Live. US ‘totally stupid’ to attack Iran during nuclear talks, UN ambassador says

President Donald Trump said in a social media post on Tuesday that he ordered the United States’ development finance arm to provide political risk insurance for tankers carrying oil and other goods through the Persian Gulf “at a very reasonable price.”

Political risk insurance is a type of coverage intended to protect firms against financial losses caused by unstable political conditions, government actions or violence.

He said that, if necessary, the US Navy would escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. About a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait. The disruption to that traffic caused by the war has pushed oil prices higher.

The Navy has at least eight destroyers and three smaller littoral combat ships in the region. These ships have previously been used to escort merchant shipping in the region and in the Red Sea.

The United Arab Emirates’ Capital Markets Authority said on Tuesday that the country’s stock markets will reopen on Wednesday following a two-day halt.

Authorities in Dubai and Abu Dhabi say that the Dubai Financial Market, Nasdaq Dubai and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange were suspended due to Iran’s strikes on the Gulf nation.

Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Tuesday that the “devastating” air strike on a girls’ school in Iran may amount to war crimes if it is found to have targeted civilians or been carried out indiscriminately in violation of international law.

“Children, little girls, in the middle of the school day, at the beginning of the school day, being killed in this manner, backpacks with blood stains on them,” said Shamdasani.

The UN human rights chief called for an investigation into the strike.

At least 165 schoolgirls and staff were killed in the US-Israeli strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab on 28 February. 

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that its strikes had disabled around 300 missile launchers in Iran since the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on the Islamic republic over the weekend.

« Since the start of Operation ‘Roaring Lion’, the Israeli Air Force has dismantled approximately 300 Iranian missile launchers. This is the result of more than 1,600 sorties and a systematic, around-the-clock effort to locate and target launchers and missile stockpiles in order to reduce fire toward the Israeli home front, » the army said in a statement.

The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that it struck an underground nuclear site in Iran where it said scientists were « covertly » developing a key component for an atomic weapon.

« The IDF intelligence continued to follow the scientists’ activities and located their new location at this site in a manner that enabled a precise strike on the covert underground compound, » the military said, displaying a map showing the facility on the western outskirts of Tehran.

« In the site, a group of nuclear scientists operated covertly to develop a key component for nuclear weapons, » it said, adding the scientists had been working at the underground location after Israel struck several Iranian nuclear sites during the previous conflict last June.

The US consulate in Dubai is on fire after being struck by a suspected Iranian drone on Tuesday evening.

Multiple unverified videos circulating on social media show a massive fire and thick black smoke rising from the building.

No injuries or casualties have been reported and Washington has yet to release a statement on the alleged attack.

In a televised address on Tuesday night, French President Emmanuel Macron blamed Tehran for the unfolding crisis while also criticising the US-Israeli strikes that triggered it, before announcing a raft of military and consular measures.

« The Islamic Republic of Iran bears primary responsibility for this situation, » Macron said.

Sophia Khatsenkova has the full round-up of Macron’s remarks and the measures announced in the article below.

Turkey’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that the United States should limit its attacks on Iran to degrading its military capabilities as forcing regime change would causes « risks » for the region.

Attacking military targets and regime change were the two main options for the war, Foreign Ministeer Hakan Fidan said in a television interview.

« Moving toward the second (regime change) means introducing very different scenarios and risks for the region, » he said.

Iran fired another salvo of missiles at Israel on Tuesday evening, the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement carried by the Fars news agency.

« The sixteenth wave of ‘Operation True Promise 4’ has begun with a large number of missiles and drones launched by the aerospace forces of the Revolutionary Guards against the heart of the occupied territories, » the statement said, referring to Israel.

Iran is ready for a long war against the United States and Israel and has so far not used its most advanced weapons, its defence ministry said on Tuesday.

« We have the capacity to resist and to continue an offensive defence longer than what (the enemy) has planned for this imposed war, » ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

« We do not intend to deploy all our advanced weapons and equipment in the first days, » he added.

As governments race to evacuate citizens from the Middle East, Israel is preparing to fly home its citizens who are stranded abroad.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev said Ben-Gurion Airport will reopen for limited incoming flights around the clock starting early on Thursday.

Israel’s airspace has been closed since Saturday, when the joint US-Israeli war on Iran began, although some land crossings remain open. Regev said thousands have returned that way.

Under the plan, one passenger flight per hour will be allowed in the first 24 hours, totalling about 5,000 people, with more later depending on security.

It is unclear whether only Israelis will be permitted on the flights, and no commercial departures leaving Israel have been approved.

Several projectiles were fired from Lebanon towards Israel on Tuesday but a majority of them were intercepted, the military said, as Israel vowed to attack the Lebanese group Hezbollah until it was disarmed.

« Several projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory were identified. Majority of the projectiles were intercepted, and an additional projectile fell in an open area, » a military statement said, which specified that sirens had sounded in northern and central Israel.

Israel’s military chief said on Tuesday his forces would keep attacking Hezbollah until the Iran-backed Lebanese group was disarmed, as the war in the Middle East raged for a fourth day.

« We are determined to eliminate the threat Hezbollah poses and will not stop until this organisation is disarmed, » Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir was quoted as saying in a military statement.

The latest round of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel started early on Monday when Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks on Saturday.

Loud bangs were heard on Tuesday evening in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, which hosts US bases, journalists for the AFP news agency said.

Explosions were heard mostly near Erbil airport, which hosts US-led coalition troops, a reporter said.

Since the start of the US-Israel campaign against Iran, drones have repeatedly been intercepted over Erbil, which is also home to a major US consulate complex.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday that Britain is sending a warship and helicopters to Cyprus after a drone hit a UK base on the eastern Mediterranean island.

