As concerns grow about a return to an all-in-one Iranian War On the eve of crucial elections in the United States and Israel, Iran said messages continued to be conveyed to the United States and that Tehran remained open to diplomacy. And US President Donald Trump said there would be no strike against the Islamic Republic “today”.
In the meantime, the International Committee of the Red Cross has again started receiving lists of Palestinian detainees from Occupied West Bank And Gaza after the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to start sharing them again.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Sunday. Read our full coverage here.
Iran says messages still passed to US through intermediaries
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Tehran had not closed the diplomatic window and that messages were being transmitted to the United States through intermediaries. Negotiations on war seem to have stalled for weeks.
State media said Baghaei spoke in an interview with a German television channel. He said the United States appears to persist in its unilateral demands and that Trump and U.S. officials repeatedly use the phrase “total surrender,” which Baghaei said no Iranian accepts.
Iranians are increasingly worried on a possible return to all-out war as Israel and the United States face elections in the coming days.
Trump says there will be no strike on Iran today
When asked if he planned to launch an attack on Iran, Trump first suggested it would be foolish to telegraph it.
But then Trump added: “No, there will be no strike today. » At the same time, the head of US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, flew over the Strait of Hormuz and claimed that more than 3,000 commercial ships had transited the waterway with US military support in the past six months.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his warning that Iran or its proxies could attack ahead of Tuesday’s close election to disrupt the vote, citing intelligence.
“The IDF is prepared to both defend and strike,” he said in a video of a tour of an anti-ballistic missile battery, adding: “You will take disproportionate hits far greater than you can imagine.” »
Red Cross receives list of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel
The International Committee of the Red Cross has again started receiving lists of Palestinian detainees from the West Bank and Gaza, a spokesperson confirmed.
The Israeli Supreme Court earlier this year ordered the government to resume sharing such lists and to allow the ICRC to visit detainees in Israeli prisons to assess their conditions. The government had suspended these two practices since the attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023 and the start of the war in Gaza.
ICRC spokesman Gilad Grossman said Israel had not yet allowed prison visits to resume, but “we hope that we will resume in the near future.”
Israel arrested thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza after the October 7 attacks. Some were released during last year’s ceasefire, but around 9,000 people are still imprisoned or detained in difficult conditions.
Riyadh international airport reopens as Houthi attacks persist
Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport said it had opened Terminals 1 and 2 for domestic and international flights, but neighboring Yemen’s Houthis, backed by Iran, again fired drones and missiles towards the Saudi capital.
Saudi military spokesman General Turki al-Malki said air defenses intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile and a drone fired towards Riyadh. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack.
In early October, Houthi strikes hit an airport complex housing two other terminals, killing 17 people and injuring more than 330.
2 injured by interception debris in Saudi Arabia
Saudi authorities said debris from the interception of two ballistic missiles in Khamis Mushait and Ahad Rafida governorates injured two people, a Saudi citizen and a resident of an unspecified Asian country.
Civil Defense said the missiles were launched by the Houthis in Yemen and the debris also damaged three buildings and seven vehicles.
Houthi rebels later claimed attacks including the King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, calling them a response to “Saudi aggression” against Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa. The AP could not independently verify these claims.
Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes killed 7 in Gaza
Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed seven people, according to Palestinian hospital officials.
Two strikes in Gaza City killed four people and two brothers were killed in Khan Younis in the south of the country. One person was killed in the central town of Deir al-Balah. The deaths were confirmed by officials at Shifa, Hamad, Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals, as well as a U.S. field hospital.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment.
A year after the ceasefire began, Israel continues to bombard Gaza in what it sees as strikes against militant targets. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory’s health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants, but says women and children make up almost half of those killed.
Pope calls for end to fighting in Yemen
Pope Leo XIV called for an end to fighting in Yemen and warned of deteriorating living conditions for more than a million residents of Taiz besieged by Houthi rebels.
“The population suffers from a lack of food, water and medical care,” the pope wrote on social media. The families have started rationing water and a shortage of groceries has driven up prices in the country’s third-largest city.
Libyan leaders reject Trump’s derogatory comments
Libya’s rival governments have rejected Trump’s comments in which he added the nation to a list of countries he described as “terrorism-infested.”
Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said he rejected “any affront” to his country or its people “who have made great sacrifices in the fight against terrorism”. And Libya’s second government, the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army, called on authorities to protest Trump’s comments.
At a campaign rally, Trump accused Democrats of trying to open the United States to “armies of migrants from terror-infested countries like Libya, Yemen, Haiti and Somalia.”
Libya plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that turned into a civil war that toppled longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The country is divided between rival administrations.
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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
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