US-Iran war highlights: Pakistan minister in Tehran for talks, Israeli strike kills 3 Lebanese soldiers

US-Iran war LIVE: Bahrain on Saturday said it had intercepted three missiles and several drones launched from Iran, according to a statement from its army, Reuters news agency reported.

US-Iran war LIVE: Pakistan's interior minister will be travelling to Tehran on Saturday. The minister had last month made a visit to Tehran. Islamabad is acting as a mediator between US and Iran, with negotiations still underway to reach an understanding on ending the conflict.

US-Iran war LIVE: Iran's deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said UN nuclear watchdog IAEA should avoid turning technical reports into “tools of political pressure” if it wants to be a part of the diplomatic solution, Reuters news agency reported.

He said that the loss of the agency's oversight at some facilities resulted from the attacks rather than a lack of cooperation by Iran.

The Kuwaiti Civil Aviation Directorate has said that air traffic has resumed after it was temporarily suspended following Iranian attacks.

Earlier, the Kuwaiti airspace was temporarily closed as a precautionary measure, and 11 flights operated by Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways were diverted to nearby airports, the directorate said in a statement.

A brigadier general of the Lebanese armed forces has been killed by Israeli fire, even though the Lebanese military is supposed to be working alongside the Israelis to disarm Hezbollah in the south and implement a ceasefire agreement that includes the redeployment of Lebanese Armed Forces in these areas, Al Jazeera reported.

Igor Sechin, CEO of Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft, has said that China is best prepared for a closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to its well-thought-out state policy.

China’s energy security policy has been balanced and based on a realistic assessment of risks, Sechin said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman has responded to Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in a post written in Arabic, using Lebanese dialect to accuse him of political betrayal after Aoun said Tehran uses Lebanon as a bargaining chip with Washington.

In a message on X, spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei wrote: “He sells the one standing next to him and buys the one standing against him. He leaves the one who supported him and follows the one who choked him.”

Lebanon should sever diplomatic relations with Iran after its foreign minister crossed “all boundaries of diplomatic rudeness” by criticising the Lebanese president, a Lebanese member of parliament said.

Elie Mahfoud, head of Lebanon’s Forces of Change parliamentary bloc, said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had overstepped “the position of the Presidency, which represents the sovereignty of the Lebanese state and the dignity of its people,” by criticising Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun.

“Once again, Iranian officials insist on addressing the Lebanese with a guardian and ruler mindset, as if Lebanon were a province subordinate to Tehran rather than an independent state with sovereignty and free decision-making,” Mahfoud said in a post on X.

Mahfoud called “to sever relations with any state that opposes Lebanon or treats it with superiority and disdain or violates its right to be a free and independent sovereign.”

Israeli military vehicles infiltrated the Golan Heights overnight and arrested a Syrian citizen from a farm near the village of Saida in the southern countryside of Quneitra, Syria’s state news agency SANA has reported.

The agency said an Israeli force of four vehicles entered the Abu Madhara farm west of Saida after midnight, raided a house, and took the unidentified citizen into occupied territory. No reason for the arrest was given.

In a separate incursion early Saturday, another four-vehicle Israeli force entered the village of Al-Usha, also in the southern Quneitra countryside, and searched several homes before withdrawing, SANA said.

The Israeli military has issued a new round of forced displacement orders for the residents of Armati, Mashgara, Kafr Huna, Sajad and Ansariya in southern Lebanon.

In a post on X, the Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, instructed residents of the villages and towns to leave immediately and move north of the Zahrani River.

Bahrain has condemned Iran’s launch of seven ballistic missiles towards its territory and that of Kuwait early on Saturday, calling it a flagrant violation of sovereignty and a threat to Gulf security.

In a Foreign Ministry statement, Bahrain said the missiles were successfully intercepted and praised the vigilance of its armed forces and those of Kuwait.

It accused Iran of breaching UN Security Council Resolution 2817 (2026), which condemned Iranian attacks and any efforts to close the Strait of Hormuz or disrupt international navigation.

Bahrain also called on Iran to immediately cease what it described as unjustified attacks, fully open the Strait of Hormuz without restrictions, disclose naval mine locations, and allow more than 20,000 stranded sailors to leave the region safely.

It added that its patience “does not imply weakness” and that defending its sovereignty was a red line, pledging to take all legitimate measures to protect its security.

In a major development in West Asia, a senior Iranian official has claimed Tehran's 'first' military victory in the Islamic Republic's 47-year-old history, while demanding the release of USD 24 billion worth of Iranian assets. Military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Mohsen Rezaei, has said that the US would "enter into a dark corridor" if fighting resumes.

The strategic assessment comes as the official asserts that the current battlefield situation has fundamentally altered Tehran's position in peace negotiations with the United States, presenting US President Donald Trump with a 'test of trust'.

"This is the first time Iran has emerged victorious in wars, while in previous wars Iran has always been defeated," Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, told CNN.

Israeli troops killed a seven-month-old Palestinian baby boy after firing at his parents’ vehicle in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was killed Friday evening, and his parents were wounded while driving in the Tel Rumeida area south of Hebron City, according to the ministry.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said the infant was critically wounded after being struck in the jaw by the same bullet that injured his mother. He later died of his injuries. His father, Fahd Abdul Aziz Abu Haikal, a lecturer at Bethlehem University, was shot in the hand. They were traveling from Bethlehem to visit family in Hebron when soldiers opened fire, the agency reported.

A senior Iranian Justice Ministry official warned that cooperation by some Iranians abroad with Israel and the United States could be treated as participation in or assistance with terrorism-related offenses.

