Middle East crisis live: Vance warns Iran not to ‘play’ US as he heads to Pakistan for talks

Vance warns Iran not to ‘play’ US in Islamabad talks

US vice-president JD Vance has warned Iran not to “play” the US as he headed overseas for negotiations aimed at ending their war.

Vance, who has long been sceptical of foreign military interventions and outspoken about the prospect of sending troops into open-ended conflicts, set off Friday to lead mediated talks with Iran in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Boarding Air Force Two on his way to Pakistan, the vice president said:

We’re looking forward to the negotiation. I think it’s gonna be positive. We’ll of course see.

He cited Trump, adding: “If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend the open hand.”

But he said: “If they’re gonna try and play us, then they’re gonna find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

Vance also said that Trump “gave us some pretty clear guidelines” on how talks should go, but he didn’t elaborate. The vice president did not take questions from reporters traveling with him.

Further to the announcement by the Israeli foreign affairs ministry of Spain’s exclusion from the Civil-Military Coordination Center (see previous post), the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has accused Madrid of “hostility” towards his country.

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In a video message posted today, he said:

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n

Israel will not remain silent in the face of those who attack us.

n

Spain has defamed our heroes, the soldiers of the IDF, the soldiers of the moral army in the world.

n

Therefore, I have instructed the removal of the Spanish representatives from the coordination center in Kiryat Gat, after Spain has repeatedly chosen to stand against Israel.

n

Whoever attacks the State of Israel instead of the terrorist regimes, whoever does this, will not be our partner in the future of the region.

n

I am not willing to tolerate this hypocrisy and this hostility. I do not intend to allow any country to wage a diplomatic war against us without paying an immediate price for it.

n

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Israel’s foreign affairs ministry announced Spanish representatives will not be allowed access to the US-led centre responsible for monitoring the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip due to what it described as a “blatant anti-Israeli bias”.

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In a statement on its website, the ministry said the decision was made to block Spain from participating in the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in light of “the anti-Israel obsession of [Spanish] Prime Minister [Pedro] Sánchez’s government and its serious harm to Israeli (and also American) interests – including during the war against Iran”.

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It added that the US was informed in advance of the decision.

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Sánchez has arguably been the most vocal western critic of Donald Trump’s war in Iran. While most European leaders have reacted with cautious optimism at news of the ceasefire between the US and Iran, Sánchez said his government “will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket”.

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In a statement, the Israeli foreign affairs minister, Gideon Saar, said: “The Sánchez government’s anti-Israel bias is so egregious that it has lost all capability to serve as a constructive actor in implementing President Trump’s peace plan and in the CMCC operating under that plan.”

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US vice-president JD Vance has warned Iran not to “play” the US as he headed overseas for negotiations aimed at ending their war.

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Vance, who has long been sceptical of foreign military interventions and outspoken about the prospect of sending troops into open-ended conflicts, set off Friday to lead mediated talks with Iran in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

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Boarding Air Force Two on his way to Pakistan, the vice president said:

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n

We’re looking forward to the negotiation. I think it’s gonna be positive. We’ll of course see.

n

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He cited Trump, adding: “If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend the open hand.”

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But he said: “If they’re gonna try and play us, then they’re gonna find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

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Vance also said that Trump “gave us some pretty clear guidelines” on how talks should go, but he didn’t elaborate. The vice president did not take questions from reporters traveling with him.

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Vance speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force Two to Pakistan”,”caption”:”JD Vance speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force Two to Pakistan”,”credit”:”Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AFP/Getty Images”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:true,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1775824702000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”08.38 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1775825826000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”08.57 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1775825164000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”08.46 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”08.46″,”title”:”Vance warns Iran not to ‘play’ US in Islamabad talks”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Fri 10 Apr 2026 10.20 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Thu 9 Apr 2026 22.40 EDT”},{“id”:”69d89f438f08ff62487f69f0″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, said Israeli forces are continuing their combat operations in southern Lebanon and are “not in a ceasefire” with Hezbollah, according to remarks released by the IDF.

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During a visit near Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, Zamir said:

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n

The IDF is in a state of war, we are not in a ceasefire, we continue to fight here in this sector, this is our main fighting sector. In Iran, we are in a ceasefire, and we can return to fighting there at any moment, and in a very powerful manner.

n

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An intense wave of Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon on Wednesday killed more than 300 people, according to Lebanese authorities, making it the deadliest day for the country since the recent bout of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began on 2 March.

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Several world leaders, including the UK, have condemned Israel’s strikes and have called for Lebanon to be included in the US-Iran ceasefire.

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An Iranian delegation arrived in the Pakistani capital Islamabad last night for mediated talks with the US, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

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The delegation is led by the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, according to the report.

