Iran says the Strait of Hormuz remains under its control, rejecting U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim of “total control” over the strategic waterway and insisting it will not reopen until Washington fulfils its commitments under an interim deal.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance says Washington is deploying a combination of diplomatic, military and economic tools to pressure Iran, with preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and maintaining stable global energy prices among the administration's top priorities.
In an interview with Fox News, Vance said he was confident the confrontation would ultimately leave the United States in a stronger position, Iran without a nuclear weapon, and the Strait of Hormuz operating under conditions that support stable oil and gas markets.
The United Arab Emirates has condemned what it described as an Iranian attack on two ADNOC vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, according to a statement from the UAE Foreign Ministry.
The condemnation comes after ADNOC reported that two of its vessels were attacked on Thursday evening while passing through the strategic waterway. The company said there were no injuries and that the situation had been brought under control.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) said two of its vessels were attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday evening, according to the UAE's state news agency WAM.
The company said no injuries were reported and that the situation had been brought under control. ADNOC did not immediately provide details on the nature of the attack or the extent of any damage to the vessels.
U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has dismissed reports of shortages, water contamination and worsening conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, calling them “completely misrepresented”.
Democratic lawmakers have called for answers over the carrier’s extended deployment in the Middle East.
Yemen faces its gravest risk of renewed large-scale war since the 2022 UN-brokered truce, as fighting intensifies and more than half the population faces acute food insecurity, the UN envoy warned.
Yemen’s Houthis have buried 57 fighters, including 31 officers and three brigadier generals, over the past 10 days, according to Houthi-run state media.
Saba TV did not specify where or how the fighters were killed. The reported funerals come amid renewed clashes between Houthi and government forces in several provinces, including Marib, Al-Jawf, Al-Dhalea and Taiz.
The fighting marks an escalation after Yemen’s conflict had remained relatively subdued since a UN-brokered truce took effect in April 2022. The formal truce expired later that year, but large-scale hostilities remained significantly reduced.
The latest tensions also come after the Houthis announced a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in July.
Iran’s military has rejected U.S. claims that vessels are transiting the Strait of Hormuz normally, insisting that safe passage remains subject to Tehran’s permission and supervision.
A spokesman for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said the strategic waterway remains under the “full management and control” of the Islamic Republic and that no commercial vessel or oil tanker can safely pass without the approval of Iran’s armed forces.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reaffirmed Ankara’s support for an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, during talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ankara.
Erdoğan also called for conditions to be created for Gaza’s reconstruction and for security to be ensured in the enclave.
Two people were killed and 15 others injured in a Houthi drone attack on a military camp in Yemen’s eastern Hadramout province on Thursday, government-aligned Aljoumhouriya TV reported.
The attack reportedly targeted a camp belonging to the 3rd Division of the government’s Nation’s Shield Forces in the Al-Abr desert. There was no immediate comment from the Houthis or Yemeni authorities.
Egypt has denied any connection to a commercial vessel attacked with missiles near Yemen this week, saying the Tanzania-flagged ship had never entered Egyptian ports and was neither carrying Egyptian cargo nor heading to the country.
Cairo also condemned attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, warning they pose a serious threat to maritime security and freedom of navigation.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that troops would not withdraw from southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed and the threat posed by the group is removed.
The remarks came after a U.S. official said a permanent Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon would be inconsistent with commitments under the U.S.-brokered deal, which links Israel’s progressive withdrawal to Hezbollah’s verified disarmament.
Iran’s top joint military command said on Thursday that no vessel could transit the Strait of Hormuz without Tehran’s permission, reinforcing Iran’s claim that it controls passage through the strategic waterway.
The statement comes as Iran and the United States make competing claims over control of the strait, with Iranian officials saying it will not fully reopen until commitments under an interim agreement are met.
Norway has backed Pakistan’s efforts to mediate an end to the U.S.-Iran war, with Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide describing Islamabad’s role as “a real service to the world”.
During talks in Islamabad, Eide said Norway was ready to support peace efforts and could play a constructive role in discussions over the Strait of Hormuz, while both countries also called for an independent Palestinian state.
A Lebanese official has denied that Beirut agreed with Israel on a shortlist of countries that could send troops to Lebanon to verify Hezbollah’s disarmament, contradicting an earlier Reuters report.
The official said Lebanon was still discussing the issue with the United States. A June deal links Israel’s progressive withdrawal from southern Lebanon to the verified disarmament of non-state armed groups.
Iranian state media have mocked U.S. President Donald Trump over his secret aircraft switch while leaving Türkiye last month, portraying the security operation as evidence of U.S. fear of Iran’s military capabilities.
Iran’s embassy in South Africa also shared a meme depicting Trump hidden inside a catering container, after reports that he and a small group of aides used a catering truck to secretly transfer to a smaller government jet following a security threat.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam discussed the situation in southern Lebanon on Thursday amid ongoing Israeli attacks and the destruction of homes and property in several towns and villages.
The talks also covered a visit by the head of the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon and issues due to be discussed at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting.
Türkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia will establish political and military coordination mechanisms under their newly signed Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, Türkiye’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday.
The mechanisms will involve defence and foreign ministers as well as military chiefs, while the three countries are also planning joint military exercises and deeper defence industry cooperation.
