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Iran vows not to let aggression go unanswered after US violates truce

• Washington says strikes targeted Iranian missile sites, mine-laying boats • Rubio says Iran deal may take ‘a few days’; insists Hormuz will reopen ‘one way or the other’ • Iran says US drone downed, F-35 fired at; tanker damaged by external explosion off Oman • Trump to hold Camp David cabinet meeting on Iran crisis TEHRAN: Iran accused the United States of breaching their ceasefire on Tuesday and warned it was ready to retaliate and “will not leave any evil unanswered” after overnight US strikes targeting Iranian missile sites and mine-laying boats threatened a deal to end the war. The Brent benchmark oil price jumped up by more than four per cent after US Central Command announced the new wave of bombings, and China urged both sides to respect the truce and to resolve their dispute peacefully. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, said negotiating a deal to halt the conflict could “take a few days”. According to Iranian media, Iran’s negotiators had been pushing for the memorandum to include the release of billions of frozen assets at talks in Qatar. The maritime safety monitor UKMTO said a blast damaged a tanker on the waterline off Oman — although the crew and vessel were reportedly safe after what was described as an “external explosion”. Iranian state media reported overnight blasts in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, near the Strait of Hormuz, and the country’s Revolutionary Guards said its forces had downed a US drone entering its airspace and had fired at an F-35 fighter jet. “The US 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 Iranian foreign ministry said. It added that Tehran “will not leave any evil unanswered and will not hesitate to defend the Iranian nation”, without elaborating. A senior spokesperson for Iran’s armed forces also warned that any resumption of US and Israeli air strikes on Iran would meet a “heavier” and “stronger” retaliation, Al Jazeera reported. “If the region enters another round of war, Iran’s response will extend beyond regional borders and will be much heavier and stronger,” Abolfazl Shekarchi said in remarks carried by the Fars news agency. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for US Central Command, said: “US forces conducted self-defence strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.” He gave few details of the attacks and said only that the targets included missile launch sites and boats trying to “emplace mines”. Despite the strikes, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that a deal remained within reach. But he remained firm on the Strait of Hormuz, the key oil and gas shipping route which Iran is seeking to control. “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,” Rubio told reporters, during a visit to India. He said the strait was “going to be open one way or the other,” adding: “What’s happening there is unlawful, it’s illegal, it’s unsustainable for the world, it’s unacceptable.” Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is set to hold a rare cabinet meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat as Iran talks near a critical point, a White House official told AFP. The New York Post reported that Iran was set to dominate the meeting, which was expected to be attended by all cabinet members. Doha talks Iranian and US officials have indicated that recent indirect talks made progress on a memorandum of understanding, or initial deal, that would lead to further negotiations over a final agreement. Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, its foreign minister and its central bank governor were in Doha on Monday for talks with Qatar’s prime minister on a potential deal, an official briefed on the visit said. Qalibaf returned to Iran after seeking agreement on the release of around $24 billion of frozen Iranian funds as part of the memorandum of understanding, Iranian media reported. Iran’s Fars news agency cited a source saying that the unfreezing of the funds was the last serious sticking point for the memorandum of understanding to be finalised. According to Iranian sources, an initial deal would cover ending the war on all fronts, establishing a 30-day framework for restarting movement through the Strait of Hormuz, and possibly providing some financial relief — with more complex issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme to be negotiated in a second phase. Iran has been letting some ships through the strait, giving preference to vessels linked to countries with which it has alliances or close ties, and striking government-to-government agreements, Reuters has reported. Trump has said his key aim in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium. Tehran denies any such plans. Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2026

