Live – Trump and Starmer discuss Strait of Hormuz, Germany expresses skepticism over naval mission

An internet watchdog reported on the sudden loss of connectivity of a core Iranian telecom network on Sunday.

“This network had been part of the small remaining slice of infrastructure still online (~1%) during the nationwide internet shutdown,” the page NetBlocks wrote on X.

Internet access to the public has been heavily restricted since the outbreak of the Iran war at the end of February, as well as druing Iran’s January protests. Many Iranians were still able to get online using VPNs or Starlink connections, but the latest disruption seems to have affected many of those routes as well.

US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed the “importance” of reopening the Strait of Hormuz “to end the disruption to global shipping, which is driving up costs worldwide,” according to a Downing Street spokesperson.

Around 20 per cent of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran announced last week that it would block the waterway in retaliation for the strikes, and has since attacked several vessels in the area.

On Saturday, Trump called on other countries to send warships to help keep the essential waterway open.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul indicated on Sunday that Germany is not prepared to join the international military mission to help protect ships travelling through the Strait of Hormuz.

“Will we soon be an active part of this conflict? No.” Wadephul told local media. “We will only get security for the Strait of Hormuz … if there is a negotiated solution”.

“It is completely clear that Europe always gives constructive support when it comes to securing sea routes, but I see neither an immediate necessity nor above all Germany participating,” he added.

European Union foreign ministers are set to discuss extending the bloc’s naval mission Aspides to the Strait of Hormuz at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Aspides is an EU naval operation launched in the Red Sea in response to Houthi attacks on international shipping in February 2024.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran was not interested in talks with the United States, pushing back on President Donald Trump’s stance that Tehran wants a deal to end the war.

“We are stable and strong enough. We are only defending our people,” Araghchi told CBS’s “Face The Nation,” in an interview aired on Sunday.

“We don’t see any reason why we should talk with Americans, because we were talking with them when they decided to attack us.”

An Israeli military source on Sunday denied media reports that Israel was running low on missile interceptors crucial to its air defences, adding that the army was “continuously monitoring the situation.”

Citing US officials, news outlet Semafor had reported that Israel had informed the United States that it was “running critically low on ballistic missile interceptors,” as the US-Israeli war against Iran entered its third week.

“As of now, there is no interceptor shortage. The IDF prepared for prolonged combat. We are continuously monitoring the situation,” the military source said, in response to media queries.

Italy’s military said on Sunday there had been a drone attack on the Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait hosting Italian and US forces, but said all its personnel were safe.

“This morning, Ali Al Salem base in Kuwait was the target of a drone attack that hit a shelter housing a remotely piloted aircraft of the Italian Task Force Air (TFA), which was destroyed,” Chief of the Defence General Staff, General Luciano Portolano, said in a statement posted by the military on X.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi promised “full support and solidarity” in a message to Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

Foreign minister Badr Abdelatty, who was visiting Qatar on Sunday on the first stop of a tour of the Gulf region, delivered the president’s message.

Abdelatty called for a deescalation of hostilities in the region. He said activating a Joint Defence Treaty would “safeguard the security, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Arab states.”

State media reports that four refrigerated trucks carrying medicine, medical supplies, clothing and food left the capital Ashgabat for Iran on Sunday.

The shipment, funded by a charitable foundation, was sent “to the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran, primarily children, as a sign of friendly and fraternal relations,” according to state media.

Officials said approximately 250 people from 16 countries have so far crossed into Turkmenistan, an isolated, gas-rich Central Asian nation, which shares a 1,148-kilometre border with Iran.

Police and city workers scoured the area of what appeared to be a cluster munition impact in Tel Aviv on Sunday, attempting to locate and clear any unexploded ordnance.

City workers used street sweepers and power washers to hose down an area where a small munition damaged two cars and spread shrapnel across a small park.