Starmer said he told the president of Cyprus that the UK is deploying helicopters with counter-drone capabilities and the air-defence destroyer HMS Dragon to the region.

It comes after an Iran-made drone hit RAF Akrotiri base over the weekend, causing minor damage and no injuries.

Trump has lambasted the British prime minister over his reluctance to join the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he was very happy to speak with Trump during a visit to Washington on Tuesday.

“We are, on the same page in terms of getting this terrible regime in Tehran away,” Merz said.

“There are too many bad guys in this world, actually,” Merz added.

The German chancellor says that “we are hoping that the Israeli and the American army are doing the right things to bring this to an end and to have really a new government in place,” adding that he hoped the war in Iran would end soon.

US President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that Iran was going to attack before he did, walking back top diplomat Marco Rubio’s assertion that Israel triggered the war.

« I think they were going to attack first and I didn’t want that to happen. So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand, » Trump told reporters as he met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House.

The Trump administration’s shifting rationale for launching joint strikes with Israel against Iran is spurring criticism, including some from Trump’s MAGA base, that the White House was dragged into the conflict by Israel.

Some prominent allies of Trump stepped up their criticism that the US was following Israel’s lead after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the US decided to strike because, “we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.”

“And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio added.

Trump also said that a worst-case scenario would be that Iran gets a new leader like the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

« I guess the worst case would be, we do this, and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person, right? » he said.

« That could happen. We don’t want that to happen. »

Critics of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are casting her reaction to the US-Israeli war in Iran as the latest example of a foreign policy « power grab » – even as the commission’s formal diplomatic powers are limited and member states themselves are still grappling with how to respond.

When the war began with US strikes on Iran last Saturday, von der Leyen was the first leader across Europe to issue a reaction, calling the developments in Iran “greatly concerning.”

A fresh wave of air defence interceptions are currently happening over Dubai and Doha, L’Observatoire de l’Europe reporters in both cities are saying.



Loud explosions can currently be heard above both cities.

Satellite images taken on Monday show several damaged buildings at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, compared with imagery from the previous day, along with additional damage across the complex.

Vantor, an imaging company based in Colorado, released the images showing the damage that it said affected buildings that house the personnel and vehicle entrances to the underground fuel enrichment complex.

Earlier on Tuesday, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said that Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site sustained “some recent damage” amid a US-Israeli airstrike campaign.

It said “no radiological consequence expected,” from it.

The nuclear facility at Natanz is located nearly 220 kilometres southeast of Tehran and is Iran’s main enrichment site.

It had been targeted by air strikes in the 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel in June last year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his military plans to respond with even more force against projectiles from Iran and Lebanon on Tuesday during a visit to an Israeli air force base.

“Our pilots are over the skies of Iran and Tehran, and over the skies of Lebanon. Hezbollah made a very big mistake when it attacked us,” he said.

He added that the Lebanese government and Lebanese people should understand that Iran-backed Hezbollah is “dragging them into a war that is not theirs, just because of the death of that mass murderer that they have nothing to do with.”

A senior Hezbollah official has said that after more than a year of abiding by a ceasefire while Israel launched near-daily strikes in Lebanon, the group’s patience has ended.

The Inter-Parliamentary Conference on the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy, scheduled for 3-5 March in Nicosia, was cancelled due to recent drone attacks launched on Cyprus, that targeted a British RAF military base on the eastern Mediterranean island.

The event involved diplomats, EU officials and prominent members of the Cyprus Parliament and European Parliament, such as David McAllister, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee or Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chair of the Committee on Security and Defence.

Andrius Kubilius, European Commissioner for Defence and Space, was also set to speak on Thursday, while former Commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas was on the agenda for Wednesday.

According to Parliament’s sources, the conference will not take place. MEPs who are already in Cyprus will meet their Cypriot counterparts in an informal gathering on Tuesday and will be back in Brussels on Wednesday.

According to an internal State Department memo, the strike on the US Embassy in Riyadh caused part of its roof to collapse, although there were no reported deaths or injuries to staff.

In Kuwait City, there were also no deaths or injuries after the vicinity of the embassy was hit by two drone strikes that caused no damage to the facility, it said.

Beijing condemned the military strikes on Iran and called for an immediate cessation of military operations to prevent the conflict from spiralling out of control.

That’s the message from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, according to a readout of their call Tuesday published by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

The call was at Sa’ar’s request, Xinhua said.

Wang said China had always advocated for a political settlement of the Iran nuclear issue and that recent talks between Iran and the US had been making clear progress before being disrupted by the military strikes.

Wang asked Sa’ar to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in Israel.

An Iranian-backed militant group in Iraq has issued a veiled threat against Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates amid the widening war in the Middle East.

Kataib Hezbollah, one of the most powerful militant groups in Iraq, claimed that American aircraft that hit their camps earlier this week took off from an airbase in Jordan which houses US forces.

The group also lashed out at Saudi Arabia and the UAE apparently for their criticism of Iranian missile and drone attacks in their territories.

It warned the two Gulf countries to “adjust their statements according to their true size…since their territories and capabilities are harnessed to serve the Zionist-American project.”

Ukraine is ready to give its domestically-produced interceptor drones to Middle East countries in return for American-made air defence missiles it desperately needs, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday.

Ukraine needs US PAC-3 missiles to counter cruise and ballistic missile attacks by Russia’s invading forces in their more than four-year war.

Kyiv has also developed cheap and efficient interceptors to combat Russia’s Iranian-designed Shahed drones.

Countries in the Middle East are using the same surface-to-air US missiles to defend against Iranian attacks.

