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The UK’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, has told the BBC that the government’s job is not to be “outsourcing our foreign policy”.

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Speaking on Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday politics programme, Cooper said:

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It’s for the US president to decide what he thinks is in the US national interest, and that’s for him to do.

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But it is our job as the UK government to decide what’s in the UK national interest, and that doesn’t mean simply agreeing with other countries or outsourcing our foreign policy to other countries.

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Cooper says she strongly supports the decisions Keir Starmer has taken in relation to Iran.","caption":"Yvette Cooper says she strongly supports the decisions Keir Starmer has taken in relation to Iran. 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Asked if the UK was at war, Cooper responded: “We are providing defensive support in a conflict, and that is, I think, the way to describe it.”

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Her comments followed renewed criticism from the US president, Donald Trump, who has apparently told the UK he does not need its aircraft carriers and accused the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, of seeking to “join wars after we’ve already won”, in reference to reports that the UK was preparing an aircraft carrier in response to the escalating conflict.

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Relations between Washington and London have sunk to a low point, with Trump strongly criticising Starmer for the lack of immediate UK support for the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

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Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has said his country will “not bow easily” to “bullying” and vowed to continue to respond against attacks.

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“When we are attacked, we have no choice but to respond. The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be,” Pezeshkian said in video comments this morning.

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“Our Iran, our country, will not bow easily in the face of bullying, oppression or aggression – and it never has.”

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As we reported in an earlier post, the Iranian president on Saturday apologised to neighbouring Gulf countries hosting US military bases for attacks on their territory.

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However, after the statement provoked a backlash inside the country and the military appeared to contradict him, Pezeshkian said his remarks were “misinterpreted by the enemy that seeks to sow division with neighbours”.

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There is footage of a huge fire engulfing a tower in Kuwait city following drone strikes in the early hours of Sunday morning.

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It is reported to have broken out at a government site operated by the Public Institution for Social Security in Kuwait. In a social media post, the department said:

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\n

The main building of the organization was targeted, resulting in material damage to the building.

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The fire appears to be under control now.

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rises in the aftermath of a reported drone attack in Kuwait City.","caption":"Smoke rises in the aftermath of a reported drone attack in Kuwait City.","credit":"Photograph: Social Media/Reuters"}}],"attributes":{"pinned":false,"keyEvent":true,"summary":false},"blockCreatedOn":1772958445000,"blockCreatedOnDisplay":"08.27 GMT","blockLastUpdated":1772959396000,"blockLastUpdatedDisplay":"08.43 GMT","blockFirstPublished":1772959397000,"blockFirstPublishedDisplay":"08.43 GMT","blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone":"08.43","title":"Huge fire engulfs tower in Kuwait after drone strikes","contributors":[],"primaryDateLine":"Sun 8 Mar 2026 10.23 GMT","secondaryDateLine":"First published on Sun 8 Mar 2026 04.05 GMT"},{"id":"69ad1ba88f08ef977b471d80","elements":[{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"

As we hand over the blog to our colleagues in London, here’s a quick summary of today’s events as the conflict in the Middle East continues to escalate and the strikes show no sign of relenting.

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Here is what you need to know so far.

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\n
• \n

  A fresh wave of Iranian strikes hit the Gulf on Sunday, with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait all reporting new attacks. Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry reported intercepting 15 drones. In Bahrain, the strikes did “material damage” to a crucial desalination plant .

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• \n

  Kuwait’s national oil company announced a “precautionary” cut to its crude oil production after the strikes. The military said fuel tanks at Kuwait’s international airport were targeted in a drone attack and two firefighters were killed.

\n

• \n

  Overnight strikes by the US and Israel hit five oil sites around Tehran, according to an Iran official. The official said that the five facilities “were damaged” but the “fire was brought under control”.

\n

• \n

  Donald Trump had said he is not interested in negotiating with Iran, raising the possibility that the Iran war would only end once Tehran no longer has a functioning military and its leadership is completely wiped out. But while Trump claimed the US and Israel had “decimated” the Iranian regime, he offered only a vague description of what he meant by Iran’s unconditional surrender.

\n

• \n

  Trump left open the possibility of deploying American troops on the ground. The US president addressed reporters hours after travelling to Dover air force base in Delaware to attend the transfer of the bodies of six US service members killed in the opening days of his war against Iran.

