Live: US strikes Iran again as tensions threaten fragile truce

Iranian football players have voiced frustration over recurring World Cup hurdles against their participation in the tournament, pointing to politically driven decisions by US authorities as the source of restrictions.

Team Melli have been subject to travel restrictions since the tournament kicked off last week.

Players and coaching staff say the travel schedules are impacting their match performance.

After their match with New Zealand in Los Angeles on Monday, the team was forced to fly back to their base camp in Mexico on the same day.

It was not the team’s choice to fly back, as they had planned to hold a recovery session in Los Angeles the next day, striker Mehdi Taremi and goalscorer Mohammad Mohebi said in press interviews.

“They have said we have to leave immediately,” head coach Amir Ghalenoei added.

Read more: Iran team blames US for 'disastrous' restrictions at World Cup

US President Donald Trump said that the memorandum of understanding on Iran was not final, and that he could resume bombing Iran if he did not like the agreement.

"It's a memorandum of understanding. And if I don't like it, we'll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their head. If I don't like it, if they don't behave, we'll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head, OK?" said Trump, at the G7 summit in France.

Trump said the Iran memorandum of understanding did not include immediate sanctions relief for Iran, while adding he would talk about this matter later.

US President Donald Trump has criticised Israeli conduct in southern Lebanon, saying the country has been killing civilians and not just Hezbollah members.

Speaking at the G7 summit on Tuesday, Trump said "too many people have been killed in Lebanon" and suggested Israeli tactics were disproportionate and indiscriminate.

"You don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody, because there are a lot ​of people in those apartment houses, and they're not all Hezbollah," he said.

He added that overall Israel had been fighting with the Lebanese armed group for "too long".

Trump's comments come amid growing tensions between the US and Israel over the recently announced memorandum of understanding (MoU) to end the conflict with Iran.

Numerous Israeli officials have expressed opposition to the deal, in particular terms that suggest an end to Israel's attacks on Lebanon.

On Sunday, Trump excoriated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for launching attacks in Lebanon that threatened to derail the final agreement just hours before it was announced.

Read more: Trump criticises Israel killing civilians in Lebanon

As Colombia prepares for its upcoming presidential election on Sunday, Ivan Cepeda, a senator and human rights activist, represents the left’s bid to continue the political legacy of President Gustavo Petro.

His opponent, Abelardo de la Espriella, a Trump-endorsed lawyer, businessman, and iron-fisted populist, is meanwhile seeking to “rebuild the miracle homeland” from a more punitive, right-wing perspective.

De la Espriella won the first round of the race, held on 31 May, with 43.7 percent of the vote to 40.9 percent for Cepeda.

Core domestic issues include a persistent internal armed conflict, deep-rooted political corruption, and challenges in the economy and environment, and, as in many recent Latin American elections, Israel is also on the ballot.

Since October 2023, pink-wave politics have driven a wave of pro-Palestine solidarity across Latin America, but Colombia has emerged as Israel’s most vocal critic in the Americas, recalling its ambassador, suspending arms sales, halting coal exports, severing diplomatic ties, and co-founding The Hague Group.

“It is difficult to overstate the significance of Colombia’s stance internationally,” said Francesca Emanuele, a senior international policy associate at the Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).

“Colombia helped create political space for other governments to take stronger positions on Gaza and contributed to the growing international isolation of the Netanyahu government,” she told Middle East Eye. 

Read more: The election that could reshape Colombia’s relationship with Israel

Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque in an occupied West Bank village on Wednesday morning.

Osama Abdullah, head of the village council in Jiljiliya, north of Ramallah, told AFP that "settlers set fire to the ablution room, caused damage to the village's main mosque, and scrawled hostile slogans on the outer walls".

AFP journalists who visited the mosque on Wednesday reported that the ceiling, walls and floors were blackened by smoke and flames.

They said graffiti in Hebrew had been scrawled on the walls, including some reading "vengeance" and "hi from the Hilltop Youth".

The Hilltop Youth are a group of Israeli settlers in the West Bank who regularly commit acts of violence and aggression against Palestinians.

Abdullah said settlers arrived to burn down the mosque between 2am and 3am but found its door was locked, so instead set fire to a room dedicated to ablutions on a lower floor.

