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This liveblog is no longer being updated.
US military says it has 'defeated' Iran missile, drone attacks on neighbors
US military says Iranian missiles failed or were intercepted in Gulf attacks
Two Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait fell short or broke apart en route, and three missiles launched at Bahrain were intercepted by US and Bahrain forces, the US military said on Tuesday.
US Central Command added that Iran launched ballistic missiles towards regional neighbours but all failed to hit targets, and that US forces conducted strikes on Qeshm Island in response to attempted attacks by Iran and defeated multiple Iranian ballistic missiles and drones on Tuesday.
UN chief outlines options for future Lebanon peacekeeping force
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has written to UN Security Council members stressing the need to maintain a uniformed UN presence in Lebanon after the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) expires at year end.
In a letter to the 15 Council members dated Monday and seen by Reuters, Guterres outlined three options to replace the 7,500-strong UNIFIL. They ranged from a lighter presence with limited capabilities to a more robust force with broader monitoring and de-escalation powers, with troop levels varying from around 1,980 to 5,525 uniformed personnel.
Bahrain's interior ministry says warning siren has been sounded
Kuwait says air defences intercepted missiles and drones
Kuwait's army said on Wednesday that its air defences were intercepting hostile missile and drone attacks, urging the public to follow security and safety instructions issued by the relevant authorities.
The military said any sounds of explosions heard across the country were the result of interception operations.
Explosions heard near Iran's Qeshm Island
Lebanon says Israeli strikes on south killed 5, wounded hospital staff
Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed five people, including a child, and wounded 48 others, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Those injured in the attacks included "a doctor and five employees of Tebnine Governmental Hospital, which sustained damage in yet another episode of the series of attacks carried out by the Israeli enemy against hospitals and health centres", the ministry said in a statement.
Israel approves $4.5bn plan to strengthen communities near Lebanon border
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday a 13 billion shekel (£2.8 billion/$4.5 billion) package to secure and develop communities along the Lebanon border, which have been battered by weeks of fire from Iran-backed Hezbollah.
"The government made dramatic decisions today to strengthen the north. We are investing more than 13 billion shekels today, in addition to the seven billion we have already provided – a total of 20 billion shekels going to the communities of the north," Netanyahu said after the government approved the measure.
US says it fired on, disabled ship violating Iran port blockade
US forces fired a missile at a ship attempting to sail to an Iranian port in violation of an American blockade, disabling the vessel, the US military said on Tuesday.
The Botswana-flagged M/T Lexie – an unladen oil tanker – "ignored repeated warnings" over a 24-hour period, and an American warplane "ultimately disabled the vessel by firing a Hellfire missile into the ship's engine room", the US military's Central Command said in a statement.
Hezbollah main obstacle to Israel-Lebanon peace, Rubio says
Israel and Lebanon could reach a peace agreement within days were it not for the obstacle posed by Hezbollah, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday, as the two countries began a fourth round of talks in Washington.
"Israel and Lebanon can do a peace deal tomorrow," Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He added: "Israel has no territorial claims in Lebanon. Hezbollah is the impediment. There is no Hezbollah without Iran."
Rubio stressed that Washington, acting as a mediator, wanted the Israel-Lebanon talks to proceed independently of negotiations with Iran, something Tehran has resisted.
Trump says Iran talks happening 'continuously'
President Donald Trump has said the US and Iran were speaking "continuously," denying reports that Tehran had broken off contact over Israel's attacks on Lebanon.
Trump added that "one never knows" where the negotiations would lead. "Fake News Reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the U.S.A., stopped speaking a few days ago are false and erroneous," he said on his Truth Social network.
"The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today."
Trump added: "Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, 'It's time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal. You've been doing this for 47 years, and it cannot be allowed to go on any longer!'"
Hezbollah will not accept 'partial ceasefire' with Israel, senior group official says
Hezbollah will not accept a "partial ceasefire" with Israel, a senior official from the Iran-backed group said Tuesday, refusing to halt attacks against northern Israel in exchange for Israel sparing Beirut's southern suburbs.
"We will not accept a partial ceasefire," Mahmud Qomati told AFP in a written statement, adding that "the Zionist enemy should know that any aggression against the suburbs could lead to a deeper and stronger response" from the group.
