US denies Iranian claim it fired warning shots at destroyers in Gulf of Oman
Iran ex-PM hospitalised after years under house arrest
Stephen Marr
Iran's former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was the focus of a 2009 mass protest movement and has spent the last 15 years under house arrest, has been hospitalised after his health deteriorated, an advisor said on Friday.
Mousavi, the last person to serve as Iran's premier before the post was abolished, had claimed to be the rightful victor of the disputed 2009 presidential elections.
Most recently, he urged Iran's clerical leadership to step down because of its deadly crackdown on protesters in January in which many thousands were killed.
Mousavi advisor Ardeshir Amir Arjomand said: "He suffered a health crisis and was transferred to a hospital."
Arjomand said Mousavi's condition had been affected by being moved to a new location when his previous residence in central Tehran was damaged in the US-Israeli strike on February 28 that killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Mousavi, 84, and his wife Zahra Rahnavard, 80, also under house arrest since 2011, had been living close to Khamenei's offices.
- AFP
Iranian footballers granted US visas for World Cup
Stephen Marr
Iran's football squad have been granted visas to play in the World Cup, US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack confirmed in a message on X.
He said: "Proud of our outstanding team at the US Embassy in Ankara for their work processing visas for Iran's national football team on their road to the FIFA World Cup in the United States.
"Sports transcends borders, and we look forward to welcoming competitors and fans from around the world."
The Iranian team is due to fly from Turkey to Spain today before travelling on to their base camp in Mexico, which has issued visas to the squad.
The team will be based in Mexico during the tournament in North America, but all three of their group stage matches are due to be held in the United States.
- AFP
Lebanon says Israeli strike kills 5 including woman, paramedic
Stephen Marr
Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike in the south killed five people including a woman and an emergency worker, condemning "the targeting of paramedics carrying out rescue operations".
A ministry statement said: "The Israeli enemy strike on the town of Zebdine in the Nabatieh district killed five people including a woman, and a paramedic from the Risala Association, and wounded two people including a paramedic."
-AFP
Lebanon tells Iran it's 'not your job to interfere in our country'
Stephen Marr
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Iran not to interfere in his country in an interview broadcast on Friday, also telling the Tehran-backed Hezbollah that diplomacy was the only solution to the conflict with Israel.
He said of Iran: "It's not your country, it's our country... It's not your job to interfere into our country. They are using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiation with the United States. It's unacceptable."
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war with rocket fire at Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing days earlier of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes. Israel responded with massive strikes and a ground invasion.
Aoun added: "Hezbollah must understand that [there is] no other way but to sit and talk, no other way to solve this problem and to save what's left except through negotiation and diplomacy.
"The majority of the Lebanese people are fed up with war."
Israel "can flatten the whole country, but they will never be able to achieve their objective," he said, adding: "They've tried it in Gaza. Hamas still exists."
Aoun said that "we have a great opportunity to end the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel."
- AFP
Stephen Marr
It's missiles and not diplomacy that is forcing Trump to make concessions, claims Iranian negotiator
Stephen Marr
Iran’s chief negotiator said the Islamic Republic’s missile threat was motivating US President Donald Trump to make concessions in the ongoing peace process.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said: “We gain concessions not through talk, but through missiles - in talks we just enforce them.”
He expressed scepticism about any agreement, saying: “We have no trust in guarantees and words, only actions are the measure. No action will be taken before the other side acts.
“The winner of any agreement is someone who is better prepared for war the day after it.”
The statement, posted on X in Persian, reveals a fundamental paradox in Iran’s negotiating position.
By telling Iranians that concessions came from military strength rather than from weakness in negotiations, Ghalibaf may be preparing public opinion for an imminent agreement that hardliners might otherwise reject as capitulation.
- The Telegraph
President Trump's approval rating circles the drain
Stephen Marr
Only 35% of the American public approve of the job US President Donald Trump is doing, the latest survey from The Economist and YouGov reveals.
The survey places Trump’s net approval rating at -25, down 1.1 points in a week - making him the most unpopular president since the magazine began polling in 2009.
A total of 60% disapprove and the remaining 5% are unsure.
The outlet attributed the fall to the war on Iran and his mishandling of the US economy.
