Regional
Iran war enters second week as Trump demands ‘unconditional surrender’
The expanding war in Iran entered its second week on Saturday amid renewed uncertainty about how or when hostilities will end, as U.S. President Donald Trump declared he would only accept Tehran’s “unconditional surrender” and Israel traded fresh attacks with Iran and Lebanon.
Trump’s comments on social media on Friday came hours after Iran’s president announced that unnamed countries had begun mediation efforts, briefly raising the possibility, however faint, of a diplomatic resolution a week after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, Reuters reported.
“There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” Trump wrote. “After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.”
Trump has offered shifting explanations of his war aims, raising the possibility of an extended regional conflict that has already spilled well beyond Iran’s borders, shaken global financial markets and sent oil prices soaring.
In response to the attack, Iran has targeted Israel as well as multiple Gulf states that host U.S. military installations.
Inside Israel on Friday, explosions could be heard as Israeli defenses activated to shoot down incoming Iranian fire. The UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia all reported fresh drone and missile attacks.
Meanwhile, Israel pursued a major expansion of the war in Lebanon, pounding the capital Beirut on Friday after ordering an unprecedented evacuation of the city’s entire southern suburbs.
Israel also launched a new wave of attacks on Iran, saying 50 of its warplanes had hit a bunker still being used by Iran’s leadership beneath slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s destroyed Tehran compound.
Early on Saturday, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Mehrabad Airport in Tehran had been struck.
There was no immediate comment from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard or Hezbollah.
Israel has extended its bombing to Lebanon to root out Hezbollah, the Shi’ite militia allied to Iran that has been a dominant faction in Lebanese politics since the 1980s. Hezbollah fired on Israel this week to avenge the death of Khamenei.
“We’re sleeping here in the streets – some in cars, some on the street, some on the beach,” said Jamal Seifeddin, 43, who fled Beirut’s southern suburbs and spent the night on the streets in the downtown district.
About 300,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon in the past four days, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The Israeli military says it has destroyed 80% of Iran’s air-defense systems in the first week of the campaign and disabled more than 60% of its missile launchers.
MARKETS SWOON
Trump’s demand for Iran’s surrender, and the likelihood that it would complicate any quick path to ending the conflict, sent European and U.S. stock indexes tumbling on Friday. Oil prices hit their highest prices in years with the critical shipping lane of the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed down.
Trump told Reuters in a telephone interview on Thursday that he must have a say in selecting Iran’s new supreme leader to replace Khamenei, killed on the war’s first day, a demand he repeated on Friday in a remarkable assertion of power over the country of more than 90 million people.
Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, told reporters that new leadership would be chosen “in accordance with our constitutional procedures and solely by the will of the Iranian people – without any foreign interference.”
Israel has said openly that it aims to overthrow Iran’s ruling system. It has been bombing parts of western Iran to support Iranian Kurdish militias who hope to exploit the war to seize towns near the frontier, according to three sources familiar with Israel’s talks with the factions.
Iran has cast the war as an unprovoked attack and describes the killing of Khamenei as an assassination.
HUNDREDS KILLED SO FAR
Earlier on Friday, Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on social media: “Some countries have begun mediation efforts.” He did not identify the countries or provide further details.
Russia is providing Iran with locations of U.S. warships and aircraft in the Middle East after Iran’s ability to locate U.S. forces was degraded, the Washington Post reported, citing three officials familiar with the intelligence.
Russian missions in the U.S. did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
Trump met with executives from seven defense contractors on Friday, who he later said had agreed to accelerate weapons production. The administration has been pressuring contractors as Iran and other recent operations have drawn down supplies.
Karoline Leavitt, a White House spokeswoman, said the U.S. has enough weapons stockpiles to meet the needs of its Iran operations, which she said would take about four to six weeks to complete.
At least 1,332 people have been killed in Iran since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on February 28, Iravani said, citing the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
The Lebanese health ministry has reported 123 people killed and 683 wounded as a result of Israeli attacks. Iranian attacks have killed 11 people in Israel since the war started, and at least six U.S. service members have been killed.
