Israel’s military clashed with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group on Tuesday (May 26) along a strategic river in Lebanon as Israeli troops tried to push farther north, just three days before Lebanese and Israeli military delegations are set to meet for direct talks in Washington.

A previously reached ceasefire appeared more nominal by the day, complicating efforts at a broader peace in the Iran war, as Tehran wants an end to the fighting to include Lebanon.

The Litani River has been a de facto boundary in Lebanon, with large areas to the south under Israeli military control despite the Washington-brokered ceasefire in place for over a month.

- AP

Iranian authorities have executed a 28-year-old woman who gave birth to a child in custody, after she was convicted of murdering her husband, rights groups said on Tuesday (May 26).

Asma Zarei was hanged in Ardebil in northwestern Iran on May 20, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Hengaw rights groups said in separate statements.

The execution has not been reported by the media inside Iran. IHR said she had been arrested three years ago on suspicion of killing her husband with sleeping pills.

- AFP

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday (May 26) accused the United States of violating a fragile ceasefire during the past 48 hours in the southern coastal province of Hormozgan, without specifying the incident.

“The U.S. terrorist army, continuing its illegal and unjustified actions since the ceasefire, has, in the past 48 hours, committed a gross violation of the ceasefire in the Hormozgan region,” the Ministry said in a statement.

The U.S. Central Command said forces had on Monday (May 25) attacked missile sites and boats it said were trying to lay mines in the Gulf, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had fired at U.S. aircraft attempting to enter the country’s airspace.

- AFP

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Tuesday (May 26) that an Israeli strike a day earlier killed at least 11 people, two of them children, as the Israeli military said it had launched strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure.

In a statement, the Ministry said that “yesterday’s Israeli enemy airstrike on the town of Mashghara in West Bekaa resulted in a preliminary toll of 11 martyrs, including two girls and a woman, and 15 wounded, including a child”, adding that rescuers were still clearing the rubble in the eastern town.

- AFP

An explosion close to the waterline damaged a tanker off Oman, a marine monitor said on Tuesday, as tensions remain high around the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

“The crew and vessel are safe, although the master reports some bunker fuel has discharged into the sea,” U.K. Maritime Trade Operations said.

- AFP

Iran’s judiciary on Tuesday (May 26) suspended a presidential body that had ordered the restoration of internet access after months of near-total blackout since the start of war with the U.S. and Israel.

The judicial decision targeted the “Special Headquarters for Organising and Governing the Country’s Cyberspace”, a body formed on May 12 by President Masoud Pezeshkian.

The body had on Monday (May 25) reached a decision to “restore the internet” in Iran, according to government Spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani, after local media reported that Pezeshkian had decreed the measure.

- AFP

The Israeli military for the first time warned residents of the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh to immediately evacuate on Tuesday (May 26) ahead of expected strikes, while Hezbollah said it confronted Israeli troops in a nearby town.

The day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his military to intensify attacks on Hezbollah to “crush” the Tehran-backed group.

“For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move north of the Zahrani River. Anyone who is near Hezbollah members, facilities or military equipment is putting their life at risk!” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, posted on X.

- AFP

U.S. forces launched overnight strikes on missile sites in Iran and boats they said were trying to lay mines in Gulf waters, sending oil prices higher Tuesday (May 26) while diplomats sought a deal to end the war.

The international benchmark Brent crude jumped up by almost 3% after the U.S. Central Command announced the new wave of bombings, and China urged both sides to respect their truce and resolve their dispute peacefully.

Iran did not immediately confirm the reported strikes, but state media reported blasts in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, and the Revolutionary Guards Corps said its forces had downed a U.S. drone entering its airspace and fired at an F-35 fighter jet.

- AFP

Around $24 billion of Iranian funds ‌frozen ‌overseas ⁠must be ⁠released under a memorandum of understanding being negotiated ‌with the United States, a source close to ‌Tehran’s negotiation team said, according to ⁠report by Iran’s Tasnim news agency ‌on Tuesday.

