Iran war live: Tehran says US fleet targeted in Bahrain after US strikes

Crude oil prices climbed about 1 percent earlier, rebounding from a seven-week low.

The price rally was fuelled by new US military strikes against Iran and market data revealing a further substantial decline in US crude inventories.

Brent crude oil futures gained 83 cents, or 0.9 percent, to reach $92.29 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude increased by 68 cents, or 0.8 percent, to settle at $88.97.

Medical Aid for Palestinians has joined other organisations in saying that the UK government needs to do more to respond to hardline Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, in addition to the newly announced sanctions by London.

“The government must immediately end trade with illegal settlements,” said Rohan Talbot, the agency’s director of advocacy and campaigns.

“Otherwise, this will look less like a turning point and more like another attempt to look the other way while the bulldozers keep moving.”

Talbot said that the new sanctions “fall well below” the UK government’s obligations to uphold international law and will barely make a difference in terms of “ending Israeli annexation and apartheid in the West Bank”.

This incident happened about 24 hours ago, just off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz – a downed Apache helicopter.

An unmanned surface drone was sent, and within two hours, both pilots were recovered safely.

There were no injuries to them.

Donald Trump, in a number of interviews in the afternoon, said that this wasn’t a big deal, but clearly, he’d suggested that there was going to be a response from the United States.

That was backed up by a number of Republicans on Capitol Hill, who said that the US couldn’t let this go unpunished, that there had to be a response.

About three hours ago, we got confirmation from CENTCOM that an operation was under way.

We are told the targets were radar sites and missile defence sites.

This, of course, calls into question Donald Trump’s repeated suggestion that all of those sites have been all but obliterated and removed.

Donald Trump has given at least one interview since that operation happened. He said that this was going to be a strong and powerful response, but he didn’t see this as jeopardising the ongoing peace talks.

He thought that they could still move on with those talks.

Of course, the big question mark over all of that is exactly how Iran responds, and whether or not we are now out of what has been described as a ceasefire, and we’re into tit-for-tat operations from the Iranians and the United States.

We have fresh reports of a new wave of strikes, not as comprehensive as the first ones, but at least two areas were mentioned: Jask and Bandar Abbas, again, in the last few minutes or so.

Bandar Abbas was mentioned as a place that has just been struck again.

The Americans have launched a new wave of strikes, but there is no clarity about the scope of this wave or whether it is to be as large as the previous one, or maybe a limited one.

The foreign minister has said twice today that the Americans have only one solution, which is to leave the Gulf region, and the Iranians are adamant that they will strike back against Americans by way of retaliation against tonight’s strikes.

We haven’t seen that Iranian response yet, and we don’t know whether it will happen tonight or tomorrow, or maybe in the next few days.

Usually, the Iranians take their time. But not during this war; they have said they strike directly against any new aggression, as they describe it.

There is the likelihood of new escalation, but we don’t know whether diplomacy will take precedence here, because there are proposals by the Americans being studied here in Iran.

Iran has always been saying that it has left the door open for diplomacy and for talks, but at the same time, it says it doesn’t trust the Americans, and the proof of the justification of that is that the Americans and the Israelis continue to strike against Iran and to create a situation whereby peace cannot happen.

The Iranians have been very clear about their intentions not to leave any “aggression” or attack on their soil or territory unanswered.

We heard throughout the day and even from military sources, saying they will retaliate, not just after this attack tonight. They have been saying that even before.

That’s the equation that the Iranians wanted to maintain with the Americans, and also with the Israelis, saying that if they don’t retaliate to any attack, it will send a message of weakness to their enemies, which will mean that those enemies will be trying to dominate the skies of Iran and will do in Iran what they are doing in Lebanon and Gaza.

Iran believes that it has what it takes to defend itself, and to keep this equation of deterrence alive, and of course, the Americans and Israelis are trying to break it.

We don’t know if that retaliation took place already in terms of exchange of fire with the Americans over the last couple of hours or whether there is something being planned tonight or tomorrow.

But the pattern is, and it has been since the beginning of this war, that when Iranians speak clearly about retaliation, and when they threaten to do it, they do it.

Over the past 24 hours, Israeli forces killed nine people in Tyre after they issued forced displacement orders for the city, as deadly strikes continued across southern Lebanon.

Residents from the historic coastal city described how drastically life changed overnight, transforming bustling neighbourhoods into ghost towns as families scrambled to pack what little they could carry and flee the ongoing bombardment.

Watch the video below:

• The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that its “forces began launching self-defence strikes against Iran”.
• The US military command said the attacks on Iran were carried out in retaliation for “yesterday’s downing of a US Army Apache helicopter”.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has responded to the US attacks by warning Washington to “leave our region if you want to be safe”, declaring, “Our powerful armed forces will leave no attack or threat unanswered.”
• Data from the US Energy Information Administration reveals that Middle East oil suppliers have slashed production by more than 11 million barrels daily due to the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
• Iran’s football federation announced that the national team is scheduled to arrive in the US only 24 hours prior to its World Cup opening game against New Zealand on June 16.
• United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has urged an immediate halt to regional hostilities and called for the preservation of the announced ceasefires in Lebanon, Iran and Gaza.

Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of the ceasefire in the US and Israel’s war on Iran, as well as Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

Stay with us for the latest news and analyses from across the Middle East and beyond.

You can find our updates from Tuesday, June 9, here.