Two U.S. officials told Reuters that military investigators believed it was likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children on the first day of the war. The investigators have not yet reached a final conclusion.
Regional
Trump says he will hold off on fresh Iran attack in hope of quick deal
The Saudi crown prince spoke to Trump, a White House official told Reuters, but did not provide details.
U.S. President Donald Trump said late on Saturday he would hold off on a fresh attack on Iran as long as a deal could be reached quickly to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reporte.
Iran and “other Middle Eastern Countries” asked for a time to complete a deal that would lead to “the Immediate, Complete and Total” reopening of the Strait and “an end to Iran’s nuclear threat,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL.”
Israel “joins me in this commitment,” Trump wrote. Israel did not immediately make a public statement on the issue.
Iran warned the U.S. this weekend against any “adventurous action” and said it would retaliate decisively if American forces followed through on Trump’s threats of fresh attacks on Iranian targets.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi’s comments in separate phone calls on Saturday with senior Turkish, Pakistani and Saudi officials came just hours after Kuwait’s army said it destroyed hostile drones launched by Iran against several vital facilities.
Speaking to Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Araqchi said Iran would respond decisively to any “aggression” and discussed the consequences of “destabilizing actions” by the U.S., as well as prospects for heightened regional insecurity, according to Araqchi’s Telegram account.
Araqchi later told Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan that any attacks by the U.S. and Israel or participation by regional countries in such actions would be met with a “proportionate response.” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke to Trump on Saturday and “expressed concern and asked for clarity” about U.S. plans for Iran, a U.S. official told Axios.
The Saudi crown prince spoke to Trump, a White House official told Reuters, but did not provide details.
Nournews, a media outlet affiliated with Iran’s top security body, said on Saturday that U.S. attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure would prompt Iranian strikes on oil fields in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the gas fields of Qatar and Israel, saying, “all will be burned to ashes.”
At a cabinet meeting on Friday at the Camp David retreat, Trump said he believed U.S. negotiators, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, could still reach a deal with Iran, read the report.
But Trump also said he was losing faith in the Iranians, saying, “They break their word so often” — a claim Tehran has frequently leveled at Washington — and said he would be “hitting them.”
Oil prices have stayed high since U.S. and Israeli forces started the war with strikes on Iran on February 28. Trump has argued that his stated goal of keeping Iran from gaining nuclear weapons justifies higher fuel costs in the near term, but the economic pain has put political pressure on him to find a way to end the war.
Benchmark Brent crude futures rose 24% in July, and analysts polled by Reuters expect prices to rise further this year.
The risk of Iranian attacks has deterred most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, an important conduit for global energy supplies, since the start of the conflict, sending shockwaves through the world economy.
A government facility in northern Kuwait and civilian property belonging to a company on Bubiyan Island were hit on Saturday, with falling shrapnel causing material damage but no casualties, the Kuwaiti army said.
Adding to the energy industry’s concerns, Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen recently began threatening the Bab el-Mandeb, the strait at the other end of the Red Sea from the Suez Canal, another export route for Saudi crude.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Saturday it had received reports of two maritime incidents off Oman, including one in which a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile that damaged the engine room. In the other incident, the master of a tanker reported seeing a large splash and an explosion close to the vessel, though no damage was reported.
Regional
Trump says deal reached to disarm Hamas, Israeli support for plan remains uncertain
U.S. President Donald Trump said talks in Cairo between mediators and Hamas leaders on Thursday have led to a phased disarmament agreement in Gaza, but a Hamas official described the deal as a draft and U.S. officials said Israel was skeptical the militant Palestinian group would surrender its weapons.
What is Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’?
“Today, the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza,” Trump said in a social media post, adding that the disarmament would come in phases. “This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY.”
The agreement was a critical step towards Gaza being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the so-called Board of Peace, Trump said. “At the same time, Israel will have the security it deserves, with Gaza no longer used as a base for terror attacks,” he added, Reuers reported.
A Hamas source told Reuters the “draft agreement” stipulates that heavy weapons would only be stored and kept under the control of a Palestinian administration, and the weapons cannot be transferred to Israel.
