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June 29, 2026e-Paper
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June 29, 2026e-Paper
Updated – June 29, 2026 06:47 am IST
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman. File | Photo Credit: Reuters
The United States and Iran agreed to stop strikes against each other, a senior U.S. official said, according to a report by Axios. The two sides anticipate meeting on Tuesday (June 30, 2026) in Doha, Qatar’s capital, Axios said, to work out their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a key corridor for oil shipments from the region.
Also read: War on Iran | The story of a shipwrecked hegemon
Iran’s top diplomat warned on Sunday (June 28, 2026) that any attempt by shipping to bypass its preferred route through the Strait of Hormuz would “increase tensions” in West Asia, as U.S. and Iranian forces again traded attacks across the vital seaway.
Also read: Hezbollah chief calls U.S.-Israel-Lebanon deal ‘grave blunder’, deems it null and void
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said a soldier was killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, two days after Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement aimed at ending hostilities. Captain David Hazutt, 21, a platoon commander “fell in combat” in southern Lebanon, the military said.
The U.S. and Iran will stand down on strikes and vessels will be allowed to move freely, as technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), a U.S. official said.
“Technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the MOU. Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely,” the official said.
U.S. and Iran agree to cease hostilities and hold talks in Doha on June 20 to resolve disputes over the Strait of Hormuz.
Hezbollah on Monday (June 29, 2026) said it reserved the right to self-defence after several Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon despite a truce between the two sides and a U.S.-Israel-Lebanon framework to end hostilities.
In a statement, the group said that it “reiterates that what the enemy has done is a blatant violation of the ceasefire to which it has adhered until now, and that it is monitoring and tracking these violations, and reserves its right to defend its homeland and its people”.
AFP
Lebanese Parliament Speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri said early Monday (June 29, 2026) that the trilateral framework agreement between Lebanon, Israel and the United States would not pass as it did not guarantee Lebanon’s rights.
“This agreement will not pass, and it will not be implemented in its current form,” Mr. Berri said in a statement shared by his party the Amal movement, adding that it was “an agreement of ‘dictates’, not an agreement that preserves Lebanon’s rights”.
The deal paves the way for Lebanese-Israeli peace and conditions Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon on Hezbollah’s disarmament.
AFP
Oil prices rose on Monday (June 29, 2026) following days of tit-for-tat strikes by the United States and Iran in the region that underscored the fragility of their interim peace deal and again slowed energy shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude futures climbed 50 cents, or 0.69%, to $72.49 a barrel by 2204 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $69.96 a barrel, up 73 cents, or 1.05%.
Reuters
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Sunday (June 28, 2026) expressed concern at the evolving regional tension due to the latest confrontation between the U.S. and Iran, threatening the fragile peace in West Asia.
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, in a telephonic conversation, discussed recent developments in the region and expressed “deep concern” on the evolving situation, according to the Pakistan Foreign Office.
Mr. Dar, who is also Pakistan’s foreign minister, reiterated Islamabad’s resolve to continue working towards the “prevalence of peace” in the region. Prince Faisal also said that he plans to visit Pakistan at the earliest, according to the Foreign Office.
PTI
The Israeli army destroyed an extensive tunnel built by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday (June 28, 2026).
“The tunnel, stretching more than 200 metres and reaching a depth of over 25 metres, contained hundreds of weapons as well as several launch shafts intended to target the State of Israel and its civilians,” the joint statement said.
AFP
The United States and Iran agreed to stop strikes against each other, a senior U.S. official said, according to a report by Axios.
The two sides anticipate meeting on Tuesday (June 30, 2026) in Doha, Qatar’s capital, Axios said, to work out their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a key corridor for oil shipments from the region.
Reuters
The Israeli military has destroyed underground infrastructure used by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in a village in southern Lebanon, according to a joint statement by the Israeli prime minister and defence minister on Sunday (June 28, 2026).
The U.S. was informed ahead of the attack, which targeted a 200 meter (656 ft) long tunnel in the town of Majdal Zoun, according to the statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz.
Reuters
Iran did not take part in technical talks slated for Sunday (June 29, 2026) due to recent attacks on the country and unfulfilled conditions of the MoU with the United States, a member of the Office of Preservation and Publication of the Works of Iran’s Supreme Leader told state TV. “For example one of the reasons is checking if we have access to the unfrozen funds, if there is no access then this condition has not been fulfilled,” Mehdi Fazaeili said.
