Iran war live: US expects Tehran’s reply to peace deal; ‘clashes’ in Hormuz

The spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry has mocked Donald Trump’s recent threat of a nuclear strike on Iran.

“It is a grotesque absurdity that they claim to seek peace and prevent a nuclear crisis, yet their proposed solution is ‘one big glow’,” Esmaeil Baghaei said in a post on X.

He accompanied the post with a clip from the 1964 American film, Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, by director Stanley Kubrick.

Kubrick’s antiwar satire tells the story of the accidental launch of a nuclear attack on the USSR that the US tries but fails to stop.

Baghaei’s post follows a comment Trump made to reporters on Thursday, where the president said that if the ceasefire with Iran fails, “you’re just going to have to look at one big glow coming out of Iran”.

Trump has made ending Tehran’s nuclear programme one of the conditions for ending his war with Iran.

The US Defense Department is declining to comment on a possible recent strike on Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal, The Associated Press news agency reports.

The agency says satellite imagery from earlier in the week shows an oil spill before the most recent round of US strikes on Iranian vessels and coastal locations on Thursday and early Friday.

The oil slick was first spotted in waters off Kharg Island on Tuesday.

Images from Friday show the slick covering some 71 square kilometres (27.4 square miles), AP adds, citing a source at the maritime intelligence firm Windward AI.

The origins of the spill remain unknown.

Footage released by the Pentagon shows US strikes on two Iranian oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

The US military said the vessels were disabled following overnight exchanges of fire with Iranian forces, preventing them from reaching ports in the Gulf of Oman.

Watch the video here:

“Unlawful” US actions “constitute a grave and dangerous escalation that further destabilises an already fragile region and poses a serious threat to international peace and security”, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, said in letters Friday to the UN Security Council and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Iravani warned that the consequences of US military actions in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz “could be catastrophic” and extend far beyond the Middle East.

The US “would bear full responsibility”, he added.

The US military said that its forces disabled two Iranian tankers that were trying to breach an American blockade of Iran’s ports, part of US efforts to get Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

Iravani also called on the secretary-general and the council to urge the US “to comply with its obligations under international law and refrain from further provocative actions”.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says its food price index rose 2 percent in April year-on-year, climbing to the highest level since 2023 amid the conflict in the Middle East.

Higher crude oil prices are increasing demand for seed oils from the biofuel industry, while concerns over lower seed oil production in Southeast Asia are raising prices as well, the FAO says.

Wheat prices rose 0.8 percent, due in part to higher fertiliser prices because of the war.

Those higher fertiliser prices may push wheat farmers to switch to less fertiliser-intensive crops, which would squeeze wheat supplies and raise prices for the grain further, the FAO warns.

• The US military said it struck two Iranian-flagged oil tankers trying to enter an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman – the second straight day of naval confrontations.
• Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said “every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the US opts for a reckless military adventure”.
• Dozens of people have been killed in a series of Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon in one of the deadliest days since fighting began with Hezbollah on March 2.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged European allies to move beyond rhetoric and take concrete action against Iran over its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
• US Central Command says US forces have “redirected” a total of 57 commercial vessels and “disabled” three vessels since it began its siege of Iranian ports.
• In the occupied West Bank, settlers continue to attack Palestinian communities, including one incident where a father and his child were injured in the village of ash-Shuyukh, south of Hebron.

Hello, and welcome to our coverage of the ceasefire in the United States and Israel’s war on Iran, and Israel’s war on Lebanon.

Stay with us for the latest developments, reactions and analyses from across the Middle East and beyond.

You can find our updates from Friday, May 8, here.