Israel and Gulf states targeted and Iran hit by airstrikes as Tehran denies negotiations are taking place to end warMiddle East crisis â live updatesViolence has continued across much of the Middle East, a day after Donald Trump said the US was in âvery goodâ talks with Iran to end the war in the region soon.Iranian barrages targeted Israel, Gulf Arab states and northern Iraq on Tuesday, while Israeli and US warplanes continued to carry out strikes across Tehran and on other targets in the Islamic Republic. Continue reading...
Iran has dismissed the US presidentâs claim of talks, saying there had been none since Washington began bombing the country. Plus, how sleeping 11 minutes more can cut your risk of heart attackGood morning.Donald Trump said there have been talks between the US and Iran over the past day in which the two sides had âmajor points of agreementâ â but Tehran denied the claim, saying there had been no talks since the US began bombing Iran 24 days ago. Continue reading...
Diplomatic sources say negotiations in Islamabad may begin next week, though no formal agreement is in placeMiddle East crisis â live updatesPakistanâs military leadership has been attempting to broker negotiations between the US and Iran, after the White House confirmed that Pakistanâs army chief, Asim Munir, had a phonecall with Donald Trump on Sunday to discuss the conflict.Diplomatic sources said the US and Iran could meet for negotiations in Islamabad as early as this week, to discuss an end to the war which began almost a month ago. Continue reading...
Iranian parliament speaker says âno negotiationsâ held with US, as Trump postpones energy strikes for five days; European Commission chief says war must come to negotiated endTrump claims âproductiveâ talks with Iran but Tehran denies contactIsrael launches new strikes on Tehran as Trump pauses Iran energy attacksWelcome to our ongoing coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran and its wider repercussions in the Middle East and globally.Donald Trump has claimed the US and Iran have held talks in which the two sides had âmajor points of agreementâ, and speculated that a deal could soon be done to end the war, a claim contradicted by Tehran.Trump said the threatened US strikes on Iranian power plants had been postponed after âvery good and productiveâ discussions with Iran about a âcomplete and total resolution of our hostilitiesâ in the Middle East. After hitting a four-year high, the price of oil fell dramatically following Trumpâs comments, while stocks in Asia rallied.Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said he had spoken with Trump, who saw a chance of an agreement with Iran, but added that Israel would continue its strikes against Iran and Lebanon. Trump believed there was a possibility of âleveraging the mighty achievements obtained by the Israeli and the US military, in order to realise the goals of the war in a deal â a deal that will preserve our vital interestsâ, the Israeli prime minister claimed in a video statement released by his office.Israel said it had launched âwide-scaleâ strikes on Iran on Monday morning, while Tehran continued to fire missiles at the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The Israeli military also claimed to have hit struck the main security headquarters of Iranâs Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as part of a âwave of strikes that was completed a short while ago in the heart of Tehranâ.An Israeli strike also hit Beirutâs southern suburbs on Monday, Agence France-Presse quoted state media as saying, hours after the Israeli army issued an order for residents of the area to evacuate. An AFPTV live broadcast showed a cloud of smoke over the densely populated southern suburbs, which are considered a Hezbollah stronghold and have not been hit since Friday night. Continue reading...
Tehran denied negotiations that delayed US strikes and Trump was vague on the details, but talks signal renewed push for peace from regional powersThere have been so many abortive rounds of diplomacy between the US and Iran â the latest appearing to be led by Pakistan after Washington has burned through many other regional mediators â that it was hardly a surprise that President Trumpâs claims of âvery goodâ talks with Tehran initially provoked disbelief â especially after Iran denied that any negotiations were taking place at all.Nonetheless, standing beside Air Force One, Trump did his best to sell the sudden detente with little detail as a US ultimatum to bomb Iranâs power plants loomed unless Tehran opened up the strait of Hormuz. It was lost on few that the sudden about-face came just hours before US markets were to open for what promised to be another punishing round of trading on Monday. Continue reading...
Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf at first dismissed talks took place, insisting Trumpâs claim was âfake newsâ designed to soothe markets Middle East crisis â live updatesThe backchannel talks between Donald Trumpâs special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, were not a secret in the sense that the Egyptian Foreign Ministry had tweeted that conversations were under way on Sunday, 24 hours before Donald Trumpâs late Monday deadline to start blowing up Iranâs energy infrastructure.But such is the chaos surrounding the process that the discussions â thought to be well short of negotiations â may have lasted longer than Sunday, with more than one mediator, as is often the case, jostling for the title of peacemaker in chief. Pakistanâs army chief, Asim Munir, for instance, spoke with Trump on Sunday, while Pakistani prime minister, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, held talks with Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, on Monday. It is possible Pakistan could become the venue for further talks that this time would include JD Vance, the vice-president, a private sceptic about the war. Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, was right to warn not to bank on an early end to the conflict. Continue reading...
⢠US stock markets rallied sharply on Monday after President Trump announced a postponement of threatened strikes on Iran's power plants, citing 'very good and productive' talks that eased Middle East escalation fears.
⢠The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2% (approximately 900 points), while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both jumped around 1.9% and 2.1% respectively, with Russell 2000 futures up 3%.
⢠The rally was triggered by Trump's Truth Social post reversing his earlier 48-hour ultimatum for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by 7:44 p.m., which had previously sent markets into decline on Friday.
President delays threat against energy infrastructure after Iranâs threats of retaliation, while Tehran denies any talksMiddle East crisis â live updatesDonald Trump has extended by five days his deadline to âhit and obliterateâ Iranâs power stations and energy infrastructure if Tehran does not allow shipping to move freely through the strait of Hormuz, claiming that the US and Iran have held âvery good and productive conversationsâ on an end to the three-week-old war.There was no immediate official reaction from Tehran to Trumpâs announcement, which was made in a post on Truth Social and appeared to avert a potentially massive escalation of the conflict, at least for now. Continue reading...
Jonathan Powell thought Tehranâs âsurprisingâ offer on its nuclear programme could prevent rush to war Middle East crisis â live updatesBritainâs national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, attended the final talks between the US and Iran and judged that the offer made by Tehran on its nuclear programme was significant enough to prevent a rush to war, the Guardian can reveal.Powell thought that progress had been made in Geneva and that the deal proposed by Iran was âsurprisingâ, according to sources. Continue reading...