The backchannel talks between Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, were not a secret in the sense that the Egyptian Foreign Ministry had tweeted that conversations were under way on Sunday.
We are going to do what we did in Gaza, referring to the flattening of buildings Israel says Hezbollah uses to store weapons and launch attacks. The goal is to take over territory, push Hezbollah's forces north and away from the border, and dismantle its military positions and weapons depots in the villages.
The Port of Salalah, located on Oman's southern coast, is one of the region's most important maritime gateways and had been widely regarded as a relatively safe alternative for shipping companies seeking to avoid the escalating risks around the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. The port sits at a critical intersection of global trade routes linking southeast Asia with Europe, Africa and the Americas.
Qatar's minister of state for foreign affairs, Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al Khulaifi, speaks with Talk to Al Jazeera, as the Gulf faces its most dangerous escalation in years after coming under Iranian drone and missile attacks. Al Khulaifi condemns Iran's aggression, warns that attacks on energy infrastructure threaten global markets, and argues that Gulf security is inseparable from global stability.
For several weeks now, we've been bolstering our presence and the forces in the [region]—this statement from Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Richard Knighton reflects the military's acknowledgment of preparedness efforts, yet the sudden escalation demonstrated gaps in readiness despite these ongoing measures to strengthen British military capabilities in the Middle East.
The Qatari Ministry of Defence said the country came under a wave of drone attacks on Friday, with 10 drones fired from Iran. Nine of them were intercepted and destroyed, but one managed to reach the ground and land in a remote area.
Iran was never designed to win a conventional war against a superpower. Its doctrine is asymmetrical. Ballistic missiles reaching 2,000 kilometres make for dramatic headlines, but Tehran's real leverage lies in calibrated disruption: cyber operations, maritime insecurity in the Gulf, proxy ambiguity, and energy market shockwaves.
The United States and Israel have launched strikes on Iran despite ongoing talks between Washington and Tehran over Iran's nuclear programme. Iran responded to Saturday's attacks with missile and air strikes across the region, including in Israel, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed all Israeli and US military targets in the Middle East have been struck by the powerful blows of Iranian missiles. This operation will continue relentlessly until the enemy is decisively defeated, it said. All US assets throughout the region are considered legitimate targets for Iran's army, it added.
In just three days, Israel has carried out strikes in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Qatar and Yemen. On Tuesday, Israel launched a targeted air strike on a Hamas leadership compound in Qatar's capital, Doha, during a meeting to discuss a US-proposed ceasefire for Gaza. The strike killed six people, including the son of senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, the director of al-Hayya's office, three bodyguards and a Qatari security officer. However, its top leaders are reported to have survived the attack.
