Iran and Oman hold first meeting of joint Strait of Hormuz committee
Iran and Oman have held the first meeting of a joint committee on the Strait of Hormuz in Muscat, an Iranian deputy foreign minister said on his X account on Monday.
Kazem Gharibabadi said they had exchanged views on Gulf coastal states’ sovereign rights and on future management of the strait.
“While reviewing current issues related to the Strait, we exchanged views on the future management of the Strait within the framework of paragraph five of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding and the sovereign rights of the coastal states,” he wrote.
Alex Croft29 June 2026 07:54
How violence has followed a much-anticipated peace deal
One round of mediated talks, led by vice president JD Vance and Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, was held in Switzerland a week ago and Washington waived sanctions on Tehran.
But fighting has since resumed and intensified.
In a Truth Social post, Donald Trump said on Sunday: “There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started.”
About an hour after Trump’s post, Kuwait’s army said its air defenses were responding to missile and drone attacks, while Bahrain said sirens had sounded there.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement its navy and air forces had launched missile and drone operations targeting US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain.
The Guards said US strikes had violated the ceasefire and “will result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes”, state-run Press TV said. The IRGC navy command said American bases in the region “will experience hell in the coming days”.
Hours later, alarms sounded for a second time in Bahrain, where authorities said an Iranian attack damaged a residential building in Muharraq province, with no casualties reported.
The Kuwaiti army said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles with no damage or casualties.
Separately, Qatar said one of its nationals had died after sustaining injuries from shrapnel aboard a vessel that had gone missing on Saturday. A second person was injured in the incident.
Alex Croft29 June 2026 07:32
‘Trump wasn’t victorious – it was a major defeat’: protestors inside Iran speak out
The signing of a memorandum of understanding between US president Donald Trump and Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian was seen by many Iranians not as the end of a crisis, as portrayed by Washington and Tehran, but as a symbol of “political betrayal” and “America’s historic failure”.
In messages sent to Independent Persian, readers from various cities across Iran said that after 39 days of war, Trump ultimately agreed to a deal with the Islamic Republic while the core power structure in Tehran remains intact, the influence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has grown, and ordinary Iranians have been left to cope with economic hardship, destroyed homes, unemployment and a new wave of executions.
Their anger is directed above all at the gap between the rhetoric that accompanied the start of the war and its eventual outcome.
Graig Graziosi29 June 2026 07:00
Qatar says citizen killed from shrapnel due to ‘military operations’
Qatar’s interior ministry said on Sunday a Qatari national was killed after sustaining injuries from shrapnel due to “military operations in the area” after a vessel carrying him and another person went missing.
The ministry said the second individual was injured, adding that it located the missing vessel in the early hours of Sunday after search operations that started a day earlier.
It did not give the location of the incident and did not say whether the shrapnel was linked to Iranian drones launched against US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain on Sunday.
Namita Singh29 June 2026 06:46
Iran cyberattacks on Israel surged in 2026, Israeli cyber chief says
The number of Iranian cyberattacks against Israel has shot up since the launch of the US-Israeli offensive against Iran this year, a senior Israeli security official was quoted as saying on Monday.
Yossi Karadi, Director General of Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, told German newspaper Die Welt that in June 2025 during Israeli military operations against Iran, Israel’s authorities registered around 1,600 hostile cyber incidents.
During the same month in 2026, the number had jumped to some 4,800 incidents, he told the paper.
“Some groups are very skilled,” Karadi said, according to the German text of the interview.
“We can handle them, but we have to take them seriously. Unlike in the kinetic realm, there’s no ceasefire in cyberspace.”
Karadi said the attacks were directed against systems used by Israel’s critical infrastructure, central organisations, small to medium-sized companies and the public, citing law practices and accounting firms as among the smaller ones hit.
“So far – and hopefully it stays that way – we’ve managed to fend off attacks on critical infrastructure,” he said.
Companies that were easier to penetrate often ended up having their computer systems wiped, he said, without mentioning any names. Iran typically denies carrying out hacking campaigns against other countries while reporting attacks on itself.
Namita Singh29 June 2026 06:26
Israel says it destroyed Hezbollah underground infrastructure in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military said it destroyed underground infrastructure used by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in a village in southern Lebanon, according to a joint statement by the Israeli prime minister and defence minister on Sunday.
The US was informed ahead of the attack, which targeted a 200m long tunnel in the town of Majdal Zoun, according to the statement from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
The strike came two days after Lebanon and Israel agreed a US-brokered security arrangement intended to ease hostilities along the border.
The agreement provides for a phased Israeli withdrawal from some parts of southern Lebanon alongside the deployment of the Lebanese army, although Israeli forces would be permitted to remain in an expanded security zone for the time being.