“We will not take any action regarding disarmament prior to Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip,” Ghazi Hamad, a member of the Hamas negotiating team, told Al Jazeera.
A U.S. official on Thursday told reporters that Israel is “very skeptical that Hamas will disarm.”
“We’re very confident they will adhere to it,” the U.S. official added. “If they don’t, obviously President Trump would be very, very disappointed.”
There were also questions about how long the process would take. A Board of Peace official gave an estimate of 200 to 320 days, but a U.S. official played down that timeline.
An Israeli official, who declined to be identified, said before Trump’s announcement Israel had rejected a proposal.
“Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and the complete demilitarization of the Strip as a precondition for any process,” the official said earlier on Thursday.
“The 15-point document in question does not provide a satisfactory response to these demands and Israel conveyed its objections.”
Earlier, Israeli strikes killed at least six Palestinians in Gaza, including two children, medics said.
A ROADMAP TOWARDS HAMAS DISARMAMENT?
Hamas leaders held talks with mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey on the second phase of Trump’s Gaza plan, as presented to them by his Board of Peace.
Trump set up the board to oversee a plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza and rebuild the devastated territory. He appointed members of the board with himself as chair and said last year that the board will supervise Gaza’s temporary governance.
“Ahead of us is a Gaza rebuilt, governed by Palestinians and at peace with Israel an a political horizon to a meaningful resolution the Israeli Palestinian conflict,” Nickolay Mladenov, Trump’s Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, said in a statement after the president’s post.
Officials involved in the talks shared few details about plans to rebuild Gaza.
The plan also calls for a surge in humanitarian aid, governance by a civilian Palestinian administration, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the deployment of an international force to help maintain security.
HANDOVER OF WEAPONS COULD BE STICKING POINT
The reality on the ground in Gaza, so far, remains far from the goals of the agreement.
Hamas wants Israel to commit to ending attacks on Gaza and withdraw its forces.
It is not yet clear what will happen regarding light or personal weapons or whether the new Hamas stance will be accepted by Israel or the Board of Peace.
The plan includes the elimination of tunnels, arms stockpiles and weapons production facilities, a diplomat involved in the talks said, adding that by the end of the process there would be no remaining militant infrastructure in Gaza.
“This isn’t really a trust deal,” a U.S. official said on Thursday, calling the agreement a “conditions-based deal.”
The Israeli military has continued to expand its military occupation of Gaza, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that Israel intends to expand the area under its control to 70% of the enclave.
It remains unclear how many forces would be available to deploy with the planned International Stabilization Force, and whether Israeli troops would withdraw from the enclave.
ATTACKS CONTINUE
Health officials said separate Israeli strikes had killed at least two children, a woman and three men in Gaza on Thursday. The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants in the enclave.
The ceasefire in Gaza has been repeatedly violated, with more than 1,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, being killed by Israeli attacks and four Israeli soldiers being killed by militants since the truce began in October, according to Gaza health officials and Israeli authorities, respectively.
Hamas does not usually disclose its losses.
Regional
Seven police officers killed in fresh militant assault on Pakistan checkpoint
Pakistan has repeatedly accused militants of operating from Afghan territory, an allegation the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has consistently denied.
At least 15 people, including seven police officers and eight suspected militants, were killed in a late-night attack on a security checkpoint in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to local authorities.
The attack took place on Wednesday evening in Hangu district, Geo News reported, citing District Police Officer Tariq Habib. Authorities said an additional 22 police personnel were wounded in the assault, prompting security forces to launch a clearance operation in the area.
No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The latest violence comes just days after another deadly assault on a security checkpoint in Tank district, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where unidentified militants rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the facility.
According to Pakistan’s military, the attack on Friday killed 15 people, including soldiers, police officers, and other government personnel, while security forces said they killed 12 militants during the ensuing operation.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has witnessed a sharp rise in militant violence in recent years. Pakistani authorities have repeatedly blamed the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for many of the attacks.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused militants of operating from Afghan territory, an allegation the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has consistently denied.
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