Bahrain spy agency officer sentenced to life over death in custody of Shiite man during Iran war
A court in Bahrain on Tuesday sentenced a member of the Gulf kingdom's domestic spy agency to life in prison over the death in custody of a man arrested during the Iran war.
Bahrain’s state news agency said the ruling came after investigators concluded that the unidentified National Intelligence Service officer was responsible for the man’s death.
The victim was not named, but the date of the death lines up with Mohamed al-Mousawi, a 32-year-old Shiite Muslim whose body was returned to his family bearing bruises, burns and cuts, witnesses who saw him at the morgue and his funeral said.
Al-Mousawi was among dozens detained for expressing support for Iran or protesting the Israeli killing of Iran's late leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the height of the war as Iranian missiles struck Bahrain. The Sunni-ruled, Shiite-majority island nation is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. The government has cast the mostly Shiite protesters as Iranian proxies.
Rights groups condemned the campaign of arrests and demanded an investigation into Al-Mousawi's death.
Rubio says Iran's Khamenei alive and 'increasingly engaging'
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been pressed by Democratic and Republicans lawmakers on the status of negotiations with Iran. Rubio tried to present a more optimistic view on the progress Washington has made with the Iranian regime more than three months after the US and Israel launched the war in Iran.
“They have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear programme that just a month ago, just a year ago, they were refusing to even mention,” he said. But he added that it’s “not a guarantee that ultimately it will lead to a deal that’s acceptable” by Congress.
Rubio said these negotiations have been made difficult by the instability of Iran’s leadership.
Detailing the fractured Iranian leadership, Rubio said US negotiators have seen signs that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has been engaged with negotiations despite not being seen publicly.
“I would imagine, given what’s happened to multiple leaders in that system, being very public is probably not something that’s recommended for them internally,” he said. “But that said, I think there are indications out there that he is increasingly engaging at some level, although all of his communications have been in writing and through intermediaries.”
Rubio says US has not offered Iran sanctions relief just for reopening the Strait of Hormuz
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Trump administration has not offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange just for opening the Strait of Hormuz, and said any sanctions relief would be based on Tehran meeting conditions relating to its nuclear programme.
Rubio says Iran agreed to discuss aspects of its nuclear programme that it previously would not
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is facing a grilling about the Trump administration’s fragile or stalling diplomatic efforts around the world for the first time since the Iran war began.
Rubio has told lawmakers that Iran had agreed to negotiate aspects of its nuclear programme that it previously refused to discuss, but he said that was not a guarantee that talks will lead to a deal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran.
New round of Israel-Lebanon talks begin in Washington
The ambassadors of Israel and Lebanon have begun a new round of direct talks in Washington after President Donald Trump said he had received commitments to de-escalation from both sides.
The fourth meeting between representatives of the two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations, is taking place at the State Department and is scheduled to last two days.
Germany's Merz urges Israel to show restraint in Lebanon, calls on Hezbollah to disarm
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called on Israel to exercise restraint in its campaign in southern Lebanon.
Merz said Germany viewed the latest escalation in the south with great concern and urged Hezbollah to lay down its arms.
Iran war disruption threatening delivery of lifesaving supplies for children, UN says
Surging global transport costs and supply chain disruptions linked to the Middle East crisis are threatening the delivery of lifesaving aid to children, the UN children's agency has warned.
UN children's agency UNICEF said it was increasingly relying on air freight due to shipping delays sparked by the heightened insecurity around key Gulf shipping routes.
In the first quarter alone, the agency nearly exhausted annual contributions from logistics partners that donate charter flights, as it flew supplies into Lebanon and Gaza amid delays of up to four to six weeks. That is unprecedented, UNICEF’s chief of global transport and logistics, Jean-Cedric Meeus, told reporters.
Yesterday's key developments:
• US President Donald Trump on Monday said he had persuaded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to send troops into southern Beirut.
• The Lebanese presidential office posted a statement by Lebanon's embassy in Washington saying Hezbollah had accepted a US proposal calling for a "reciprocal cessation of attacks".
• Hezbollah claimed several attacks late Monday on Israeli targets in south Lebanon, hours after Trump said the Iran-backed group had agreed that "all shooting will stop".
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AP and AFP)
