As concerns rise about a return to an all-out Iran war ahead of crucial elections in the United States and Israel, Iran said messages are still being passed to the U.S. and Tehran remains open to diplomacy. And U.S. President Donald Trump said there would not be a strike against the Islamic Republic “today.”
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross has begun receiving lists again of Palestinian detainees from the occupied West Bank and Gaza after the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to resume sharing them.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Sunday. Read our full coverage here.
Iran says messages are still passed to the US via intermediaries
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said Tehran has not closed the window of diplomacy and messages are being passed to the U.S. via intermediaries. Negotiations over the war have appeared to stall for weeks.
State media said Baghaei spoke in an interview with a German broadcaster. He said the U.S. appears to persist in unilateral demands and that Trump and U.S. officials repeatedly use the phrase “complete surrender,” which Baghaei said no Iranian accepts.
Concerns are rising among Iranians about a possible return to all-out war as Israel and the U.S. face elections in the coming days.
Trump says no strike against Iran today
Asked if he planned to launch an attack on Iran, Trump initially suggested that he would be foolish to telegraph that.
But Trump then added: “No. There will not be a strike today.” At the same time, the head of the U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, was flying over the Strait of Hormuz and asserting that over 3,000 commercial vessels have transited the waterway with U.S. military support over the last six months.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his warning that Iran or its proxies could attack ahead of Tuesday’s close elections to disrupt the vote, citing intelligence.
“The IDF is ready both to defend and to strike,” he said in a video from a visit to an anti-ballistic missile battery, adding: “You will suffer disproportionate blows far greater than you can imagine.”
Red Cross receives list of Palestinians in prison in Israel
The International Committee of the Red Cross has begun receiving lists again of Palestinian detainees from the West Bank and Gaza, a spokesperson confirmed.
The Israeli Supreme Court earlier this year ordered the government to resume sharing such lists and allowing the ICRC to visit detainees in Israeli prisons to assess their conditions. The government had suspended both practices since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the start of the war in Gaza.
ICRC spokesperson Gilad Grossman said Israel had not yet allowed prison visits to begin again but “we hope that we will resume in the near future.”
Israel rounded up thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza after the Oct. 7 attacks. Some were released in last year’s ceasefire, but around 9,000 are still imprisoned or detained under harsh conditions.
Riyadh international airport reopens as Houthi attacks persist
King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh said it opened terminals 1 and 2 for domestic and international flights, but Iran-backed Houthis in neighboring Yemen again fired drones and missiles toward the Saudi capital.
Saudi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said air defenses intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile and a drone fired toward Riyadh. The Houthis claimed the attack.
In early October, Houthi strikes hit an airport complex housing two other terminals, killing 17 people and wounding over 330.
2 wounded by debris from interceptions in Saudi Arabia
Saudi authorities said debris from the interception of two ballistic missiles in Khamis Mushait and Ahad Rafida governorates wounded two people, a Saudi citizen and a resident from an unspecified Asian country.
The Civil Defense said the missiles were launched by the Houthis in Yemen, and the debris also damaged three buildings and seven vehicles.
The Houthi rebels later claimed attacks that included King Khalid air base in Khamis Mushait, calling them a response to “Saudi aggression” against Yemen’s rebel-held capital of Sanaa. The AP could not independently verify the claims.
Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes killed 7 in Gaza
Israeli strikes in Gaza killed seven people, according to Palestinian hospital officials.
Two strikes in Gaza City killed four people, and two brothers were killed in the southern city of Khan Younis. One person was killed in the central town of Deir al-Balah. The deaths were confirmed by officials from Shifa, Hamad, Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals, as well as an American field hospital.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
A year since a ceasefire began, Israel continues to bombard Gaza in what it says are strikes against militant targets. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up nearly half of those killed.
Pope calls for an end to fighting in Yemen
Pope Leo XIV urged an end to the fighting in Yemen and warned of worsening conditions for more than 1 million residents of Taiz besieged by Houthi rebels.
“The population is suffering from a lack of food, water and medical care,” the pope wrote on social media. Families have begun rationing water and a shortage of groceries has sent prices soaring in the country’s third-largest city.
Libyan leaders reject Trump’s disparaging comments
Libya’s rival governments rejected comments by Trump in which he added the nation to a list of countries he described as “terror-infested.”
Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said he rejected “any affront” to his country or its people “who have made great sacrifices in the fight against terrorism.” And Libya’s second government, the self-styled Libyan National Army, called for authorities to lodge a protest against Trump’s comments.
At a campaign rally, Trump had accused the Democrats of trying to open the United States for “armies of migrants from terror-infested countries like Libya, Yemen, Haiti, Somalia.”
Libya plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising turned civil war that toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The country is divided between rival administrations.
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