Lebanese army accuses Israelis of firing near troops as president prepares to meet Trump – Middle East crisis live

Both Kuwait and Bahrain have issued alerts and sounded sirens in the past couple of minutes as they continue to intercept incoming Iranian drones.

Bahrain’s army said its air defence systems intercepted and destroyed “several” Iranian air attacks, while the Kuwaiti armed forces assured people that any explosion that may be heard are the result of “hostile targets” being shot down.

The Pentagon has identified a US solider who was killed in Iraq on Sunday.

Sgt Michael Emmanuel Swinton was killed during a “controlled detonation” of an Iranian attack drone at Erbil airbase in northern Iraq, the US defence department said in a statement today.

The New York Times, citing a US official, reported Swinton was not involved in the detonation of the drone but was killed by flying debris from the blast. The Pentagon said in its statement that the incident was under investigation.

The US military’s Central Command (Centcom) announced previously that two other US soldiers were killed in Iranian strikes on Jordan on Friday.

The Lebanese army accused Israel of firing near its troops as they were being deployed to an area in southern Lebanon.

In a statement on X, the army said its soldiers were operating in Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh when Israeli forces “opened fire in the vicinity of these units”.

The army said the attack “will hinder the implementation of the deployment stages in the ‘pilot zones’”, which began today under a framework agreement signed by Israel and Lebanon on 26 June (see post at 7:51).

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the claim.

Two oil ⁠tankers loaded with Saudi crude for ⁠China ⁠and ​India have made ⁠U-turns in the Red Sea on Tuesday ⁠and were headed ​toward ‌the ‌Suez, shipping data on LSEG ‌showed.

As Reuters reports, on Monday, Yemen’s Houthi militia declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, ​opening a potential new front against the US ⁠in its war ​with Iran ​and raising ​the threat ​to ‌global energy supplies ​and ​trade beyond the Gulf.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ⁠has claimed that there has been a substantial decrease ⁠in China’s purchases of Iranian oil.

“We have ⁠sanctioned Chinese … so-called teapot ​refineries, which ‌are the ‌private refineries, and we’ve ‌seen a substantial decrease in their purchases of Iranian oil,” Bessent said on Tuesday in an interview with Fox Business ‌Network.

“The Chinese, in general, because of the ​prices and because they have a very large strategic petroleum reserve, have ⁠dropped their purchases of crude ​over ​the past few ​months by about ​40%, and ‌that’s directly ​pressuring ​the Iranian regime,” Bessent said.

The comments from Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Security, come amid further rises in the price of oil.

They are up nearly 2% today to over $90 a barrel following the exchange of attacks by the US and ⁠Iran as well as ​threats of a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia by Yemen’s Houthis.

Benchmark Brent crude futures rose $1.62, or 1.8%, to $90.84 a barrel around lunchtime in London.

The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, said the deteriorating situation around the strait of Hormuz was accentuating security concerns about the supply of oil but that the markets “continue to benefit from several cushioning factors”.

Among these were supplies from Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, continuing to reach global markets through alternative routes to the strait of Hormuz, and producers from outside the Middle East increasing their exports to make some of the shortfall.

But, Birol added in a statement, the “full and unconditional reopening of the strait of Hormuz will be essential to avoid a further deterioration in global energy security”.

He said:

There is no room for complacency on oil security amid the escalation in hostilities and a continued drawdown of available commercial inventories. Refinery activity and product supplies have not picked up as much as crude deliveries, meaning that markets for refined oil products, including diesel and gasoline, are considerably tighter than those for crude.”

The president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, said the level of communication with the supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has “increased” and that he continues to guide decisions for the country, according to state media.

That is despite the leader not being seen in public since the US-Israeli war against Iran began in late February. He assumed the role of supreme leader shortly after his father was killed in US-Israeli strikes in Tehran on 28 February and has only communicated through written statements published in state media.

Speaking at a public event today, Pezeshkian said: “Now, with increased communication and greater access to our beloved leader, all actions are organised according to his guidelines.”

Kuwait’s energy ministry said Iran has targeted power and desalination plants for a fourth day in a row as attacks continued to escalate in the region.

In a statement on its website, the Kuwaiti ministry of electricity, water and renewable energy said “several” plants were attacked yesterday for a fourth consecutive day, resulting in fires and damage.

About 90% of Kuwait’s drinking water comes from desalination, according to the Associated Press.

Iran’s interior minister, Eskandar Momeni, has begun meetings with mediators in Pakistan as diplomatic efforts continue in a bid to salvage the interim deal between the US and Iran.

Momeni met Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir and is also expected to meet the Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, later today, the Associated Press reported, citing two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

Authorities did not immediately release details of the meeting, which came as Iran continued its attacks on Gulf Arab allies of the US.

Pakistan played a key role in brokering last month’s interim agreement and has worked to persuade both sides back to the negotiating table.

Here are some early images of the Lebanese army being deployed to the village of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh in southern Lebanon after Israeli forces withdrew from the area:

As mentioned in a previous post, the Lebanese army will resume control of the village as part of the “pilot zone programme” agreed under the US-brokered deal between Lebanon and Israel, which will see the Israeli military gradually withdraw from areas it occupies in southern Lebanon.

The far-right Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said Israel has “no interest” in joining US military operations against Iran, according to local media reports.

Israel has largely kept out of the renewed fighting between the US and Iran in recent weeks, after Washington reportedly requested Israel sit out of the conflict while negotiations were ongoing following the April ceasefire. While an agreement was signed by the US and Iran last month, it was short-lived, and the momentary lull in fighting was followed by back and forth strikes between the two countries as they battle for control of the strait of Hormuz.

“The current situation, in which there is a limited conflict between Iran and the United States, is the right and the best one for us. We’re not looking to push ourselves in,” Smotrich said at a conference, according to the Israel newspaper Haaretz.

Bahrain’s military has said it has intercepted a number of Iranian attacks. Earlier, the Iranian army claimed to have launched a drone attack against US military targets at the Sheikh Isa airbase in the Bahrain.

“The air defences of the Bahrain Defence Force intercepted and destroyed a number of Iranian aerial aggressions,” the military said in a statement on X.