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• \n

  A majority consensus has almost been reached by the clerical body that will appoint the successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and become Iran’s next supreme leader, according to reports. Israel’s military said it would continue to pursue any successor to Khamenei.

\n

• \n

  Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said his country “will be forced to respond” to any attack or invasion attempt from a neighbouring country. His comments came after a backlash by hardliners and within Iranian military ranks after the president appeared to apologise to neighbouring Gulf countries attacked by Iran as they targeted US military bases. Pezeshkian said his comments had been “misinterpreted by the enemy”.

\n

• \n

  At least 16 were killed in Lebanon after Israeli renewed its assault on Beirut and southern Lebanon. Four were killed in a blast on a hotel in Beirut and 12 were killed in strikes on southern Lebanon as Israel said it was targeting “key commanders” in the IGRC’s Quds Force foreign operations arm.

\n

• \n

  In a post on social media, Trump renewed his criticism of the UK’s lack of immediate support for US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and claimed Downing Street was now “giving serious thought” to sending two aircraft carriers to the region. “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember,” the US president wrote.

\n

• \n

  Trump has warned in a Truth Social post that more Iranian officials will be targeted, saying: “Today Iran will be hit very hard!”.

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• \n

  China’s foreign minister says Iran war ‘should never have happened’. Wang warned that the US-Israel push for regime change in Iran would “find no popular support” and said “the world cannot return to the law of the jungle”.

\n

","elementId":"e63e266d-6a07-403d-8394-7eb9beb63009"}],"attributes":{"pinned":false,"keyEvent":false,"summary":true},"blockCreatedOn":1772952488000,"blockCreatedOnDisplay":"06.48 GMT","blockLastUpdated":1772956857000,"blockLastUpdatedDisplay":"08.00 GMT","blockFirstPublished":1772956858000,"blockFirstPublishedDisplay":"08.00 GMT","blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone":"08.00","title":"Summary","contributors":[],"primaryDateLine":"Sun 8 Mar 2026 10.23 GMT","secondaryDateLine":"First published on Sun 8 Mar 2026 04.05 GMT"},{"id":"69ad242e8f089ad205186a95","elements":[{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"

War in the Middle East “should never have happened”, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has declared, even as he struck a more conciliatory tone with the US ahead of a highly anticipated visit by Donald Trump.

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Regime change, a key stated aim of the US president as the US and Israel continue to attack Iran, “will find no popular support”, Wang said on Sunday. “A strong fist does not mean strong reason. The world cannot return to the law of the jungle,” he added.

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Speaking on the sidelines of China’s annual parliamentary and political gatherings, known as the Two Sessions, the country’s top diplomat and foreign affairs official notably avoided directly criticising the US.

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Instead, Wang stressed that China was “committed to a spirit of mutual respect” in US-China relations. Recent talks between Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s president, were “heartening”, he said.

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Wang said that 2026 was a “big year for China-US relations” and that the two sides should “treat each other with sincerity and good faith”.

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A majority consensus over a successor to Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has more or less been reached, Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Mohammadmehdi Mirbaqeri said on Sunday, according to Mehr news agency.

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He said, though, that “some obstacles” need to be resolved regarding the process, according to the report.

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Iranian media said the body tasked with appointing Iran’s supreme leader had a minor disagreement over whether their final decision must follow an in-person meeting or instead be issued without adhering to this formality

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On Saturday, a senior cleric in the Assembly of Experts said its members would meet “within one day” to choose the leader.

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But Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari Alekasir, another member of the Assembly of Experts, said in a video released by Nournews on Sunday that an in-person meeting by the assembly for a final vote was not possible under current conditions.

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He said a candidate had been picked, based on the late supreme leader’s advice that Iran’s top leader should “be hated by the enemy” instead of praised by it.

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“Even the Great Satan [US] has mentioned his name,” Heidari Alekasir said of the chosen successor, days after Trump said that Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, was an “unacceptable” choice for him.

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The United States and Israel hit five oil facilities in overnight strikes in and near the Iranian capital, an official told state TV.

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“Last night, four oil depots and a petroleum products transport centre in Tehran and the Alborz were attacked by enemy aircraft,” the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company Keramat Veyskarami told state TV.

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He added that the five facilities “were damaged” but the “fire was brought under control”.

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On Saturday, an Israeli attack hit an oil storage facility in Tehran.

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country “will be forced to respond” to any attack or invasion attempt from a neighbouring country, in remarks aired by state TV on Sunday.

