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  Israel and Hezbollah have fought multiple wars since the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group was formed in the 1980s as a guerrilla force fighting against Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon at the time. Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem urged Lebanon on Monday to cancel a planned meeting with Israel in Washington the following day, reiterating his group's rejection of direct negotiations with Israel. "We reject negotiations with the usurping Israeli entity...We call for a historic and heroic stance by cancelling this negotiating meeting," Qassem, whose Iran-backed group has been at war with Israel since 2 March, said in a televised address. The Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States are scheduled to meet in Washington on Tuesday to discuss holding direct negotiations between the two countries. Lebanese authorities have stressed that Beirut first wants to secure a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war, but Israel has dismissed that prospect, saying it pref...

  Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war when Iran-backed group Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on 2 March, days after the opening salvo of US-Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Israel summoned Italy's ambassador on Monday to protest after Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani condemned what he called Israel's "unacceptable attacks" on civilians in Lebanon during a visit to Beirut, an Italian diplomatic source said. Tajani, a senior member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government, visited Beirut on Monday for talks with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi. Tajani wrote on X that he was there to "convey Italy's solidarity following Israel's unacceptable attacks against the civilian population." He called for dialogue between Lebanon and Israel and a "necessary and lasting ceasefire" adding: "Another escalation like in Gaza must be avoided at all costs." Lebanon was...

  How will Trump's blockade of Iranian oil work? After   US-Iran peace talks   in Pakistan collapsed at the weekend, US President   Donald Trump   said the   US Navy would block ships  entering or leaving any Iranian port or coastal facility via the   Strait of Hormuz .Until the war began in late February, a fifth of the world's seaborne oil trade passed Hormuz, the narrow stretch of water between the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. If successful, the blockade would sever Iran's main source of revenue by halting its nearly 2 million barrel-per-day oil export trade, which Trump is betting will force Tehran back to the negotiating table. US officials said the goal was to strip   Iran   of leverage gained from its control of the waterway, which   Tehran effectively shut   when the war began, stranding hundreds of oil and gas tankers. Trump also framed the blockade as preventing Tehran from   charging up...

  Iran describes the siege against its ports as the US president’s ‘revenge of choice’ against the global economy. Iran has suggested that the United States  blockade  on Iranian ports will only hurt the international economy after President Donald Trump ordered a naval siege against the country. “Can an illegal ‘war of choice’ be won through a ‘revenge of choice’ against the global economy?!” Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei posted on X on Monday. “Is it ever worthwhile to cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face?!” Trump warned Iranian military ships against approaching the blockade zone. “Iran’s Navy is laying at the bottom of the sea, completely obliterated – 158 ships. What we have not hit are their small number of, what they call, ‘fast attack ships,’ because we did not consider them much of a threat,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINA...

  A former Obama advisor outlined a "worst-case scenario" in the Middle East, warning Iran could escalate with attacks on  key energy facilities  in the Gulf as President Donald Trump’s Strait of Hormuz blockade tightens pressure on the regime. " The worst-case scenario... is they decide, 'Ok, if we can't export our oil now and can't generate revenue, we will attack the most sensitive targets among the Gulf states. We'll go after their oil facilities as a way of putting pressure back on the United States to ease this on us,'" Dennis Ross said Sunday. Ross warned the U.S. must be prepared to defend against potential Iranian retaliation targeting vulnerable, high-value energy infrastructure across Gulf allies, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait. Such strikes, he said, could temporarily cripple oil production and risk escalating the conflict if not effectively deterred. "This thing can spin out of control unless we're capable enough...

  An airstrike on a market in Yobe, in northeastern Nigeria, has left scores of people dead and wounded, though details remain unclear. The military said it conducted a "precision" strike on a known terrorist enclave. Over 100 people were killed in an airstrike on a Jilli village market in northeast  Nigeria , Amnesty International said on Sunday, citing survivors of the bombing. "Witnesses said three military jets fired on the market yesterday. Emergency section of Geidam General Hospital had so far received 35 people with severe injuries," the international human rights watchdog said in an online post. "We are in touch with people that are there, we spoke with the hospital," Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International's Nigeria director, told the AP news agency.  "We spoke with the person in charge of casualties, and we spoke with the victims," he said. "We have their pictures and they include children," he said. Military says it conducted ...