US-Iran war Highlights: IRGC's 'new advanced defence system' destroyed MQ-9 drone, claims state media

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France condemned Israeli settlers for occupying Palestinian homes in the village of Qusra and called on Israeli authorities to arrest and prosecute those responsible. Paris said Israel's settlement policy threatens the prospects of a two-state solution.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US Navy can sustain its blockade of Iran "indefinitely", with ships rotated in and out of the region as needed.

Transit through the Strait of Hormuz has slowed to a near standstill after two more ships were attacked, as the US said it could maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely. Two UAE-owned vessels were attacked while transiting the strait, with Abu Dhabi blaming Iran.

The US has received several warnings from Israel over the past year that Iran intended to assassinate President Donald Trump, including before a secret Air Force One ruse in Turkey, which US intelligence officials could not independently verify, according to a current US official and two former officials.

The warnings, passed to US intelligence agencies and in some cases relayed directly by Israeli officials to senior White House officials, included possible plots to shoot Trump with a sniper or recruit someone to attack him with a knife at a large public event, the sources said, reported Reuters. The tips began in the lead-up to the 12-day war in June 2025 and intensified prior to the US decision to go to war in Iran in February, the sources said.

The most detailed warning came ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara in July, the US official and the other person familiar with the matter said. Israeli officials briefed the White House about intelligence that indicated Iran may try to kill Trump, potentially with a shoulder-launched missile, while he traveled on Air Force One for the summit, the officials said.

The US intelligence community has long assessed that Iran wants to retaliate for Trump’s killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020. But the Central Intelligence Agency has not been able to corroborate some of the specific threats against Trump's life shared by Israeli intelligence since early last year, the officials said.

In the case of the NATO episode, a Turkish official said the country's intelligence agencies also did not have any evidence to corroborate the Israeli claim about the threat to Trump's life, an assessment the host country shared with Americans.

Despite the lack of verification, White House officials and the Secret Service have taken steps to mitigate the threats out of an abundance of caution, including an extraordinary deception operation during the Turkey trip that involved moving Trump from Air Force One to a different aircraft for his flight out of the country.

— Reuters

Saudi Arabia has denounced what it said were Iranian attacks on two tankers operated by the United Arab Emirates’ state-owned oil company ADNOC as the vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry described the incidents as a “dangerous escalation” and a “direct threat” to maritime navigation and global energy supplies. It also said Iran was “fully responsible” for any resulting consequences.

The US will soon announce unprecedented economic measures against Iran, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, intensifying the Trump administration’s effort to force Tehran’s capitulation after almost six months of war.

“Watch this space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country,” Bessent said in an interview with Newsmax on Thursday. The move will be part of a “one-two punch” that includes the continued blockade of Iran’s ports, he added.

Fighting erupted on Feb. 28 when the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, which responded with missile and drone attacks against American bases and allies across the Middle East. Thousands of people were killed, mostly in Iran, before a truce was agreed in June.

Talks aimed at bringing about a lasting peace have stalled and intermittent clashes have continued, disrupting the flow of oil and other key commodities from the region.

— Bloomberg.

Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry has denounced what it called the “reprehensible Iranian attack” on two Emirati vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, warning that such an incident “endangers the security of maritime navigation, the stability of energy supplies, and international trade.”

The ministry also called for “the necessity of ceasing all actions that could escalate tensions in the region, respecting the freedom of navigation and safe passage in international waterways, and fully and unconditionally reopening the Strait of Hormuz.”

Iranian forces intercepted and brought down an MQ-9 drone over Hormozgan province, Iranian state television reported.

The drone was shot down using what the report described as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) “new advanced defence system”. The MQ-9 Reaper has been deployed for surveillance and bombing operations across the region for years.

The United States has lost dozens of MQ-9 drones since the war began in February, according to the report.

Fires broke out in Bani Hayyan, a municipality in southern Lebanon’s Marjayoun District, following continued Israeli artillery shelling, the country’s National News Agency reported.

The US will soon announce unprecedented economic measures against Iran, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, intensifying the Trump administration’s effort to force Tehran’s capitulation after almost six months of war.

“Watch this space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country,” Bessent said in an interview with Newsmax on Thursday. The move will be part of a “one-two punch” that includes the continued blockade of Iran’s ports, he added.

Fighting erupted on Feb. 28 when the US and Israel staged airstrikes on Iran, which responded with missile and drone attacks against American allies across the Middle East. Thousands of people were killed, mostly in Iran, before a truce was agreed in June.

Talks aimed at bringing about a lasting peace have stalled and intermittent clashes have continued, disrupting the flow of oil and other key commodities from the region.

Iran’s economy has taken a major hit, with much of its industrial capacity damaged and crude exports severely curtailed by the US blockade. But the Islamic Republic has weathered waves of sanctions that have failed to force it to bend on its nuclear program or relinquish control over the Strait of Hormuz.

US President Donald Trump in recent days has renewed his administration’s push for economic pressure on Iran as the US faces a shortfall of necessary munitions and appears wary of expanding a military campaign that’s faces mounting domestic opposition heading into midterm elections in November.

Trump told Axios over the weekend that he is “low-keying it” with Iran. “We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money,” he said.

— Bloomberg

The United Arab Emirates is blaming Iran for firing drones at two tankers operated by a state-owned oil company as they sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, saying Friday that the attacks were acts of piracy. The attacks caused no casualties but underlined the dangers faced by vessels seeking to move cargo through the critical waterway that leads from the Persian Gulf to the open oceans as Iran keeps a firm grip on the passage.

— PTI

Pakistan Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told US Chargé d’Affaires Natalie Baker during a meeting in Islamabad that “the implementation of the Islamabad MoU … in letter and spirit is the only way forward”.

According to a statement shared by Dar on X, the talks covered Pakistan-US bilateral ties as well as recent developments in the region. Dar welcomed what he described as the “positive trajectory in Pakistan-US relations” and stressed that dialogue and diplomacy were essential for achieving lasting peace.

The statement from Dar’s office said Baker, meanwhile, “appreciated Pakistan’s constructive role in promoting regional peace and stability”.

As per Al Jazeera, while condemning the Iranian attack on two ADNOC company tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council said that the the GCC “strongly condemns the brutal Iranian attack,” and emphasised that “the repeated targeting of navigation, facilities, and properties constitutes an unacceptable escalation and a grave violation of international law”.

A tanker was struck by an uncrewed aerial vehicle while making an outbound transit of the Strait of Hormuz, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency has said, as per Al Jazeera.

The agency noted that the tanker was struck on Thursday, and the vessel sustained minor damage, while all crew were reported safe and accounted for, with no environmental impact reported.

A tanker was struck by an uncrewed aerial vehicle while making an outbound transit of the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said on Friday, citing military authorities, Reuters reported.

Swiss growth momentum surged to the fastest pace since 2021, highlighting the economy’s resilience to higher energy costs and lingering trade uncertainty.

The US will soon announce unprecedented economic measures against Iran, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, intensifying the Trump administration’s effort to force Tehran’s capitulation after almost six months of war.

Russia has called for the immediate and complete lifting of the land, air, and sea blockade on Yemen, strongly criticising the United States and Israel for instigating a "broader regional confrontation that has drawn in Houthi forces."

Supertankers are going dark for longer to get oil through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb strait, doubling down on tactics honed in the earlier days of the Iran war.

Vessels carrying non-Iranian crude started turning off their transponders to avoid detection in the weeks following the start of the conflict in late February. At that time they would typically go dark for just a few hours while transiting Hormuz.