Reuters
Israel renewed its attacks on Lebanon on Sunday (June 29, 2026), wounding at least two people, two days after the countries struck an agreement that a Hezbollah lawmaker warned would lead to “internal conflict”.
The strikes come a day after one person was killed in an Israeli strike on the south, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
The Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah members near its self-proclaimed “security zone”, which reaches 10 kilometres (six miles) into Lebanon.
AFP
Flights between Tehran and Dubai are to resume on Monday (June 29), Iranian state media reported, just weeks after Iran hit targets in the UAE with drones and missiles during the West Asia war.
Iranian state TV and other media quoted Ramin Kashefazar, the head of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport, as saying that “the necessary arrangements have been made to reopen the Tehran-Dubai route at Imam Khomeini Airport”.
AFP
Qatar’s Interior Ministry said a Qatari national was killed after sustaining injuries from shrapnel due to “military operations in the area” after a vessel carrying him and another person went missing.
The Ministry said the second individual was injured, adding that it located the missing vessel in the early hours of Sunday (June 28, 2026) after search operations that started a day earlier.
It did not give the location of the incident and did not say whether the shrapnel was linked to Iranian drones launched against U.S. military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain on Sunday (June 28, 2026).
– Reuters
The Israeli military said a soldier was killed today in fighting in southern Lebanon, two days after Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement aimed at ending hostilities.
Captain David Hazutt, 21, a platoon commander “fell in combat” in southern Lebanon, the military said.
Capt. Hazutt was killed when soldiers encountered a “Hezbollah terrorist after entering a suspicious structure in the area of Deir Seryan in southern Lebanon,” a military official said in a separate statement. In the incident an additional Israeli soldier was lightly injured, the official said.
“Following the incident, the soldiers began searching for the terrorist and struck targets in the area,” the official added.
Later in the day, in a separate statement, the military said “the terrorist was located in one of the structures near the point of the encounter and was eliminated by the soldiers.”
Capt. Hazutt’s death brings Israel’s military losses to 38 soldiers and one civilian contractor since the war between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in early March.
– AFP
Israel renewed strikes on Lebanon today, Lebanese state media reported, two days after an agreement was signed by the two countries, which a Hezbollah lawmaker warned would lead to “internal conflict”.
The strikes come a day after one person was killed in an Israeli strike on the south, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, with the Israeli military saying it targeted Hezbollah members near its self-proclaimed “security zone”, which is 10 km deep into Lebanon.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported several strikes today.
The Israeli Army said a soldier “fell in combat” in southern Lebanon.
Israel launched strikes in southern Lebanon despite a newly signed framework agreement aimed at ending hostilities between the countries.
Iran’s top diplomat warned today that any attempt to bypass the Strait of Hormuz routes agreed with the United States would “increase tensions” in West Asia, as the countries traded attacks and accusations of violating a fragile truce.
“Any attempt to adopt new or separate arrangements compared to what is underway by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to more complicated situations and delays in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and will increase the tensions,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.
“I urge all parties… to adhere to the memorandum of understanding and not to allow this MoU to deviate from its course.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they were taking measures to control traffic in the strait, through which in peacetime around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports travel, and that violating vessels would be dealt with more firmly than before.
– AFP
As the White House has soured on Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, U.S. President Donald Trump has shocked many in the region by pushing an alternative: Let Syria fight the Iran-backed militant group instead.
He has suggested that the battle-hardened and Islamist-led insurgents who overthrew Syria’s autocratic President Bashar Assad a year and a half ago and formed a new government would do a better job of rooting out Hezbollah than the Israeli army.
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa has said he has no interest in doing so, and has asserted that Trump’s comments were misconstrued. But Mr. Trump has doubled down on the idea.
Although it remains unclear how serious the White House is about the proposal, the prospect of a Syrian invasion has raised alarms in Lebanon — and also in Israel, which regards al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led government with suspicion and has seized control of a strip of southern Syria since he took power.
-AP
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah warned today of “internal conflict” in Lebanon over the country’s agreement with Israel, which the Iran-backed militant group rejects, predicting that the deal would not be implemented.
The agreement, which was signed in Washington on Friday after five rounds of talks and aims to pave the way to peace between the neighbours, includes plans to disarm Hezbollah.
Mr. Fadlallah spoke a day after Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told US President Donald Trump in a phone call that the Lebanese state “will assume its responsibilities” in implementing the framework agreement.
Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, said yesterday that the group would treat the deal as “null and void” and described it as “a surrender of sovereignty”.
