Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened that it will “extend the war beyond the region” should the US attack Iran again.
The Iranian military force said it was responding to threats by “the American-Zionist enemy” after Donald Trump and JD Vance warned yesterday they may resume military strikes if there’s no peace agreement with the Iranian government.
The threat came after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi crowed over Tehran being “the first” to strike down a US F-35 fighter and said any return to war will “feature many more surprises”.
Meanwhile Trump has told legislators that Washington is “going to end” the war with Iran “very quickly”.
New UpdatesView PostView PostView PostView PostView PostView PostToday10:15 BST
The US Central Command says it is continuing “total enforcement” of its blockade against Iran.
It claimed 89 commercial vessels have been redirected as a result. “CENTCOM forces continue total enforcement of the U.S. blockade against Iran, stopping the flow of commerce into and out of Iranian ports,” it said in a post on X.
“89 commercial vessels have been redirected to ensure compliance.”
Zahra KhaliqToday10:03 BST
France’s armed forces minister says the country is preparing for a mine-clearing mission in the Strait of Hormuz.
Catherine Vautrin said on French radio there was “no certainty” that Iran had actually laid mines following US claims that at least 10 were found in the crucial shipping route. “But in any case we are preparing for the necessity to potentially remove mines,” she added.
Vautrin said demining ships were being sent to the region as part of a potential future mission, led by France and the UK, to remove mines.
Tankers and other ships anchored of the coast of Oman because they cannot travel through the Strait of Hormuz (file image)(Image: Reach PLC)
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to “extend the war beyond the region” if the US launches another attack on Iran.
The military force said it was responding to threats by “the American-Zionist enemy” after the US warned yesterday that attacks could continue if no peace agreement was made.
“We have not yet deployed all the capacities of the Islamic Revolution against them,” the IRGC said in a statement.
“But now, if aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will this time extend beyond the region, and our crushing blows in places you do not expect will bring you to utter ruin.”
Zahra KhaliqToday08:57 BST
A South Korean-operated vessel carrying two million barrels of crude oil is passing through the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with Iranian authorities, the country’s foreign minister Cho Hyun has said.
“Consultations with Iranian authorities were completed, and the vessel began sailing yesterday. It is passing through the strait very cautiously,” Cho told politicians in Seoul, the Yonhap news agency reports.
The vessel is the first manged by South Korea to transit the waterway since the US-Israel war on Iran began, Cho said.
Zahra KhaliqToday07:59 BST
Iran’s foreign minister says Iranian forces are confirmed to be the first to down a US F-35 fighter jet, citing a US congressional report on aircraft combat losses, AFP reports.
He shared the news as he warned the US a return to war will come with “many more surprises”.
“With lessons learned and knowledge we gained, return to war will feature many more surprises,” Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X.
Zahra KhaliqToday07:47 BST
Chinese president Xi Jinping has called for an immediate end to hostilities in the Middle East during his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Beijing.
“A comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency, resuming hostilities is even more inadvisable and maintaining negotiations is particularly important,” Xi told Putin, Xinhua reports.
Jinping said a ceasefire in the Middle East is of ‘utmost urgency’ during his meeting with Putin(Image: Maxim Shemetov/Pool Reuters via)
Donald Trump has told US lawmakers he thinks he is going to be finished with the Iran war “very quickly” and that it will hopefully end “in a very nice manner”.
It comes after he said on Monday he had called off a major attack on the country. Iran says it has sent over another amended set of terms for a potential peace deal via Pakistan.
Speaking to legislators at a White House yesterday, Trump claimed Iran wants to “make a deal so badly”.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is hosting Vladimir Putin for talks set to focus on energy and weapons deals which are being directly impacted by the wars in Iran and Ukraine.
UN expert Francesca Albanese has accused the EU of enabling Israel’s kidnapping of hundreds of activists after its military intercepted the final boat of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla.
Israel has continued launching strikes across Lebanon, while Hezbollah said it carried out attacks against Israeli forces. Lebanese officials say more than 3,000 people have died in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Zahra KhaliqToday05:47 BST
Chinese President Xi Jinping has renewed China’s calls for an immediate end to all hostilities in the Middle East.
Xi made the comments during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, several news outlets reported.
Tannur AndersToday04:13 BST
Two Chinese supertankers have departed the Stait of Hormuz, Reuters news agency reported.
The tankers, loaded with four million barrels of crude oil, were stuck in the Gulf for two months.
Tannur AndersToday02:54 BST
Trump, according to several reports, said:
“We’ve done a hell of a good job. And we’re, I think, we’re going to be finished with that very quickly, and they won’t have a nuclear weapon, and hopefully, we’re going to get it done in a very nice manner.”
Tannur AndersToday01:51 BST
US President Donald Trump has told legislators that Washington is “going to end that war very quickly”.
Speaking to legislators at a White House event, Trump said, referring to Iran: “They want to make a deal so badly; they’re tired of this.”
