The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Iraq’s deputy oil minister, Ali Maarij Al-Bahadly, the US treasury department said on Thursday, accusing him of abusing “his position to facilitate the diversion of oil to be sold for the benefit of the Iranian regime and its proxy militias in Iraq”.
It also imposed sanctions on three senior leaders of Iran-aligned militias. “Treasury will not stand idly by as Iran’s military exploits Iraqi oil to fund terrorism against the United States and our partners,” treasury secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
Outrage as oil giants profit billions from war on Iran - podcast
Shell has made $6.9bn in profits since the US and Israel launched the war on Iran at the end of February, cashing in on soaring energy prices. The enormous profits have reignited calls for higher taxes on fossil fuel companies to fund support for those hardest hit by rising costs.
In today’s edition of The Latest podcast, Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s energy correspondent, Jillian Ambrose.
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The day so far
The US and Iran have offered conflicting messages over the state of negotiations to end the war, with Donald Trump signalling the talks were “very good” and a deal “very possible”. Iranian officials, however, have sought to dampen expectations, with state media reporting that Tehran is, at most, reviewing the US’s peace proposal and considering its response via Pakistani mediators.
Lebanon and Israel will hold a new round of talks on 14-15 May in Washington on seeking a peace deal, despite a new Israeli strike against Hezbollah, a US official said Thursday. “There will be talks between Lebanon and Israel Thursday and Friday next week in Washington,” a state department official said on condition of anonymity.
Next week’s talks will be the third between Israel and Lebanon, which had not spoken directly for decades and have no diplomatic relations. “There will be talks between Lebanon and Israel Thursday and Friday next week in Washington,” a US state department official said on condition of anonymity.
A Saudi source on Thursday rejected a US media report saying president Donald Trump announced a pause in an American military operation to guide stranded ships through the strait of Hormuz following an intervention by Riyadh. According to a report from US network NBC News, Trump’s u-turn came after Saudi Arabia – whose crown prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly talked directly to Trump – refused to allow US forces to use its airspace and bases for the Hormuz operation.
Around 1,500 ships and their crews are trapped in the Gulf due to the Iranian blockade in the strait of Hormuz, the secretary general of the UN’s International Maritime Organization said in Panama on Thursday. The war in the Middle East provoked reprisals from Tehran across the region and a shipping blockade in Hormuz, a crucial global trade route.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has spoken with his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, on the phone today, according to a statement posted on the former’s Telegram channel. As reported earlier, Iran said it was reviewing the US proposal to end the war and would convey its position to Pakistani mediators, while Islamabad has expressed hope that a deal could be reached soon.
The United Arab Emirates will form a committee to document Iran’s attacks during the Middle East war to support legal action, state media said Thursday, after earlier calling for reparations. Major landmarks including Dubai’s luxury Palm development, as well as airports and energy facilities, were among the sites hit in Iran’s retaliatory attacks on the Gulf.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers have transited the strait of Hormuz five times over the past two weeks, maritime tracking firm Kpler said on Thursday. That was up from just one between 1 March and 21 April, after the Middle East war largely halted traffic through the strategic waterway.
Iran is carrying out near-daily executions of prisoners in secrecy and, in some cases, refusing to hand the bodies of the dead to their families, according to rights groups and sources close to the relatives of the dead. Many families only learn of executions after they have been carried out, with some facing harassment and pressure not to speak publicly on the personal impact of the state killings, the sources said.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has held talks with Pope Leo at the Vatican. The US state department said in a statement quoted by AP that the pair discussed “efforts to achieve a durable peace in the Middle East,” which obviously are at the heart of the disagreement between Donald Trump and the pope.
The governor of Tehran, Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian, has announced that all ministries, government organisations and executive agencies in the Iranian capital will resume full operations from Saturday, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency. Government bodies “will operate with 100% staff attendance” from 9 May, Motamedian was quoted as saying, adding that activities in schools and universities will be announced by the education ministry.
