Middle East war live: Drone strikes on UAE and Saudi Arabia fuel escalation fears

Hormuz tanker traffic edges higher after wartime low

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was slightly higher last week, returning to levels in line with the average recorded since the start of the Middle East conflict after hitting a wartime low.

A total of 55 commodities vessels crossed the strategic waterway between May 11 and 17, according to data from maritime tracking firm Kpler as of Monday morning.

That marked a sharp increase from the previous week, when just 19 vessels crossed – the lowest weekly figure since the first US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, which led to widespread disruption of traffic through the strait.

Iranian state television said Friday the Revolutionary Guards were allowing more ships to transit the strait, after reporting a day earlier that “more than 30 ships” had been permitted to pass.

Iran arrests more than 4,000 people on charges related to war, rights group says

Iranian authorities have made more than 4,000 arrests on charges related to the US-Israeli war against Iran in a mass crackdown, a US-based rights group said.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had documented at least 4,023 arrests between February 28, when the war started, and May 9.

Charges included espionage, threats to national security and communicating or sharing content related to the conflict with foreign media, it said.

“Iranian authorities have used the conflict to intensify national security narratives and justify arrests, restrictions on freedom of expression, and violence against civilians,” it said.

Israeli strikes killed more than 3,000 in Lebanon since March, health ministry says

Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,000 people in Lebanon since the start of the war between Hezbollah and Israel on March 2, the health ministry said on Monday, after an April 17 ceasefire failed to stop the fighting.

“The total cumulative toll of the aggression from March 2 to May 18 is now as follows: 3,020 martyrs and 9,273 wounded,” the ministry said, with 211 people aged 18 and under and 116 healthcare workers among the dead.

Iran Guards threaten to impose permits on internet cables passing through Hormuz

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that internet fibre optic cables passing through the Strait of Hormuz could be brought under a system of permits as Tehran tightens control over the waterway.

“Following the imposition of control over the Strait of Hormuz, Iran, citing its absolute sovereignty over the bed and subsoil of its territorial sea … could declare that all fibre-optic cables passing through the waterway are subject to permits,” the IRGC said in a social media post.

Turkey has potential to influence Ukraine, Iran wars, German minister says

Turkey â has the ​potential to ​exert “considerable influence” on the wars in Ukraine ​and ‌Iran, â German Foreign Minister Johann ‌Wadephul said.

“Turkey â has the potential to exert ​considerable influence on these ‌trouble spots, not only because of ‌its geographical

proximity, but ​also because of its enormous political and economic ​significance,” Wadephul told ​reporters in ​Berlin.

It was desirable ​to keep strengthening strategic relations between Turkey and the European â Union, he added.

No reason for Iran, US not to find common ground in negotiations, Turkey says

â Turkey believes ​there is ​no reason for the United States and Iran ​not ‌to â find common ground through ‌negotiations, Foreign Minister Hakan â Fidan said.

He added that ​Ankara’s priority ‌was contributing to Pakistan’s mediation efforts and ‌maintaining the ceasefire.

Speaking ​at a press conference in Berlin, Fidan said ​Turkey wanted to ​believe that ​both Iran and the ​United States were

aware of the dangers of resuming their â conflict.

Iran sets up new Strait of Hormuz managing body amid stalled talks with US

Iran has formed a new body to manage the Strait of Hormuz. It comes as peace talks with the United States appeared to remain stalled. It’s not clear what the new body will do, but earlier this month Iranian media said vessels seeking transit would have to apply to it for a permit – disclosing ownership, insurance, crew and cargo.

Iran court to hear case against director Jafar Panahi Wednesday, local media reports

An Iranian court will this week hear a case against prize-winning director Jafar Panahi after he returned to Iran in late March during the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic, Iranian media said. 

The case will go before a Tehran Revolutionary Court on Wednesday, the ISNA news agency reported. It added that the director, who won the top prize at last year’s Cannes festival and was nominated for an Oscar, had returned to Iran on March 30.

Iraq says it is investigating drones attack against Saudi Arabia

â Iraq ​said it was investigating the circumstances ​around ‌a â drones ‌attack that Saudi Arabia â said was launched from ​Iraqi territory ‌on Sunday.

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry ‌also said ​in its statement that Iraqi air defences ​had ​not detected ​any drones ​being launched in the country’s airspace.

‘Tool of control to crush dissent’: Amnesty warns of global ‘resurgence’ in use of death penalty

At least 2,707 executions were recorded across 17 countries in 2025, according to Amnesty International's latest global report on the death penalty – most of them in Iran, whose government executed more than twice as many people last year as it had the year before.

Amnesty’s death penalty specialist Chiara Sangiorgio told FRANCE 24 that capital punishment was increasingly deployed “as a tool of control and to crush dissent”.

Watch the full interview by clicking on the player below.