He said Palestinian civil defence crews, along with young men from the village and neighbouring areas, extinguished the blaze.

The United Nations recently warned that Israeli settler violence in the West Bank has reached record levels, with an average of six attacks daily causing casualties or damage.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney has said a US-Iran deal to end the war could be a "game changer" in the region and beyond.

There is "a likelihood that this memorandum of understanding agreement could be a game changer", Carney told reporters on the third day of a G7 leaders' meeting in the French town of Evian.

He pointed to encouraging discussions, which included US President Donald Trump, on Ukraine and Lebanon at the summit.

The Canadian premier said he noted a US "change in tone with respect to Ukraine" as Kyiv seeks to end more than four years of conflict following Russia's invasion.

The leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the US also held a "very detailed discussion about Lebanon", he added.

The talks on a final US-Iran settlement to end the conflict are set to begin on Friday immediately after the signing of the accord in Switzerland and continue over a 60-day window to flesh out its details.

But renewed Israeli strikes on south Lebanon have dented optimism surrounding the deal.

"Yes, there are risks. Yes, the accord has to be put into place," said Carney.

"But the very fact of it - and the fact that so many countries were involved in its development and are vested in its development - does create knock-on effects, positive knock-on effects," he said.

In a joint statement late on Tuesday, the G7 hailed "the breakthrough and the opportunity that currently exist in the Middle East".

They said the memorandum of understanding "provides an historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon and tackling the threats related to its regional and ballistic activities".

Reporting by AFP 

Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that officials in Israel believe the agreement between the United States and Iran is unlikely to endure, despite not having full access to its contents.

According to the report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has instructed the security establishment and the Israeli military to continue developing potential targets and preparing for future scenarios.

Israeli Minister Zeev Elkin said Israel was not directly involved in the negotiations and therefore could not insist on reviewing the memorandum of understanding.

"We are not a party to the negotiations with Iran and we cannot demand to see the memorandum of understanding if it is not binding on us," he said.

Elkin also said that attempts had been made to secure Israel's approval for a withdrawal from Lebanon, but that Netanyahu had refused. 

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

The US-Iran agreement faced its first major test as Iran warned of retaliation over continued Israeli operations in Lebanon and President Donald Trump publicly criticised Israel's conduct.

While Washington and Tehran continued to advance implementation of the accord, Israeli leaders signalled they would maintain military operations and positions in southern Lebanon, raising questions about the deal's long-term durability.

• Iran's army said Israel had violated the Lebanon ceasefire dozens of times since the US-Iran agreement was announced and warned of a "harsh response" if attacks continue.

• President Donald Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be "more responsible" regarding Lebanon and expressed dissatisfaction with Israel's ongoing military campaign.

• Netanyahu said Israeli troops would continue to occupy areas of southern Lebanon despite the US-Iran agreement.

• Israeli Minister Zeev Elkin said Israel was not a party to the negotiations with Iran and therefore could not demand access to the memorandum of understanding, adding that proposals linked to an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon were rejected by Netanyahu.

• Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that Israeli officials believe the US-Iran agreement may not endure and that security agencies have been instructed to continue expanding target lists.

• Vice President JD Vance said the US-Iran agreement had fundamentally changed the Middle East and reiterated support for its implementation.

• Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi briefed parliament on the agreement ahead of planned talks in Geneva.

• Two Iranian supertankers reportedly exited the former US blockade zone as maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continued to recover.

• G7 leaders voiced support for the agreement, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz saying the accord must hold to preserve regional stability.

• Pope Leo welcomed the agreement, saying diplomacy remained preferable to a return to war.

• Israeli air strikes and shelling were reported in southern Lebanon, underscoring the gap between the broader US-Iran understanding and conditions on the ground.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called for a firm commitment to the ceasefire between the United States and Iran, urging all parties to work towards building a "sustainable security architecture in the region", according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Speaking at a news conference marking the release of a white paper on China's vision for global governance, Wang said recent events underscored the need for greater international cooperation and stability.

Warning of increasing uncertainty in global affairs, he said, "New challenges in quick succession bring intertwining global crises.