“If they give them (air defence missiles) to us, we will give them our interceptor. This is an equivalent exchange,” Zelenskyy said at a briefing.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Tuesday that France would start facilitating the evacuation of its nationals from the Middle East as the Iran war continues for a fourth day.

He said around 400,000 French nationals were in many of the countries across the Gulf region currently being targeted by Iranian drones and missiles as they attempt to strike US military assets.

Célia Gueuti has all the details.

Iraq’s Ministry of Oil says it will stop production in a key oil field as the ongoing war in Iran disrupted a key waterway into the oil-rich Persian Gulf.

The widening war between Iran with the United States and Israel has ground tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to a halt, causing crude oil prices to surge worldwide.

About a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait, carrying oil and gas from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE and Iran.

The ministry cited a shortage of tankers entering the Gulf, forcing them to “stop production and pumping” from the southern Rumaila fields near the city of Basra.

That tanker shortage caused “storage levels at our oil warehouses rising to critical levels.”

The strait is about 33 kilometres wide at its narrowest point and connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. From there, ships can then travel to the rest of the world.

Israel’s military said on Tuesday its air force had struck industrial sites « throughout Iran » that were used to produce weapons including ballistic missiles, on the fourth day of a joint US-Israel attack on the Islamic republic.

« During strikes conducted throughout Iran, the IDF (military) targeted industrial sites used by the Iranian regime to produce weapons, particularly ballistic missiles, » the military said in a statement.

The United Arab Emirates condemned Iranian attacks on its territory following waves of missile and drone strikes that targeted the Gulf state and its neighbours, according to statements from Emirati officials.

The UAE reiterated its right to respond to protect its sovereignty and security following the strikes.

Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, told the Emirati press the Iranian regime « has lost its compass » by targeting the UAE and neighbouring countries.

Gargash clarified the UAE would not join military campaigns against Iran but would defend its territory and citizens.

The UAE Ministry of Defence announced Tuesday that its air defence forces successfully intercepted 152 ballistic missiles and 506 drones out of 165 missiles and 541 drones launched from Iran since 18 February 2026.

The attacks caused three deaths and 58 minor injuries affecting people of 15 different nationalities.

Falling debris from intercepted missiles and drones caused minor to moderate material damage in several civilian areas across the UAE.

Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency services said on Tuesday they were treating 12 people with injuries following the latest salvo of missiles fired from Iran.

« Medics and paramedics are providing medical treatment and evacuating to hospitals 12 injured people, including a woman of about 40 in moderate condition with blast injuries and 11 people lightly injured with cuts from glass shards and blast injuries, » an MDA statement said.

Israeli police said officers were operating at several sites in the central and Tel Aviv districts where shrapnel had fallen.

Footage showed security forces in high visibility vests and helmets deployed at one site. At another, a fire engine was stationed as forces sprayed non-flammable foam on the charred wreckage of cars.

Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger announced that a repatriation flight carrying Austrians would depart on Wednesday from the Omani capital Muscat.

The minister said a first evacuation flight carrying “particularly vulnerable individuals” already took off on Sunday.

Nearly 18,000 Austrian citizens are registered in the region, authorities said.

Meanwhile, Lithuania’s Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene also said her country will commence the evacuation of “the most vulnerable groups of Lithuanian citizens” from the United Arab Emirates and other surrounding states.

South Korean officials say they evacuated 23 South Korean nationals from Iran to Turkmenistan by bus.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that they were being transported to the capital, Ashgabat, and were expected to fly back to South Korea or to third countries on Wednesday.

Iranian media are reporting that Israeli strikes targeted the Assembly of Experts building, the body that chooses the country’s ayatollah.

« The American-Zionist criminals attacked the Assembly of Experts building in Qom, » south of Tehran, according to the Tasnim news agency.

Local media showed footage of the building severely damaged in the strikes. 

Iran’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in US and Israeli strikes on Saturday and the 88-strong council of senior clerics are believed to have assembled at the building to choose his successor.

Israeli media are reporting that the building was « flattened » in the strikes. Iranian media confirmed the strike but denied anyone was hurt, saying the building had already been evacuated.

It comes after the Israeli air force said earlier on Tuesday it had launched a new wave of strikes in Tehran, marking the fourth day of its campaign against the Islamic republic.

« The military has launched a ninth wave of strikes in Tehran. The Air Force has now begun a large scale wave of strikes targeting the Iranian terror regime’s infrastructure in Tehran, » the military said in a statement.

Earlier on Tuesday, the IDF said it had targeted the heavily fortified compound where the Council of Experts building is based. The area is also home to the presidential complex and the Supreme National Security Council.

Nearly 1,900 out of more than 5,450 flights scheduled to the Middle East were cancelled on Tuesday, aviation analytics company Cirium said.

Tens of thousands of passengers remain stranded as countries closed their airspaces in response to the ongoing US-Israeli strikes on Iran and on American military assets across the Gulf region. 

Tehran warned European countries on Tuesday against joining the Iran war, after multiple countries said they could take “defensive action” in the face of Iran’s missile-launching capabilities.

In a statement, Tehran warned that such a move would be viewed as a direct provocation and would expand the country’s retaliatory strikes to target European cities and countries.

You can read Malek Fouda’s full report below.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that it was too late for talks with Iran even though Tehran wants them.

« Their air defence, Air Force, Navy, and Leadership is gone. They want to talk. I said ‘Too Late!' » Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, two days after saying he had agreed to talks and with the joint Israeli-US bombardment of Iran now in its fourth day.

Operation Epic Fury was launched on Saturday as Washington and Tehran were engaged in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme, with the most recent round of talks concluding in Geneva on Thursday.

