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Both banks deny helping Tehran-controlled oil firm PCC to move money in breach of sanctionsTwo of the UK’s largest lenders, Santander UK and Lloyds Banking Group, allegedly held bank accounts for front companies that helped Iranian entities evade US sanctions, according to reports.The news has rattled investors, who sold off shares in the two banks on Monday morning, amid fears that the lenders could...

Iran-backed group says airstrikes ‘will not deter us’ after targets hit following continued Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red SeaRead all our Middle East coverageIran has denounced the latest US and UK strikes on targets in Yemen saying they “contradict” their declared intention of avoiding a wider Middle East conflict, AFP reports.These attacks are “in clear contradiction with the repeated claims of Washington...

Joint operation to further disable militias follows attacks on US and international interests amid war in GazaThe United States and Britain struck at least 30 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in another wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have attacked US and international interests in response to the Israel-Hamas war.Ships and fighter jets on Saturday launched strikes against the...

Defence secretary says third joint UK-US assault on Iran-backed group is to protect lives and ‘preserve freedom of navigation’The UK has joined the US for a third time in conducting a wave of airstrikes on Iran-linked Houthi targets in Yemen.The defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said the fresh assaults were “not an escalation”, but instead were designed to “protect innocent lives and preserve freedom of...

The carefully planned raids were the largest yet against Iran’s proxies and are likely to continue until threats to US personnel are neutralisedMiddle East crisis – live updatesUS retaliation, when it came, was broad and deep, and telegraphed five days in advance.The White House, the Pentagon and state department had spent the best part of a week talking about the response to Sunday’s drone...

Strikes expected to take place in Syria and possibly Iraq, after three US soldiers were killed at a base in JordanMiddle East crisis – live updatesThe US has ordered a series of reprisal strikes to be launched over more than one day against an Iranian-backed militia, the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said.Austin said all drones in the region attacking the US were...

The US military says it also hit up to 10 unmanned drones that were preparing to launchIsraeli media reports that Hamas representatives are again conducting talks in Cairo on the outlines of a possible hostage deal, with Egypt and Qatar mediating.Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that two Palestinian men have been shot and wounded overnight by Israeli security forces during a raid on the...

Head of Islamic Revolutionary Guards defiant as US prepares ‘very consequential response’ to drone attack on Jordan baseThe head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards has said the country is not afraid of war with the US, as the Pentagon weighs how directly to respond to the killing of three US military personnel in a drone attack in Jordan.The IRGC commander-in-chief, Maj Gen Hossein Salami,...

Proposed truce is the most serious peace initiative to be tabled for months; Iran reacts after Biden says he has decided on response to Jordan drone strikeOvernight the US central command reported that Yemen’s Houthis fired one anti-ship cruise missile towards the Red Sea, which was shot down by USS Gravely.The attack was at 11.30pm local time. Continue reading...

Tehran warns Washington but regime unsure of degree of support for interventionist foreign policyIran has told the US via intermediaries that if it strikes Iranian soil directly, Tehran will itself hit back at American assets in the Middle East, drawing the two sides into a direct conflict.The warning comes as Iran waits on high alert to see how Joe Biden responds to the death...

Iran-backed militia Washington blamed for attack announces it has suspended anti-US operationsJoe Biden has said he has decided how to respond to a drone strike in northern Jordan which killed three American soldiers and wounded dozens more, as the Iran-backed militia that Washington blamed for the attack said it had suspended anti-US operations.As Washington pondered its response, Kataib Hezbollah announced the suspension of all...

Lloyd Austin says president ‘will not tolerate attacks on US forces’, but Qatar warns that reprisal attacks could undermine Israel hostage talksSee all our Middle East coverageUS defense secretary Lloyd Austin has vowed to take “all necessary actions” to defend US troops after Iran-backed militants killed three US troops and wounded dozens more in a drone attack on a US base in Jordan.“The president...

The group that claimed responsibility for deadly attack on US military base in north-east JordanMiddle East crisis – live updatesThree US service personnel were killed and dozens wounded after a drone hit a military outpost in Jordan, known as Tower 22, which lies on the border with Iraq and Syria. The US president, Joe Biden, has blamed Iran-backed militants for the attack and said:...

Iranian backed militia took credit for attack that injured 34 troops and killed first US soldiers since start of Gaza conflictThe spectre of a direct US-Iranian military conflict drew closer on Sunday when the US president Joe Biden announced three US servicemen had been killed and more than 34 injured following a drone attack on a US service base on the border of Jordan...

Former president’s exclusion from group likely to choose next supreme leader angers reformistsThe Iranian regime has taken its crackdown on any internal opposition into a new phase by disqualifying the reformist former president Hassan Rouhani from seeking re-election to the assembly of experts, the body that chooses the country’s supreme leader.Reformists reacted angrily on Thursday to the regime-controlled guardian council’s announcement. The 88 assembly...

Pentagon calls attacks ‘necessary and proportionate’, after US personnel were injured in a weekend attack in IraqSee all our Middle East crisis coverageThe US has carried out strikes in Iraq against three facilities linked to Iran-backed militia, the Pentagon has said, after a weekend attack on an Iraqi airbase that wounded US forces.“US military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used...

Seals from USS Lewis Puller went overboard during mission off coast of Somalia to seize Iranian weapons, according to US militarySee all our Middle East coverageTwo US Navy Seals who went missing during an operation to seize Iranian weapons bound for Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been declared dead after a 10-day search failed to locate them, the US military has said.US Central Command (Centcom)...

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it has lost four members in strike on Syrian capitalMiddle East crisis – live updatesA suspected Israeli strike killed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ espionage chief for Syria and three other guard members on Saturday, Iran has said, in an attack that destroyed much of a multistorey residential building in Damascus.The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six people...

As pockets of war multiply across region so does the risk that conflict becomes more contagious and intractableOn Thursday morning the Iranian news website Entekhab ran, without irony, the headline: “Taliban call on Pakistan and Iran to show restraint and urge both sides to settle differences through diplomatic means”.If proof were needed that a new, more dangerous world order may be upon us, the...

Pakistani strike comes day after deadly Iranian attack on Balochistan; US military in Red Sea says it struck 14 Houthi missiles that were ready to be firedSee all our coverage of the Middle East crisisWhile Iran has taken low-level action against Balochistan in the past, Tuesday’s strikes were unusually heavy-handed and Thursday’s retaliatory bombings were the first time that Pakistan has responded with comprehensive...

Airstrikes come after Iran targeted sites inside Pakistan that Tehran claimed were used by a Sunni militant groupMiddle East crisis: live updatesPakistan has launched retaliatory strikes against militants in Iran in response to attacks by Tehran that targeted sites within Pakistan’s borders allegedly belonging to a Sunni separatist militant group.A statement by Pakistan’s foreign office early on Thursday confirmed it had undertaken “a series...

Israeli air force says it ‘eliminated Bilal Nofal’ in a strike in the southern Gaza stripUS Navy Seals boarded a boat heading for Yemen and seized Iranian-made missile components and other weaponry bound for Houthi forces, in an operation in which two Seal commandos went missing, the US military has said.US Central Command (Centcom) posted pictures of the missile parts on X, including what...