The Israeli military said it would investigate after a soldier was photographed placing a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon. An image appearing to show an Israeli soldier with his arm around the statue and holding a cigarette up to the mouth of the figure was widely shared on social media yesterday.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has issued a video statement in response to the reported killing of a Hezbollah commander in Beirut. The Israeli military said this morning that it had killed the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in a strike in the Dahiyeh neighbourhood of southern Beirut yesterday, in the first attack on the Lebanese capital in nearly a month.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers have transited the strait of Hormuz five times over the past two weeks, maritime tracking firm Kpler said on Thursday.
That was up from just one between 1 March and 21 April, after the Middle East war largely halted traffic through the strategic waterway.
Normally in peacetime, 20% of global seaborne LNG passes through the strait of Hormuz.
“LNG operators have remained highly cautious about transiting the strait given the high value of the vessels and the relatively limited size of the global LNG fleet,” Laura Page, Kpler analyst told AFP.
The five crossings recorded since 22 April have involved four LNG tankers linked to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). All kept their transponders off as they navigated the strait.
Next week’s talks will be the third between Israel and Lebanon, which had not spoken directly for decades and have no diplomatic relations.
“There will be talks between Lebanon and Israel Thursday and Friday next week in Washington,” a US state department official said on condition of anonymity.
Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 2,700 people since 2 March, including dozens since a ceasefire was declared, according to Lebanese authorities.
Around 1,500 ships and their crews are trapped in the Gulf due to the Iranian blockade in the strait of Hormuz, the secretary general of the UN’s International Maritime Organization said in Panama on Thursday.
The war in the Middle East provoked reprisals from Tehran across the region and a shipping blockade in Hormuz, a crucial global trade route.
“Right now, we have approximately 20,000 crewmen and around 1,500 ships trapped,” Arsenio Dominquez told the Maritime Convention of the Americas.
Israel and Lebanon to hold talks in Washington next week, US says
Lebanon and Israel will hold a new round of talks on 14-15 May in Washington on seeking a peace deal, despite a new Israeli strike against Hezbollah, a US official said Thursday.
“There will be talks between Lebanon and Israel Thursday and Friday next week in Washington,” a state department official said on condition of anonymity.
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Riyadh 'did not block US operation in strait of Hormuz' – source
A Saudi source on Thursday rejected a US media report saying president Donald Trump announced a pause in an American military operation to guide stranded ships through the strait of Hormuz following an intervention by Riyadh.
According to a report from US network NBC News, Trump’s u-turn came after Saudi Arabia – whose crown prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly talked directly to Trump – refused to allow US forces to use its airspace and bases for the Hormuz operation.
“This isn’t true,” a source close to the Saudi government told AFP. The United States still has regular access to Saudi bases and airspace, the source added.
Updated
The United Arab Emirates will form a committee to document Iran’s attacks during the Middle East war to support legal action, state media said Thursday, after earlier calling for reparations.
Major landmarks including Dubai’s luxury Palm development, as well as airports and energy facilities, were among the sites hit in Iran’s retaliatory attacks on the Gulf.
The UAE bore the brunt of the attacks, having been targeted by more than 2,800 drones and missiles from the neighbouring country.
A new national committee has been tasked with “documenting and monitoring all incidents of attacks and military actions associated with the Iranian aggression”, the official WAM news agency said.
“The outcomes of the committee’s work will contribute to supporting the UAE’s legal efforts at both the national and international levels by preparing a comprehensive documentation file,” it added.
Iran foreign minister speaks with Pakistani counterpart in phone call
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has spoken with his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, on the phone today, according to a statement posted on the former’s Telegram channel.
As reported earlier, Iran said it was reviewing the US proposal to end the war and would convey its position to Pakistani mediators, while Islamabad has expressed hope that a deal could be reached soon.
The statement on Araghchi’s Telegram does not give much away on where the negotiations currently stand, but says:
In this consultation, the parties, while reviewing the latest developments and current trends in the region, emphasised the importance of continuing the path of dialogue and diplomacy, as well as expanding constructive cooperation among the countries of the region, in order to maintain stability and prevent the formation and escalation of tensions.