Askar Jalalian, the ministry’s deputy for human rights, told the judiciary’s Mizan news agency that such cooperation “could amount to participation or assistance in assassination and financing terrorism.”

Amnesty International’s Agnes Callamard has called on Israel to release Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, following reports that he was moved to solitary confinement in Israel’s Nafha prison.

“Why oh why such cruelty?” Callamard said in a post on X.

“Why oh why those with the power to hold Israel authorities accountable for their cruelty failing over and over?” she asked.

“Dr Hussam Abu Safia should be with his loved ones, and caring for the many many people in need of his skills. The last place where he should be is solitary confinement,” she added.

US-Iran war LIVE: The US and Iran remained at loggerheads over any potential truce heading into the weekend, with the conflict nearing the 100-day mark and Tehran saying that it and Oman have sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.

Following skirmishes overnight between Hezbollah and Israel in southern Lebanon, Iran continued to insist on a ceasefire there before reaching a deal with the US. A military adviser to Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei told CNN that “the ball is in Trump’s court” when it comes to a deal, insisting on the unfreezing of $24 billion in assets.

President Donald Trump has insisted for months that Iran is near its breaking point. On Friday he told reporters that “We’re having great success with Iran,” adding that “they’re in no position to have a nuclear weapon.”

But the president, in an interview with NBC News during a trip to Wisconsin, conceded that Iran had some missile and drone capacity, despite moments earlier saying that the US had “totally destroyed” the country’s military capabilities and that it was “virtually decapitated.” He said Iran still has about 21-22% of their missiles remaining. (Bloomberg)

US-Iran war LIVE: The US military said it shot down Iranian ballistic missiles and drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf Arab allies on Friday, while striking some of the Islamic Republic's coastal surveillance radar sites in response, an exchange of fire that further frayed a shaky ceasefire with Tehran.

The exchange of strikes comes as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Iran to make a deal to end the conflict.

US Central Command said on social media Friday night that Iran fired seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain, with US forces intercepting six of the missiles and a seventh failing to reach its target. The military said there were no reports of harm to US personnel. (PTI)

Iran’s Fars news agency reports that the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has shared a sequence of events detailing the latest exchange of fire between US and Iranian forces:

According to the IRGC, the clashes began when four oil tankers “guided” by the US military “attempted to illegally exit the Strait of Hormuz”.

The IRGC says its navy issued a warning after which one of the “oil tankers was targeted and stopped, and the other offending vessels turned back”.

Shortly after, according to the IRGC, “American drones hit a telecommunications port in Qeshm and a port in Sirik with two projectiles.”

The IRGC retaliated by targeting two US air bases in Kuwait and the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain “in response”.

“We warn the aggressor and child-killing enemy that if these evils are repeated, a limited response will not suffice. You will be responsible for the consequences of the complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz to the export of oil and gas,” the IRGC said in a statement.

Expressing striking confidence in the trajectory of backchannel diplomacy, US President Donald Trump has voiced considerable optimism about ongoing deliberations with Tehran, asserting that the diplomatic track appears to be progressing favourably.

The positive assessment comes despite Iranian authorities recently characterising the high-stakes discussions as at a "deadlock".

Addressing a press pool on Friday upon his arrival in Wisconsin for a scheduled public event, Trump directly minimised the public friction, stating, "The situation with Iran seems to be going quite well."

Indonesia's central bank chief and finance minister on Saturday agreed to increase yields on Indonesian assets to attract portfolio inflows and support the rupiah, after the currency hit record lows in the past few weeks.

Southeast Asia's largest economy has been hit by heavy capital outflows this year, with the stock market plunging more than 30% and the rupiah sinking amid investor concerns over President Prabowo Subianto's big spending plans, even as fuel subsidies ballooned due to the Iran war.

Bank Indonesia and the finance ministry "will increase the attractiveness of yields" on Indonesian assets "so that portfolio inflows return" to the country, Governor Perry Warjiyo told a press conference at the parliament building.

Warjiyo did not provide any details on the plan. He took questions but didn't give any clearer answers.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged on Saturday Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who had criticised Tehran for interfering in his country, to save Lebanon from its "real foe".

"Based on Mr Aoun's comments, one would think it's Iran that has occupied 1/5 of Lebanon, displaced 1/4 of the Lebanese and is bombing his country on a daily basis... Save Lebanon from your real foe, Mr President," Araghchi wrote on X.

The US Defence Intelligence Agency raised its counterintelligence threat assessment for Israel to “critical,” NBC News reported on Friday, citing current and former US officials.

According to the report, the move reflects concerns within the Pentagon that Israeli intelligence services are seeking information on the Trump administration’s internal deliberations on the war with Iran and other Middle East issues.

Israel’s embassy in Washington rejected the report, calling it “completely false” and denying that it spies on US government officials. A White House official also disputed the account, NBC reported.

The Pentagon declined to comment. NBC said the reported assessment comes amid tensions between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war with Iran.

Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi indicated Donald Trump is not living ‘in the real world’, after the US president repeatedly suggested he is open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader.

The State of Palestine’s X account has welcomed the actions of Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar after she pushed back against the country’s new right-wing prime minister’s removal of a Palestinian flag from a government building in the capital, Ljubljana.

President Musar has announced that the Palestinian flag will now fly for a week outside the presidential palace and will then remain inside the building “as a reminder to all who visit my office”.

Al Jazeera Arabic reported that an Israeli bombardment targeted a tent sheltering forcibly displaced Palestinians in Gaza’s southern Khan Younis city, killing one person.

The attack overnight injured another person.