Iran vows to ‘deal devastating blows using full military might’
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has said “one must both fight and negotiate” as the war drags on.
“This means at the critical moment we must push the enemy back and deal them devastating blows using our full military might,” Mr Ghalibaf told parliament.
“However, once we have achieved significant success on the battlefield and the enemy is in a position of weakness we must use diplomacy to consolidate these gains.”
(AFP/Getty)
Maryam Zakir-Hussain20 September 2026 10:01
Iran says Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until its conditions are met, Fars reports
Iran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until its conditions are met and US commitments are implemented, parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on Sunday according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
Iran must both fight and negotiate, Qalibaf said, adding that Tehran would use military force to push back its enemies and diplomacy to consolidate battlefield gains when the time is right.
Shweta Sharma20 September 2026 08:30
US military says it escorted one billion barrels of oil
The US military has escorted 1 billion barrels of crude oil out of the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz over the past couple of months, according to the commander of US Central Command, Adm Brad Cooper.
More than 2,000 commercial ships have transited the strategic waterway under US protection, Cooper said in a video released on social media on Saturday.
“Even with this progress, we remain clear-eyed and laser-focused as we work with our teammates in the US interagency, as well as all six partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council, known as the GCC, as well as insurance and shipping companies to increase the volume of traffic flow through the Strait of Hormuz,” Cooper said.
“The effort is paying off. The volume of crude oil, cargo and liquid natural gas these past two weeks is higher than at any point in the last six months,” he added.
Cooper also said the US was working with Gulf countries to strengthen their air defences, although he did not provide further details.
Countries including Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan have faced repeated drone and missile attacks from Iran.
The announcement comes after a difficult period for energy markets under the Trump administration.
US diesel prices reached a record high of more than $6 a gallon, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose from $93 a barrel on 4 September to $109 on 10 September before falling back to $103 by the end of the week.
Shweta Sharma20 September 2026 08:00
US likely committed war crimes with ‘reckless’ strike on Iran school that killed 120 children, damning UN report finds
The United States is believed to have committed war crimes during two military strikes in Iran this year, including a devastating attack on a primary school which killed more than 120 children, a damning UN report says.
The deadly incident took place in February this year, soon after the US-Israeli war on Iran started, and alongside another strike on a sports centre resulted in the deaths of at least 178 civilians.
The report by humans rights experts also documented the killings of thousands of anti-regime protestors across Iran, in which at least 221 children were reportedly killed, some as young as two years-old. The crackdown by Tehran amounted to crimes against humanity, the report said.
Shweta Sharma20 September 2026 07:30
Tehran lays out to Trump fresh conditions for ending war, says security chief
Tehran has laid out fresh conditions to end the war with the US, security chief Mohsen Rezaei has said.
The conditions include ending the war on all fronts, unfreezing Iranian funds and ending the naval blockade, he said in an interview according to Al Jazeera.
Iran is now awaiting a response from Donald Trump, Rezaei added.
“The United States, if it wants to extricate itself from the predicament it has created, must accept Iran’s rights and conditions,” Rezaei wrote on X, saying the seven demands had been communicated to Washington.
Discussions with Qatari and Pakistani mediators are ongoing, he added, as the delegations work to bring an end to the stalemate which has seen the war drag past the six-month mark.
Shweta Sharma20 September 2026 07:00
Tourists turn to the Balkans and Brazil: How the Middle East conflict has redrawn our holiday map
Turkey, Romania and Hungary are out – while Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia are in.
How war in the Middle East has changed the way we travel
As the war between the US, Israel and Iran continues to disrupt flight routes and rattle traveller confidence, tourism is shifting away from the Middle East and its neighbours – with the Balkans, South America and northeast Asia among the surprising winners. Global Travel Editor Annabel Grossman reports on how conflict is reshaping our global movements in the latest Travel Insider newsletter
Shweta Sharma20 September 2026 06:30
Houthis say they targeted ‘sensitive sites’ in Riyadh
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had carried out two operations using ballistic and cruise missiles and drones.
“In response to the Saudi enemy’s criminal attempts to target the capital Sana’a … the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out two successful military operations using a large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones,” Saree said in a statement on Telegram.
“The first targeted sensitive sites in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and the second targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu.”
The Houthis did not specify which sites in Riyadh were targeted. However, one of the sites appeared to be an Aramco fuel storage depot at King Khalid International Airport.
An AFP journalist reported that firefighters had extinguished a blaze on a fuel tank bearing the logo of Saudi oil giant Aramco at a fuel depot near Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday.
The reported attack on Yanbu is significant because the port lies on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, roughly 700 miles north of the Yemen border.
Riyadh is also more than 700 miles from the border, highlighting the distance into Saudi territory that Houthi attacks are capable of reaching.
Shweta Sharma20 September 2026 06:00
Turkey says it could help meet Saudi military needs under defence pact
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday that Saudi Arabia may have military needs due to the ongoing attacks by Yemen’s Houthis and that Turkey was ready to help under a trilateral defence pact that also includes Pakistan.
“We see there are very serious attacks on Saudi Arabia’s territorial integrity, sovereignty. We have an alliance agreement in our pact. We are in serious solidarity on this point… They may have some military needs, especially on some technical issues. We would have no issues in meeting these,” Fidan told broadcaster NTV.
The joint defence agreement, dubbed the “Mecca Joint Defence Agreement”, signed last month stipulates that an armed attack on any one of the three countries will be regarded as an attack on all of them.
The Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen, have been launching attacks on Saudi Arabia since declaring a naval blockade against Riyadh in July, a new front in the wider war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.
Fidan said that it was unacceptable for Saudi Arabia to be made a part of the US-Iran war as it had no desire to join the conflict. He added, without elaborating, that proposals have been conveyed to all sides to end the fighting.
“There are many initiatives, but the sides need to accept these,” he said. “There are new proposals, I hope they accept them. Otherwise, the crisis was tolerated until a certain point, but the economic reflections have started to exceed the point of being tolerable.”
Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army, has said the pact with nuclear-armed Pakistan and top oil exporter Saudi Arabia was open to expansion and did not seek to replace any existing alliances.
Pakistan has said that there were no discussions about a military reaction from Islamabad under the Mecca agreement in response to the Houthis’ attacks on Saudi Arabia, but added that Pakistan would act when the “time comes”.
Shweta Sharma20 September 2026 05:30
US renews blanket Mideast travel alert
The US State Department on Saturday renewed a blanket travel alert for Americans in or traveling to the Middle East, warning that the conflict with Iran “has the potential to escalate rapidly.”
Security alerts for Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Lebanon, Kuwait and Jordan warned the regional security environment “remains complex with the potential for unforeseen escalation.”
Meanwhile, at least 11 US embassies in the region issued a warning that travel disruptions are possible.
Shweta Sharma20 September 2026 05:00
Iran conveys its conditions for ending war with the US
The head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, told Al Jazeera in an interview that Iran has conveyed its conditions for ending the war to the US via Qatar and it is waiting for President Donald Trump’s response.
It was not clear when the conditions were shared.
Rezaei said they include ending the war on all fronts, releasing assets seized from Iran and ending the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. Earlier US-Iran negotiations fell apart.
He also said Iran wants the fighting involving Yemen and Saudi Arabia to end.
Shweta Sharma20 September 2026 04:30