Main PointsYemen’s Houthis launch second attack on Israel and vow to continue strikes, as conflict in the Middle East escalates US secretly plotting ground attack, says Iran’s parliament speaker, in remarks published to mark 30 days since start of US-Israeli warFive killed in US-Israeli strikes on Iranian city near Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s state media reportsRegional leaders are set to meet in Pakistan to discuss ending warKey Reads
Sarah Burns – 39 minutes ago
British Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she does not believe rationing fuel and oil in the face of potential shortages is the first thing the Government should be doing, adding it should be drilling for its own oil and gas in the North Sea.
Badenoch told Sky News: “Rushing out to say the Government should be rationing fuel, that’s not the first thing I would be doing.
“The first thing they should do is start drilling our own oil and gas in the North Sea, it’s important for our energy security, our economic security, our national security – and they’re not doing that.”
British Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Wire
Pope Leo XIV has said that God rejects the prayers of leaders who start wars and have “hands full of blood”, in unusually forceful remarks on Sunday.
Addressing tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square on Palm Sunday, the celebration that opens the holiest week of the year in the lead-up to Easter for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, the pontiff said that Jesus cannot be used to justify any wars.
“This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” Pope Leo, the first US pope, told the crowds.
“(Jesus) does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood’,” he said, citing a Bible passage.
Pope Leo did not specifically name any world leaders, but he has been ramping up criticism of the Iran war in recent weeks.
The pope, who is known for choosing his words carefully, has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict and said on Monday that military airstrikes are indiscriminate and should be banned.
Pope Leo XIV leads a mass for Palm Sunday at St Peter’s square in the Vatican on Sunday. Photograph: Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images US secretly plotting ground attack, says Iran’s parliament speaker
Iranian state media have published a message from Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf marking 30 days since the start of the US-Israeli war.
“The enemy openly sends a message of negotiation and secretly plans a ground attack,” Ghalibaf, who has served as speaker of the parliament since 2020, wrote in his message carried by the Tasnim news agency.
“The United States expresses its desires with a list of 15 points and pursues what it did not achieve in the war.”
“We are in a major world war, and we must prepare ourselves for the tortuous and difficult path ahead of us until we reach the summit,” he added.
Ghalibaf was previously an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, police chief and mayor of Tehran. Washington reportedly has thought of him as a potential partner and he is reported to be Donald Trump’s preferred choice for leader.
Sarah Burns – 2 hours ago
How likely is Trump to order a ground invasion of Iran?
Amid tentative White House efforts at diplomacy to end the war in Iran, US troops have also been arriving in the region to deliver what Donald Trump has hoped could be a knockout blow if he can’t negotiate a ceasefire with Tehran.
Thousands of US marines aboard navy amphibious ships from the 31st and 11th expeditionary units have been deployed to the Middle East from Asia.
Another 2,000-odd paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne are also being sent to the theatre – they are tasked with deploying worldwide within 18 hours of notification and execute parachute assaults, including against a “defended airfield” to prepare for further ground operations.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio repeated on Friday that the US believes it will be able to achieve its goals without boots on the ground, but when marines are in position next week, Trump could order an assault to either provide leverage to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or to degrade Iran’s ability to keep the waterway closed by force.
The lack of heavy armoured units, logistical depth and other elements needed for a protracted military conflict will limit the White House’s ability to escalate the conflict, however, potentially extending a stalemate that could be devastating to the international economy.
Kharg Island. Photograph: Planet Labs PBC/AP
The most prominent target has been Kharg Island, a coral outcrop of less than 9sq km, off Iran’s coast. The island is the site through which about 90 per cent of Iran’s crude oil exports flow, making it a financial and logistical lifeline for Tehran, the loss of which could mark a significant blow to the regime.
The US troops being deployed to the region are far fewer than those used in past major operations, including Iraq and Afghanistan. And an assault to take Kharg Island would mark a rare contested amphibious landing by US troops potentially under drone, rocket and artillery fire. US troops would take more than a day to sail into position near the island, giving Iran time to mine the area surrounding the island as well.
If US troops were able to take the island, it remains unclear how long they would be forced to hold the territory, potentially under fire, before the US could compel Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz or agree to a ceasefire.
Sarah Burns – 2 hours ago
Qatari news channel says Tehran office damaged in Israeli strike
Qatari news channel Al Araby has said in a post on X that an Israeli missile had hit the building housing its office in the Iranian capital of Tehran, causing “extensive damage and halting live broadcasts”.
Sarah Burns – 2 hours ago
‘Targeted assassination’: Iran condemns Israel’s killing of three journalists in Lebanon
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has condemned Israel’s killing of three journalists in Lebanon on Saturday.
On his Telegram, Araghchi said the killings amounted to “targeted assassination” and “flagrant violation of international law”. He said they were a way of silencing “the voices of those who tell the truth”.
Ali Shoeib, from the Hizbullah-owned al-Manar television station, Fatima Ftouni and her brother and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni from the channel al-Mayadeen were killed in the Israeli air strike targeting their car yesterday.
A policeman checks the charred car that was carrying Hizbullah’s al-Manar TV correspondent Ali Shoeib. Photograph: Mohammed Zaatari/AP
Israel claimed the attack shortly afterwards, saying the target was Shoeib, whom it accused of being a Hizbullah “terrorist”, without providing any evidence to support its claim. It did not comment on the killing of Fatima or Mohamed Ftouni.
Israel, which has killed more than 220 journalists since 2023, according to Reporters Without Borders, often claims the journalists it targets are linked to armed groups (such as Hamas) without providing any evidence.
