Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned on Tuesday that Gulf powers will no longer shield US bases and that the US will have no safe haven in the region, following overnight US strikes on Iran that tested the April ceasefire. In a Telegram post, Khamenei condemned the attacks, which marked the first US strikes since the truce was agreed.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said it reserved the right to retaliate against any ceasefire violations, claiming its air defense units shot down a US MQ-9 drone and fired at a fighter jet that entered Iranian airspace. Meanwhile, Brent crude oil rose 3% on Tuesday amid uncertainty over the impact on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
In Lebanon, Israeli forces began operating beyond the so-called 'Yellow Line'—a 10km demarcation inside southern Lebanon—to remove threats to Israeli citizens, a military official confirmed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is intensifying ground operations in Lebanon to take control of strategic areas. An Israeli airstrike on a village in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley killed 12 people, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency.
Israel also issued an expropriation order for land in the occupied West Bank near the Nabi Samuel site, believed to include the grave of the prophet Samuel and containing a mosque owned by Palestinian religious authorities. Separately, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in the Jenin refugee camp, the Palestinian health ministry reported.
Iran's vice-president Mohammad Reza Aref said the government has taken the first steps to restore internet access after a near-total blackout since late February. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in a call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, pledged continued support for peace talks, noting the conflicts had cast a shadow over the Eid holiday period.
In maritime incidents, the UK Maritime Trade Operations reported that a tanker 60 nautical miles off Oman's capital Muscat experienced an external explosion on its port side, discharging some bunker fuel, though the vessel and crew were safe.
