Iran war updates: Tehran accuses US of ‘overt and covert’ moves for attack

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• US President Donald Trump has left open his options on the Iran war, saying: “Do we go and finish it up, or are they going to ⁠be signing a ⁠document?”
• Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says Iranians “should be assured” that the country’s armed forces have used the ceasefire to “rebuild their strength”.
• China’s President Xi told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that “a comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency” in the US-Israel war on Iran and that “resuming hostilities is even more inadvisable and maintaining negotiations is particularly important”.
• Iran’s newly-established Persian Gulf Strait Authority said vessels would require its authorisation to pass through a newly created controlled maritime zone in the Strait of Hormuz.
• The US military said it boarded and redirected an Iranian-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf ⁠of Oman.
• Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met with officials in Tehran, as Islamabad continues to work on mediated negotiations to end the war.
• The US has lifted sanctions against UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory Francesca Albanese.
• Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been widely condemned, including by US and Israeli officials, for posting a video showing him taunting detained Gaza flotilla activists who had been forced by Israeli guards to kneel with their hands bound.

New Zealand will summon Israel’s ambassador to air “grave concerns” about the treatment of detained activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.

Three New Zealanders were reportedly among hundreds of foreign activists abducted during an attempt to break through Israel’s devastating blockade of Gaza.

“We expect Israel to adhere to its international legal obligations, including in its treatment of New Zealanders participating in the flotilla,” Peters said.

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted footage showing activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla kneeling with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground while shouting abuse.

“Last year, New Zealand placed a travel ban on Minister Ben-Gvir for severely and deliberately undermining peace and security and removing prospects for a two-state solution,” Peters said.

“His latest conduct with respect to the Gaza flotilla, which has been seriously criticised by his own prime minister, is further vindication of that position.”

Iran’s ambassador to the UN has denounced the Security Council’s failure to address the unprovoked US-Israel attack on his country.

“Regrettably, the Security Council has failed to discharge its responsibilities in the face of this grave violation due to the obstruction of a permanent member that is itself an aggressor,” Amir Saeid Iravani said.

“The United States and the Israeli regime, and those who assisted and facilitated this aggression, must bear full legal and international responsibility for this heinous crime and serious violations. Impunity for such crimes not only betrays the victims, but also threatens international peace and security.”

Iravani told the body tasked with ensuring international peace and security that it “must not remain silent or indifferent to the repeated and daily baseless threats made by the president of the United States against Iran”.

Iravani also said that Trump’s rhetoric “sets a dangerous precedent”.

Hezbollah says its fighters launched 24 attacks on Israeli forces inside southern Lebanon on Wednesday.

The Lebanese armed group said its soldiers targeted Israeli troops in the towns of Rachaf, Debel, Deir Seriane, Shamaa, Haddatha, Biyyada and Naqoura using rocket barrages, artillery and swarms of loitering munitions.

According to a statement, Hezbollah fighters engaged an advancing Israeli infantry unit supported by two Merkava tanks near the Husseiniya religious centre in the town of Haddatha using small arms to force its retreat.

The Cypriot Foreign Ministry says the “acts displayed” by the Israeli minister “towards flotilla participants are utterly unacceptable and inconsistent with democratic norms and fundamental values of human dignity”.

“Such condemnable behaviour can never be tolerated and should be duly accounted for,” it posted in a statement on X.

“While the statements issued by Israeli government members distancing themselves from such disrespectful conduct are noted, rectifying steps should be taken immediately,” the ministry added.

As we’ve been reporting, the Israeli national security minister posted a video showing detained activists from the Gaza flotilla kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs and foreheads on the ground.

The footage was widely condemned, including by Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who did not condemn the abuse itself but questioned the decision to share the footage.

The US president has again expressed optimism that a peace deal with Iran is getting closer.

Trump told reporters the US and Iran are “right on the borderline” between getting a deal and resuming the war.

“If we don’t get the right answer, it could happen very quickly. We have to get the right answer. It will have to be 100 percent good answers,” he added.

The president said he’ll give another “few days” for diplomatic efforts to succeed.

“Hopefully, those people will make a deal that will be great for everybody, but I don’t know … If I can save people from getting killed by waiting a couple of days, I think it is a great thing to do.”

The US stock market bounced back after pressure eased on Wall Street from the bond market and oil prices gave back some of their big gains.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.1 percent for its first rise in four days and pulled closer to its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 645 points, or 1.3 percent, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.5 percent.

Stocks got a lift from easing yields in the bond market, which offered relief following rapid climbs that rattled stock markets worldwide recently. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.57 percent from 4.67 percent late Tuesday – a significant move for a market that measures things in hundredths of a percentage point.

The 10-year Treasury yield had been rising from less than 4 percent before the war on Iran began, along with other yields around the world, because of worries the fighting will keep oil prices high, among other factors.

We don’t have any real news apart from what President Trump continues to say – that it could be a few days, maybe longer, that he’s prepared to wait and that he will not be rushed into taking any decision.

That decision is, of course, whether or not to extend the ceasefire or to break it and launch another offensive – something he said he’s willing to do within an hour of being phoned by some Gulf leaders who asked to extend the ceasefire.

There isn’t much detail as to exactly what the nature of these negotiations is. We heard President Trump talking about some of the people who the US is speaking to, saying they are “reasonable”.

He’s also said he would not consider relief from sanctions for Iran until a deal is signed, so he’s moving that particular card off the table. But, as he says, he’s prepared to wait for a few days – maybe more – to see what the Iranian response will be.

The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has condemned a video showing Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir taunting activists as they were forced to kneel on the floor with their hands tied behind their backs.

Kallas described the treatment of the abducted activists as “degrading and wrong” and said Ben-Gvir’s conduct is “unbecoming of anyone holding office in a democracy”.

Several countries – including Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Canada – have summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their capitals to express “indignation” over Israel’s treatment of the Gaza flotilla activists.

The Republic of Ireland is the latest nation to decry the treatment of its citizens captured at sea by Israel’s navy as they highlighted the plight of Palestinians in occupied Gaza.

Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said she’s “shocked and appalled” by video of the bound detainees being humiliated by Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

She said Israel has been told to assure the “welfare and wellbeing” of Irish citizens is “safeguarded”.

Ben-Gvir released videos on Wednesday showing him walking among some of the 430 detainees. In one, activists with their hands tied behind their backs are kneeling, their heads touching the floor inside what appears to be a detention area and on the deck of a ship.

Two childhood neighbours say they’re fighting for justice after an Israeli strike on a residential building killed five of their relatives.

The attack came hours after the US-Iran ceasefire announcement last month, when Israel launched one of its largest waves of strikes across Lebanon.

See more in our report here:

Oil prices have fallen nearly 6 percent as traders closely monitor negotiations between Tehran and Washington to end the war.

Brent Crude futures dropped to $105 a barrel while US oil futures settled at $98 a barrel.

US President Donald Trump said negotiations with Iran are in the “final stages” but warned of further “harder” attacks unless Iran agrees to a peace deal.

Despite continued negotiations between both sides, investors remain wary because of dwindling oil and gas supplies, with Iran continuing to control traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Pedro Sanchez has condemned the treatment of the abducted Gaza Flotilla activists, calling for Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to be banned from entering the European Union.

“The images of the Israeli minister Ben Gvir humiliating members of the international flotilla in support of Gaza are unacceptable,” Sanchez said in a post on X.

“In September, I announced the ban on access to national territory for this member of the Israeli government. Now we are going to push in Brussels for these sanctions to be elevated to the European scale on an urgent basis.”