikes on Iran, The agency urged restraint and reiterated urgency to verify Iran’s nuclear material.

UN nuclear agency to hold extraordinary meeting on Iran Monday

Paris: Countries in the Middle East and around the world voiced fear of a regional conflagration after the United States and Israel carried out long-feared strikes on Iran on Saturday. Russia: Talks a &#39;cover&#39;&nbsp;Russia called on its citizens to leave Iran, with former president Dmitry Medvedev saying that talks with the United States had just been a &quot;cover&quot;. &quot;The peacekeeper is at it again,&quot; Medvedev, now the chair of Russia&#39;s security council, said in a post on X. &quot;The talks with Iran were just a cover. Everyone knew that. So who has more patience to wait for the enemy&#39;s sorry end now?&quot; he added. Qatar: &#39;secure&#39;&nbsp;Qatar, which hosts a US military base, initially said it was secure after the US and Israeli attacks on neighbouring Iran but was monitoring developments closely. An official later told AFP that Qatari defence systems had intercepted an Iranian missile, and the defence ministry said it had repelled &quot;a number of attacks&quot;. EU: &#39;perilous&#39;&nbsp;The European Union warned the situation in the region was &quot;perilous&quot; and called for civilians to be protected in any ensuing conflict. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, on X, urged &quot;all parties to exercise restraint&quot;, stressing it was &quot;critical&quot; to &quot;ensure nuclear safety&quot; after the US indicated Iran&#39;s nuclear sites were in its crosshairs. EU&#39;s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, who said the situation was dangerous, announcing the withdrawal of the bloc&#39;s non-essential personnel from the region. UK: avoid &#39;wider conflict&#39;&nbsp;The UK government feared the strikes could blow up into a broader Middle East conflict, and urged its citizens in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE to find shelter. &quot;We do not want to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict,&quot; a government spokesperson said, adding that the UK&#39;s &quot;immediate priority&quot; was the safety of its citizens in the region. Shah&#39;s son: &#39;final victory&#39; near&nbsp;Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran&#39;s last shah and a leading critic of Tehran, said that &quot;we are very close to final victory&quot; following the strikes. &quot;I want to be by your side as soon as possible so that together we can take back and rebuild Iran,&quot; Pahlavi -- who lives in exile in the Washington area -- said in a message to Iranians. Jordan: protect skiesJordan&#39;s military said its air force was at work on Saturday to protect the kingdom and its people while the strikes were ongoing. A military official later said that two ballistic missiles targeting the kingdom&#39;s territory &quot;were successfully intercepted by Jordanian air defence systems&quot;. Ukraine: Iran at fault&nbsp;Ukraine argued that the Iranian government&#39;s &quot;violence against its own people and other countries&quot; had triggered the US and Israeli attacks against Tehran. &quot;The reason for the current events is precisely the violence and arbitrariness of the Iranian regime, in particular the murders and repressions against peaceful protesters, which have become particularly large-scale in recent months,&quot; the foreign ministry said in a statement. France: safety a priority&nbsp;France, which has several military bases in the Middle East, notably in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, said that Paris&#39;s priority was the safety of its citizens. &quot;Obviously our priority in these sort of cases is the protection of our nationals, the protection of our forces in the region and the monitoring of the situation in real time, which we are doing,&quot; Alice Rufo, a deputy defence minister, told France 2 television. African Union: stability at risk&nbsp;The African Union called &quot;for restraint, urgent de-escalation and sustained dialogue&quot; after the strikes, warning that conflict could risk harming people on the continent. &quot;Further escalation risks worsening global instability, with serious implications for energy markets, food security, and economic resilience -- particularly in Africa, where conflict and economic pressures remain acute,&quot; said the pan-African body&#39;s head, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf.

Countries across the World have voiced serious concerns over a regional conflict after US and Israel carried out strikes on Iran

World warns against Mideast war as US, Israel strike Iran

LONDON: The UK government expressed the fear Saturday that the military strikes pitting the United States and Israel against Iran could blow up into a broader Middle East conflict. &quot;We do not want to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict,&quot; a government spokesperson said. They said that the UK&#39;s &quot;immediate priority&quot; was the safety of its citizens in the region. The spokesperson also said that the UK has &quot;a range of defensive capabilities in the region, which we have recently bolstered. We stand ready to protect our interests.&quot; A government source noted, however, that Britain was not involved in the US and Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was understood to be chairing an emergency meeting of his key cabinet ministers during the day. Separately, the British government, in a message on X, urged its citizens in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and United Arab Emirates to &quot;immediately shelter in place&quot; because of reported missile attacks on sites in those countries.

UK PM Keir Starmer said that Britain was not involved in the US-Israel attack on Iran and that it stands to protect its interests in the region.

