Iran’s parliamentary speaker said on Wednesday regional countries alone should determine the Middle East’s political and security order, rejecting external involvement and calling for expanded intra-regional cooperation.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf made his remarks at a meeting of the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, as Iran and the United States seek to conclude a lasting peace agreement. His comments were broadcast on state television.

Airlines should ​continue to avoid the airspace over Iran, Iraq and Lebanon and remain cautious ⁠across the region despite the framework deal between Washington and Tehran, the EU aviation safety agency has said.

EASA said on Wednesday it was ⁠extending its conflict-zone advisory for ​the ⁠region until July ‌1 amid fears of a ceasefire violation.

The ⁠agency also said the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah created the potential for military activity impacting the airspace of Lebanon.

Israel secretly smuggled Starlink internet receivers into Iran to support anti-government protesters five years ago but Benjamin Netanyahu failed to follow through on the plans, former prime minister Naftali Bennett has claimed.

Speaking at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem, Mr Bennett, who served as prime minister from 2021 to 2022, said he had initiated a “process of acquiring and smuggling into Iran tens of thousands of Starlink receptors that would allow continuity of the internet and social networks”.

Starlink, owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, provides satellite internet connections. Its operation is not licensed to operate in Iran, though Mr Musk has previously said the service is active there.

James C Reynolds reports:

Israel secretly smuggled Starlink internet receivers into Iran to support anti-government protesters five years ago but Benjamin Netanyahu failed to follow through on the plans, former prime minister Naftali Bennett has claimed.

Speaking at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem, Mr Bennett, who served as prime minister from 2021 to 2022, said he had initiated a “process of acquiring and smuggling into Iran tens of thousands of Starlink receptors that would allow continuity of the internet and social networks”.

Starlink, owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, provides satellite internet connections. Its operation is not licensed to operate in Iran, though Mr Musk has previously said the service is active there.

James C Reynolds reports:

Israel and Lebanon are discussing a US-backed pilot project under which Israeli troops would hand over control of some territory in southern Lebanon to the Lebanese Armed Forces, according to three Israeli officials.

The officials said the Lebanese troops involved would undergo US training and vetting to ensure they are not linked to Hezbollah, while Israel would maintain a military presence in the buffer zone.

Traffic has picked up in the Strait of Hormuz since Iran and the US signed an interim deal to end a war that constricted global oil supplies and fuelled inflation.

Data and analytics company Kpler said its tracking confirmed 131 ships traveled through the strait between Friday and Monday, including 39 crossings on Monday.

In contrast, about 100 to 130 vessels a day made the journey before the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran in late February, and Tehran responded with its own attacks and effective closure of the waterway.

The main central route of the Strait of Hormuz is still mined and remains closed. Ships have been using the smaller northern route, which goes through Iranian waters, and the southern route, which goes through Omani waters.

Israel has deliberately and intentionally targeted Palestinian children during its military campaign in Gaza, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, a UN commission of inquiry has said.

A report released on Tuesday says that Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately and intentionally targeted Palestinian children, including after a ceasefire came into effect in October 2025.

It says that Israeli forces “deliberately carried out acts inflicting death and severe bodily and mental harm on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children”, as part of a “deliberate strategy to destroy the future of the Palestinians in Gaza”.

Around 30 per cent of those killed in the Gaza war were children, the report found, with a total death toll of at least 20,179 by October 2025.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has begun a Middle East tour in earnest today, seeking to reassure Gulf allies who view concessions in president Donald Trump’s Iran ⁠deal that include a proposed $300bn fund as too generous to a regional foe.

Rubio is undertaking his first high-level diplomatic mission on the agreement reached last week to end the four-month-old US-Israeli war with Iran.

Asked on arrival in Abu Dhabi if he planned to address allies’ disquiet with the accord, Rubio told ⁠reporters: “That most certainly will come up in these discussions.”

He ​said ⁠they would also discuss issues not covered by the memorandum of understanding.America’s top diplomat has been largely absent from Iran-related discussions in recent weeks, with vice president JD Vance instead leading a ⁠round of talks with Iranian counterparts over the weekend in Switzerland.

Rubio’s remarks during his swing through the ​region will ⁠be closely scrutinised to see how the man ‌once known as a hawkish critic of Iran frames a deal that many congressional Republicans argue amounts to capitulation.

The head of the UN’s nuclear agency today signaled that Iranian nuclear enrichment sites would be visited by his inspectors, a key component in the interim deal between the United States and Iran to reach an end to the war.

International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Mariano Grossi made the comments in Tokyo.”Whether this happens the day after tomorrow or in one week or in 10 days, it’s important, but not essential,” Grossi told reporters.

“This is going to happen.”Iran and the US have disputed whether or not bombed enrichment sites would be inspected. That’s key for the deal, which calls for Iran’s stockpile of uranium to be “downblended” from highly enriched levels.