Iran-US war latest: Trump ‘not ready’ for ceasefire with Iran as Israel orders evacuations in Lebanon – UK Times

Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre has expressed his concern about a lack of strategy in the US-Israeli war on Iran.

“The plan over the Iran war seems pretty unclear,” he said on Sunday.

He added that he was “concerned that there seems to be an escalation.”

Clouds of toxic smoke unleashed into the atmosphere by US-Israeli airstrikes on Iranian oil facilities made a dangerous return to Earth in the form of “black rain,” prompting international health officials to warn of serious risks to the public.

Residents in Tehran complained last week of burning eyes and difficulty breathing when the dark and oily precipitation fell near the Iranian capital after several fuel oil depots and a refinery were struck.

Plumes of dark smoke have also been seen across other parts of the region over two weeks of war, as Iran retaliates against US-Israeli airstrikes by firing drones and missiles at the oil and natural gas facilities of its Persian Gulf neighbors.

Rain washes hazardous chemicals out of the atmosphere in a relatively short period of time, experts said, but people exposed to black rain should take precautions to avoid short- and long-term health risks.

Foreign minister Israel Katz has said that Israel is not planning on holding any talks with the Lebanese government in the coming days as it continued to bomb southern Lebanon and Beirut.

It had previously threatened to take over parts of the territory due to what it said were threats from Hezbollah and the government’s inability to deal with the group.

He added of the ongoing conflict: “We share a decisiveness with the US to continue the war with Iran until we achieve our goals.”

Despite refusing to talk to the Lebanese government, he said Israel expects the government to “take serious steps to stop Hezbollah from shooting at Israel.”

On Sunday, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to several neighbourhoods in southern Lebanon and Beirut.

Health officials say at least 826 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since 2 March.

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has said that the country’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is in “good health” and “fully controlling the situation” according to an interview with Alaraby Aljadeed.

He welcomed any attempts to end the war but said “there is no particular initiative on the table so far to end the war”.

The second-oldest son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was killed on 28 February was appointed new supreme leader after his death. He has not appeared in public since the appointment and his first state broadcast was read by a presenter on 12 March.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the leader was “not alive” while US secretary of war Pete Hegseth said he had been “disfigured”.

Today they have fled their village in southern Lebanon under bombing, to this absurdly purple room covered in children’s scrawls. Neither of them can walk. They carry only a few bags between them.

Early this morning their youngest son, Mohamed, 38, a father of three and their carer, had been shredded in an Israeli airstrike on his car between Lebanon’s southern city of Tyre, where we are sitting, and their village.

The part-time electrician had been shuttling between his wife and three children, who were staying in a displacement camp in the coastal city, and his elderly parents, who, too old and infirm to move, were sheltering in their village of Chaatiyeh. Both are in Israel’s evacuation zone.

The Independent’s chief international correspondent Bel Trew reports:

Israel has warned several neighbourhoods in southern Lebanon and the capital Beirut to evacuate “immediately” as it vowed to unleash “wide-scale” attacks on the country.

Spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the warning applies especially to residents of Haret Hreik, Ghobeiry, Lilaki, Hadath, Burj al-Barajneh, Tahwitat al-Ghadir and Chiyah.

Adraee warned that Israel will not hesitate to target “anyone found in the vicinity of Hezbollah operatives”.

“You are putting yourselves and your lives at risk… evacuate the area immediately,” he writes on X.

Britain must disentangle its nuclear deterrent from American reliance, according to Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who argues the current system is dependent on an increasingly unreliable United States.

While the UK’s Trident nuclear missile system is operationally independent, allowing the government to deploy it if deemed necessary, Sir Ed will contend in a speech at the party’s spring conference that its reliance on US manufacture and maintenance undermines its true independence.

Sir Ed is set to call for a “genuinely, verifiably” independent nuclear deterrent to replace Trident, citing US President Donald Trump as an undependable ally.

The Independent’s political correspondent Millie Cooke reports:

Cabinet minister Ed Miliband confirmed the government is looking at sending minehunting drones to the Middle East to tackle Iran’s oil blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

Asked about the possibility of sending the drones, he told Sky News: “We do want to work with our allies to seek to get the strait reopened.

“And as you say, there are a range of things that we can do, including autonomous mine-hunting equipment. And that’s something we’re obviously looking at.”

He said it is “in all of our interests to get the Strait reopened”, but added: “We also need to deescalate this crisis, because the best and most conclusive way to get the strait reopened is to get this conflict come to an end.”

It comes amid growing concerns that Iran has starting placing sea mines in the strait to frustrate shipping.

If you’re just joining us, here is a recap of the latest on the US-Israeli war on Iran:

• President Donald Trump said that the US had “totally demolished” Iran’s critical Kharg Island and that any deal would have to wait because “the terms aren’t good enough yet”, in an interview with NBC.
• Iran and Israel continued to exchange fire overnight with 15 people killed at a factory in Isfahan. Iran fired ballistic missiles and drones at Israel. A couple in their 80s were treated for light injuries from shattered glass and smoke inhalation in central Israel after a suspected Hezbollah rocket attack.
• The UK is considering sending minehunter drones to assist with the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after Trump called on allies to help
• Heavy strikes on Lebanon continued into Sunday, with the death toll reported at over 800 people killed