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If Iran’s enemies “try to use any country to attack or invade our land, we will be forced to respond to that attack. Responding does not mean we have disputes with that country or wish to harm its people – we would be responding out of necessity,” said Pezeshkian.

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On Saturday the president apologised to neighbouring Gulf countries hosting US military bases for attacks on their territory.

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However, after the statement provoked a storm inside the country and the military appeared to contradict him, Pezeshkian said his remarks were “misinterpreted by the enemy that seeks to sow division with neighbours”.

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The Israeli military said it launched a wave of strikes “across Iran” on Sunday, targeting military sites.

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A military statement said it had “initiated a wave of strikes targeting the Iranian terror regime military infrastructure across Iran”.

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The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia said its air defence systems were intercepting missiles and drones launched from Iran on Sunday.

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“UAE air defences are currently responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran,” the defence ministry said in a post on X, adding sounds of explosions were a result of the systems “intercepting missiles and drones”.

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Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry reported intercepting 15 drones, including an attempted attack in the diplomatic quarter of the capital Riyadh.

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The attacks come after Iran’s president apologised to neighbouring states for its attacks on U.S. facilities in those countries, in an attempt to cool anger across the Gulf, but stirred criticism from hardliners at home.

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Kuwait authorities said two border guards were killed when the Gulf country was hit by a barrage of missiles and drones, compounding fears over energy supplies.

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Kuwait’s military said it was still intercepting “hostile missile and drone attacks” on Sunday.

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“Kuwaiti air defences are currently engaging hostile missile and drone attacks,” the military said in a post on X, adding that explosion sounds were the result of interceptions by air defence systems.

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Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait all reported new attacks on Sunday. Kuwait’s national oil company announced a “precautionary” cut to its crude production, as the country’s military said Sunday it had responded “to a wave of hostile drones that penetrated the country’s airspace”.

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Fuel tanks at Kuwait’s international airport were targeted in a drone attack, the military added. The official Kuwait News Agency said a fire at the airport was brought under control.

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It called the drone attack “a direct targeting of vital infrastructure”.

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The Kuwaiti interior ministry said two border guards “were martyred… while performing their national duty”, without elaborating. It was not clear whether their deaths were the result of an Iranian attack.

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Israel is renewing its assault on southern Lebanon, including targeting commanders of the Lebanese branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force in Beirut.

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The Israeli military said in a statement that it would “not allow Iranian terrorist elements to establish themselves in Lebanese territory”.

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The latest strikes in Lebanon followed an Israeli attack Saturday on an oil storage facility in Tehran , which sent up pillars of fire into the night sky.

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Hello and welcome to our coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran, a conflict that is rippling across the Middle East with devastating consequences as it enters its second week.

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US President Trump has remained sanguine about the prospects of the war, saying that Iran is being ‘decimated’ even as he has refused to rule out deploying US troops.

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Meanwhile China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has condemned the war, saying it never should have happened.

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If you are just tuning in, here is a quick recap of events.

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  Donald Trump claimed the US and Israel had “decimated” the Iranian regime, but offered only a vague description of what he meant by his demand for an unconditional surrender. “It’s where they cry uncle, or when they can’t fight any long longer and there’s nobody around to cry uncle — that could happen too,” the US president said aboard Air Force One.

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  Trump left open the possibility of deploying American troops on the ground. The US president addressed reporters hours after travelling to Dover air force base in Delaware to attend the so-called dignified transfer of six US service members killed in the opening days of his war against Iran.

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  The US-Israel war on Iran “should never have happened”, China’s foreign minister said on Sunday. “The world cannot return to the law of the jungle,” Wang Yi told a press conference in Beijing, calling for an end to military operations.

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  Iran can fight a war of this size and scale for “at least” another six months, a Revolutionary Guards official has claimed. The defiant statement was carried by the semi-official Fars news agency, which has links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

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  Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian previously apologised to neighbouring countries attacked by Iran. He also said Iran’s interim leadership council had approved that no attacks or missile strikes would be carried out against such countries unless an attack against Iran originated from them.

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  Vast plumes of smoke and fire have been seen rising over the Tehran skyline overnight. The Israeli military said it struck “several fuel storage complexes” across the city.

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  At least four people were killed after an Israeli strike on an apartment in the Ramada hotel building in central Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Ten people were injured. Israel said it conducted a “precise strike” on what it called “key commanders” in the IGRC’s Quds Force foreign operations arm.