Oman, which has been acting as a mediator, said it was dismayed over the strikes on Iran, calling them a blow to ongoing diplomatic efforts.

« Active and serious negotiations have yet again been undermined, » Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi wrote in a post on X. « Neither the interests of the United States nor the cause of global peace are well served by this. »

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Tuesday urged countries to cut diplomatic ties with Iran during a virtual meeting with around 60 envoys stationed in Israel, as it pressed its military campaign against the Islamic republic.

« The foreign minister told the ambassadors that following the Iranian regime’s attacks on all its neighbours and the massacre of its own people, countries around the world must cut off their relations with it, » a statement issued by the foreign minister’s office said, without specifying whether the 60 envoys’ countries had ties with Iran in the first place.

The US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday warned of an imminent attack in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran, home to much of the kingdom’s energy installations along the Gulf coast.

« There is a threat of imminent missile and UAV attacks over Dhahran, » the embassy wrote on its official X account.

The Iranian government announced on Tuesday it was banning exports of all food and agricultural products as the war with Israel and the United States raged for a fourth day.

« The export of all food and agricultural products has been banned until further notice, » Tasnim news agency said, citing a government statement.

« The government has prioritised the supply of essential goods for the people, » it added.

Iran has activated contingency plans since Saturday when the United States and Israel launched attacks on the Islamic republic, killing the country’s supreme leader along with senior military commanders.

NATO chief Mark Rutte stressed on Tuesday that the military alliance is « not itself involved » in what’s happening in the Middle East but that it will « defend every inch of NATO territory » if needed.

Speaking during a visit to North Macedonia, Rutte said Iran is a threat to the wider region, « an existential threat » to Israel as well as « huge threat to us here in Europe ».

« Let’s be absolutely clear-eyed to what’s happening here. Iran is close to getting its hands on a nuclear capability and on a ballistic missile capability, » he said.

« I think we are all better off with him (Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed on Saturday by a strike) gone and with the nuclear and ballistic capability being beaten and degraded as it is as we speak. »

Rutte reiterated that the operation was carried out by the US and Israel, and while some allies are providing support, this is done on a bilateral basis.

Claims that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has escaped to Berlin amid the Iran war, which was sparked by US and Israeli airstrikes, have swamped social media platforms.

On Saturday evening, the same day that the airstrikes took place, flight-tracking data showed that Israel’s government plane had landed at Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport.

Online, users claimed that Israeli Netanyahu was on board the flight. Some posts accused him of having fled the country following the start of coordinated US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

The Cube separates fact from fiction in the article below.

Germany’s foreign ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador on Tuesday, it confirmed on X, calling on the regime to « immediately cease » attacks against other countries in the region.

« We condemn the arbitrary and disproportionate rocket and drone attacks by the Iranian regime, including on civilian targets. The attacks threaten our allies, our military personnel, and our nationals in the region, » the ministry also said.

The Israeli military said it hit a high-ranking Iranian commander in Tehran on Tuesday, on the fourth day of the war which started with US and Israeli strikes at the weekend.

« A short while ago, the (Israeli military) struck a senior Iranian terror regime commander in Tehran, » an army statement said, without providing further details.

Dozens of senior Iranian leadership and military figures have been killed since the US and Israel began joint strikes on Iran, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who was confirmed dead at the weekend.

Gas prices kept climbing at a blistering pace in Europe on Tuesday as US and Israeli strikes on Iran rattled global energy markets and revived fears of an extended shock.

“This has triggered immediate fears of reduced LNG availability to Europe, prompting a rush in spot markets and heightened risk premiums,” Yousef M. Alshammari, the president of the London College of Energy Economics, told L’Observatoire de l’Europe Business.

Doloresz Katanich has more in the article below.

Thousands of Syrians have crossed from Lebanon into Syria to flee Israeli strikes over the past two days as Israel and the Iran-allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah escalated their attacks against each other.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said in a statement that around 3,900 to 4,400 people would typically cross from Lebanon into Syria during Ramadan.

On Monday, after Hezbollah launched missiles toward Israel and Israel retaliated, a total of 10,629 people crossed, the vast majority of them Syrian.

Azzam Sweiri, a Syrian farm worker who had been working in southern Lebanon, crossed back into Syria on Tuesday.

“The streets were packed with cars and people” as he fled, he said. “It took us 10 or 12 hours just to make it 30 or 40 kilometres.”

There has been « no specific discussion » at EU level regarding a possible activation of the bloc’s mutual defence clause, a spokesperson for the European Commission has said.

Greece and France are both sending capabilities including frigates, fighter jets and air defence systems to Cyprus after British bases on the island came under fire over the past two days.

« It seems to be very clear the Republic of Cyprus was not the target, » Paula Pinho, the chief spokesperson for the European Commission said. « Obviously, it causes anxiety in the people, that’s why we also wanted to express our support, that we stand collectively with the member state in the face of any threat. »

On the activation of the EU’s mutual defence clause, known as Article 42.7 of the Treaties, she stressed that it « would be for the EU member state, which in this case is victim to a claimed armed attack, to exercise the legal and political assessment » before triggering it.

Reminder: European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen last month told the Munich Security Conference that the time had come to instill momentum to mutual defense commitments among EU nations. More on that below:

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan renewed his call for an end to escalating violence and a return to diplomacy.

“Our fundamental request and demand is clear: the mutual attacks must stop immediately and diplomacy must resume,” Fidan said, according to a transcript of his remarks to journalists late on Monday.

The minister said Turkey has consistently emphasised this message during talks with other leaders.