UN demands Israel prevent ‘genocide’ in Gaza

The United Nations demanded that Israel take measures to prevent acts of “genocide” in Gaza, and decried indications of “ethnic cleansing” in the Palestinian territory and in the occupied West Bank.

In a fresh report, the UN rights office said Israel’s actions in Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023 involved “gross violations” of international law, amounting in many cases to “war crimes and other atrocity crimes”.

UN rights chief Volker Turk called in the report on Israel to ensure compliance with a 2024 International Court of Justice order that it take measures to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.

Israel, he said, should ensure “with immediate effect that its military does not engage in acts of genocide, (and take) all measures to prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide”.

The report, which covered the period from October 7, 2023, when Hamas’s unprecedented attack inside Israel sparked the Gaza war, up to May 2025, also condemned “serious violations” including some amounting to war crimes, by Palestinian armed groups during the initial attack and after.

Lebanon president says he will do the ‘impossible’ to stop war with Israel

“The framework that Lebanon has set for the negotiations consists of an Israeli withdrawal, a ceasefire, the deployment of the army along the border, the return of the displaced, and economic aid,” Aoun said in a statement.

“My duty, based on my position and my responsibility, is to do the impossible, and to choose what is least costly, in order to stop the war against Lebanon and its people,” he said.

Israel PM confirms Gaza flotilla interception, says ‘thwarting malicious scheme’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Israel’s naval forces for intercepting a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, alleging the troops had “thwarted a malicious scheme”.

“I believe you are doing an extraordinary job … and are in effect thwarting a malicious scheme designed to break the blockade we have imposed on Hamas terrorists in Gaza,” Netanyahu told the commander leading the interception, according to a statement from his office.

 “You are carrying this out with outstanding success … and certainly with far less fanfare than our enemies had anticipated … Carry on to the very end,” Netanyahu said, with footage released by his office showing him speaking with the commander.

UN labour agency says Middle East war threatens millions of jobs

The Middle East war is undermining wages and working conditions way beyond the conflict region, the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) said Monday. 

The ILO predicted in a report that the conflict could cost millions of jobs and see real wages fall in 2026 and 2027, with a particular risk for migrant workers who send home remittances.

It said that higher energy costs, transport disruption, supply chain pressure, weaker tourism and migrant labour cuts were all weighing on economies because of the war.

“The conflict is expected to affect labour markets for some time, with the scale and duration of its effects depending on how the situation evolves,” said the report.

It predicted that if oil prices climb about 50 percent above their average before US-Israeli attacks on Iran started on February 28, global hours worked would fall by 0.5 percent in 2026 and 1.1 percent in 2027.

Hezbollah says it fired drone at military target in north Israel

Hezbollah said it fired a drone at a military target in northern Israel, as Israel continued launching strikes on south Lebanon despite an extension of the truce between the countries.

In a statement, Hezbollah said it launched the drone at “an Iron Dome platform belonging to the Israeli enemy army” in a military encampment in northern Israel, in response to an Israeli “violation” of the ceasefire.

IEA chief warns only weeks left of commercial oil inventories

Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy ​Agency, said on Monday that commercial oil inventories were depleting rapidly, with only a few weeks’ worth left due to the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to shipping.

Birol, ​who is ‌participating in the Group of Seven finance leaders meeting in Paris, â told reporters that the release of strategic oil reserves had added 2.5 million barrels of oil per day to the market, ‌but said these reserves “are not endless”.

The onset of the spring planting and â summer travel seasons in the northern hemisphere will drain inventories more quickly as demand for diesel, fertiliser, jet fuel and gasoline increases, Birol added.

Asked about his comments in ​the G7 meeting, he said he described “a perception gap in the ‌markets between the physical markets and the financial markets” for oil.

Birol said that before the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran at the end of February, there was a major surplus in ‌the oil markets, and commercial inventories were very high. But the situation has rapidly shifted due to the war.

He said commercial ​inventories would last “several weeks, but we should be aware of the fact that it is declining rapidly”.

Last week, the IEA said global oil supply will fall short of total demand this ​year as the Iran conflict wreaks havoc on Middle East oil production, and inventories were ​being drained at an unprecedented pace. The IEA had previously ​forecast a surplus this year.

Ryanair flags Iran war uncertainty as annual profit jumps

Irish no-frills carrier Ryanair reported Monday a sharply higher annual profit but warned that the Middle East war has clouded its outlook for the year ahead.

Profit after tax jumped 35 percent to 2.17 billion euros ($2.52 billion) in the 12 months to the end of March compared to the period a year earlier. 

Chief executive Michael O’Leary said it was “far too early” to provide meaningful full-year profit guidance because of “significant fuel price/potential supply volatility”.

“The conflict in the Middle East has created economic uncertainty and we still don’t know when the Strait of Hormuz will reopen,” he said in an earnings statement. 

Oil prices have soared since the start of the US-Iran war in late February, resulting in much higher jet fuel costs.