US and Iran separately talk with mediators in latest bid to end war
US and Iranian officials held separate talks with mediators on Monday in a renewed effort to end the seven-month war.
Further negotiations are expected to centre on an amended version of Iran’s seven-day proposal, which calls for an end to hostilities, the unfreezing of Iranian assets, sanctions relief and the lifting of the US blockade, in return for Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said: “If the Americans claim they are seeking an agreement or a peaceful solution, we have presented that solution,” while adding that “our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent on these conditions being met”.
Trump had rejected Iran’s proposal but said further talks could take place this week.
Maroosha Muzaffar29 September 2026 08:00
Senior Hamas commander killed in Israeli strike on Gaza City
An Israeli airstrike has killed Izz al-Din Al-Beik, the head of Hamas’s armed wing in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz said the Israeli military had targeted and killed Beik, who they said has been involved in the planning of attacks and recruitment of militants.
Medics and Hamas sources told Reuters that Beik was killed in an Israeli strike on an apartment building in Gaza City’s Nasr neighbourhood around dawn on Tuesday.
Adam Withnall29 September 2026 07:41
Shipping through Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz slowed over the weekend, data showed on Monday, following attacks on tankers as US-Iran talks aimed at resolving the Middle East conflict stalled.
Five commodity vessels transited the strait on Saturday, while none were recorded on Sunday, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler. This compares with 31 vessels that crossed during the previous weekend.
Despite those figures, US secretary of state Marco Rubio has claimed the Strait is largely open.
Maroosha Muzaffar29 September 2026 07:00
Rubio warns Iran with nuclear weapon would ‘blackmail the world’
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the Strait of Hormuz remains largely open, with oil flows close to pre-war levels apart from Iranian oil, but warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an “unacceptable risk”.
He said Tehran could use nuclear weapons to “blackmail the world and to kill people”, potentially controlling the strait and energy supplies.
Rubio also criticised Iran’s leadership, saying: “Who calls the shots in Iran are radical Shia clerics with an apocalyptic vision of the future. They believe that it is a religious calling to trigger about the last days of the world, the apocalypse.”
He accused Iran of using money from sanctions relief and economic sales to build weapons and “export the revolution” rather than “improve the lives of the Iranian people”
.“They use the money to fund Hezbollah, they use the money to fund Hamas, they use the money to fund Shia militias in Iraq… they use the money to sponsor terrorism and assassination plots,” he said.
Maroosha Muzaffar29 September 2026 06:00
UK releases suspects as Iran denies role in RAF Fairford
Five British men in their early 20s have been released on bail after being arrested near RAF Fairford over suspected terrorism and explosives offences.
British counterterrorism police said the investigation was ongoing and that they were examining possible links to Iran, Russia or non-state armed groups, including whether the suspects may have been acting as proxies for a foreign government.
Police have not publicly tied Iran to the arrests.Iran has categorically denied any involvement, calling the allegations “unfounded and malicious”, according to a statement by Iran’s embassy in London.
US president Donald Trump said the incident “might be” connected to Iran, while UK ministers warned of threats from Iran and its proxies.
Maroosha Muzaffar29 September 2026 05:00
Trump denies sanctions relief for Iran
Donald Trump has rejected reports that Washington had offered Tehran sanctions relief.
Trump dismissed reports that his administration had offered Iran access to frozen funds or sanctions concessions in exchange for nuclear commitments.
“This is untrue. I offered them NOTHING,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Meanwhile, Trump confirmed on Monday that US officials separately spoke with mediators, without giving further details.
He also said: “We’re going to win, as far as I’m concerned, it’s going to be one way or the other. It’s going to go pretty quickly.”
Maroosha Muzaffar29 September 2026 03:57
Recap: Men arrested over RAF Fairford ‘bomb plot’ released on bail
Five men arrested over a suspected bomb plot near an RAF base have been released on bail, the Metropolitan Police has said.
They were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences and later on suspicion of terrorism offences, after a villager dialled 999 when she saw three vans and a group of masked men near the base.
Nicole Wootton-Cane29 September 2026 03:00
Iranian state actors targeting UK dissidents, activists and journalists with spyware
British intelligence has issued a warning after finding Iranian spies have targeted dissidents with spyware that can enable tracking of their movements.
Dissidents, activists and journalists were targeted by state actors that impersonated their contacts on messaging apps to trick them into downloading spyware called Chosen Brick, the National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, warned.
The malware gave agents access to the person’s contacts, emails and social media messages as well as a device’s microphone and content on the screen.
Nicole Wootton-Cane29 September 2026 02:00
Recap: Iranian president’s defiant UN speech accuses US of ‘terrorism’ and flouting international law
Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian launched a defiant attack on the United States and Israel at the UN, the day after President Donald Trump threatened to “annihilate” the Islamic Republic.
The US leader warned he could send Iran to “hell” during his combative address to the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, seven months after the war he started alongside Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.
In his address to the gathering in New York on Wednesday, Mr Pezeshkian insisted that Iran would never surrender and held up images of children killed in a strike on a primary school in Minab.
Nicole Wootton-Cane29 September 2026 01:00
Gulf nations keep oil flowing despite Iran war as costs mount
When Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz at the beginning of the war, cutting off sea passage for some 15 million barrels of oil a day, many feared that prices would skyrocket.
Instead, nearly seven months on, oil is expensive but not exorbitant, and analysts suggest current supply is sufficient to meet current global needs, even as the higher prices cause political problems for US President Donald Trump and others.
That’s because Saudi Arabia and other Gulf producers quickly found alternative routes and reached for unused pipeline capacity. When Iran and its militant allies targeted those, the oil exporters and the U.S. military found further workarounds in an often clandestine game of whack-a-mole.
Nicole Wootton-Cane29 September 2026 00:00