More climate records under threat as spring heatwave bakes western Europe

Western Europe faced another day of record-breaking temperatures on Tuesday as a heatwave pushed the mercury well above normal levels for May. A so-called “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the sort of heat not usually seen until high summer. “It’s a bit worrying because it’s not really normal at this time of year, but unfortunately, I think this is going to become the norm in France,” student Chloe Voisin, 22, told AFP while touring the southwestern city of Bordeaux. Britain and France both reported that Monday was the warmest day in the month of May on record — with the French weather agency expecting Tuesday to be even hotter. French authorities on Tuesday also reported at least seven deaths linked to the heatwave — five of which were drownings, as many people sought relief on beaches and other bodies of water. Scientists say human-driven climate change is amplifying such extremes, with weather events like heatwaves, droughts and floods becoming more intense and frequent. The United Kingdom’s Met Office weather agency said Monday saw record highs of 34.8°C at Kew Gardens, southwest London — a full two degrees above the previous high. Swiss tourist Philippe Bignens, 56, visiting London with his father, told AFP they had to change plans and retreat to their hotel to avoid being outside at the hottest time of day. “If you’re not concerned about global warming, you must be deaf, blind altogether, right? So it is there, yes. We have to be concerned and try to do something about it,” he said. The Met Office forecast a drop later in the week. Met Office meteorologist Greg Dewhurst told AFP the increase in extreme temperatures was “a good indication of climate change in action” and more likely to become “the new norm”. “It is worrying, because it’s… very hard watching older people in heat, like suffering a lot,” said Renata Stankeviciute, 43, a Lithuanian chef living in London. People gather in Buttes Chaumont park, as temperatures reached up to 35°C, during a period of hot weather in Paris, France on May 25, 2026. —Reuters “I’m working in the kitchen, so it’s atrocious,” she added. A record May temperature of 28.8°C was recorded at two of Ireland’s weather stations amid the current blast of heat, Met Eireann data showed. Deadly turn Across the English Channel, tennis fans in Paris baked in temperatures of 33°C at Roland Garros, with players having to battle through the stifling heat. After recording 34.7°C in the western town of Bergerac on Monday, highs of 36°C were expected in some regions on Tuesday, the French weather agency forecast. Meteo-France said the spell was likely to last at least until the end of the week. Government authorities also noted the heat had taken a deadly turn. “What I can say today is that there have been seven deaths directly or indirectly related to the heat,” government spokesperson Maud Bregeon told television broadcaster TF1 on Tuesday. The heat drove many people to the country’s beaches to cool off in the water, even though lifeguard supervision is not due to start in many areas until July. “We were just wondering this morning whether the beach was supervised,” Thomas Dupuy told AFP while visiting a beach in the southwestern city of Anglet with his two young children. “I’m extremely careful for myself, for my children who can’t swim yet,” he added. “We know the currents can pull you out, the Atlantic beaches are dangerous.” Work affected Benjamin Boisson, a fruit grower in southern France, said he’s worried the extreme fluctuation in temperature would cause a sharp drop in production, as well as complicate storage. Already, a previous warm weather spell forced him to harvest apricots five days earlier than planned this year, on May 1, he said. “That may not seem like much, but it changes everything. The major retailers weren’t ready and are still selling Spanish apricots when they should have switched over to French ones,” he said. Spain’s State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) also warned of “extraordinarily high temperatures for this time of year” that will continue across the country all week, except in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. “Widespread tropical nights” are also forecast in southwestern Spain from Wednesday, with temperatures peaking from Wednesday to Friday at between 36°C and 38°C, it wrote on X. Farther east, Italy’s Lazio region, which includes Rome, on Monday approved rules limiting work in conditions “with prolonged exposure in the sun” between 12:30 pm and 4:00 pm. Europe is the continent that has experienced the fastest warming since 1990, closely followed by Asia, with North America in third place, according to data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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'A long-term strategic failure': Three months in, is Trump losing the war on Iran?