Commenting on Iran’s attacks on Gulf states’ facilities, Fidan said Iran hopes these countries will pressure the United States to stop the war, while adding he believes that outcome “is not likely.”

Reza Pahlavi, son of the last Iranian Shah and one of the main leaders of the opposition to the Tehran regime, could soon address the members of the European Parliament.

His name is included on a provisional list that the Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs has drawn up to organise an exchange of views on the current situation in the country.

The list, obtained by L’Observatoire de l’Europe, is provisional and is set to be confirmed on Wednesday afternoon.

Vincenzo Genovese has all the details in the article below.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that he has offered to help the United Arab Emirates protect itself against Iranian aerial attacks.

Ukraine has built significant expertise in countering Iranian-designed Shahed drones that Russia has launched almost daily at Ukrainian targets since Moscow’s invasion more than four years ago.

Zelenskyy said on X that he spoke by phone with the United Arab Emirates president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and “discussed how we can help” protect lives in the UAE.

On Sunday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Ukrainian and British experts will work together to help Middle East countries shoot down Iranian drones.

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dr Majed Al-Ansari said that Iran targeted the the Hamad International Airport in Doha, a major global transit hub where more than 8000 passengers were in transit when the hostilies broke out.

Qatar is now hosting everyone who is stranded, with visas being extended.

“Qatar is able to stop any entity that is trying to attack or inflict harm”, Dr Al-Ansari said, adding that “Qatar is completely prepared and we have enough air-defence missiles to deal with any attack”.

Dr Al-Ansari said Qatar cannot estimate how long the current conflict will last and that it continues to work on de-escalation.

He said Qatar is actively working “very closely” with partners in the region “to coordinate the defence ecosystem with constant communication. »

The spokesperson gave more details about Qatar downing two Iranian SU-24 fighter jets on Monday, saying that the Qatari military warned them when they entered the national airspace and then “the rules of engagement were followed to the letter”.

“They were seen as definite threat and they were shot down,” adding that Qatar does not have details about the pilots’ fate.

The foreign ministry’s spokesman concluded that “national safety is now Qatar’s main focus”.

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dr Majed Al-Ansari told the press on Tuesday that Iran’s attacks on Qatar’s LNG facilities forced their temporary closure.

This now creates “a grave danger to international economies,” as “Qatar is one of most important players when it comes to energy today, with a clientele spanning from the east to the west of the world, » Dr Al-Ansari said.

He added that Tehran had attacked energy facilities before and that Qatar had contingency plans in place because it was anticipating Iran’s action.

Qatar has issued a stern warning to Iran on Tuesday, saying that its “blatant attacks will not go without response”, because “Iran crossed all red lines”, also posing a “grave danger to international economies”.

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dr Majed Al-Ansari told journalists in Doha that at the moment “there are no ongoing communications between Qatar and Iran,” and that Qatar made every effort until the last moment to prevent the conflict.

Iran did not just target military facilities, but the entire Qatari territory in an “attack on our sovereignty” which is “unjustifiable”, Dr Al-Ansari said.

“We don’t assume there are any more red lines to cross” since Iran also attacked Qatar’s infrastructure and residential areas, not just US military targets. “Attacks like these will not go unanswered,” the spokesperson warned.

Israel’s military has said its air force struck the Iranian regime’s heavily fortified leadership compound in Tehran.

In a post on X, the IDF said “the central headquarters have been dismantled.”

The IDF said « numerous munitions » were dropped on the compound where the presidential  complex and the Supreme National Security Council is located.

“This command headquarters was one of the most heavily secured assets in Iran. The compound that housed the regime’s most senior forum was struck by the IAF overnight using precise intelligence,” the IDF said.

“The leaders behind this terror regime, and the headquarters in which they sat, have been eliminated.”

Russia’s use of the Iranian-designed Shahed drone has been a major feature of the war in Ukraine – yet an expert in Moscow’s execution of its full-scale invasion has told L’Observatoire de l’Europe that the impact the crisis unfolding in the Middle East will have on the war should not be overestimated.

« Unfortunately for Ukraine, the Iran war will have a negligible impact on Russia’s strike capabilities, » John Hardie, deputy director of the Russia Program at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, told L’Observatoire de l’Europe.

According to official Ukrainian data, Russia launched more than 54,500 Shahed-type UAVs against Ukraine in 2025, including 32,200 Shahed-type strike UAVs. Moscow also started testing newer versions of the drones, which it designates as « Geran-4 » and « Geran-5 », towards the end of 2025.

Additionally, Ukraine could struggle to secure what it needs to defend itself.

« We’ve seen a lot of Patriot missiles used already » in the Middle East to defend against Iranian strikes, Hardie said. « If it lasts longer, I would start to worry about the availability of PAC-3 missiles for Ukraine. »

Kyiv has repeatedly called on Western allies to donate the PAC-2 and PAC-3 missiles used in the US-made Patriot air defence systems, stressing that it uses them nearly as soon as it receives them.

Read the full story below:

Iran on Tuesday urged the United Nations Security Council to take action to stop the Islamic republic’s war with Israel and the United States.

« The United Nations Security Council has a duty…if it wishes, it can certainly act, because there is no obstacle to its action except its own will, » said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei during a foreign ministry briefing.

Oman downed two drones, while another crashed near its Salalah port on Tuesday, state media said, as Iran continues to target civilian and military infrastructure in the Gulf over US and Israeli attacks.

« A security source reported that two drones were shot down over the Dhofar Governorate and a third crashed near the port of Salalah area, with no casualties or material damage reported, » the Oman News Agency said in a statement.

The UN human rights chief is calling for a “prompt, impartial and thorough investigation” into what Iran says was an airstrike that hit a girls’ school in the southern city of Minab.