Iran conducting near-daily prisoner executions in secrecy, say rights groups
Iran is carrying out near-daily executions of prisoners in secrecy and, in some cases, refusing to hand the bodies of the dead to their families, according to rights groups and sources close to the relatives of the dead.
Many families only learn of executions after they have been carried out, with some facing harassment and pressure not to speak publicly on the personal impact of the state killings, the sources said.
In the latest reported surge, Iran has executed at least 24 people since March, with six executions carried out over two days, according to a Norway-based monitoring group, Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO).
The killings have raised fears for hundreds believed to be facing the death penalty over mass anti-government protests in January, as well as those held on espionage accusations during the war with the US and Israel.
In one message sent to the Guardian, a close family member of Saleh Mohammadi, a teenager and national wrestling champion executed in March, said the family had been facing “profound psychological trauma”.
“After our brother’s execution, individuals who support the government have repeatedly gathered in front of our home, chanting slogans and subjecting us to ongoing harassment and psychological pressure,” they said.
“These actions have multiplied our suffering and intensified our sense of insecurity,” they added. “I have nightmares every night.”
Read more here:
'Friendly and constructive' talks with Pope Leo on 'efforts to achieve ... peace in Middle East,' US says
Meanwhile, US secretary of state Marco Rubio has held talks with Pope Leo at the Vatican.
The US state department said in a statement quoted by AP that the pair discussed “efforts to achieve a durable peace in the Middle East,” which obviously are at the heart of the disagreement between Donald Trump and the pope.
The meeting showed “strong” relationship between the US and the Vatican, it added.
A US official further briefed reporters that the conversations were “friendly and constructive”, with AFP noting that Rubio – a devout Catholic who has sought to play down the rift – met both the pontiff and Vatican secretary of state (and de facto chief diplomat) Pietro Parolin.
For more on Rubio’s visit and other Europe related news, you can follow our Europe live blog here:
The governor of Tehran, Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian, has announced that all ministries, government organisations and executive agencies in the Iranian capital will resume full operations from Saturday, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.
Government bodies “will operate with 100% staff attendance” from 9 May, Motamedian was quoted as saying, adding that activities in schools and universities will be announced by the education ministry.
The report indicates some semblance of normal life is returning to Tehran, even as Donald Trump and Israeli officials warn of a return to conflict if Iran fails to accept a deal to end the war.
As reported by the Guardian’s Stefanie Glinski, many Iranians fear the war could return at any moment, but it hasn’t stopped some from carrying on with their lives, judging by the busy coffee shops, traffic on the roads and picnics in the parks.
You can read Stefanie’s report here:
Updated
The European Union is set to tell airlines the impact from the Iran war on tourism is not yet severe enough to justify emergency measures for the sector, draft EU guidelines seen by Reuters showed.
“The current situation does not point to the need for dedicated measures for the tourism sector, unlike during the COVID-19 crisis,” said the draft EU guidelines, which the European Commission is due to publish on Friday.
Israel’s state attorney’s office said an Israeli man suspected of violently pushing a nun to the ground in Jerusalem has been charged with assault motivated by religious hostility.
Yonah Shreiber, 36, was arrested a day after last Tuesday’s attack. CCTV footage shows the suspected attacker, wearing a Jewish kippah and ritual tassels, chase the nun from behind before pushing her to the ground. Then, while the nun was lying on the ground, he kicked her and began to attack a passerby who tried to intervene.
The attack was condemned by Christian clergy in Jerusalem and came amid a growing number of incidents of abuse, assault and intimidation against the Christian community by religious Jews in the walled Old City, home to sites holy to Christians, Muslims and Jews.
The Israeli military said it would investigate after a soldier was photographed placing a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon.
An image appearing to show an Israeli soldier with his arm around the statue and holding a cigarette up to the mouth of the figure was widely shared on social media yesterday.