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Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency has reported that news of Iranian officials arriving in Islamabad to negotiate with the US “is completely false”. Other state-affiliated media in Iran have also reported such denials.

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US vice-president JD Vance is expected to lead the US delegation. He will be joined by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, both of whom took part in three rounds of indirect nuclear talks with Iranian negotiators in Oman before the US and Israel launched attacks against Iran on 28 February.

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The streets of Islamabad are on strict lockdown as Pakistan’s capital prepares to play host to historic negotiations between Iran and the US that have dangled the promise of an end to war that has devastated the Middle East.

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Even as the US-Iran ceasefire looked increasingly precarious, amid Israel’s continued bombardment of Lebanon and disputes over the terms of the talks, Pakistani officials insist that the make-or-break peace negotiations will be going ahead over the weekend as planned

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According to Iran’s deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh, Pakistan’s interventions to maintain the peace and protect the fragile ceasefire have continued behind the scenes. Khatibzadeh claims that Pakistan has intervened to stop Iran retaliating against the strikes on Lebanon.

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Ahead of the first round of discussions in Islamabad, which are due to take place on Saturday, army personnel and paramilitary rangers have been deployed and security has been beefed up across the capital. A public holiday was declared on Thursday and Friday and the streets remain eerily empty.

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Officials have confirmed that the key delegations were due to arrive on Thursday night and Friday morning. On the US side, the White House has said their negotiating team would be led by vice-president JD Vance, with special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner also travelling to Islamabad.

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Iranian officials say their delegation will include foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who were both part of the ceasefire negotiations. Senior figures from Iran’s revolutionary guard are also expected to attend.

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Due to the high security risks involved, Pakistani officials have confirmed that there were three to four possible venues being lined up for the critical meeting.

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The most high-profile attenders are expected to stay in Islamabad’s exclusive five-star Serena hotel, which may also play host to the talks. The hotel has been cleared of its guests and the surrounding 3km of roads have been shut off to cars and put under army control.

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Kuwait has accused Iran and its proxies of launching drone attacks targeting it on Thursday, despite the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war.

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Kuwait’s foreign ministry said drone attacks “targeted some vital Kuwaiti facilities” on Thursday night.

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Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) has however denied launching new attacks on Gulf states.

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In a statement carried on Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency the IRGC said “if these reports published by the media are true, without a doubt it is the work of the Zionist enemy or America.”

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Stocks rose on Friday with investors still optimistic about the shaky US-Iran ceasefire ahead of planned weekend talks, but the price of oil nudged slightly higher.

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Equity markets extended the week’s gains in early trading on Friday: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai and Taipei all rose at least 1%, while Singapore and Manila were also well up, though Sydney slipped.

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The gains in Asia followed a second healthy run-up on Wall Street, with the S+P 500 on Thursday rising 0.6%

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Brent crude climbed 1% to $96.83 a barrel as trading resumed in Asia.

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Welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

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The fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran showed further strain on Friday, a day before delegations from both countries are due to meet in Pakistan, as Donald Trump accused Tehran of breaching promises on the strait of Hormuz and Israel struck Lebanon with attacks that Iran claims violate the truce.

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Trump said in a social media post late Thursday that Iran was doing a “very poor job” of allowing oil to go through the strait. “That is not the agreement we have!”

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There is no sign Iran is lifting its near-total blockade of the strait, which has caused the worst-ever disruption to global energy supplies. Tehran cited Israel’s ongoing attacks on Lebanon, which included the heaviest strikes of the war on Wednesday, as a key sticking point.

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ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz.”,”caption”:”Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Reuters”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

In the first 24 hours of the ceasefire, which Trump announced on Tuesday, just a single oil products tanker and five dry bulk carriers sailed through the strait, which typically carries a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows and 140 ships a day before the war.

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  Donald Trump has said he is “very optimistic” a peace deal with Iran was within reach as a diplomatic delegation led by his vice-president JD Vance prepared to head to Pakistan for high-stakes talks aimed at ending the war this weekend. Iran’s leaders “talk much differently when you’re at a meeting than they do to the press. They’re much more reasonable,” the US president said, in line with his administration’s narrative that there’s a disconnect between what Tehran says publicly and privately.

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  Trump also confirmed that he had asked Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to be “more low-key” in Lebanon to help ensure the success of the upcoming US-Iran negotiations in Islamabad. “I spoke with Bibi and he’s going to low-key it. I just think we have to be sort of a little more low-key,” Trump told NBC News, adding that he believed Israel was “scaling back” its operations in Lebanon.

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  Netanyahu said he had instructed his cabinet to begin direct negotiations with Lebanon aimed at disarming Hezbollah – all the while insisting that “there is no ceasefire” in Lebanon and that Israel will “continue to strike Hezbollah with force”.