Volker Türk said he is “deeply shocked” by the fallout of the hostilities on civilians and civilian infrastructure in the conflict that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran, followed by counterattacks by Tehran and its allies in the region.

Alluding to the reported strike on the girls school, rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said “the onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it.”

She called for those forces to make the findings public and ensure accountability and redress for victims.

The rights office said it was making no assessment who might be responsible.

US Central Command spokesperson Captain Tim Hawkins has said he was “aware of reports” that a girls’ school was struck and that officials were looking into them.

An Israeli military spokesperson said on Sunday he is not aware of any Israeli or American strikes in the area.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi slammed the US for what he said was a war it voluntarily entered “on behalf of Israel”, despite there being no real threat present.

“Mr. Rubio admitted what we all knew: U.S. has entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel. There was never any so-called Iranian ‘threat’,” said Araghchi in a post on X on Tuesday.

“Shedding of both American and Iranian blood is thus on Israel Firsters,” he added.

The top Iranian diplomat also mimicked calls made by US President Donald Trump on Monday, calling on the Iranian people to take over their government and restore their freedom.

Araghchi said the American people “deserve better and should take back their country”. The calls come against the backdrop of Iranian threats that its counter-strikes will soon expand beyond the Middle East, and directly target the United States.

Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps warned late on Monday that the US “will no longer be safe” and will pay for what they called an “unjust war”. 

Romanian tourists arrived in Bucharest early on Tuesday after traveling from Israel to Cairo to escape the escalating conflict.

Hundreds of Romanian Orthodox Church pilgrims were stranded in Israel while visiting Bethlehem on a trip led by Romanian priests when the war broke out.

The group was forced to cut their trip short to return to Romania.

Romanian pilgrim Mariana Muicaru said she was terrified as rockets flew across the sky in Israel.

“We called our children at 3 am to ask forgiveness because we might die and to tell them we love them and to let them know that it’s over for us,” she told the Associated Press news agency.

Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry has condemned “in the strongest terms” Iran’s attack on the US embassy in the capital, Kuwait City, on Monday.

Smoke could be seen billowing above the US mission after what was reported as a direct strike on the diplomatic compound.

Kuwait called the “treacherous” attack a “flagrant violation of all international norms and laws”.

The ministry reaffirmed the country’s right to take all “necessary measures” to protect its sovereignty, the security of its territories, citizens and residents.

Meanwhile, the US embassy announced on Tuesday that it has closed its doors until further notice, as regional tensions continue to soar.

“We have cancelled all regular and emergency consular appointments. We will communicate when the embassy returns to normal operations,” said the embassy in a post on X. 

Former CIA Director and retired US Army General David Petraeus told L’Observatoire de l’Europe he believes US President Donald Trump could accept a Venezuela-like situation, where a moderate figure from Iran’s existing regime seeks to “get along” with the US, following the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the opening wave of joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

You can read more of his remarks to L’Observatoire de l’Europe in the article below.

The Italian government said on Tuesday it is working “non-stop” to assist Italian citizens stranded in the Middle East.

Italy scheduled two flights, including one from Oman to Rome’s Fiumicino airport, to carry around 300 people and another from Abu Dhabi to Milan to bring about 200 people back, mostly young students.

Another two flights are set to depart from Abu Dhabi to Milan and Rome in the early afternoon, while an additional flight from Muscat has been scheduled for Wednesday.

Italy’s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto sparked a political controversy at home after being stranded in Dubai with his family during the initial phase of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, returning to Rome on Sunday on a military aircraft.

The left-wing opposition called for Crosetto’s resignation, stressing the minister travelled alone to an area of crisis without being informed of the deteriorating situation. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni defended the minister on Monday, saying he never stopped doing his job.

The Israeli military has said it has « moved forward » and « taken control » of positions across the border with Lebanon, after Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered more troops to the area.

The military is « creating a buffer, as we promised, between our residents and any threat, » military spokesman Effie Defrin said in a televised statement.

« Israeli ground forces advanced from Kfar Kila and the Khiam plains, » along the Lebanon-Israel border, a Lebanese army source told AFP, requesting anonymity and expressing concern over « Israel’s attempt to establish a broad security belt in south Lebanon ».

Israel’s military issued evacuation orders to residents of 59 villages along the border in Lebanon, warning that it would soon act against what it described as Hezbollah’s activities in the area.

A senior Hezbollah official says the militant group is left with no option « but to return to resistance » after more than a year of abiding by the ceasefire as Israel’s strikes continued on Lebanon.

Mohamoud Komati said that Hezbollah exercised patience since a ceasefire ended the Israel-Hezbollah war in November 2024, hoping the government’s diplomatic efforts would yield positive results in ending Israeli strikes.

In the comments released by Hezbollah’s media office, Komati blasted the Lebanese government for calling Hezbollah’s actions illegal and demanded it hand over its weapons, saying it did not act to stop Israel’s airstrikes that continued on almost daily basis for nearly 15 months.

“The Zionist enemy wanted an open war, which it has not stopped since the ceasefire agreement,” Komati said. “So let it be an open war.”

Lebanon’s president Joseph Aoun said Tuesday that the decision to ban Hezbollah’s military activities is « irreversible », urging members of the Quintet — a committee made up of the French, US, Qatari, Saudi Arabian, and Egyptian ambassadors — to « pressure Israel to stop its aggressions against Lebanon ».

At least 30,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon due to the escalation of hostilities between the US, Israel and Iran, the United Nations has said.