"The ship of civilisation has entered dangerous waters with hidden reefs and violent storms," he said, adding that international disputes were exposing deeper tensions through "black swan and grey rhino events".

He also called for greater representation of developing nations in global decision-making, saying: "Countries, whether large or small, strong or weak, developed or developing, are equal members of the international community." 

Ellie Chowns, a British Member of Parliament with the Green Party, raised a question regarding Israeli real estate events taking place in London over the weekend, which market and sell properties in illegal West Bank settlements.

"How is it that this government fails even to prevent the marketing of illegal property in this country, and still fails to take action?" she asked, and added: "The UK has a particular responsibility. Will she step up and ban trade with illegal settlements in the future?"

In response, the Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said that the government has "been very clear that not only should no businesses be engaging in trade or in marketing around the illegal settlements, they certainly should not be doing so on UK soil."

British MP asks clarification on Israeli real estate event held in London marketing and selling property in illegal West Bank settlements. pic.twitter.com/wl4t4Z017J

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) June 16, 2026

Shipping companies are waiting for evidence that the agreement between the United States and Iran will hold before resuming operations through the Strait of Hormuz, Al Jazeera Arabic reported. 

The Financial Times quoted the chief executive of CMB Tech, one of the world's largest publicly listed shipping companies, as saying that the company would not send vessels through the waterway until it was "100 percent convinced" that conditions were safe.

Insurance broker James Reason told the Financial Times that war risk insurance rates had not yet responded to the US-Iran agreement, adding that uncertainty persisted over its implementation.

He said market participants remained concerned and were still assessing the seriousness and durability of the accord before adjusting their risk calculations. 

The United States' war against Iran represents a more serious strategic setback than the Vietnam War, contending that it directly damaged core US interests and weakened Washington's position on the global stage, a Foreign Policy analyst has reported.

Writing in Foreign Policy, Paul Musgrave, an associate professor of political science at Georgetown University in Qatar, said the consequences of the conflict could prove more significant than those of Vietnam, which did not prevent the United States from ultimately prevailing in the Cold War.

Musgrave described the conflict as a "war of choice" initiated by President Donald Trump and argued that it ended in a political and military disaster.

According to the article, the repercussions of the war are likely to have lasting effects both within the United States and internationally, shaping perceptions of American power and leadership for years to come. 

Israeli air strikes and artillery fire were reported across parts of southern Lebanon on Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported.

The report said 10 rockets were launched towards Israeli forces near the town of Kfar Tebnit in the Nabatieh district before Israeli aircraft carried out strikes on the outskirts of the town.

Additional Israeli air strikes were reported on the town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, while artillery shelling targeted the heights of Ali al-Taher and surrounding areas near the town.

Israeli military activity continued across parts of southern Lebanon on Tuesday despite the upcoming signing of a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran.

According to reports from the ground, several deaths were recorded in the Nabatieh district, where Israeli drone strikes and military operations have intensified in recent weeks.

Al Jazeera reported that the town of Mayfadoun was among the areas reportedly targeted, with several people killed in drone attacks.

The report said that Israeli forces have continued to hold positions and expand operations around Nabatieh, including efforts to secure elevated terrain near the city.

The activity has persisted despite Hezbollah's assertion that it received assurances from Iran that an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon would form part of a final US-Iran agreement.  

Israeli rights group Peace Now has criticised the government's decision to assume planning and construction powers from the Palestinian Municipality of Hebron in areas linked to Israeli settlements and religious sites in the city.

In a statement, the group said the move was "dangerous and irresponsible" and accused finance minister Bezalel Smotrich of attempting to "win a few far-right votes" from National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

"After promising victory [in the war on Iran] and failing on every front, Smotrich the arsonist is trying to set the West Bank ablaze," the organisation said.

Peace Now argued that the measure was "based on an apartheid principle" and would deepen Israeli control in occupied territory, weaken the Palestinian Authority and further undermine prospects for "a political agreement based on two states".

Under the 1997 Hebron Agreement, Palestinians retained civil powers, including planning and construction, in the H2 area of Hebron, while Israeli forces maintained security control.

The area includes the Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as the Cave of the Patriarchs, and several Israeli settlements.