Last month, an image of an Israeli soldier appearing to hit a statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer in southern Lebanon prompted widespread condemnation after it was shared online. The Israeli soldier carrying out the vandalism and another filming it were removed from combat duty and sentenced to 30 days in jail, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Netanyahu: Hezbollah commander killed in IDF strike 'probably thought he had immunity in Beirut'
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has issued a video statement in response to the reported killing of a Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
The Israeli military said this morning that it had killed the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in a strike in the Dahiyeh neighbourhood of southern Beirut yesterday, in the first attack on the Lebanese capital in nearly a month.
Hezbollah has yet to comment on the report.
In his video statement, Netanyahu said:
Last night, we eliminated Hezbollah’s Radwan force commander in the heart of Beirut. This is the same senior terrorist who led the plan to conquer the north.
He thought he could continue directing attacks on our forces and our communities from his hidden terrorist headquarters in Beirut. He probably read in the press that he had immunity in Beirut.
So he read - and it will no longer happen. In the past month, we eliminated more than 200 Hezbollah terrorists who acted against Israeli citizens and IDF soldiers.
We are doing the same thing in Gaza - eliminating terrorist cells, including yesterday.
I say to our enemies in the clearest possible way: No terrorist has immunity. Anyone who threatens the state of Israel - their blood is on their heads.
Thank you to our heroic fighters, to our intelligence personnel, to our air force. You are the best in the world. I salute you, the people of Israel salute you.
Iran president held lengthy talks with supreme leader - report
The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said he recently met with Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, according to state media.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported Pezeshkian held a meeting with Khamenei that lasted nearly two and a half hours, but it doesn’t mention in any great detail what they had discussed or when it took place. The report makes no mention of the US or its proposal to end the war.
Khamenei, who has the final say on all major decisions affecting Iran, including war, has not been seen in public since taking power after his father, Ali Khamenei, was killed in a US-Israeli strike on the first day of the conflict on 28 February. Apart from a few written statements broadcast on state media, there is little to no evidence showing how involved he is in day-to-day affairs.
Having largely vanished from public view, there has been intense speculation about his condition, with some reports suggesting he may be incapacitated. This has led to confusion over Iran’s chain of command, with rumours that the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is in control.
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Fertiliser shortages to have dramatic effect on food prices, says Duke of Westminster’s firm
Fertiliser shortages caused by the Iran war have driven up costs for UK farmers by up to 70% and will have a “dramatic” impact on food prices globally next year, according to one of Britain’s most powerful property and farming companies.
Mark Preston, executive trustee of the 349-year-old Grosvenor Group, controlled by the Duke of Westminster, said fertiliser “was already quite expensive” before the 50% to 70% surge in prices since the start of the Iran war in late February.
The effective closure of the strait of Hormuz – which Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Wednesday could soon reopen – has throttled global supplies of fertiliser, crucial to growing food crops.
Preston said that, although UK crops were unlikely to be affected this year as most fertiliser had already been used, the knock-on effect could arrive next year.
“Farmers are not buying that fertiliser, they’re sitting on their hands and hoping things will improve, which they probably won’t,” he said.
Read more here:
Here are the latest pictures from the Dahiyeh neighbourhood of southern Beirut, where rescue workers are searching through the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike yesterday. The Israeli military claims a Hezbollah commander was killed in the attack, the first in the Lebanese capital in nearly a month.
Pakistan hopeful US-Iran deal could be reached 'soon rather than later'
Pakistan, which has positioned itself as a key mediator in talks between the US and Iran, has continued to express optimism at a possible deal without offering any clues at to where the negotiations currently stand.
The Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, would not disclose details of the ongoing diplomatic efforts but said a deal could be reached soon.
“What I can tell you and this is what I have stated before that we remain positive, we remain optimist, and we hope the settlement will be soon rather than later,” he told a news briefing today.
While the first round of US-Iran talks took place in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on 11 April, Andrabi hinted a future deal could be agreed elsewhere.
“If it takes place in Islamabad, it would be an honour and a privilege to host it,” he said.