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  Israel has since launched a fresh wave of strikes against what it called “Hezbollah launch sites” in Lebanon, after the IDF earlier ordered people to flee Beirut’s densely populated southern suburbs. Later in the day, Hezbollah said it had fired a rocket salvo towards northern Israeli settlements.

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  While Israel continues to insist that the war will go on and “talks will be held under fire”, Lebanon is demanding a ceasefire before direct negotiations can begin. Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president, said this was “the only solution”. Lebanon is also insisting that it needs the US as a mediator and guarantor of any agreement. Those talks will take place next week, hosted by the US state department in Washington.

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  Iran’s ⁠president ⁠Masoud Pezeshkian said ⁠Israeli strikes on ⁠Lebanon violate the ceasefire agreement and would render ‌negotiations meaningless, adding that Iran would not abandon the Lebanese people.

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  The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Lebanon forms “an inseparable part of the ceasefire” deal. In a post on X, he said “there is no room for denial and backtracking”.

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  Keir Starmer also said that Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon “shouldn’t be happening”. The British prime minister also dismissed an argument put forward by US vice-president JD Vance on Wednesday that there had been “a legitimate misunderstanding”, saying the issue “isn’t a technical one of whether it’s a breach of the agreement or not”. It is “a matter of principles as far as I’m concerned”, Starmer said.

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  A statement attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said Iran will take management of the strait of Hormuz into a new phase, but did not elaborate on what that would be. In the statement, read out on state tv, he also said Iran remains determined to “take revenge” for his father, who was assassinated on the first day of the war, and all those killed in the war. “We will certainly demand compensation for each and every damage inflicted, and the blood price of the martyrs and the compensation for the wounded of this war,” he said.

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US negotiators intend to request the release of Americans detained in Iran as part of upcoming talks aimed at ending the war, according to media reports.

The Washington Post cited people briefed on the plans in its report.

Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:

Netanyahu accuses Spain of ‘hostility’ after excluding it from Gaza truce centre

Further to the announcement by the Israeli foreign affairs ministry of Spain’s exclusion from the Civil-Military Coordination Center (see previous post), the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has accused Madrid of “hostility” towards his country.

In a video message posted today, he said:

Israel will not remain silent in the face of those who attack us.

Spain has defamed our heroes, the soldiers of the IDF, the soldiers of the moral army in the world.

Therefore, I have instructed the removal of the Spanish representatives from the coordination center in Kiryat Gat, after Spain has repeatedly chosen to stand against Israel.

Whoever attacks the State of Israel instead of the terrorist regimes, whoever does this, will not be our partner in the future of the region.

I am not willing to tolerate this hypocrisy and this hostility. I do not intend to allow any country to wage a diplomatic war against us without paying an immediate price for it.

Israel excludes Spain from Gaza coordination centre monitoring truce due to ‘anti-Israeli bias’

Israel’s foreign affairs ministry announced Spanish representatives will not be allowed access to the US-led centre responsible for monitoring the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip due to what it described as a “blatant anti-Israeli bias”.

In a statement on its website, the ministry said the decision was made to block Spain from participating in the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in light of “the anti-Israel obsession of [Spanish] Prime Minister [Pedro] Sánchez’s government and its serious harm to Israeli (and also American) interests – including during the war against Iran”.

It added that the US was informed in advance of the decision.

Sánchez has arguably been the most vocal western critic of Donald Trump’s war in Iran. While most European leaders have reacted with cautious optimism at news of the ceasefire between the US and Iran, Sánchez said his government “will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket”.

In a statement, the Israeli foreign affairs minister, Gideon Saar, said: “The Sánchez government’s anti-Israel bias is so egregious that it has lost all capability to serve as a constructive actor in implementing President Trump’s peace plan and in the CMCC operating under that plan.”

Vance warns Iran not to ‘play’ US in Islamabad talks

US vice-president JD Vance has warned Iran not to “play” the US as he headed overseas for negotiations aimed at ending their war.

Vance, who has long been sceptical of foreign military interventions and outspoken about the prospect of sending troops into open-ended conflicts, set off Friday to lead mediated talks with Iran in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Boarding Air Force Two on his way to Pakistan, the vice president said:

We’re looking forward to the negotiation. I think it’s gonna be positive. We’ll of course see.

He cited Trump, adding: “If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend the open hand.”

But he said: “If they’re gonna try and play us, then they’re gonna find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

Vance also said that Trump “gave us some pretty clear guidelines” on how talks should go, but he didn’t elaborate. The vice president did not take questions from reporters traveling with him.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Friday called on the Lebanese government to stop giving “free concessions” to Israel, with the two governments due to begin negotiations in Washington next week.

“We will not accept a return to the previous situation, and we call on officials to stop offering free concessions,” Qassem said in a written message broadcast on the party’s Al-Manar TV, in which he also denounced the “bloody criminality on Wednesday,” when Israeli strikes killed more than 300 people in Lebanon.

