US launches further strikes on Iran; Houthis threaten Saudi shipping blockade – Middle East crisis live

Saudi Arabia on Monday condemned an announcement by Yemen’s Houthis of a maritime blockade of the kingdom, as the Iran-backed rebels threatened the top oil exporter’s ability to bypass the strait of Hormuz.

In a statement the Saudi foreign ministry said it “expresses the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s strongest condemnation of the statements made by the so-called military spokesman of the terrorist Houthi militia … imposing a maritime blockade on the Kingdom.”

The kingdom, it said, “will take all necessary measures to protect its vessels in accordance with international law.”

It added that Riyadh “continues to support the brotherly Yemeni people and their legitimate government”.

Iranian state TV is reporting explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas. And the Mehr news agency is reporting air defence systems being activated near the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

The US military began a fresh round of strikes against Iran about 20 minutes ago, according to Centcom.

“The strikes are designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” it said in a statement.

The Lebanese army began taking charge of security in three southern villages on Monday, the United States said, as a deal to secure an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah faced its first test on the ground.

The US state department said operations had started in “pilot zones” in Froun, Srifa and Zawtar al-Gharbiya “in accordance with the Trilateral Framework and under the auspices of the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon.”

Spokesman Tommy Pigott described the step as a direct outcome of talks held between Israeli and Lebanese delegations in Rome last week.

The framework, signed by Lebanon, Israel and the US on 26 June, envisions a phased Israeli withdrawal from positions in southern Lebanon.

In exchange, the Lebanese Armed Forces are to assume sole security control of vacated areas and certify that they have been cleared of Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure.

Hezbollah has rejected the framework, with the Iran-backed group insisting any arrangement in Lebanon be linked to wider negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

It has not said whether it will resist implementation in the designated areas.

The agreement does not set a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal. Israeli officials have also vowed that their forces will remain in a “security zone” six miles deep along the frontier for as long as Hezbollah remains armed.

The Lebanese military said on Monday that troops “continue to carry out their missions in the southern regions, including the towns of Froun and Srifa.”

“In parallel, coordination is underway with the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon (MCG4L) to begin deployment in the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiya,” awaiting Israel’s withdrawal from there, the army added.

The mayor of Froun, Hassan Bazzi, told Al Jazeera on Monday that the Lebanese army has not yet begun deploying in Zawtar al-Gharbiya, because Israeli forces are yet to withdraw from the outskirts of the town.

“There have been no new developments in the town of Froun. The situation remains unchanged,” said.

Lebanese president Joseph Aoun is set to meet with Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday.

An ⁠explosive-laden drone was ⁠shot ⁠down near Iraq’s ​al-Harir air ⁠base which houses ⁠US​ forces, ‌security sources told ‌Reuters.

There were no immediate reports of ‌casualties or damage from the ​incident which was ⁠reported east ​of Erbil.

Here is more from Jordan’s army on intercepting the missiles coming from Iran.

“The air defence system intercepted and downed tonight three missiles coming from Iranian territory that entered Jordanian airspace and targeted the kingdom’s territory,” the army said in a statement, adding it “did not lead to any injuries or material damage”.

Jordan’s armed forces said three missiles launched from Iran have been intercepted, state TV is reporting.

No injuries or material damage has been reported.

Sirens sounded in the capital Amman on Monday evening, AFP reported.

The mayor of the Lebanese town of Froun, Hassan Bazzi, said the Lebanese army has not begun deploying troops in the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiya because Israeli forces are yet to withdraw from the outskirts of the town.

He told Al Jazeera: “This is just talk. There have been no new developments in the town of Froun. The situation remains unchanged.”

Sirens sounded in the Jordanian city of Amman in the last few minutes, Agence France-Presse reports.

We’ll get you more information as we get it.

Even by the brutal standards of militant settler violence in the West Bank, the raid on Deir Jarir late on Sunday night that killed two Palestinians and left another in hospital with a gunshot wound was extreme.

Palestinians in the town said settlers from a nearby outpost arrived after 9pm on Sunday claiming that they were searching for stolen livestock. Israeli soldiers and police soon joined them, protecting them as they sought to take several villagers’ sheep by force.

