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This liveblog is no longer being updated.
South Korea prepares military deployment to Strait of Hormuz
South Korea is preparing to deploy military assets to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and aims to dispatch them before the end of the year, media reported late on Thursday, citing government and military sources.
The reports in several South Korean media outlets said the government was preparing procedures to seek parliamentary approval for the deployment, including submitting a consent motion to parliament this month after cabinet review.
The government was considering options including sending a maritime patrol aircraft, a logistics support vessel or a mine detection and clearance unit, and had been discussing the scale and nature of a potential contribution with countries including the United States, Britain and France, the reports said.
Iran war is not a war, Vance says
US Vice President JD Vance has said he would not categorise the Iran war as a war, despite continuing clashes with Tehran six months after the start of the conflict.
Vance's comments came amid growing signs that President Donald Trump is trying to draw a line under the conflict that has bogged down his administration.
"I wouldn't call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting," Vance told a White House briefing when asked if the war would be over by US midterm elections in November.
Vance added that "I recognise there have been places where this has flared up" but said major combat operations only lasted for six weeks after the US-Israel war started on February 28.
"But when you ask when will this end, you're asking me a question like when will the Iranians stop shooting at ships? I think the reality is I don't know the answer to that question. You would have to ask the Iranians," he said.
US VP Vance says Hormuz oil flow 'almost' at pre-war levels
US Vice President JD Vance has said the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz was nearly back to levels seen before the Iran war, adding that Tehran's control of the waterway was "effectively gone."
"If you go back three months ago, how much oil and gas was coming out of the strait under Iranian threats? It was virtually nothing. Now, it's almost back to where it was before the conflict even started," Vance said at a White House briefing.
Last week there were 102 ship transits through the Strait of Hormuz, compared with 126 the week before, according to shipping data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence. That compares with 130 or more per day before the war.
Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains well below pre-war levels due to the risk of Iranian attack if ships do not comply with an Iranian vetting regime. The decline is in sharp contrast to the unhindered navigation before the war
US probing alleged wedding strike, but Vance 'skeptical' of Iranian reports
US Vice President JD Vance has said the US is investigating an alleged strike on a wedding that Tehran said had killed four people, but cast doubt on Iranian reports about the incident.
"I know that we're investigating," Vance told a White House briefing. "I will say that the Iranian state media has not been a very good scribe about what's happened in the conflict thus far. So I'm extremely skeptical of this."
Netanyahu says toppling Iran's Islamic republic 'within reach'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced confidence that Iran's Islamic republic could soon fall.
"This regime is currently teetering. It is weaker than ever. It is fighting for its survival," Netanyahu said at an event with Israeli military leaders.
"I am convinced that we can remove this threat once and for all -- that is, to overthrow this regime. That is the central task that still lies ahead of us, but it is close. It is not impossible. It is within reach," he said.
Netanyahu, after decades of describing Iran's cleric-run state as an existential threat, in late February launched a joint attack on Iran with the US, although President Donald Trump abruptly called a ceasefire in April.
Pentagon extends Mideast troop deployments into 2027, US media reports
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “quietly extending troop deployments” in the Middle East “in a sign that the conflict could drag well into next year,” the Wall Street Journal reports, citing unnamed sources.
The extension is aimed at giving President Donald Trump options as he waits to see if his strategy of economically squeezing Iran will work, the US daily reported.
“As the conflict drags on, the Pentagon’s deployment schedules are growing longer too,” the report notes.
The protracted conflict is also presenting logistical challenges for US troops aboard warships and vessels, says the report. “Complicating matters for sailors and Marines aboard those ships is a loss of logistics in the region,” said the WSJ. “The fighting has prevented the [US] Navy from resupplying in the Middle East, forcing it instead to rely largely on the remote island of Diego Garcia, a military base the US shares with the UK in the Indian Ocean.”
Israeli minister presents plan to remove Gaza population
Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has set out a plan to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and send them abroad.
Speaking in the run-up to close-fought Israeli elections, he said the plan aimed to see the departure of 250,000 Palestinians from Gaza in the first year, followed by the rest of the roughly two million residents over the following six years.
"It's realistic," said Ben Gvir, claiming that there were countries who were "ready" to take in Gazans, without naming which ones.
Forced displacement of civilians in occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
Israeli attacks in West Bank at 'unprecedented' levels, Palestinian rights campaigner says
Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have reached "totally unprecedented" levels, says Mustafa Barghouti, veteran human rights activist and head of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) party. "Their goal is clear: it is ethnic cleansing," he added.
Speaking to FRANCE 24 from the West Bank city of Ramallah, Barghouti said Israeli settlers were attacking Palestinians with “total impunity” since they are “protected by the Israeli army all over the West Bank”.
Israel says releasing 5 detained Lebanese civilians
Israel has said it has decided to release five Lebanese civilians who it had seized from southern Lebanon, where it has occupied areas near the border.
"After their interrogation was completed, it became clear that they are civilians who are not members of any terrorist organisation, have not engaged in terrorism, and there is no reason to continue holding them in Israel," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
It added the move followed efforts by Israel and Lebanon to locate and return the bodies of leaders of Lebanon's Jewish community abducted and killed in the 1980s.
In its last round of negotiations with Israel in August, Lebanon demanded the release of a first batch of people seized from Lebanese territory since the start of the 2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese official told AFP at the time.
Lebanese authorities have not officially announced the number of citizens held by Israel during that war and a subsequent 2026 war between the two sides, but a list of more than 30 people has been compiled by their families and a committee following up on their cases.
