War in the Middle East: latest developments

Pope hopes Trump will end war
Pope Leo XIV said he hoped US President Donald Trump was looking to end the war in the Middle East and called for a halt to the violence.

"I'm told that President Trump recently stated that he would like to end the war, hopefully he's looking for an off-ramp, hopefully he's looking for a way to decrease the amount of violence, of bombing," the pope told journalists.
Strikes in Beirut
Lebanon said Israeli strikes hit near Beirut's main airport road.

One strike hit a building after Israel's military warned it would strike a "Hezbollah facility" there.

The road is the main means of accessing the country's only international passenger facility.

Lebanon meanwhile denounced what it called Israel's plans for "a new occupation of Lebanese territory" after Israel said it would establish a "security zone" in the country.
Netanyahu vows to 'crush' Iran
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would press ahead with its military campaign against Tehran.

"The campaign is not over," he said in a televised statement. "We will continue to crush the terror regime."
Iran has 'will' to end war
Iran has the "necessary will" to end the war with the United States and Israel, President Masoud Pezeshkian said, stressing that Tehran was seeking guarantees the conflict would not flare up again.

The comment -- which boosted markets in the United States and led oil prices to fall -- came after a day of heavy strikes on Iran and followed a tough warning from the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to retaliate against leading US tech firms such as Google, Meta and Apple from Wednesday if more Iranian leaders were killed in "targeted assassinations".
Tehran blasts
An AFP journalist heard a series of explosions in central Tehran, as US-Israeli strikes wore on into their fifth week.

AFP journalists also confirmed that air defences had been activated over the capital, including in the north.
UN slams Israel death penalty
The United Nations rights chief slammed the Israeli parliament's approval of a "deeply discriminatory" new death penalty bill for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks, warning that applying it on occupied Palestinian territory "would constitute a war crime".
Canada denounces 'illegal invasion'
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney denounced Israel's deployment of troops against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon as an "illegal invasion" that violates its "integrity and sovereignty."
Save fuel, EU says
The EU urged member states to try to push down domestic demand for fuel in the face of surging energy prices caused by the Middle East war.
Israel blamed for killing peacekeepers
A UN security source told AFP that Israeli fire had killed an Indonesian peacekeeper at the weekend, after the UN force said it was investigating the incident.

The source told AFP on condition of anonymity that evidence had been identified that the source of the fire on Sunday was an Israeli tank.
Infantino on Iran
FIFA president Gianni Infantino told AFP that Iran "will be at the World Cup" and will play their group matches in the United States as scheduled, despite the Middle East war.

The war has thrown in doubt Iran's participation at the World Cup, hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada from June 11.
Italy refusal
Italy recently denied authorisation for some US aircraft headed to the Middle East on a combat mission to land at its Sigonella base, a defence ministry source and Italian media said.

Under the terms of agreements with the United States, some Italian bases can be used by US military aircraft, but only for logistical purposes, which was denied in this case on the grounds that there was not enough time to get parliament's approval.
Deadly Iraq strike
A strike in western Iraq killed three fighters from the former paramilitary coalition Hashed al-Shaabi, the alliance said in a statement, blaming the US and Israel for the attack.

The alliance, also known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), is now part of Iraq's regular armed forces although it also contains pro-Iran factions.

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