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  In a post on social media, Trump renewed his criticism of the UK’s lack of immediate support for US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and claimed Downing Street was now “giving serious thought” to sending two aircraft carriers to the region. “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember,” the US president wrote.

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Key events

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has said he is “deeply saddened by the tragic death of two Pakistani nationals in Dubai caused by missile debris”. In a statement on X, he added:

Our diplomatic missions in the UAE are in close contact with the Dubai authorities to provide all necessary assistance and to facilitate the repatriation process. Our hearts go out to the bereaved family in this hour of grief.

The US embassy in Oslo was hit by a loud explosion early on Sunday morning, causing minor damage but no injuries, according to Norwegian police. The blast at the embassy compound in western Oslo reportedly occurred at about 1am local time (0000 GMT).

Police are searching for one or more potential perpetrators, with Norway’s justice minister, Astri Aas-Hansen, saying they had deployed “considerable resources” to the investigation. “This is an unacceptable incident that we are taking very seriously,” she told Norwegian press agency NTB.

Yvette Cooper sidestepped a question about UK-US relations being in trouble by saying there is still close cooperation on a range of issues, although divergence can happen as she said it is not in the British interest to “unquestioningly agree” with every strand of American policy.

She made the point of saying it was “important to learn the lessons” from the devastating US-led invasion of Iraq, when it comes to Iran.

UK government’s job is not to be ‘outsourcing our foreign policy’, foreign secretary says

The UK’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, has told the BBC that the government’s job is not to be “outsourcing our foreign policy”.

Speaking on Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday politics programme, Cooper said:

It’s for the US president to decide what he thinks is in the US national interest, and that’s for him to do.

But it is our job as the UK government to decide what’s in the UK national interest, and that doesn’t mean simply agreeing with other countries or outsourcing our foreign policy to other countries.

Asked if the UK was at war, Cooper responded: “We are providing defensive support in a conflict, and that is, I think, the way to describe it.”

Her comments followed renewed criticism from the US president, Donald Trump, who has apparently told the UK he does not need its aircraft carriers and accused the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, of seeking to “join wars after we’ve already won”, in reference to reports that the UK was preparing an aircraft carrier in response to the escalating conflict.

Relations between Washington and London have sunk to a low point, with Trump strongly criticising Starmer for the lack of immediate UK support for the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Here are some of the latest pictures being sent to us from Tehran after overnight Israeli and US airstrikes reportedly struck oil sites around the Iranian capital:

As the war in the Middle East, started by Israel and the US, continues to escalate, we would like to hear how people living, working or travelling in the region have been affected.

Whether you are in the region or impacted in other ways, please get in touch here.

Please note that while we’d like to hear from you, your security is most important. We recognise it may not always be safe or appropriate to record or share your experiences, so please think about this when considering whether to get in touch with the Guardian.

The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, has written an interesting analysis piece looking at the backlash to the Iranian president’s comments, which took many observers by surprise. Here is an extract:

The surprise offer by the president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, not to attack countries in the neighbourhood so long as their airspace and US bases within their territories are not used to attack Iran has provoked a storm inside the country as the military appeared to contradict him, if not outright overrule him.

There were also calls for a new supreme leader to be installed as quickly as possible, as a means of marginalising the president. Attacks on facilities in Bahrain and elsewhere have continued, and there were unconfirmed reports that Bahrain had become the first Gulf country to fire back at Iran …

The backlash over Pezeshkian’s offer was made worse by him including an apology to the region on behalf of himself and the nation in his pre-recorded address on state TV.

He also implied that after the US attack on its top command, rudderless armed forces may have been forced to make targeting decisions on their own.

Iran’s president says his country will ‘not bow easily to bullying’

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has said his country will “not bow easily” to “bullying” and vowed to continue to respond against attacks.

“When we are attacked, we have no choice but to respond. The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be,” Pezeshkian said in video comments this morning.

“Our Iran, our country, will not bow easily in the face of bullying, oppression or aggression – and it never has.”

As we reported in an earlier post, the Iranian president on Saturday apologised to neighbouring Gulf countries hosting US military bases for attacks on their territory.

However, after the statement provoked a backlash inside the country and the military appeared to contradict him, Pezeshkian said his remarks were “misinterpreted by the enemy that seeks to sow division with neighbours”.