UK fears US-Iran conflict spiralling into Mideast war

GAZA CITY: Gaza&#39;s civil defence ministry said Israeli strikes killed at least five people on Friday. Violence has continued in the Palestinian territory despite a US-brokered truce that entered its second phase last month, with Israel and Hamas trading accusations of violating the agreement. The civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authorities, told AFP that an air strike in the early hours of Friday morning killed at least two people and seriously injured one in central Gaza. A drone strike in the south of the strip shortly after midnight killed three and injured several more people, the agency added. Under the terms of the ceasefire, which took effect on October 10, Israeli troops withdrew to positions behind a so-called &quot;Yellow Line&quot;, though they remain in control of more than half of the territory. Gaza&#39;s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authorities, has previously said at least 601 people had been killed since the truce began. The Israeli military says at least four of its soldiers have been killed in the same period. Media restrictions and limited access in Gaza have prevented AFP from independently verifying casualty figures or freely covering the fighting.

A minimum of 5 Palestinians were killed by the IDF according to Gaza's civil defence

Gaza civil defence says Israeli strikes kill at least 5

BEIRUT: Attacks carried out by Israel on Friday in eastern Lebanon killed eight members of Hezbollah, an official from the group told AFP on Saturday. Lebanon&#39;s health ministry said Friday that a total of 10 people were killed in strikes that hit the eastern Bekaa region. The Israeli military said it targeted &quot;several terrorists of Hezbollah&#39;s missile array in three different command centres in the Baalbek area&quot;.

Israel killed eight members of Hezbollah in a strike on Lebanon's Baalbek area on Friday

Eight Hezbollah members killed in Israel's Friday strikes: Official to AFP

GENEVA: Russian and Ukrainian negotiators will meet Tuesday in Geneva for fresh US-brokered talks seeking to end the four-year war, hours after both sides launched a fresh wave of long-range strikes. US President Donald Trump is seeking to position himself as peacemaker of the conflict unleashed when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but previous rounds of talks mediated by the White House have yielded no breakthroughs. Before the meetings began Ukraine accused Russia of undermining peace efforts by launching 29 missiles and 396 drones in attacks that authorities said killed one, wounded others and cut power to tens of thousands. &quot;The extent to which Russia disregards peace efforts: a massive missile and drone strike against Ukraine right before the next round of talks in Geneva,&quot; Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on social media. He repeated Ukraine&#39;s call for allies to exert greater pressure on Russia to negotiate in good faith by applying more sanctions on Moscow. The talks, which the Kremlin said will be held behind closed doors and with no media present, come after two earlier rounds held this year in Abu Dhabi. &quot;Ukraine better come to the table, fast,&quot; Trump told reporters ahead of the negotiations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his team had already arrived in Geneva on Monday, while a source with the Russian delegation confirmed Tuesday that their team had touched down in the Swiss city in the early hours. Russia meanwhile claimed to have repelled more than 150 Ukrainian drones mainly over southern regions and Crimean peninsula, occupied by the Kremlin in 2014. Officials said an oil depot in southern Russia caught fire. &nbsp;Sticking points&nbsp; The war has spiralled into Europe&#39;s deadliest conflict since World War II, with hundreds of thousands killed, millions forced to flee their homes in Ukraine and much of the eastern and southern part of the country scarred by war. Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukraine -- including the Crimean peninsula it seized in 2014 -- and areas that Moscow-backed separatists had taken prior to the 2022 invasion. It wants Ukrainian troops to withdraw from swathes of heavily fortified and strategic territory as part of any peace deal. Kyiv has rejected this deeply unpopular demand, which would be politically and militarily fraught, and has instead demanded robust security guarantees from the west before agreeing to any proposals with Russia. Russia&#39;s better-resourced army has been making steady gains across the sprawling front line in the eastern and southern Ukraine in recent months. But Ukrainian forces have recently made significant battlefield gains, recapturing 201 square kilometres (78 square miles) last week, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War. The counterattacks likely leveraged Russian forces&#39; lack of access to Starlink, which has disrupted communications, the ISW said. The territorial gain is concentrated mainly around 80 kilometres east of the city of Zaporizhzhia, a region that Moscow claims is part of Russia, and where its troops have made significant progress since last summer. The centrally located region hosts Europe&#39;s largest nuclear power plant, which Russia currently controls -- another sticking point in negotiations. For the talks in Geneva, the Kremlin has reinstated nationalist hawk and former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky as its lead negotiator. &quot;This time, we plan to discuss a broader set of issues, focusing on key ones related to the territories and other demands,&quot; a spokesperson for President Vladimir Putin told reporters, including AFP, explaining the personnel change. Kyiv&#39;s team will be led by national security chief Rustem Umerov, while the White House is expected to dispatch Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump&#39;s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Europe

Negotiating teams from Russia and Ukraine are set to meet in Geneva, Switzerland, in an effort to bring an end to the four-year long war between their countries.

Moscow, Kyiv meet for US-brokered talks after fresh attacks

KYIV: Ukraine said on Tuesday that Russia was undermining peace efforts by launching dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones ahead of talks in Geneva aimed at ending Russia&#39;s four-year invasion. &quot;The extent to which Russia disregards peace efforts: a massive missile and drone strike against Ukraine right before the next round of talks in Geneva,&quot; Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on social media. The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 29 missiles and 396 drones in attacks that local officials said targeted critical infrastructure.

The Ukranian FM has lamented Russia's attack ahead of peace talks

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