Tensions across the Middle East are intensifying, with Iran dismissing U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims of peace talks while reporting attacks on energy facilities, Saudi Arabia intercepting a wave of drones, and Israel escalating strikes on Lebanon.
Regional states, including Kuwait and Bahrain, also faced drone and missile incursions, underscoring the widening scope of the conflict.
Latest updates:
- Iranian news outlets and officials continued to pour cold water on claims by US President Donald Trump that he was in peace talks with Tehran.
- Iran reported attacks on energy-related facilities in the country’s Isfahan and Khorramshahr regions.
- Saudi Arabia intercepted a wave of more than 20 drones in the eastern part of the country during several hours of incursions overnight, while Kuwait responded to drone and missile attacks, and alarm sirens were activated in Bahrain.
- Israel has escalated its attacks on Lebanon, with at least two people reported killed and five injured in a strike on a town south of the capital, Beirut.
- New travel warnings are in place as China again urged its citizens to leave Israel “as soon as possible”, and the US Embassy in Mauritania warned of an elevated risk of “terrorist attacks”.
- South Korea is the latest country to appeal to Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as the South Korean prime minister cancelled a trip to China to focus on the war’s economic fallout at home.
- A top European oil executive said the effect of the Iran war on global energy markets could surpass the Ukraine war, while the price of Brent crude oil rebounded to more than $100 a barrel. (Newswire/ Al Jazeera)