-AFP
Iran’s Foreign Minister called Today for the establishment of a security framework with Gulf countries, after Iranian strikes against US bases in the Gulf in retaliation for American attacks.
“We should reach a new framework that includes all countries in the region and without the presence or interference of any country from outside the region,” Abbas Araghchi said at a news conference on a visit to Iraqi capital Baghdad.
-AFP
The Israeli military said a soldier was killed today in fighting in southern Lebanon, two days after Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement aimed at ending hostilities.
Captain David Hazutt, 21, a platoon commander, “fell in combat” in southern Lebanon, the military said.
Hazutt was killed when soldiers encountered a “Hezbollah terrorist after entering a suspicious structure in the area of Deir Seryan in southern Lebanon,” a military official said in a separate statement.
In the incident an additional Israeli soldier was lightly injured, the official said.
-AFP
Iran’s Foreign Minister warned today that any challenge to the country’s control of the strategic Strait of Hormuz would increase tensions despite ongoing peace negotiations to end the West Asia war.
“Any attempt to adopt new or separate arrangements compared to what is underway by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to more complicated situations and delays in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and will increase the tensions, as we witnessed in the past two nights,” Abbas Araghchi said at a news conference on a visit to Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Tehran’s top diplomat called on all parties to “adhere to the memorandum of understanding and not to allow this MoU to deviate from its course” after both sides traded attacks in recent days.
-AFP
A crown was blown off an ancient column in a UNESCO-listed site in Lebanon’s port city of Tyre. A pilgrimage site for Muslims and Christians alike was destroyed in another southern town. Israeli strikes pummelled the Mamluk-era market in the city of Nabatieh and troops razed centuries-old Lebanese border towns.
Israel’s nearly four-month air and ground campaign, which it says was targeting Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, has damaged or destroyed revered heritage sites across southern Lebanon, Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salame told Reuters.
Despite a ceasefire that took hold a week ago, authorities have yet to build a full picture of the damage as Israeli troops still occupy a zone about 10 km (6.2 miles) deep into Lebanon that is off-limits to Lebanese, Mr. Salame said.
“We cannot work under the shadow of occupation,” he said.
That occupation zone includes the medieval Beaufort Castle as well as centuries-old villages that were home to Christians, Shi’ite Muslims and Sunni Muslims and their places of worship.
-Reuters
Iraq’s Foreign Minister said in a meeting on Sunday (June 28, 2026) with his Iranian counterpart that it was important to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and lift the U.S. naval blockade on Iran.
Iraq does not support expanding the scale of the war on the Gulf states, and does not back attacks on Iran, Fuad Hussein told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who is visiting Baghdad.
-Reuters
The Lebanese state news agency reported a new Israeli attack on southern Lebanon today, two days after the countries signed an agreement to pave the way to peace talks.
“An Israeli warplane carried out an airstrike targeting the outskirts of the towns of Deir Seryan and Taybeh in southern Lebanon,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
-AFP
The Directorate General of Shipping has withdrawn its earlier advisory restricting the movement of Indian ships along the Gulf Region, including the Strait of Hormuz, and deployment of Indian seafarers in the conflict zones, while asking maritime stakeholders to maintain heightened level of caution and closely monitor navigational warnings.
Read more:
DGS lifts restrictions on Indian ships in the Strait of Hormuz, urging caution for maritime stakeholders amid heightened security.
Iran said today it was determined to defend its sovereignty after the latest U.S. strikes on the country, as a fragile truce in the West Asia war hung in the balance.
“Iran strongly condemns the airstrikes by the terrorist U.S. army on several monitoring and surveillance facilities on the southern coast of the country in the early hours of Sunday,” the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it “stresses its determination to defend Iran’s national sovereignty” against U.S. attacks.
Iran and the United States have accused each other of violating their truce, straining negotiations meant to end the West Asia war.
-AFP
Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry denounced today a new Iranian attack on its territory, after Tehran said it had launched strikes against U.S. bases in the Gulf in retaliation for American attacks.
The Ministry said in a statement that it “expresses its condemnation and denunciation of… in the strongest terms, the recurrence of Iran’s heinous aggression against the State of Kuwait, the latest of which was at dawn today, in a flagrant violation of its sovereignty”.
-AFP
Bahrain’s air defences intercepted Iranian missiles and drones today, the Gulf kingdom’s military said, after the U.S. carried out new strikes against Iran.
The Bahraini military said it had “intercepted and destroyed a number of projectiles used in these treacherous Iranian attacks”, adding that it was on “maximum alert”.