International humanitarian law is meant to protect civilian journalists during armed conflict and Israel has been accused of clearly violating it, with effective impunity.
Sarah Burns – 3 hours ago
Regional leaders to meet in Pakistan to discuss ending war
Regional powers are meeting in Pakistan to discuss how to end the fighting in the Middle East.
Pakistan said Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt are sending top diplomats to Islamabad for talks on Sunday. Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif said he and Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian held “extensive discussions” on regional hostilities.
A motorcade of Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty arrives at Pakistan’s moreign ministry upon his arrival in Islamabad on Sunday. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Sarah Burns – 3 hours ago
Kuwait intercepts drone attack
Kuwait has said its air defence systems intercepted four drones attacking the country this morning.
In a statement posted to social media earlier, the account for the Kuwait army said that “any explosions that may be heard are the result of air defence systems intercepting hostile targets”, without specifying who was behind the attacks.
Sarah Burns – 4 hours ago
Syria repels Iraqi drone attack targeting US base, says assistant minister
Syria’s assistant defence minister said on Sunday that his country’s forces had repelled a drone attack from neighbouring Iraq targeting one of Syria’s last US military bases.
“Earlier today, the US base in Qasrak, located on our territory, was attacked by four drones launched from Iraqi territory,” Sipan Hamo said on X, adding that “the drones were shot down without casualties”.
“We hold Iraq responsible and call upon it to prevent the recurrence of attacks that threaten our stability.”
The attack came a day after Syria’s army said it repelled another drone attack from Iraq aimed at al-Tanf, a base in the southeast which used to house US forces.
Earlier this week, the Syrian military said another base in the northeast was also targeted by a missile attack from Iraq, with an Iraqi official saying a local armed group was behind it. Iraq has arrested four people in connection with that attack.
Iraq has been pulled into the war since it was sparked by US and Israeli strikes against Iran, with the conflict engulfing much of the Middle East.
Pro-Tehran Iraqi groups have claimed responsibility for attacks on US interests in Iraq and across the region, while strikes have also targeted these groups.
In recent months, American forces have withdrawn from the al-Tanf base, as well as Shadadi in the northeastern province of Hasakeh, and had begun withdrawing from the Qasrak base, also located in Hasakeh.
Sarah Burns – 4 hours ago
Oman condemns attacks on its territory
Oman’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that it condemns attacks on its territory, adding that no party has claimed responsibility.
It said authorities were investigating the attacks’ “sources and motives” without providing further details.
Oman said on Saturday that a worker was injured in a drone attack on the Gulf country’s Salalah port and Danish container shipping group Maersk said later that it temporarily halted its operations at the port after Saturday’s attack.
Sarah Burns – 4 hours ago
Five killed in US-Israeli strikes on Iran city near Strait of Hormuz, state media reports
US-Israeli strikes hit a quay at an Iranian port city on Sunday near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, killing five people, Iranian state media reported.
“The American-Zionist enemy carried out a criminal attack at the quay of Bandar Khamir, killing five people and injuring four others,” the official IRNA news agency reported.
A satellite view of the Strait of Hormuz from January. Photograph: Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2025/Getty
Sarah Burns – 4 hours ago
IDF says it has hit Iranian command centres and weapons sites
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has hit temporary Iranian command centres and weapons production and storage sites in Tehran in a fresh wave of strikes.
In a post on X, the IDF said the sites targeted included “ballistic missile production and storage facilities, aerial defense systems, and observation posts of the Iranian regime”.
According to the IDF, Iran had moved some command centres to temporary sites. “Several temporary command centers were dismantled, including commanders who were operating within the HQ’s,” the IDF said in the post.
Smoke rises from Israeli artillery shelling on the village of Qlaileh, southern Lebanon. Photograph: Hussein Malla/AP
Sarah Burns – 4 hours ago
Iran Guards say strikes on Bahrain and UAE aluminium plants are retaliation for US-Israeli attacks
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says it launched missile and drone strikes on aluminium plants in Bahrain and the UAE over the weekend in retaliation for a US-Israeli attack on Iranian industrial infrastructure launched from bases in Gulf states.
The Revolutionary Guards said the strikes were targeting what they described as industries linked to the US military.
Since the Middle East war erupted at the end of February, Bahrain and other Gulf countries have regularly been targeted by Iranian missile and drone strikes in retaliation for the US-Israeli campaign.
In a statement carried by Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, the Revolutionary Guards said they hit an aluminium facility in the UAE and Aluminium Bahrain’s main plant, calling both sites “industries affiliated with and connected to the US military and aerospace sectors in the region”.
Aluminium Bahrain, one of the world’s largest aluminium producers, said two employees were wounded in an Iranian strike targeting its facility on Saturday.
The company, also known as Alba, said the workers suffered minor injuries.
Sarah Burns – 4 hours ago
War escalates as Yemen’s Houthis launch second attack on Israel and vow to continue strikes
Good morning and welcome to our continuing coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The war continues to escalate as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis confirmed a second wave of attacks on Israel since joining the conflict on Saturday. They have vowed to continue strikes in the coming days, posing a threat not just to worsening regional security but also global trade.
In Iran, two powerful explosions shook northern Tehran early on Sunday, an AFP journalist reported. The blasts occurred in the Iranian capital about 7.20am as air defences operated, but it was not yet clear what was targeted.
Meanwhile, the US is reportedly preparing plans for ground operations in Iran. The Trump administration has already deployed US Marines to the Middle East.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea announces a new attack on Israel via a televised statement, in Sana’a, Yemen, on Saturday. Photograph: EPA