Iran calls latest US response to proposal insufficient, and other Mideast developments
A senior Iranian official says Tehran finds the latest U.S. response to a proposal to end the war “insufficient" and warns of attacks on regional data centers and cables if fighting intensifies again.
Meanwhile, Israel’s former attorney general took the witness stand in corruption cases against Benjamin Netanyahu, as the political future of the country's longest-serving prime minister hangs in the balance with elections weeks away.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Saturday. Read our full coverage here.
The head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council says Tehran finds the latest response from the United States “insufficient” as efforts at negotiations to end the war and fully open the Strait of Hormuz limp along.
The comments by Mohsen Rezaei, a former Revolutionary Guard commander, were carried by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.
Rezaei added that Iran is no longer responding to the U.S. and said Washington must clarify certain issues, without giving details. He said the U.S. has accepted some of the seven conditions but others remain unclear.
Iran’s delegation to the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders last month proposed a sped-up agreement that echoed the memorandum of understanding that collapsed days after the U.S. and Iran signed it in June. The new proposal was rejected, but the two sides have remained in contact via mediation.
Rezaei also threatened “cables, data centers, AI facilities and other sites in the region” if intense fighting breaks out again.
Israel's former attorney general took the witness stand in Netanyahu's long-running corruption trial.
Avichai Mandelblit indicted the prime minister seven years ago for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. The charges were the first-ever against a sitting Israeli prime minister.
Netanyahu was in the courtroom to hear Mandelblit testify. The prime minister handpicked Mandelblit, his former Cabinet secretary, for the attorney general job. His tenure ended in 2022.
“The truth comes to light,” Netanyahu said before entering the courtroom. He has been accused of offering or exchanging favors with wealthy associates and media moguls for political gain. He denies any wrongdoing.
A projectile struck the same passenger terminal at the Riyadh international airport that was hit on Saturday. The airport had been closed after Saturday's attack, which killed 12 people, but Saudi authorities reported injuries in the latest attack.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for both attacks on King Khalid International Airport, which has been targeted every day since Wednesday.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, the Houthis' military spokesperson, urged “everyone to take our warnings seriously" about the risks of flying in Saudi airspace.
The attacks have marked a major escalation in the war between the Houthis and the kingdom, and complicated efforts to halt the U.S.-Iran war. U.S. President Donald Trump said he was considering whether to join Saudi strikes against the rebels.
Residents in central Gaza returned home to assess the damage caused by Israeli strikes after they had been warned to evacuate the day before.
Bassam Abed said at least 10 residences housing some 300 families were reduced to rubble. He said families were not given enough time to flee.
“Women slept outdoors. We did not take clothes,” Abed said.
The Israeli military said it had targeted militant infrastructure, including weapons storage facilities, a rocket launch site and a command center used by Hamas militants to carry out attacks on Israeli soldiers.
The strikes fell one year after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal, but Israel continues to launch near-daily strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked the attorney general and head of the Shin Bet security service to investigate people who participated in the new documentary “NAZA,” in which Israeli military insiders describe what they say was the reckless killing of civilians in Gaza.
Netanyahu said the film, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival to a record 25-minute standing ovation, tells “a false, misleading and biased story that slanders the State of Israel” and its military.
The documentary has angered and unsettled Israelis, whose view of the war in Gaza differs sharply from that of much of the world, where criticism of Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territory has grown.
Netanyahu is fighting to stay in power in the Oct. 27 election, in which security is a major issue.
Lebanon’s army said in a statement that it had recovered the body of a retired army officer who was killed by Israeli artillery fire while checking on his property in the southern town of Yater.
It said Ali Abdul Hassan Sweidan, who was in his 70s, was “directly targeted by a hostile Israeli tank” and called it “a flagrant violation of existing understandings and a clear breach of international law.”
An Israeli military spokesperson said they were not aware of the incident.
Israel has occupied a large swath of southern Lebanon since the outbreak of its latest war with the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in March.
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