But when villagers raised the alarm and a crowd gathered, soldiers shot two men, beginning a night of three successive raids by settlers from nearby outposts and Israeli soldiers that lasted until after 2am, according to Palestinian residents of Deir Jarir.

Saber Ajaj, a relative of one of the victims, 53-year-old Odeh Farajna, said he found him moments after he had been shot through the chest. Farajna, a member of the village council, owned a flower shop and helped with the stonework at the local graveyard.

Donald ⁠Trump also said on Monday that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested ⁠when he visits ⁠the ​United States, after New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was still ⁠considering the move.

“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while ⁠in the United States of America,” Trump wrote ​on social media , without referring to the mayor’s comments.

Trump did not ‌mention Mamdani in his Truth Social post, but credited Israel with helping in the war against Iran.

Over the weekend, Mamdani said he was reviewing whether his administration could arrest Netanyahu if as expected the Israeli prime minister visits the city for the UN general assembly in September.

“I believe that prime minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani told the New York Times’s the Interview podcast on Saturday, referring to the Dutch city that is home to the international criminal court, which issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024 over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

“He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the international criminal court, and what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these past many years,” Mamdani said.

Mamdani said it was unclear to him whether he has the legal authority to order the New York police department (NYPD), which he oversees, to detain a foreign leader like Netanyahu. But he said he was in “an active conversation” with the city’s law department about the matter.

“Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do,” Mamdani added. “But we won’t be writing our own laws to that end.”

The warrant which the ICC issued for the arrest of Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders accused them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including “starvation as a method of warfare, and … murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.

Here’s our story on Mamdani’s comments:

Donald ⁠Trump said ⁠on ​Monday ⁠that Iran ⁠would “pay” ​for ‌killing ‌US soldiers “many times over” after multiple service members ‌were killed ​in ⁠action ​over the ​weekend.

The US president wrote on Truth Social:

Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over! This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military.

The US military on Monday identified two soldiers killed in Jordan while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks. An examination of remains is underway to determine whether they belong to a third service member who was reporting missing in that attack. And in Iraq, another US service member died after “a controlled detonation” of an Iranian drone.

It brings the total number of deaths in the war with Iran, which the US and Israel started in late February, to 17.

Iran’s president has said the country is in a “full-scale war” after the United States expanded its aerial campaign and Tehran struck Washington’s Gulf allies, even as diplomats say talks are ongoing to de-escalate.

Iranian media reported strikes around Tabriz, believed to hold underground missile bases, as well as Bushehr, home to the country’s only operational civilian nuclear power plant. The US military said it had struck “military command centers, air defence and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and communications networks”.

Iran launched attacks against Bahrain, which hosts the US navy’s fifth fleet, and Kuwait, in addition to striking tankers in the strait of Hormuz, which carried a fifth of global oil and gas supplies before the war. Bahrain said its country’s air traffic systems were damaged by the strikes, but said traffic was unaffected.

The Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen also announced a blockade of Saudi ports.

“The reality is that today the Islamic Republic of Iran is engaged in a full-scale war,” the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said in a statement on Monday, warning it might have to endure more strikes.

But in a sign that talks could still stop the escalating round of conflict, an Iranian official told Reuters that mediators gave Iran a proposal for a 10-day-ceasefire to find ways to revive the MoU. The proposal follows a statement by Iran that diplomacy with the US was ongoing despite the fighting, without giving details on the content of the discussions.

Iran’s interior minister was expected to travel to Islamabad on Monday, Agence France-Presse reported.

“We have been informed by mediators, we have received messages – without going into details – but the main point is that the diplomatic apparatus has been active in recent days and ideas have been conveyed to us by certain mediators,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said at a press conference in Tehran.

Hours earlier, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the US was still open to negotiations with Iran, but that “it has to be real”.

“We’re going to continue to respond. If the door opens to diplomacy – if the guys that want to do something productive for Iran win and take control of that system, or take control of the negotiations – that’ll be a very positive development,” Rubio said.