Trump said that Iran has “nuclear on their mind, and we’re not going to let them have a nuclear weapon”.
Tannur AndersToday00:55 BST
White House Correspondent Kellie Meyer has reported, in a post on social media platform X, that US President Donald Trump said he thinks he is going to be finished with Iran “very quickly” and hopefully in “a very nice manner.”
Tannur Anders19th May23:51 BST
US President Donald Trump has shared his plans for a billion-dollar ballroom which has left some thinking he does not plan on leaving the White House.
The US leader on Tuesday, May 19, showed members of the media the progress on the lavish ballroom. He shared that “the ballroom is really a shield and protecting all of the things that are built here.”
Trump said the construction includes a military hospital and meeting rooms. The structure will be about six storeys below the ground.
Read the full story here.
Tannur Anders19th May22:56 BST
The US military says that it is continuing to blockade Iranian ports amid the impasse in the Middle East.
Donald Trump has agreed to continue the ceasefire but shipping remains affected by Iran effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz and the US not allowing vessels to access Iranian ports.
A post from CENTCOM on X says that 89 ships were diverted. It read: “CENTCOM forces continue total enforcement of the U.S. blockade against Iran, stopping the flow of commerce into and out of Iranian ports. 89 commercial vessels have been redirected to ensure compliance.”
Tim Hanlon19th May22:35 BST
JD Vance claims the Middle East conflict with Iran is not a “forever war”.
The Vice President continued to defend the administration’s strategy in Iran, saying that active conflict lasted about as long as Trump’s initial four-to-six week prediction and that the two countries were currently in a ceasefire.
“We’re going to get a good settlement that actually gets the American people what they need, or we’re going to go back to a kinetic operation,” he said.
Vance, a sceptic of military intervention abroad, said: “This is not a forever war… We’re going to take care of business and come home.”
Tim Hanlon19th May22:17 BST
Donald Trump is to tell NATO allies that the US will reduce its military support in a major crisis, insiders claim.
The United States is to shrink its pool of military capabilities that it will make available to European nations in the alliance, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Under a framework known as the NATO Force Model, the alliance’s member countries identify a pool of available forces that could be activated during a conflict or any other major crisis, such as a military attack on a NATO member.
While the precise composition of those wartime forces is a closely guarded secret, the Pentagon has decided to significantly scale down its commitment, said the sources who spoke anonymously.
The US could reduce its military support to NATO(Image: CENTCOM / SWNS)
JD Vance says the United States’ aim is to promote “European independence and sovereignty”.
He believes Europe should “take more ownership on defence” as he was asked about US troops in Poland.
Vance said: “Poland is capable of defending itself with a lot of support from the United States.”
The Vice President also disputed that the administration was reducing troop levels in Poland.
“What we did is that we delayed a troop deployment that was going to go to Poland,” Vance said. “That’s not a reduction. That’s just a standard delay in rotation that sometimes happens in these situations.”
Tim Hanlon19th May21:34 BST
The Foreign Secretary has warned that Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could result in tens of millions going hungry as she told an aid summit of the risk of “sleepwalking into a global food crisis”.
Yvette Cooper told an aid conference in London that the global south was paying the biggest price as the global trade of fertiliser and heating oil are largely blocked.
Markets are already pricing in weaker harvests and the World Food Programme has estimated that 45 million people could fall into acute food insecurity if the conflict does not end by the middle of the year.
The Foreign Secretary said: “We meet against the backdrop of the Hormuz crisis, a strait of water through which 90 ships a day used to pass, but for the last three months it’s been more like five.
“Heating oil for Asia – stuck in the Strait, fertilisers for Africa – stuck in the strait, 20,000 seafarers, 800 ships – just stuck in the strait.
“The global economy is being held hostage, and the global south is paying the biggest price.”
Ethan Blackshaw19th May19:55 BST
Vice President JD Vance resurrected the Cold War-era “domino theory” to justify the Iran war, saying that a failure to stop its nuclear ambitions would lead to other countries pursuing the same aims.
“If you have every country in the world scrambling to try to get a nuclear weapon, it would make us all much less safe,” Vance told reporters at the White House briefing. “And Iran would really be the first domino.”
During the Cold War with the Soviet Union, US policymakers argued that if a country went communist, it could cause neighbouring nations to fall like dominoes into communism as well.
This led to efforts to contain the spread of communism and resulted in American interventions in Vietnam and other nations.
JD Vance has told of the need to stop Iran’s nuclear plans(Image: Samuel Corum/UPI/Shutterstock)
Donald Trump says Xi Jinping told him China would not be sending weapons to Iran.
There have been reports that China, which has close ties to Iran, has considered sending weapons for use in the conflict against the United States.
But Trump responded saying: “He promised that he’s not sending any weapons.”
The leaders held two days of in-person talks last week in Beijing.
