Iran war live: Trump says war ‘toward the end’, claims he spoke with Tehran

We’re about to close this live page. But before we go, here’s a look at some of the latest developments:

• Oil prices fell as reports that Saudi Arabia was offering additional crude shipments through Oman eased concerns about disruptions to regional supplies.
• The UAE, Somalia, Turkiye and Lebanon condemned what Saudi Arabia described as a Houthi drone attack targeting Mecca. The Houthis denied targeting the holy city.
• The United States reiterated its support for Yemen’s internationally recognised government against what it called “Iran-backed Houthi aggression”.
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged de-escalation in the Middle East, calling for diplomacy, the protection of civilians and humanitarian operations, and the restoration of freedom of navigation.
• Yemen’s government forces said they targeted Houthi positions and equipment near Mocha and carried out drone attacks in northern Marib.
• UNICEF said at least nine children had been killed and more than 104,000 people displaced during two weeks of fighting in Yemen.
• Israeli forces launched attacks across several towns in southern Lebanon despite the nominal ceasefire, according to Lebanese state media.
• The collapse of a residential building in Gaza City killed 21 people and injured 45 others, according to a statement released by the Gaza Strip’s civil defence organisation.

We know from the video that the Ansar Allah Houthis claim they were able to shoot down an F-15 fighter jet.

The big question is: How were they able to do it? What type of weapon did they use?

What I can tell you from speaking to experts is that the missile used to target the F-15 was an R-27T or R-73. These are typically air-to-air missiles.

However, the Houthis converted the weapon into a land-to-air missile. They repurposed it so that it could be launched from the ground instead of from the air.

The missile uses a passive infrared guidance system. It tracks and homes in on heat emitted by the target’s engine.

The repurposing of this missile is why they were successful in targeting the jet …

From the video we are seeing and reports from the Houthis, we know that they have an air defence system capable of shooting Saudi fighter jets out of the sky.

Rescue workers are frantically searching for survivors after a seven-storey building collapse killed at least 21 people and trapped dozens more in Gaza.

The apartment building had previously been bombed by Israel, damaging its structural stability.

Watch below for scenes from the ground:

Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF) says it has treated 22 people injured by Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past week.

“Israeli airstrikes continue to hit Gaza every day, killing and injuring people across the Strip”, MSF said in a statement posted on X.

MSF added that its teams in az-Zawayda hospital treated eight people wounded in an air strike on Wednesday, including three children. Yesterday, MSF said its teams treated three people, including two children.

“These attacks are part of a continuing pattern across Gaza. On 11 September, our teams at Al-Attar had treated 11 others injured in Israeli airstrikes. On 13 September, an Israeli airstrike hit a car next to an MSF bus transporting humanitarian workers, injuring one of our staff,” it added.

A bipartisan group of US senators are pressing the Trump administration to disclose the full terms of its proposed civil nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, including two binding documents negotiated alongside the deal.

In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, the lawmakers argued that Congress and the public need access to the complete text to assess the commitments made by Washington and Riyadh, Reuters reported.

The initiative was led by Democratic Senators Jeff Merkley and Ed Markey and backed by 16 other senators, including Republicans Rand Paul and John Kennedy.

The proposed 30-year agreement was submitted to Congress in August and is undergoing a 90-day review. It would allow for the construction of AP1000 nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia as part of a project worth tens of billions of dollars.

Critics say the proposal does not explicitly prevent Saudi Arabia from enriching uranium or reprocessing spent nuclear fuel – activities that could potentially produce material for nuclear weapons. The Trump administration maintains that the agreement includes non-proliferation safeguards required under US law.

Oil prices settled lower today after reports that Saudi Arabia was offering additional crude shipments through Oman eased concerns about Middle East supply disruptions, Reuters reports.

Brent crude futures fell $2.92, or 2.7 percent, to settle at $105.83 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate dropped $3.40, or 3.2 percent, to $102.43.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Saudi Arabia was offering additional crude to Asian refiners through ship-to-ship transfers off Oman’s Sohar port. The move follows drone attacks that damaged the kingdom’s East-West pipeline, which supplies the Red Sea export terminal at Yanbu.

“News that Saudi Arabia is exporting from the Gulf suggests concerns about a potential worsening of the disruptions are easing,” UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.

Prices also came under pressure after US crude inventories fell by 640,000 barrels last week, less than the 1.6-million-barrel decline expected by analysts. US petrol and distillate inventories also increased.

UAE’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the Houthis’ attempted drone attack on Mecca.

In a social media post, the Foreign Ministry said that the attempted attack constitutes a violation of Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty.

“We affirm the UAE’s full solidarity with Saudi Arabia and its support for all measures to safeguard its security and stability,” the statement read.

Saudi Arabia has said that a drone launched by the Houthis towards Mecca has been intercepted and destroyed. The Houthis have denied targeting the Islamic holy city.