Cluster bombs can be exceptionally dangerous for the public as small munitions that are released may not explode on impact and pose a serious danger for passersby.

The impact also left a hole in the pavement, next to a bomb shelter that serves as a youth canter at the local swimming pool.

Israel police said there were a number of impact sites in the greater Tel Aviv area after Sunday’s attacks that left four people injured, one moderately.

Chris Wright told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that there’s been a “short-term disruption’ to the flow of energy and that “Americans are feeling it right now. Americans will feel it for a few more weeks.”

Asked whether the war will be over in a matter of weeks, Wright said: “I think that’s the likely time frame, yes.”

He said gas prices will start to come back down after the war is over.

“At the end, we will have removed the greatest risk to global energy supplies. We’ll go to a world more abundant in energy, more affordable energy.”

Asked about whether pump prices will fall below $3 (€2.62) per gallon by the summer travel season, Wright said: “there’s a very good chance that’ll be true. There’s no guarantees in war.”

Waltz was asked on CNN Sunday whether the US president was prepared to target oil facilities on Kharg island, which handles 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports, and if so, if he was worried that that could risk even more of an escalation in the war.

“President Trump’s not going to take any options off the table,” Waltz said. “I would certainly think he would maintain that optionality if he wants to take down their energy infrastructure.”

US Central Command posted on X on Saturday that it had struck military targets on the island, but preserved the oil infrastructure.

The Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said its fighters targeted an Israeli air base south of Tel Aviv on Sunday, as Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon.

In a statement, Hezbollah said it targeted the Palmachim air base, around 140 kilometres from the Lebanese-Israeli border, with “an advanced missile,” after claiming several other attacks on sites in northern Israel and on Israeli troops in Lebanon near the frontier.

An Israeli strike in south Lebanon’s Sidon area early on Sunday killed a Hamas official, a source from the Palestinian militant group told the AFP news agency.

The source, requesting anonymity, said the strike killed Hamas official Wissam Taha, after state media earlier reported a strike on an apartment in a residential building in a northern district of Sidon.

The coastal city is home to Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, which Israel has previously struck in recent months, saying it was targeting Hamas.

The captain of the Iranian women’s football team, which played in the Asian Cup in Australia, has withdrawn her bid for asylum, state media said on Sunday, making her the fifth member of the delegation to change her mind.

Zahra Ghanbari will fly from Malaysia to Iran in the next hours, the IRNA news agency said.

Three players and one backroom staff member had already withdrawn their bids for asylum and travelled to Malaysia.

Rights groups have repeatedly accused Iranian authorities of pressuring athletes abroad by threatening relatives or with the seizure of property if they defect or make statements against the Islamic republic.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates said on Sunday the country had been attacked by four ballistic missiles and six drones from Iran.

There was no immediate word on damage or casualties.

More details to follow. 

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview published on Sunday that Tehran has “ample evidence” US bases in the Middle East have been used to target the Islamic republic.

“We have ample evidence of this: satellite imagery and electronic surveillance demonstrate that US bases in this region are being used for attacks,” Araghchi told Arabic-language news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, claiming that missiles had been launched from the UAE to attack Kharg Island, a vital Iranian oil hub.

The United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries that host US bases have denied allowing their territory or airspace to be used for military operations against Iran.

“This reflects a confused policy that missed the point, lost its direction, and lacked wisdom,” Anwar Gargash, adviser to the president of the UAE, wrote on social media late Saturday.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said it should be the responsibility of the countries involved to “find ways of ending the hostilities that now have great impact around the world.”

Speaking alongside the leaders of Canada and the other Nordic nations on Sunday, Støre said “it seems to us that the plan for how it will develop is pretty unclear.” He added: “That’s the danger with initiating wars, that they rarely follow a script.”

He said that “we are concerned to see that there is still an escalation.”

Pope Leo XIV renewed his appeal for peace in the Middle East on Sunday, calling for an end to the war and reopening of dialogue.