Iran announced earlier that it had launched strikes against the U.S. Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain and another base in Kuwait, in retaliation for U.S. strikes on its territory.
-AFP
Air raid sirens sounded for a second time in Bahrain on Sunday (June 28, 2026), the Interior Ministry said.
Iran announced earlier that it had launched strikes against the U.S. Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain and another base in Kuwait, in retaliation for U.S. strikes on its territory.
“The siren has been sounded… Citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place,” the Interior Ministry said on X.
– AFP
The Israeli military said on Sunday (June 28, 2026) it killed Hezbollah militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and struck a rocket launcher in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon to remove threats to its soldiers.
The Israeli military said it struck the structure from which the militants operated and dismantled a rocket launcher that posed a threat.
– Reuters
The Israeli military said Sunday (June 28) it killed several “armed terrorists” a day earlier in southern Syria.
“Yesterday (Saturday), IDF soldiers eliminated several armed terrorists in the Security Zone in southern Syria,” it said in a statement.
The Israeli army has occupied what it calls a “security zone” in southern Syria since late 2024 and said it would remain in place there “to remove any threat to Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers”.
– AFP
Iran said on Sunday (June 28) that U.S. airstrikes targeted several monitoring and surveillance facilities on Iran’s southern coast, calling the attacks a violation of an interim deal meant to end the four-month-old war between the two countries.
“These brutal attacks show that the U.S. does not place the slightest value or credibility on its commitments, and breaking promises is part of its nature,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
– Reuters
Iran’s Paramilitary Revolutionary Guard on Sunday (June 28) said it had carried out overnight attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait and threatened that a “complete halt” could come to talks with the U.S. if America continues its attacks.
The Guard statement, carried by the state-run Iran newspaper, represented the sharpest threat yet to talks over the interim deal struck between Iran and the U.S. That created a 60-day window for the two countries to negotiate a permanent end to the war.
The Guard said it attacked the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, as well as Al Asad Air Base in Kuwait.
– AP
The war the U.S. and Israel launched has come to a fragile pause with a preliminary agreement between Washington and Tehran, but it has already diminished America’s presence in the region, prompting Gulf countries to seek a new modus vivendi with Tehran, while Israel, isolated and angry, is clinging on to its Lebanon card
Read the full story below
The war the U.S. and Israel launched has come to a fragile pause with a preliminary agreement between Washington and Tehran, but it has already diminished America’s presence in the region.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday (June 28, 2026) that it carried out strikes against Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for U.S. attacks on Iranian territory, warning any further aggression would be met with a “crushing response”.
The Guards “destroyed eight important U.S. military facilities at the Ali al-Salem base in Kuwait and at the Fifth Fleet naval base in Port Salman in Bahrain,” they said in a statement.
“Any enemy aggression, whatever the pretext, even against insignificant targets… will have a crushing response,” the Guards added.
– AFP
Kuwait came under attack from “hostile” missiles and drones, the country’s army said on Sunday (June 28, 2026), while in Bahrain air-raid sirens sounded following fresh US strikes against Iran.
“Kuwaiti air defences are currently engaging hostile missile and drone attacks. Everyone is urged to adhere to the safety and security instructions issued by the relevant authorities,” the Army wrote on X.
In Bahrain, which hosts a major U.S. naval base, air raid sirens went off, the interior ministry said, calling on residents to “remain calm and head to the nearest safe place”.
– AFP
The U.S. military said on Saturday (June 27, 2026) it had struck 10 targets in Iran at President Donald Trump’s direction, continuing a string of attacks that have shaken the war’s uneasy ceasefire.
U.S. Central Command, in a post to social media, said that U.S. military aircraft targeted Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defence sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a merchant vessel early on Saturday morning (June 27, 2026).
It later specified the strikes involved 10 Iranian military targets at multiple locations in and near the Strait of Hormuz.
– AP
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday (June 26, 2026) that Iran would “no longer exist” if the United States is “forced” to resume the war, as he accused Tehran of violating a ceasefire.
The threat came after U.S. forces said they struck “multiple” Iranian targets on Saturday (June 26, 2026) in another tit-for-tat response to attacks on shipping in the vital Strait of Hormuz.
“United States aircraft just struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites for violating the Ceasefire Agreement, AGAIN!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started. If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” Mr. Trump wrote.
– AFP
Published – June 28, 2026 07:36 am IST
Iran / Israel-US strikes on Iran / West Asia / Donald Trump / USA / war / unrest, conflicts and war / Lebanon / Live news / Israel
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