The top US diplomat for Yemen, Neil Hop, told Yemen’s Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba that the US maintained its “strong support” for Yemen’s internationally recognised government, according to a readout of their phone call provided by the US embassy in Yemen.

“The United States of America stands in solidarity with the Yemen government and its people against Iran-backed Houthi aggression,” the embassy cited Hop as saying in a post on X, after days of battlefield advances swept pro-government fighters from the entirety of Yemen’s Red Sea coast.

Let’s bring you up to speed:

• A senior Democratic lawmaker said he will place a hold on the Trump administration’s proposed sale of 40,000 bombs to Israel worth $2.8bn.
• Israeli forces carried out attacks in three southern Lebanese towns.
• Iran’s national security chief Mohsen Rezaei said the United States must take practical steps to earn Iranian confidence.
• Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir said its war in Lebanon was “not over”.
• The spokesperson for US Central Command told Al Jazeera that US advisers were supporting their Saudi partners.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for de-escalation and diplomacy in the Middle East as fighting ramps up in Yemen and between the Iran-allied Houthi group and Saudi Arabia.

“At this critical moment in the Middle East, de-escalation must be a priority,” Guterres said in a post on X.

Guterres called for the safety of humanitarian operations, the restoration of free navigation and an end to any action that harms civilians.

Israeli forces have carried out a wave of attacks across southern Lebanon, according to the state-run National News Agency, despite a nominal ceasefire in April meant to halt hostilities between Israel and Iran-allied Hezbollah fighters.

Machine gun fire was reported on the outskirts of Haddatha while heavy explosions in the town of al-Mansouri in the Tyre district shook neighbouring villages, the agency reported.

The Israeli military also bombed Kfar Tebnit and carried out several strikes in Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, with explosions heard echoing across the Nabatieh region, the National News Agency said. A separate strike hit the Wadi Mazlam area of Beit Leef in the Bint Jbeil district.

There was no immediate information on casualties.

Somalia is the latest country to condemn a Houthi drone attack that Saudi Arabia says targeted the holy city of Mecca yesterday.  The Iran-allied armed Yemeni group denied any role in such an attack.

In a statement, Somalia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “strongly condemns the attempted drone attack on Makkah and the recent attacks on civilian areas in Saudi Arabia”.

Hajja Fatima Mohammed Saleh, a 70-year-old Yemeni woman, is among the countless people and families displaced from Taiz governorate in southwestern Yemen by recent fighting between government forces and the Houthis.

Saleh’s village in Maqbanah district near Yemen’s western coast was in the path of a lightning Houthi advance last week that captured for the armed group the whole of the Red Sea coast, including the port city of Mocha.

Saleh said she had to leave her wheelchair behind as it could not ply the rugged terrain she and her family had to traverse to find shelter.

“The attack was massive; we had never seen anything like it before. Shells were falling heavily on the village, and bullets were flying in every direction,” she told Al Jazeera. “We had no choice but to leave and flee to a safe place. We left everything we owned and walked a long distance on foot.”

Read the full story here. 

The ranking Democrat on the US House Foreign Affairs Committee Gregory Meeks says that he will place a hold on the Trump administration’s proposed sale of 40,000 bombs to Israel worth $2.8bn.

Meeks said that the administration did not provide sufficient assurances that bombs will be used by the Israeli government in accordance with US and international laws.

“The Trump administration’s proposed sale of 40,000 2,000-pound bombs, some of the most destructive munitions in our arsenal, raises grave, unresolved concerns about how these munitions could be used in densely populated areas of Gaza and Lebanon,” the Democratic representative from New York said.

The Israeli military has conducted an explosion in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Tebnit and shelled the towns of Majdal Zoun and al-Mansouri, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Al-Mansouri has been hit by several Israeli attacks today, including some targeting residential houses.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says that at least nine children have been killed in Yemen in the last two weeks of fighting, while more than 104,000 people have been displaced, including 57,000 children.

“Renewed hostilities across Yemen are forcing families from their homes, killing and injuring children and disrupting access to health care and education, deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis,” UNICEF said in a statement.

The UN agency said that 26 UNICEF-supported health facilities have had services disrupted and 243 schools have closed or have suspended learning, affecting more than 137,000 students.

Turkiye and Lebanon have condemned a drone attack by the Houthis targeting the holy city of Mecca, even as the Iran-allied Yemeni armed group has denied any involvement in the attack.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry reaffirmed its support for “the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of Saudi Arabia” in a statement, underscoring Ankara’s solidarity with Riyadh. It called for the “immediate cessation” of such attacks, warning they threaten regional stability and security, and urged all sides to refrain from actions that would further escalate tensions.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has also strongly condemned the attack, affirming Lebanon’s “full solidarity” with Saudi Arabia, upon his arrival in France earlier today.

Aoun called the attack a targeting not only of Saudi Arabia but of “the sanctity of holy sites that hold profound religious significance” for two billion Muslims worldwide. He commended the “vigilance” of Saudi armed forces in confronting the threat and averting harm to pilgrims and residents near the Two Holy Mosques.