« As of yesterday, the conservative estimates suggest that nearly 30,000 people were hosted and registered at collective shelters. Many more slept in their cars on the side of roads, » Babar Baloch, spokesman for the UN refugee agency, told a press conference in Geneva.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk was « deeply shocked » by how the war in the Middle East is affecting civilians « since the conflict erupted on Saturday with Israel and the United States of America’s attacks on Iran, Iran’s response against states across the region, as well as Hezbollah’s subsequent entry into the conflict, » his spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told the press conference.

Saudi Arabia has condemned an overnight Iranian attack on the US embassy in Riyadh.

The Saudi foreign ministry in a statement expressed « its strongest condemnation and rejection of the heinous attack that targeted the US Embassy building in Riyadh », describing it as « cowardly and unjustified ».

The Israeli military said it has carried out air strikes on Iran’s presidential office and the National Security Council building in Tehran.

« The Israeli Air Force… struck and dismantled facilities within the leadership compound of the Iranian terrorist regime in the heart of Tehran » overnight, the military said.

« During the strike on the compound, numerous munitions were dropped on the presidential office and the building of the Supreme National Security Council, » it added.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog confirmed that Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site sustained “some recent damage” during the ongoing US-Israeli airstrike campaign, though it said there was “no radiological consequence expected” from it.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the damage was focused on “entrance buildings” to the underground portion of the atomic site.

Iran had already said the facility had been attacked on Monday. « The criminal regimes of the United States and Israel, pursuing their aggression, again targeted the Natanz nuclear site on Sunday afternoon in two brutal attacks, » Iran’s atomic energy chief Mohammad Eslami said in a letter to the IAEA.

Natanz earlier came under attack by the US in the 12-day Iran-Israel conflict in June. The IAEA said it saw “no additional impact” detected at Natanz’s fuel enrichment plant, which is buried underground.

Nuclear material is still believed to be buried at the plant alongside damaged and destroyed centrifuges. However, the IAEA has not been allowed to visit any of the attacked sites by Iran since that war.

Airstrikes by the United States and Israel have killed at least 787 people in Iran since the start of the war, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said.

The organisation offered the toll in a message on X. It said strikes since Saturday had hit 153 cities and more than 500 locations across Iran in more than 1,000 attacks.

Iran warned European countries against joining its conflict with Israel and the United States, after Germany, Britain and France said they could take « defensive action » to destroy Iran’s missile-launching capabilities.

« It would be an act of war. Any such act against Iran would be regarded as complicity with the aggressors. It would be regarded as an act of war against Iran, » foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at a press briefing when asked about the statement.

France has deployed Rafale fighter jets over the United Arab Emirates to protect its naval and air bases against Iranian attacks, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said.

France has hundreds of navy, air force and army personnel based in the United Arab Emirates. Its Rafale aircraft are stationed at the Dhafra base near Abu Dhabi.

« These Rafales and their pilots are mobilised to ensure the security of our facilities, » Barrot told the BFMTV broadcaster in response to a question on French action in the United Arab Emirates over the weekend to neutralise Iranian drones.

« They have carried out operations to secure the airspace above our bases. » On Sunday, « a hangar at a French base in the United Arab Emirates was hit by a drone, » Barrot said.

« Exchanges are multiplying to determine both how the country can defend itself against future attacks and how France can protect its interests there, » he added.

France plans to send anti-drone and anti-missile systems to Cyprus after a British air base was hit by drones on Monday, the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) reported.

In addition to the defence systems, France is also set to send a second frigate to the island, according to CNA.

CNA said French President Emmanuel Macron had informed his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides about the decision early on Tuesday.

On Monday, several Iranian-made Shahed drones were launched at the British Akrotiri base, one of which hit a runway, causing minor damage.

Cyprus’ government said that the drones had been launched from nearby Lebanon, likely by Hezbollah.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday that British military bases in Cyprus will not be used by the United States in its war with Iran, despite criticism from US President Donald Trump.

Starmer stressed to MPs that the attack was « not in response to any decision that we have taken » and was launched before the UK announcement that it would allow the United States to use its bases.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the Lebanese army is evacuating some of its positions along the border with Israel.

The agency said the troops are redeploying to other posts.

The report comes after Israel’s military said it is conducting operations inside Lebanon along the border with Israel.

European stock markets slid further at the start of trading on Tuesday and the region’s natural gas prices soared once more as the Iran war shook financial markets.

The pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX was down 1.3% at 615.72 points, after closing at the lowest level in more than two weeks on Monday.

Frankfurt’s DAX index of top German companies shed 2%, the Paris CAC 40 lost 1.8% and London’s FTSE 100 retreated by 1.4% in value.

The Dutch TTF natural gas contract, considered the European benchmark, shot up more than 33%, having rocketed almost 40% on Monday after Qatar halted liquefied natural gas production following Iranian attacks on state processing facilities.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards declared the Hormuz Strait closed on Saturday, prompting several international shipping groups to halt passage through the waterway.

A general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened on Monday to « burn any ship » seeking to navigate the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for oil and gas shipments.

Drones targeted an Omani port, hitting a fuel tank, state media said, as Iran presses its retaliation campaign on Gulf states.

« A security source reported that fuel tanks at the commercial port of Duqm were targeted by a number of drones, one of which hit a fuel tank. The resulting damage was contained without any human casualties, » the Oman News Agency said in statement.

The Israeli military said it had deployed troops to several locations in southern Lebanon as it continues to launch strikes against Hezbollah.

In a statement, it said the troops are positioned at a several points near the border in what it described as a “forward defence posture” along the border.

« We have positioned soldiers on the border area in additional points to defend our civilians, to prevent Hezbollah from attacking them, » military spokesman Nadav Shoshani told journalists in a separate briefing.