The Israeli statement said the tunnel contained hundreds of weapons and launchers. The attack comes hours after the Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and hit a rocket launcher in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said early on Monday that the Israeli attacks were a “flagrant” violation of the ceasefire to which it has so far adhered, adding that it is closely monitoring all such violations and reserves the right to “defend its homeland and people”.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has rejected the security agreement, describing it as a surrender to Israel. He said the group would continue its armed resistance.
Netanyahu said in his statement late on Sunday that the Israeli military would remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon and will “continue to destroy terrorist infrastructure, remove threats from the northern communities, and safeguard the security of Israel’s citizens”.
More than a million Lebanese have been driven from their homes by the conflict that has run in parallel with the wider Iran war. Hezbollah and Iran say Washington pledged to ensure the end of hostilities in Lebanon as part of its memorandum of understanding signed two weeks ago to end the wider war.
Namita Singh29 June 2026 06:06
Qatari citizen killed, one other injured by military strike in Strait of Hormuz
Qatar’s Interior Ministry announced on Sunday that a Qatari citizen had been killed and another injured amid the hostilities between the U.S. and Israel and Iran.
According to the interior ministry, the two individuals were on a boat that was struck by shrapnel from a military strike. The ministry said the vessel never returned to port on Saturday, which kicked off a search and rescue operation.
Responders found the vessel and the two individuals early on Sunday. The injured individual — who has not been identified — was transported to a hospital for treatment. The Qatari citizen died.
Graig Graziosi29 June 2026 06:00
Philippines leads the world in rush to solar as power prices soar
People in the Philippines are flocking to install solar power on rooftops and escape the burden of soaring electricity prices, making it the world’s biggest spender on solar panels since the war in Iran started.
Top power distributor Meralco has raised prices by 10 per cent since the Middle East conflict began in late February. Now, a median household spends around 12 per cent of monthly income on electricity, assuming it consumes 200 kilowatt-hours – approximately the monthly average for three people.
The Philippines is one of the few countries in Southeast Asia with barely any power subsidies, and its residential power prices are the highest in the region. Only Singapore comes close, but its citizens average purchasing power is nearly 13 times higher.
Adrian Sabatera, a 39-year-old software engineer, thought about getting solar for years but found it too costly. That changed as costs came down and electricity prices kept rising.”I wouldn’t be shocked if a third of the middle-class population eventually finds their way to this setup,” Mr Sabatera said after recently pulling the trigger on a ₱570,000 ($9,300) installation at the Manila house he shares with `three others.
The rooftop solar rush has resulted in $407m in panel imports in the three months through May, a 145 per cent increase from a year earlier, according to trade data from China, which accounts for most global supply.
Even when Chinese panel shipments fell 13 per cent in May after a tax rebate removal, exports to the Philippines rose by almost a third. On paper, the Netherlands remains a larger market for panels, but experts say that’s because it is a transshipment hub.
Namita Singh29 June 2026 05:47
How did the violence escalate after the peace deal
One round of mediated talks, led by vice president JD Vance and Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, was held in Switzerland a week ago and Washington waived sanctions on Tehran, but fighting has since resumed and intensified.
About an hour after Donald Trump’s post, Kuwait’s army said its air defences were responding to missile and drone attacks, while Bahrain said sirens had sounded there.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement its navy and air forces had launched missile and drone operations targeting US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain.
The Guards said US strikes had violated the ceasefire and “will result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes”, state-run Press TV said. The IRGC navy command said American bases in the region “will experience hell in the coming days”.
A US official, confirming Iran had targeted US facilities, told Reuters there were no reported US casualties or major damage to US sites in the Middle East but the situation was still unfolding.
Hours later, alarms sounded for a second time in Bahrain, where authorities said an Iranian attack damaged a residential building in Muharraq province, with no casualties reported. Bahrain urged the UN Security Council to hold an urgent session to hold Iran accountable.
The Kuwaiti army said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles with no damage or casualties. Separately, Qatar said one of its nationals had died after sustaining injuries from shrapnel aboard a vessel that had gone missing on Saturday.
A second person was injured in the incident, which was due to “military operations in the area”, the interior ministry said, without giving a location or apportioning blame.
Namita Singh29 June 2026 05:25
Israel struck Hezbollah militants in Lebanon
Israel said on Sunday it had once again struck Iran-backed armed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, destroying underground infrastructure used by the group in a village in southern Lebanon.
That came after another strike on Saturday, which closely followed its latest ceasefire deal with Lebanon on Friday. Iran says the fighting in Lebanon must end if the wider agreement is to stick.
The US military said earlier it had struck Iran again, hours after a tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important energy shipping route, which Tehran has largely closed for most of the conflict.
“There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started,” Trump said on social media, before the Axios report.
“If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” he added. The 14-point interim peace accord was meant to halt the fighting, which the US and Israel started on 28 February, and reopen the strait while talks proceeded on issues such as Iran’s nuclear program.
Namita Singh29 June 2026 05:20