- The Telegraph
Stephen Marr
Iranian-American journalist jailed in Tehran begs for US help
Stephen Marr
An Iranian-American journalist in a notorious Tehran prison has called on Washington to provide medical help for him and other US detainees, CBS News reported.
Reza Valizadeh, who holds both Iranian and US citizenship and worked for US-funded Persian-language Radio Farda, was sentenced to 10 years for collaborating with a hostile government, according to his lawyer.
Valizadeh said in a recorded message that he and three other Americans held at Tehran's Evin prison were sick and being denied medical treatment.
AFP was not able to verify the authenticity of the recording. CBS News said the recording was recent and had been made after Iranian authorities loosened wartime communication restrictions last week.
- AFP
Middle East war is pushing millions towards hunger, warns UN
Stephen Marr
The conflict in the Middle East is pushing millions of people globally closer to hunger, with rising fuel and transport costs having an impact on food prices, the United Nationals World Food Programme said.
Funding shortfalls have also forced aid agencies to reduce assistance to desperate people.
In March, the programme forecast as many as 45 million people could fall into acute food insecurity if oil prices remained around $100 per barrel through June.
That scenario was now unfolding, the agency said, with benchmark crude prices staying above that level since early March.
The statement came as the UN more than doubled its aid appeal for Lebanon.
It said US$640 million ($1.1 billion) was needed over six months as the country reeled from repeated Israeli attacks.
UN humanitarian agency OCHA said: “The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon is severe and deteriorating.
“Repeated displacements, insufficient shelter capacity and limited prospects for safe return are deepening vulnerability.”
The agency warned “affected people are rapidly exhausting their coping capacities, and essential services are under increasing strain”.
Nearly one million people have been displaced while more than 1.2 million are facing acute food insecurity.
- The Telegraph
Hezbollah ally says group will withdraw from south Lebanon if full truce reached
Stephen Marr
Lebanese parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri said on Friday that the Iran-backed group would withdraw from the area south of Lebanon's Litani River if Israel pulled out and a comprehensive ceasefire was reached.
Berri, who acts as Hezbollah's mediator, said in a statement: "I agree to... Hezbollah's withdrawal from south of the Litani River in parallel with an Israeli withdrawal from the areas it occupies [and that there is] a complete and comprehensive ceasefire without conditions."
- AFP
Israel continues to strike Lebanon despite US-brokered ceasefire
Stephen Marr
Israeli air strikes killed seven people in the ancient Lebanese city of Tyre, despite Donald Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) continued to attack southern Lebanon overnight, killing four people and wounding seven in a strike near Jabal Amel hospital. A separate strike on a residential area killed three more people and wounded five, including two children.
The military also issued fresh evacuation warnings for nine towns and villages in the south.
Israel also struck a Lebanese town that had until now been spared from attacks.
Anqoun was sheltering around 2,500 people who had been displaced from Israeli bombing in other parts of Lebanon.
- The Telegraph
The US military has rejected Iran’s claim that it fired warning shots at American warships, saying it would have been a serious breach of the fragile ceasefire between the two countries.
US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said in a post on X: “Iranian forces did not attack or fire at US Navy warships. Doing so would be a gross violation of the ceasefire.”
Earlier Iran’s military said it had fired “warning missiles” at two US destroyers in the Gulf of Oman, forcing the vessels to leave the area.
It said the two destroyers left the Gulf of Oman “following the firing of warning missiles” by Iranian forces, according to a statement carried by state news agency IRNA.
The operation was in response to “maritime misconduct and harassment, as well as the hijacking of commercial vessels and oil tankers by the terrorist naval forces of the United States,” the military said.
US Central Command said its forces “continue to operate freely in regional waters” and were enforcing the US counterblockade on Iranian ports.
It is the latest episode to shake a ceasefire announced on April 8 that has largely halted hostilities between Iran and the United States as well as Israel after the outbreak of war on February 28, when allied forces targeted Iran.
Efforts to end the war through direct and mediated talks have so far failed.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Washington was “no longer conducting sustained strikes” against Iran as Operation Epic Fury, the US name for its attacks on Iran, was over.
He added that the United States had destroyed what Iran “had left of an air force” in addition to “wiping out their entire conventional navy”.
- AFP