“Dear brothers and sisters, for two weeks the peoples of the Middle East have suffered the atrocious violence of war,” the pontiff said at his weekly Angelus prayer at the Vatican.

“Thousands of innocent people have been killed, and countless others have been forced to flee their homes. I renew my closeness to all those who have lost loved ones in the attacks that have hit schools, hospitals, and residential areas.”

Pope Leo XIV also said the situation in Lebanon was a particular cause for concern.

The sites include museums and bazaars, historic government buildings and mosques, Iran’s Cultural Heritage Ministry said on Sunday.

Among the damaged sites are the ornate Qajar-era Golestan Palace in Tehran and the Shah Abbas Mosque and the 17th-century Chehel Sotoun palace in Isfahan.

The damage isn’t limited to Tehran and Isfahan. The ministry said sites in Kurdistan, Lorestan and Kermanshah were also affected.

Israel said on Sunday that no direct talks were planned with Lebanon to end the war, a day after a Lebanese official said Beirut was preparing a delegation to negotiate with Israel.

Asked whether Israel was set to hold such talks, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said: “No.”

On Saturday, a Lebanese official told the AFP news agency that preparations were underway for potential negotiations with Israel, but that Beirut was waiting for an “Israeli commitment to a truce.”

Iran’s army said on Sunday it had targeted a police unit and a satellite communications centre in Israel with drone strikes.

In a statement, carried by the official IRNA news agency, the army said it had targeted Israel’s “special police unit called ‘Lahav 433’ and the ‘Gilat Defence’ satellite communications centre with powerful drone attacks.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged countries on Sunday to refrain from any action that could widen the scope of the war with Israel and the United States.

In a phone call with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, Araghchi called on other countries to “refrain from any action that could lead to escalation and expansion of the conflict,” according to an Iranian foreign ministry statement.

His remarks came after US President Donald Trump called for other nations’ warships to help protect world oil supplies passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been virtually blocked by the threat of Iranian attacks.

Bahrain said on Sunday its air defences have intercepted 125 missiles and 211 drones since the Iran war began.

The small island nation, which is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has been among the most affected by Iranian strikes, which have hit ports, a hotel, a refinery and a water desalination plant.

Similar in size to Singapore, it relies on US-made air defence systems. At least one person has been killed in the attacks.

A tanker was seen loading oil on Iran’s Kharg Island on Sunday, two days after the US struck military facilities there.

The vessel-tracking platform TankerTrackers said seven more tankers are seen at the anchorage.

Five had already loaded fuel oil, while two are waiting to load, according to satellite imagery. It wasn’t immediately clear who the tankers belong to.

The International Organisation for Migration said on Sunday that deteriorating conditions in Iranian cities were “driving increasingly complex mobility patterns.”

It says the destruction of homes and facilities that provide basic services are pushing many Iranians to northern provinces, where they think they could be safer.

The UN agency said people have been displaced to more than 20 provinces and that shelters were facing strain throughout Iran.

Iranians are also fleeing to neighbouring states, the agency said, including nearly 32,000 to Afghanistan and nearly 4,000 to Pakistan, even though airports and most border crossings — especially to Iraq — are closed.

A British minister on Sunday said it was essential to calm the situation in the Middle East after US President Donald Trump demanded that other nations help protect world oil supplies passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

The “plan now has to be to de-escalate the conflict”, Energy Security Minister Ed Miliband told the BBC.

A spokesperson for the defence ministry said late on Saturday: “As we’ve said previously, we are currently discussing with our allies and partners a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region.”

The Formula One grands prix in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have been cancelled due to the United States’ and Israel’s war with Iran, motorsport’s governing body the FIA announced on Saturday.

“It has been confirmed today that, after careful evaluations, due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East region, the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix will not take place in April,” the FIA said in a statement.

On Sunday, it was announced that the Qatar MotoGP would also be postponed until 8 November. 