In televised remarks today, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said Islamabad remained in “continuous contact with Iran and the United States, day and night, to stop the war and extend the ceasefire”.
Updated
IDF claims to have killed commander of Hezbollah's Radwan force in Beirut strike
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has killed the commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan force, the most elite unit of the pro-Iran armed group, in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
In a statement, the IDF named the Radwan commander as Ahmed Ghalib Balut, saying he was killed in a strike in the Dahiyeh neighbourhood in southern Beirut.
Hezbollah has not immediately commented on the report.
Israel struck Beirut yesterday for the first time since a ceasefire took effect on 16 April. At least 11 other people were killed in strikes across the south and east, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Trump says deal with Iran is 'very possible' while Iran downplays reports of peace talks
Morning and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
The US and Iran have offered conflicting messages over the state of negotiations to end the war, with Donald Trump signalling the talks were “very good” and a deal “very possible”.
Iranian officials, however, have sought to dampen expectations, with state media reporting that Tehran is, at most, reviewing the US’s peace proposal and considering its response via Pakistani mediators. Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesperson of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, said the proposal to end the war was merely an “American wish list” and “not a reality”.
Still, the US president struck a positive tone last night while speaking to journalists about a possible deal, with a few threats sprinkled in.
“We’ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
“We’ll see whether or not they are agreeing. And if they don’t agree, they’ll end up agreeing shortly thereafter. That’s the way it is.”
In an interview with US broadcaster PBS, he said there was a “very good chance” of the war ending, adding: “If it doesn’t end, we have to go back to bombing the hell out of them.”
In other developments:
News of a possible deal followed Trump’s abrupt U-turn on a US military operation to guide ships out of the strait of Hormuz, dubbed “Project Freedom”. Trump said the decision to pause the mission on Tuesday – two days after it was launched – was to give peace a chance, but NBC reported that it was suspended after Saudi Arabia refused to allow the US military to use its bases and airspace to carry out the operation. US officials told the American broadcaster that Gulf allies were caught off guard by the sudden announcement of Project Freedom, and that it had angered the leadership in Saudi Arabia.
The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, told his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, that the US’s behaviour had “deviated the path of diplomacy towards threats, pressure and sanctions” and that Tehran could not trust Washington. In a statement carried by the Iranian state-run Press TV, Pezeshkian said Iran had entered into dialogue with the US twice and “on both occasions, military aggression against Iran took place concurrently with the negotiations. Such behaviour is effectively like ‘stabbing from behind’”.
Iran has denied any involvement in damage to a South Korean-operated vessel in the strait of Hormuz, which suffered an explosion and fire on Monday. Trump blamed the incident on an Iranian attack, while South Korea’s foreign ministry said the cause of the fire would only be confirmed after the vessel is inspected. The Iran embassy in Seoul issued a statement this morning rejecting the allegations, saying safe passage through the waterway requires strict adherence to Iranian regulations.
The damage and destruction inflicted on US military sites across the Middle East during the war is far larger than what has been publicly acknowledged by the Trump administration or previously reported, according to analysis by the Washington Post. Reviewing satellite imagery, the newspaper found Iranian airstrikes have damaged or destroyed at least 228 US structures or pieces of equipment, including hangars, barracks, fuel depots, aircraft and key radar, communications and air defence equipment. The US Central Command declined to comment on the report.
In Lebanon, where a ceasefire has demonstrably failed to stop the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, three people were killed this morning in Israeli strikes on Nabatieh south of the country, according to the official Lebanese National News Agency. The Israeli military said one of its soldiers was seriously injured by an explosive-laden Hezbollah drone in southern Lebanon yesterday. It did not say where the attack took place.
In Gaza, where another ceasefire appears to be fraying, an Israeli airstrike has killed Azzam Khalil al-Hayya, the son of Hamas political bureau leader and chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, according to senior Hamas official Basim Naim. Azzam succumbed to his injuries this morning after being struck in an Israeli attack last night in Gaza City, Reuters reported. He is the fourth son of Hamas’s exiled Gaza chief to have been killed in Israeli attacks.
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