Tim Hanlon19th May18:17 BST
Donald Trump says he was “an hour away” from making the call for missile strikes to begin again on Iran and end the ceasefire.
“I was an hour away from making the decision to go today,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
He said the strikes “would have been happening right now” if he hadn’t held off. “The ships are all loaded, they’re loaded to the brim,” he added.
Trump on Monday announced he was holding off on military strikes planned for Tuesday because “serious negotiations” were underway to end the war.
Trump says he was close to ending the ceasefire(Image: Pool/ABACA/Shutterstock)
The UAE says a drone attack that sparked a serious fire at a nuclear power plant over the weekend came from Iraq.
The drone strike sparked a fire on the edge of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, in what authorities called an “unprovoked terrorist attack.”
Ethan Blackshaw19th May15:42 BST
Petrol prices have eclipsed the previous highest level of the Iran oil crisis, new figures show.
The RAC said the average price of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts stands at 158.5p, which is the most expensive it has been since December 2022.
Following the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East on February 28, the price peaked at 158.3p on April 15.
The average price then fell by more than a penny per litre until the start of May, when it began rising again.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams described the recent rise as “bad news for drivers ahead of the bank holiday” and warned prices are set to become even more expensive.
Ethan Blackshaw19th May14:38 BST
Israeli forces have intercepted another vessel part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. The boat was stopped when it was around 82 nautical miles (around 150km) from Gaza, according to the flotilla’s website tracker.
A livestream shared on the website showed Israeli forces pulling up to the boat in a dinghy. The screen then went dark with a message saying the boat had been intercepted, reports Al Jazeera.
Zahra Khaliq19th May13:49 BST
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper says the world is “sleepwalking into a global food crisis” due to ongoing disruption to shipping through the strait of Hormuz.
In a speech to the Global Partnerships conference, Cooper highlighted that Gulf states are major global providers of fertilisers and cited World Food Programme figures saying “almost 45 million more people could fall into acute food insecurity if the [Iran] conflict does not end by the middle of this year”.
She said: “The world is sleepwalking into a global food crisis. We cannot risk tens of millions of people going hungry because one country has hijacked an international shipping lane.
“Iran’s continued closure of the strait of Hormuz while the agriculture clock is ticking shows why we need urgent global pressure to get the Strait reopened, fertiliser and fuel moving and ease the costs of living pressures. That is why we will continue to lead calls for the immediate and unrestricted opening of the Strait and advance plans for the strait of Hormuz Multinational Mission to support any agreement.
“This crisis is affecting developed and developing countries, the private and public sectors alike. It shows why we need a new approach to global partnerships, to drive international development to prevent crises in the first place.”
Zahra Khaliq19th May13:17 BST
The RAC has warned of “bad news” for drivers as petrol prices rise once again amid the global oil crisis.
Figures have eclipsed the previous highest level during the Iran war, according to reports, as the RAC said the average price of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts stands at 158.5p.
This is the most expensive it has been since December 2022, following the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East on February 28. The price had previously peaked at 158.3p on April 15.
Christopher Mallett19th May10:06 BST
Iran has revealed six demands to the US in its latest peace proposal to end the war. The terms were laid out by Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi and reportedly include:
- The lifting of sanctions on Tehran
- The release of frozen funds
- An end to the marine blockade on the country
- An end to the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon
- The removal of US forces from areas close to Iran
- Compensation for the destruction caused by the war
Zahra Khaliq19th May10:00 BST
Irish premier Micheal Martin has said it is “wrong” and “unacceptable” that Irish citizens, including the president of Ireland’s sister, have been detained by Israeli forces.
He said the behaviour of Israel in international waters against the aid flotilla is “unacceptable” and that people have a right to protest and take part in a mission to highlight the “shocking” humanitarian issue in Gaza.
Dr Margaret Connolly, sister of President of Ireland Catherine Connolly, is among at least six Irish citizens on board the flotilla that was detained by Israel, organisers say.
Zahra Khaliq19th May09:21 BST
Jordan has released a joint statement with Indonesia, Spain, Pakistan, Brazil, Bangladesh, Turkiye, Colombia, Libya and Maldives strongly condemning the Israeli interception and abduction of activists on board the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters.
The statement says the foreign leaders “condemn in the strongest terms the renewed Israeli assaults against the Global Sumud Flotilla”.
It adds that “the Ministers express serious concern regarding the safety and security of the civilian participants of the flotilla and call for the immediate release of all detained activists, as well as for full respect for their rights and dignity”.
Zahra Khaliq19th May08:42 BST
Iran’s top security body says a new body has been formed to manage the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on X claimed it would provide “real-time updates on the #Hormuz_Strait operations and latest developments”.
The global shipping route has been largely blocked by Iran since the US and Israel attacked Tehran on February 28.
Tankers and other ships anchored of the coast of Oman because they cannot travel through the Strait of Hormuz (file image)(Image: Reach PLC)