Aadel Haleem has this roundup of all the changes to sporting fixtures.

Iran’s Health Ministry says US and Israeli air strikes have killed 223 women and 202 children since the start of the war on 28 February, according to Mizan, the official Iranian judiciary news agency.

The Iranian Red Crescent has said that more than 1,300 people have been killed.

A US-Israeli attack early on Sunday morning targeted an impoverished residential neighbourhood in the southern city of Shiraz, Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA said.

The strike, which occurred southeast of the city, destroyed several housing units belonging to workers and people supported by the state welfare organisation, the report said.

It said a number of homes were destroyed and several people were injured. There were no reports of fatalities.

Switzerland says it refused permission for two overflights by US reconnaissance planes “in the context of the war in Iran.”

The government said late on Saturday that Switzerland’s neutrality law forbids overflights by parties to a conflict that have a military purpose in connection with that conflict.

But it does allow humanitarian and medical transit, as well as flights unconnected with the conflict.

Switzerland said it did give clearance for two US transport aircraft to fly over the country on Sunday and for a newly serviced plane to transit on Tuesday.

Israel’s military said it has begun a broad wave of strikes on western Iran on Sunday, more than two weeks into the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic.

“A short while ago, the IDF began a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in western Iran,” the army said in a statement.

The United Arab Emirates’ Minister of State Lana Nusseibeh vows that the UAE can withstand the shock of the attacks that the Iranian regime unleashed on the Emirates which has absorbed more missiles and drones strikes than Israel since the war started.

You can read the full interview by Jane Witherspoon and Toby Gregory below.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that Iran has launched a new barrage of missiles toward Israel.

It says sirens are alerting residents in areas under attack and air defences have been activated.

More details to follow.

“This reflects a confused policy that missed the point, lost its direction, and lacked wisdom,” Anwar Gargash, adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, wrote on social media late on Saturday.

Gargash was referring to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s comments in which he accused the US of using the United Arab Emirates as a base for its attacks on Iran’s Kharg Island.

Sirens sounded in Bahrain ahead of an assault on Sunday, while the United Arab Emirates reported a missile attack, urging residents to shelter in safe locations.

Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said its systems intercepted and destroyed 10 drones over the capital, Riyadh, and the kingdom’s eastern region.

Iran’s joint military command accused “the enemy” on Sunday of using copycat Iranian drones to attack neighbouring countries and pin the blame on Tehran, state media reported.

Iran usually uses “the enemy” as a reference to the United States and Israel.

The statement said copies of Iran’s Shahed-136 drone, known as LUCAS, were used to hit “irrelevant targets in the regional states,” including attacks on Turkey, Iraq and Kuwait. No evidence was provided.

The military command also said Iran openly shares its targets, which it describes as US and Israeli interests, and urged trust and cooperation from regional countries.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vowed on Sunday to target Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the war with Israel and the United States continues.

“If this child-killing criminal is alive, we will continue to pursue and kill him with full force,” the Guards said on their website Sepah News.

Eleven countries have requested Kyiv’s help in countering Shahed-type drones amid the Iran war and Tehran’s ongoing attacks against the Gulf states, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday.

“There is clear interest in Ukraine’s experience in protecting lives, relevant interceptors, electronic warfare systems, and training,” Zelenskyy said.

For more on what countries in the Gulf can learn from Ukraine, you can read Sasha Vakulina’s full report below. 

Russia is supplying Iran with Shahed drones to use in strikes against the United States and Israel, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN in an interview on Saturday.

Zelenskyy told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that it is “100% facts” that Iran has used Russian-made Shaheds to attack US bases.

Iran initially pioneered the ⁠Shahed, which was a much ‌cheaper ‌alternative to expensive missiles.

​They first ‌saw mass use in ‌Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, where thousands have been launched by Russian forces since ‌2022.

Although Iran initially ⁠provided ⁠the drones, Russia now manufactures its own.