Iran Guards chief vows to avenge victims killed in wedding strike
Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief Ahmad Vahidi has vowed to avenge the killing of four people at a wedding ceremony, which Tehran has blamed on the US.
"The pure blood of these oppressed martyrs... will not go unanswered and will definitely be avenged," Vahidi said in a statement carried by state television.
Six Iranian navy personnel killed in US attacks, semi-official news agency reports
Six members of the Iranian army's naval forces were killed by US attacks on Tuesday, according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency.
"During the criminal attacks carried out by the US terrorist army two nights ago on September 1 on the south of the country, six members of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Navy were martyred," the report said without specifying where exactly they were killed.
Lebanese man held prisoner in Israel released, handed over via Red Cross
A Lebanese man who had been held prisoner in Israel has been released in the first such handover since the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war six months ago, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and two Lebanese security officials said.
The man, identified as Malek Ghazi, was handed over to the Lebanese army via the ICRC, one of the Lebanese security officials said. The other official said they were anticipating the release of another prisoner. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that Ghazi was handed over to the ICRC at the border crossing in the coastal town of Naqoura on Lebanon's southern frontier and was then transferred to a Lebanese army intelligence office in the city of Tyre.
Dozens of Lebanese prisoners are believed to be held in Israeli detention centers, including civilians as well as Hezbollah militants captured during fighting in southern Lebanon. The circumstances of Ghazi’s capture were not immediately clear, but one of the Lebanese officials said he was a civilian.
Three Iranian Army pilots killed in US strikes earlier this week, agency reports
Three Iranian Army pilots were killed in US strikes conducted on Tuesday night, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday.
Israel says economic pressure could push Iran into 'desperate steps'
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that US economic sanctions against Iran have proven to be effective, but the pressure might lead Tehran into extreme measures.
"We see signs indicating that the heavy economic pressure they are under, and the fear of an uprising and the collapse of the regime, may push them to desperate steps," Katz said at a ceremony for defence ministry employees.
Israel launched the Middle East war alongside the United States in late February, but has stayed on the sidelines militarily since President Donald Trump sealed a ceasefire deal in April -- even after that truce later fell apart.
Last month, the US Treasury announced a new series of sanctions to "asphyxiate" the Iranian economy, and the US airforce resumed raids on Iran on Sunday.
In retaliation, Iran attacked US military targets in the Gulf and in Israel's eastern neighbour Jordan, but has refrained from targeting Israel.
"The ayatollahs' regime in Iran knows very well why it does not attack Israel after we struck them powerfully twice, destroyed their nuclear programme, eliminated (supreme leader Ali) Khamenei, and severely damaged their strategic capabilities," Katz said Thursday, referring to previous rounds of confrontation last year and earlier this year.
The hawkish minister reiterated the threats against the Islamic Republic that he has made in recent months.
"An Iranian attack on Israel will free Israel from any existing constraint," he said.
"We will strike all of Iran's national military and civilian infrastructure -- including energy infrastructure -- and push Iran deep back into the Stone Age," he added.
Israel's Katz threatens broad retaliation if Iran attacks Israel
Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Israel would strike Iran's energy and civilian infrastructure if Iran were to attack Israel, the country's latest threat to Tehran amid a sudden recent escalation of US-Iran fighting.
Fears of renewed escalation gripped the Middle East this week after the US and Iran exchanged their biggest barrage since July, with Washington striking Iran's southern coast and Tehran firing at US bases across the region.
Britain's King Charles to host Oman's Sultan for October state visit
Britain's King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla will host Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq at Windsor Castle for a state visit next month, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday.
The visit from October 20 to 22 will come against the backdrop of escalating tensions in the Middle East since US-Israeli attacks on Iran in February, which prompted retaliatory strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases.
US President Donald Trump has also threatened to bomb Oman - which has been in talks with Iran aimed at restoring commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz - if it "gets in the way".
Iran's army says it attacked US bases in Kuwait, UAE
Iran's army on Thursday said it targeted US bases in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, despite threats of further strikes by US President Donald Trump.
"This morning, the army hit the satellite communication systems, equipment depots and fighter aircraft hangars of the terrorist US army at the Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait with missiles and drones," the army said in a statement carried by state TV.
It added that "the location of forces and radar systems of the child-killing US army at the Al Minhad Air Base in the UAE were also attacked by missiles and drones of the army".
Iran warns US against Israeli attack on south Lebanon ridge held by Hezbollah, sources say
Iran has warned the United States that it would respond forcefully to an Israeli offensive on a mountainous ridge in southern Lebanon where Iranian military personnel are holed up alongside Hezbollah fighters, three officials briefed on the message told Reuters.
The message, delivered last month, highlights Iran's continued direct involvement in the ground fighting in southern Lebanon and its readiness to retaliate against Israeli attacks there as the regional war enters its seventh month.
Hezbollah is believed to have built an underground command centre and weapons stores within the Ali al-Taher ridge, which has a commanding view of southeastern Lebanon, according to Lebanese security sources, and has become one of the most contested pieces of ground in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
Yesterday's key developments:
- President Donald Trump has suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz as "Trump Strait," despite the fact that the crucial waterway remains contested amid the war with Iran .
- Iranian border guards have seized a vessel with 382,000 litres of smuggled fuel in the northern Gulf, and arrested its foreign crew of 11, according to state broadcaster IRIB.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has visited Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip , where he vowed not to pull back troops despite a recent push by mediators to advance a US-backed ceasefire plan calling for their withdrawal.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