The agency said Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Baqr Qalibaf, ‌had travelled to Qatar to reach agreement ⁠on a mechanism to ⁠implement this demand. 

-Reuters

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Tuesday that regional countries would no longer be shields for U.S. bases, in a written statement carried by state television.

“What is certain in this regard is that the hands of time will not turn backwards, and the nations and lands of the region will no longer serve as shields for American bases,” said Mr. Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since he took office in March, in a message marking the Eid al-Adha holiday.

He said the United States was losing influence in the region, “moving further and further away from its former status with each passing day”. 

-AFP

An Israeli airstrike on a village in eastern Lebanon killed 12 people, the country’s state-run National News Agency said today.

The strike late Monday in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley area came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had authorised more intensive strikes targeting the Hezbollah militant group across Lebanon.

The Israeli military did not comment on this particular strike, but said Monday that it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in eastern Lebanon.

Rescue workers say that a dozen bodies were pulled out of the rubble following an intense wave of overnight strikes targeting swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon.

-AP

Iranian Supreme ‌Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei ⁠said on his Telegram ‌channel today that ‌Gulf ⁠powers will ⁠no longer be a shield ‌for United States bases and the ‌U.S. will no longer ⁠have a safe ‌haven in the region, as Tehran and ‌Washington discuss a framework to ⁠end their three-month-old ⁠war.

-Reuters

Sri Lanka’s central bank caught markets off-guard by raising its benchmark policy rate by an ‌outsized 100 basis points today, as policymakers looked to stem inflation and sharp pressure ⁠on the currency from soaring energy prices.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran’s enriched uranium can be turned and destroyed in the U.S., but his preference is for it to be destroyed “in place” or at “another acceptable location,” under the supervision of the IAEA.

Mr. Trump’s comment marks a shift in his repeated statements that Iran hand over its enriched uranium to the US as a sticking point of any potential deal.

“The Enriched Uranium (Nuclear Dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, being witness to this process and event,” Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

-PTI

China’s yuan edged lower against the dollar on Tuesday as market hopes for a U.S.-Iran peace deal were dampened by fresh American military strikes.

U.S. forces on Monday ‌conducted strikes in southern Iran against targets including boats attempting to lay mines and missile launch sites, in ⁠what were described as defensive actions.

The spot yuan opened at 6.7860 per dollar and was last trading at 6.7866 at 0314 GMT, 32 ‌pips lower than the previous late-session close.

-Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that a deal with Iran was still possible despite new American strikes that cast doubt on their fragile ceasefire.

“There were some talks going on in Qatar today, so we’ll see if we can make progress. I think it’s a lot of talking back and forth going on about specific language in the initial document, so it’ll take a few days,” Mr. Rubio told reporters in Jaipur during a visit to India.

“The President expressed his desire to make it. He’s either going to make a good deal or no deal,” he said.

The strikes came as top Iranian negotiators arrived in Doha for the latest round of talks to end the months-long conflict, which had prompted Iran to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial artery for global energy exports.

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Top U.S. diplomat Marco Rubio insisted today that the blockaded Strait of Hormuz would reopen “one way or the other”, after fresh U.S. strikes on Iran cast doubt on an accord to end the West Asia war.

“The straits have to be open. They’re going to be open one way or the other, so they need to be open,” Rubio told reporters in the Indian city of Jaipur, where he was making an official visit.

“What’s happening there is unlawful, it’s illegal, it’s unsustainable for the world, it’s unacceptable,” he said.

-AFP

The U.S. military said it carried out “self-defence” strikes in southern Iran, including on missile launch sites and boats placing mines, even as President Donald Trump said on social media that negotiations were “proceeding nicely”.

The strikes were done “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces”, but the military was “using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire”, Capt. Tim Hawkins, U.S. Central Command spokesman, said in a statement on Monday.

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