US trade representative Jamieson Greer said on Friday that the United States is trying to have a stable relationship with China, but if Beijing is going to be involved with Iran in a way that goes against US interests, that would complicate matters.

In an interview on CNBC, Greer said he expected president Donald Trump to have a good meeting next month with Chinese president Xi Jinping but not every challenge with China is resolved.

Hezbollah said it had targeted Israel’s Ashdod naval base with missiles, two days after deadly Israeli airstrikes on Beirut left more than 300 people dead.

“In response to the enemy’s violation of the ceasefire and its repeated attacks on Beirut, and after the Resistance adhered to the ceasefire while the enemy did not, the fighters of the Islamic Resistance targeted… the naval base in the port of Ashdod with missiles,” the group said in a statement.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs, Majid Takht Ravanchi, said Tehran does not want a ceasefire that will allow the US and Israel to attack again.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported remarks he made during a meeting today with foreign ambassadors and heads of organisations in Tehran.

A translation of his remarks read: “We do not want a ceasefire that allows the aggressor enemy to re-arm and launch another aggression.”

He also claimed that “it has been agreed that Iran’s 10-point plan will be the basis for negotiations”.

Saeed Shah

Gulf states rethink security in light of US-Israel war on Iran

Gulf nations will seek to add security partners as they rebuild battered economies after the US and Israel’s war on Iran and deal with an emboldened Tehran.

The Gulf will have to live with a continuing threat from the regime in Iran and its remaining missile arsenal. American bases on their soil turned them into targets for Iran, as it retaliated against a joint attack by the US and Israel.

But, the countries say they can’t tolerate Iran keeping control of the strait of Hormuz, through which most of their trade flows. In agreeing to a ceasefire this week, Iran insisted it would retain the hold it took during the war over the waterway, which would allow Tehran to throttle the Gulf at will. The future of the strait will be one of the main disputes to be negotiated between the United States and Iran, in talks in Islamabad due to start as soon as Friday.

Gulf nations trumpeted success in largely intercepting the Iranian barrage of missiles and drones over the five weeks of the conflict, showing they can defend themselves.

The countries are, however, split over future relations with Iran, with a hawkish grouping led by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain taking a harder line, and other nations hoping for peace through renewed ties with Tehran, experts say.

Read the full report here:

The Israeli military has claimed to have destroyed more than 200 Hezbollah rocket launchers since the start of the conflict.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement online that it destroyed more than 200 rocket launchers, including approximately 1,300 launch tubes, belonging to the Iran-backed militant group since 2 March.

Keir Starmer said he used a call with Donald Trump to set out the views of Gulf states, the Press Association reported.

“I had a discussion with president Trump last night and set out to him the views of the region here, these Gulf states are the neighbours of Iran, and therefore, if the ceasefire is to hold – and we hope it will – it has to involve them,” the UK prime minister said in Qatar, where he was on the final leg of his Middle East tour.

“They have very strong views on the strait of Hormuz. We spent most of the time on the call talking about the practical plan that’s going to be needed to get navigation through the strait and the role that the UK is playing.”

Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s senior diplomatic envoy, said on X that his country will review regional and international ties in light of attacks by Iran to “determine who can be relied upon”.

The UAE’s defence ministry said yesterday that its air defences have intercepted 537 ballistic missiles, 26 cruise missiles and 2,256 drones since the start of the war.

Keir Starmer said he is “fed up” with energy bills going up in the UK “because of the actions of Putin and Trump”.

The remarks, made during an interview with ITV, were a rare display of frustration by the UK prime minister who seldom calls out Donald Trump directly in public. And, in this instance, he has linked the US president with Vladimir Putin.

Starmer is due to return to the UK today after visiting allies in the Gulf for talks on how to support the US-Iran ceasefire and secure a permanent reopening of the strait of Hormuz. After travelling to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, his last stop is Qatar.

You can follow our UK politics blog where my colleague Andrew Sparrow is reporting the latest on the impact of war on the UK and other related news:

Pictures: Islamabad on high alert ahead of talks between Iranian and US negotiators

The UN children’s agency, Unicef, reported that nearly 600 children have been killed or injured in Lebanon since the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war on 2 March.

More than 30 children were killed and nearly 150 injured by the wave of bombings carried out on Wednesday by Israeli troops, Unicef said.

In a statement, the agency said:

Unicef is receiving reports of children being pulled from under the rubble, while others remain missing and separated from their families. Many are experiencing trauma, having lost loved ones, their homes, and any sense of safety. Across the country, more than one million people have been uprooted, including an estimated 390,000 children, many for the second, third, or even fourth time.

International humanitarian law is clear: civilians, including children, must be protected at all times.