« This is not a ground operation. This is a tactical measure… to ensure the safety of our people, » he added.

Israel has been occupying five positions in southern Lebanon since a November 2024 ceasefire ended more than a year of fighting with Hezbollah. Shoshani said the new deployment is in addition to those five positions, with the aim of preventing attacks on Israeli border towns.

The Trump administration presented a shifting justification for its decision to launch an attack on Iran over the weekend, with House Speaker Mike Johnson suggesting that the White House believed Israel was determined to act on its own.

Johnson said US President Donald Trump was left with a « very difficult » decision, calling the initial attack on Iran a “defensive operation” because Israel was ready to act against Iran, “with or without American support.” He said President Donald Trump and his team determined that Iran would immediately retaliate against US personnel and assets.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed the statement, essentially describing a potential ripple effect that he said posed an “imminent threat » to the US.

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” he said. “And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

Asked if the United States faced an imminent threat from Iran — a key threshold in the United States as Congress constitutionally has the power to declare war — Rubio again pointed to the Israeli plans.

Trump’s avoidance of any major national address or press conference to make the case for the war, the biggest US conflict in the Middle East for two decades, is a major break from other presidents.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it targeted three Israeli military bases in response to the strikes on the group’s strongholds in Lebanon, including the south Beirut suburbs.

« In response to the criminal Israeli aggression on dozens of Lebanese cities and towns », Hezbollah fighters targeted with drones the Ramat David air base and the Meron base in northern Israel with drone strikes, the Iran-backed group said in multiple statements.

They added that they also targeted a base in the occupied Golan Heights with a rocket barrage.

Meanwhile, Israel says it is « conducting simultaneous targeted strikes against military targets in Tehran and Beirut. »

The US embassy in Kuwait said it was closed until further notice, a day after smoke was seen rising from the mission following Iranian attacks on the country.

« Due to ongoing regional tensions, the US Embassy in Kuwait will be closed until further notice. We have cancelled all regular and emergency consular appointments, » the embassy said in a statement on X.

Tech giant Amazon said that two of its data centres in the United Arab Emirates were « directly struck » by drones, disrupting cloud services in parts of the Middle East.

A facility in Bahrain was also damaged by « a drone strike in close proximity », the provider said in an update to its service updates dashboard.

A number of Gulf cities have been dealt collateral damage, hit by strikes and stray weaponry since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, killing Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials.

« Due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, both affected regions have experienced physical impacts to infrastructure as a result of drone strikes, » Amazon said in the update.

« These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage. »

Explosions were heard throughout the night into the early morning in Iran’s capital.

The Israeli military confirmed it is conducting « simultaneous strikes » on Tehran and Lebanon’s Beirut.

The US embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital announced its temporary closure on Tuesday due to an attack on the facility.

« Avoid the Embassy until further notice due to an attack on the facility. We continue to limit non-essential travel to any military installations in the region, » the embassy wrote in a statement on X.

« All routine and emergency American Citizen Services appointments are cancelled, » it added.

The US military said it « destroyed » command facilities of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, as well as air defence capabilities and missile and drone launch sites.

« We will continue to take decisive action against imminent threats posed by the Iranian regime, » US Central Command wrote on X.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed an attack on a US air base in Bahrain, according to Iran’s state media.

« The IRGC announced that (…) its naval forces carried out a large-scale drone and missile attack at dawn on the US air base in the Sheikh Isa area of Bahrain, » IRNA news agency posted on Telegram.

The force said it launched 20 drones and three missiles, which destroyed the base’s main command headquarters, the IRGC said in a statement, without providing evidence.

« Mr. Rubio admitted what we all knew: US has entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel. There was never any so-called Iranian ‘threat’, » Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X.

« Shedding of both American and Iranian blood is thus on Israel Firsters. American people deserve better and should take back their country, » he added.

On Monday, US Defence Secretary Rubio told reporters that the objective of the US strikes was to « destroy their ballistic missile capability and make sure they can’t rebuild it, » not regime change.

The Defence Secretary also admitted that the US believed Iran would likely be attacked, and acted proactively because Washington expected Tehran to retaliate against the United States.

« There absolutely was an imminent threat, and the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us, » Rubio told reporters on Monday.

The US State Department urged American citizens to leave 14 countries across the Middle East, including Egypt and Gulf states, « via commercial means ».

The territories listed include Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said it intercepted eight drones near Riyadh and Al-Kharj.

The defence ministry also reported two drones struck the US embassy in the Saudi Arabian capital, sparking a fire and causing minor damage.

US authorities in Saudi Arabia urged citizens to shelter in place in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran.

Speaking to FOX News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the decision to go to war with Iran alongside the United States.

“They started building new sites, new places, underground bunkers that would make their ballistic missile program and their atomic bomb programme immune within months, » Netanyahu said without offering evidence to support his claim.

Satellite photos analysed by The Associated Press showed limited activity at two nuclear sites in Iran before the joint US-Israel attacks. Analysts say it was likely Tehran was trying to assess damage from American strikes in June and possibly salvage what remained there.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claims it closed the Strait of Hormuz and threatened on Monday to attack any vessel trying to pass through the critical shipping lane linking the Gulf to global markets.

A large share of the world’s oil and gas passes through it daily.

« We will burn any ship that tries to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, » General Sardar Jabbari said in a post on the Guards’ Telegram channel. « We will also attack oil pipelines and will not allow a single drop of oil to leave the region. Oil price will reach $200 in the coming days ».

Energy prices rose as a result of the disruption to the traffic passing through the waterway, as well as Iran’s continued attacks on energy infrastructure across the Gulf.