Huge fire engulfs tower in Kuwait after drone strikes

There is footage of a huge fire engulfing a tower in Kuwait city following drone strikes in the early hours of Sunday morning.

It is reported to have broken out at a government site operated by the Public Institution for Social Security in Kuwait. In a social media post, the department said:

The main building of the organization was targeted, resulting in material damage to the building.

The fire appears to be under control now.

Oman Air has cancelled flights to and from Amman, Dubai, Bahrain, Doha, Dammam, Kuwait, Copenhagen, Baghdad and Khasab “due to ongoing regional airspace closures”.

Helena Smith

Cyprus’ foreign minister Constantinos Kombos has told the Guardian that explosive-packed drones directed at British military bases on the island were launched from Lebanon, 150 miles to the Mediterranean island’s east.

A European armada and air defense assets have rushed to the EU member state as part of an unprecedented security cordon thrown around it.

“Right now it’s a fact that we have to be looking towards the Lebanese front,” said the minister, confirming the drones’ provenance for the first time. “We cannot exclude anything from the broader direction of the north-east. We have to be very careful … we have to make sure that the systems in place are covering all possibilities of threat.”

Cypriot officials, who take pride in the neutrality and humanitarian role of an island nation that is also the EU’s closest state to the Middle East, are adamant it is the British bases, not the republic, that have been singled out for attack since the onset of the US-led offensive against Iran.

Summary

As we hand over the blog to our colleagues in London, here’s a quick summary of today’s events as the conflict in the Middle East continues to escalate and the strikes show no sign of relenting.

Here is what you need to know so far.

• A fresh wave of Iranian strikes hit the Gulf on Sunday, with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait all reporting new attacks. Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry reported intercepting 15 drones. In Bahrain, the strikes did “material damage” to a crucial desalination plant .

• Kuwait’s national oil company announced a “precautionary” cut to its crude oil production after the strikes. The military said fuel tanks at Kuwait’s international airport were targeted in a drone attack and two firefighters were killed.

• Overnight strikes by the US and Israel hit five oil sites around Tehran, according to an Iran official. The official said that the five facilities “were damaged” but the “fire was brought under control”.

• Donald Trump had said he is not interested in negotiating with Iran, raising the possibility that the Iran war would only end once Tehran no longer has a functioning military and its leadership is completely wiped out. But while Trump claimed the US and Israel had “decimated” the Iranian regime, he offered only a vague description of what he meant by Iran’s unconditional surrender.

• Trump left open the possibility of deploying American troops on the ground. The US president addressed reporters hours after travelling to Dover air force base in Delaware to attend the transfer of the bodies of six US service members killed in the opening days of his war against Iran.

• A majority consensus has almost been reached by the clerical body that will appoint the successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and become Iran’s next supreme leader, according to reports. Israel’s military said it would continue to pursue any successor to Khamenei.

• Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said his country “will be forced to respond” to any attack or invasion attempt from a neighbouring country. His comments came after a backlash by hardliners and within Iranian military ranks after the president appeared to apologise to neighbouring Gulf countries attacked by Iran as they targeted US military bases. Pezeshkian said his comments had been “misinterpreted by the enemy”.

• At least 16 were killed in Lebanon after Israeli renewed its assault on Beirut and southern Lebanon. Four were killed in a blast on a hotel in Beirut and 12 were killed in strikes on southern Lebanon as Israel said it was targeting “key commanders” in the IGRC’s Quds Force foreign operations arm.

• In a post on social media, Trump renewed his criticism of the UK’s lack of immediate support for US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and claimed Downing Street was now “giving serious thought” to sending two aircraft carriers to the region. “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember,” the US president wrote.

• Trump has warned in a Truth Social post that more Iranian officials will be targeted, saying: “Today Iran will be hit very hard!”.

• China’s foreign minister says Iran war ‘should never have happened’. Wang warned that the US-Israel push for regime change in Iran would “find no popular support” and said “the world cannot return to the law of the jungle”.

The Israeli military warned it would continue pursuing every successor of Iran’s next supreme leader.

In a post on X in Farsi, the Israeli military said it would also pursue every person who seeks to appoint a successor for slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, referring to the clerical body charged with selecting Iran’s next supreme leader.

The comments came after Iranian news agency Mehr news reported that he clerical body that will choose Iran’s next supreme leader has more or less reached a majority consensus.

The Guardian