Three months after attacking Iran, US President Donald Trump faces a bigger question: Is he losing the war? With Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, its resistance to nuclear concessions and its government largely intact, doubts are growing that Trump can translate the US military’s tactical successes into an outcome he can frame convincingly as a geopolitical win. His repeated claims of complete victory ring hollow, some analysts say, as the two sides teeter between uncertain diplomacy and his on-again-off-again threats to resume strikes, which would be sure to draw Iranian retaliation across the region. Trump is now at risk of seeing the US and its Gulf Arab allies emerge from the conflict worse off, while Iran, though battered militarily and economically, could end up with greater leverage, having shown it can throttle one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies. The crisis is not yet over, and some experts leave open the possibility Trump might still find a face-saving way out if negotiations break in his favour. But others predict a grim post-war outlook for Trump. “We’re three months in, and it’s looking like a war that was designed to be a short-term romp for Trump is turning into a long-term strategic failure,” said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for Republican and Democratic administrations. For Trump, that matters, especially given his famous sensitivity to being perceived as a loser, an insult he has often lobbed at opponents. In the Iran crisis, he finds himself commander-in-chief of the world’s mightiest military pitted against a second-tier power seemingly convinced it has the upper hand. And this predicament could make Trump, who has yet to define a clear endgame, more likely to resist any compromise that looks like a retreat from his maximalist positions or a repetition of the 2015 Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran that he scrapped in his first term, analysts say. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said the US has “met or surpassed all of our military objectives in ‘Operation Epic Fury’”. “President Trump holds all the cards and wisely keeps all options on the table,” she added. Pressure and frustration Trump campaigned for a second term promising no unnecessary military interventions but has brought the US into an entanglement that could do lasting damage to his foreign policy record and credibility abroad. The continuing standoff comes as he faces domestic pressure over high US gasoline prices and low approval ratings after he embarked on the unpopular war ahead of November’s midterm elections. His Republican Party is struggling to maintain control of Congress. As a result, more than six weeks into a ceasefire, some analysts believe Trump faces a stark choice: to accept a potentially flawed deal as an off-ramp or escalate militarily and risk an even longer crisis. Among his options if diplomacy collapses, they say, would be to launch a round of sharp but limited strikes, frame it as a final victory and move on. Another possibility, analysts say, is that Trump could attempt to shift focus to Cuba, as he has suggested, in hopes of changing the subject and trying to score a potentially easier win. If so, he might end up misjudging the challenges posed by Havana, much as some Trump aides privately acknowledge that he mistakenly thought the Iran operation would resemble the January 3 raid that captured Venezuela’s president and led to his replacement. Even so, Trump is not without his defenders. Alexander Gray, a former senior adviser in Trump’s first term and now chief executive officer of the American Global Strategies consultancy, rejected the notion that the president’s Iran campaign was on the ropes. He said that the heavy blow to Iranian military capabilities was in itself a “strategic success,” that the war had drawn Gulf states closer to the US and away from China, and that the fate of Irans nuclear program was still to be determined. There are signs, however, of Trump’s frustration with his inability to control the narrative. He has torn into his critics and accused the news media of treason. The conflict has lasted twice the maximum six-week time-frame that Trump laid out when he joined with Israel in starting the war on February 28. Since then, though his MAGA political base has stood by him on the war, cracks have appeared in his once almost unanimous backing from Republican lawmakers. At the outset, waves of airstrikes quickly degraded Iran’s ballistic missile stockpile, sank much of its navy and killed many top leaders. But Tehran responded by blocking the strait, which sent energy prices soaring, and attacking Israel and Gulf neighbours. Trump then ordered a blockade of Iran’s ports but that has also failed to bend Tehran to his will. Iran’s leaders have matched Trump’s triumphalist claims with their own propaganda depicting his campaign as a “crushing defeat”, though it is clear that Iranian officials have overstated their own military prowess. Shifting goals still unachieved Trump had said his objectives in going to war were to close off Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon, end its ability to threaten the region and US interests, and make it easier for Iranians to overthrow their rulers. There is no sign that his often-shifting goals have been achieved, and many analysts say it is unlikely that they will be. Jonathan Panikoff, a former deputy national intelligence officer for the Middle East, said that while Iran has taken devastating hits, its rulers consider it a success simply to have survived the US assault and learned how much control they can exert over Gulf shipping. “What they discovered is they can exercise that leverage and with few consequences for them,” said Panikoff, now at the Atlantic Council think tank, adding that Iran appeared confident it could tolerate more economic pain than Trump and outlast him. Trump’s main stated war aims Iran’s denuclearisation also remains unfulfilled, and Tehran has shown little willingness to significantly rein in its programme. A stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed to remain buried following US and Israeli airstrikes last June and could be recovered and further processed to bomb grade. Iran says it wants the US to recognise its right to enrich uranium for what it says are peaceful purposes. Some analysts have suggested that the war could make Iran more, not less, likely to ramp up efforts to develop a nuclear weapon to shield itself like nuclear-armed North Korea. Another of Trump’s declared goals — forcing Iran to halt support for armed proxy groups — also remains unmet. Adding to Trump’s challenges, he is now dealing with new Iranian leaders considered even more hardline than their predecessors. Post-war, they are widely expected still to have enough remaining missiles and drones to pose a continued danger to their neighbours. He is also facing fallout with further erosion of relations with traditional European allies, which have mostly refused his calls for assistance in a war they were not consulted about. China and Russia, meanwhile, have drawn lessons about the US military’s shortcomings against asymmetric Iranian tactics and how some of its weapons supplies have become depleted, analysts said. Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, has argued that the outcome will be even more of a decisive setback to US standing than its humiliating withdrawals from much longer, bloodier conflicts in Vietnam and Afghanistan because those countries were “far from the main theatres of global competition”. “There will be no return to the status quo ante, no ultimate American triumph that will undo or overcome the harm done,” he wrote in a recent commentary entitled Checkmate in Iran on the Atlantic magazine’s website.

Dawn (Pakistan)

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Iran vows not to let aggression go unanswered after US violates truce

More climate records under threat as spring heatwave bakes western Europe

'A long-term strategic failure': Three months in, is Trump losing the war on Iran?

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타임라인 키워드

Iran vows not to let aggression go unanswered after US violates truce

More climate records under threat as spring heatwave bakes western Europe

'A long-term strategic failure': Three months in, is Trump losing the war on Iran?