Yemeni pro-government forces said they repelled a Houthi attack on their positions along the Taiz-Lahej border, forcing the group to retreat after clashes on the Hayfan front.
Government-aligned forces also said they destroyed two Houthi boats in the Red Sea, including one allegedly carrying equipment used to launch drones. The Houthis separately reported the deaths of seven of their fighters in Amran and Hajjah provinces
German container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd incurred around $600 million in additional costs in the second quarter due to the conflict in the Middle East, the company said on Thursday.
Hapag-Lloyd's group profit fell to $83 million in the April-June period, from $306 million a year earlier, according to its quarterly earnings statement.
Group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) edged up to $829 million from $820 million, while operating profit declined to $176 million from $189 million.
In a post on X, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Washington’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz represented an “even bigger miscalculation.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has accused the U.S. of dealing an unprecedented blow to the principles of international humanitarian law through threats and attacks against Iran’s civilian infrastructure.
In a post on X marking the anniversary of the adoption of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, Baghaei said the treaties’ architects could hardly have imagined that the U.S. would threaten to target another country’s civilian infrastructure decades after their adoption.
He said threats against bridges, power plants and other civilian facilities risked weakening protections for hospitals, electricity networks and water infrastructure under international law.
Iran and Russia held a new round of bilateral consultations in Moscow on Wednesday, focusing on cybersecurity, cybercrime and the protection of critical infrastructure and communications networks from attacks, according to IRNA.
The talks brought together an Iranian delegation led by the Foreign Ministry’s Director-General for international peace and security and Russia’s Head of Information Security at the Foreign Ministry.
The discussions were held under a bilateral agreement on information security cooperation signed in January 2021 and later approved by the parliaments of both countries. The Moscow meeting marked the second round of technical consultations on implementing the agreement.
Pakistan said it was ready to assist Saudi Arabia and other members of a multinational maritime coalition in protecting commercial shipping and global supply chains.
The statement followed a Houthi attack on a Saudi commercial vessel in the Bab al-Mandab Strait on Tuesday that killed three Pakistani nationals and injured another. Eleven Pakistani and Indonesian sailors were rescued.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office said Islamabad would fully honour its commitments to the coalition, which includes 14 countries, among them Türkiye and Egypt, seeking to safeguard shipping and energy supply routes in the Red Sea region.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has accused France and other Western countries of hypocrisy after they condemned Tehran's treatment of protesters and use of the death penalty.
“Countries like France should stop lecturing the world about ‘human rights’ and international law. The hypocrisy is blatant and embarrassing,” Araghchi wrote on X.
His remarks came after France confirmed that the European Union and 25 other countries had issued a joint statement condemning Iran's executions of protesters.
France and 25 other countries, along with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, on Wednesday called on Tehran to immediately halt the use of the death penalty and release those arbitrarily detained.
“The use of capital punishment to silence dissidents, intimidate communities and punish individuals for exercising their fundamental rights can never be justified,” they said in a statement issued by the French Foreign Ministry.
They also urged Iran to “listen to the voice of its people,” who they said were demanding change, and to take concrete steps to guarantee respect for human rights.
Asian stocks rose on Thursday after U.S. inflation data came in line with expectations, weakening expectations of another near-term Federal Reserve rate hike.
South Korea's benchmark index jumped 4.4 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei gained 1.86 per cent.
Oil prices eased but remained elevated, with Brent near $88 a barrel as the U.S. and Iran remained deadlocked over efforts to end the Gulf war.
The dollar softened against the yen as expectations grew that the Bank of Japan could raise interest rates as early as next month.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he thinks there is a chance of a peace being reached with Ukraine. He told the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia that he believed there was "a chance of finding a solution," to the conflict.
The Iranian Health Ministry said at least 18 people were killed and 142 others injured in U.S. airstrikes carried out between 30 August and 2 September.
U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Russia then Ukraine over the weekend, Russian state news agency TASS has reported, citing an unnamed source. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also said American envoys will visit the capitals of both countries.
The Iranian Army has again struck at U.S. bases in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates in retaliation for U.S. attacks on southern and western parts of Iran late on Tuesday, which reportedly killed 18 people and injured more than 100 others.
U.S. efforts to squeeze Iran’s economy through an oil blockade and sanctions are becoming increasingly difficult for Tehran to withstand, according to three senior Iranian sources. Washington is escalating pressure in hopes of securing concessions in future negotiations.
A U.S. campaign to throttle Iran's economy by blockading its oil exports and stopping sanctions evasion is growing increasingly difficult to withstand, three senior Iranian sources said.
U.S. efforts to squeeze Iran’s economy through an oil blockade and sanctions are becoming increasingly difficult for Tehran to withstand, according to three senior Iranian sources. Washington is escalating pressure in hopes of securing concessions in future negotiations.
The Iranian Health Ministry said at least 18 people were killed and 142 others injured in U.S. airstrikes carried out between 30 August and 2 September.
The Iranian Army has again struck at U.S. bases in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates in retaliation for U.S. attacks on southern and western parts of Iran late on Tuesday, which reportedly killed 18 people and injured more than 100 others.
The U.S. has launched a fresh wave of strikes on Iran, targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sites as Tehran retaliated against U.S. positions across the region, while Iranian officials said at least five people were killed and dozens wounded at a wedding near Sirik.
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