Middle East crisis live: Israel launches ‘wave of strikes’ on Tehran and threatens to assassinate new leader | US-Israel war on Iran

Iran’s Tasnim news agency has reported that the funeral ceremony for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that was supposed to take place tonight in Tehran has been postponed.

The news agency published a statement from the Islamic propagation coordination council of Tehran province, which said the funeral was delayed to allow time for expanded infrastructure due to “overwhelming demand”.

The statement read:

The Tehran Grand Mosque was scheduled to host our dear people from tonight for a farewell to the pure body of the martyred cleric and our great Imam, but due to the overwhelming demand from across the country and the widespread desire of the people for a grand attendance at this ceremony, as well as the need to provide the necessary infrastructure, the event has been postponed.

Given the high volume of requests to attend this ceremony and the need to prepare adequate facilities to host the people, it was decided that the event would be held at a more suitable time.

A UN body said ​it was “deeply disturbed” by the deaths of children during the war in the Middle East, after ‌the bombing of a girls’ school in southern Iran.

More than 160 children were reported killed after the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab was hit on Saturday, the first day of the US-Israeli attacks against Iran.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said: “This is a reminder that children are among the most vulnerable in armed conflicts, and must never be treated as collateral damage.”

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on ⁠Monday that the country’s forces “would not deliberately target a ​school”, while Israel commented that it would investigate the incident.

Donald Trump has said he does not care whether Iran participates in this summer’s World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada.

“I really don’t care. I think Iran is a very badly defeated country. They’re running on fumes,” Trump told Politico.

Iran was the only nation missing from a Fifa planning summit for World Cup participants held this week in Atlanta, deepening questions over whether the country’s team will compete on US soil this summer amid an escalating regional war.

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The EU has hit back at Donald Trump’s threats to halt all trade with Spain over its decision not to allow the US use its military bases for Iran bombing missions.

The EU said it expected the US president to “honour” its bloc-wide tariff deal concluded last year but hinted at the possibility of retaliatory measures if Trump did isolate Spain in a revenge move.

“The Commission will ensure that the interests of the European Union are fully protected. We stand in full solidarity with all Member States and all its citizens and, through our common trade policy, stand ready to act if necessary to safeguard EU interests,” said trade spokesperson Olof Gill

“Trade between the European Union and the United States is deeply integrated and mutually beneficial.

“Safeguarding this relationship, particularly at a time of global disruption, is more important than ever and clearly in the interest of both sides.

“The EU and the United States concluded a major trade deal last year. The European Commission expects the United States to fully honour the commitments” undertaken in the joint statement of last August.

The EU is continuing to honour its part of that deal, allow many US goods into the bloc tariff free, even though the US supreme court ruled Trump’s 15% tariffs on EU goods were illegal.

The conflict in the Middle East has continued to escalate, with Israel announcing it had launched a “broad wave of strikes” against Tehran while it continues to bombard Lebanon.

Iran has continued to fire retaliatory strikes against Israel and US targets in the region, prompting major airlines to cancel flights that has left thousands of people stranded.

If you’re living or working in the region and have been impacted by the US-Israel conflict with Iran, we would like to hear from you.

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Ben Doherty

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has softened his support for US and Israeli strikes on Iran, saying while he welcomes end of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime – “the principal source of instability and terror in the region” – he does not believe the attacks on Iran were legal, and they represent “another example of the failure of the international order”.

Carney is visiting Australia, where he will address parliament – partly on a trade mission, but also to help build cooperation between so-called middle powers. Carney has spoken previously about ‘variable geometry’ – the building of a variety of international coalitions to address specific issues.

Speaking at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Carney’s position on the strikes on Iran was tempered from his initial forthright support.

“Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” he said on Saturday.

On Wednesday night in Sydney, he said the Iranian regime and its proxies had murdered hundreds of Canadians over years, and “caused untold suffering for millions of people in the Middle East and beyond”.

He said Canada stood with the people of Iran in their struggle against the regime’s oppression, and “supported the imperative of neutralising this grave global threat”.

“But we also take this position with some regret, because the current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order, despite decades of UN Security Council resolutions, the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency in a succession of sanctions and diplomatic frameworks, Iran’s nuclear threat remains, and now United States and Israel have acted without engaging the UN or consulting with allies, including Canada.

“The question is: where to from here? Given we have a rapidly spreading conflict and growing threats to civilian life across the region, Canada reaffirms that international law binds all belligerents.”

Carney said the US and Israeli strikes appeared to be unlawful, in that they were not made with Security Council support, or in the face of imminent threat.

“The action that was taken, we weren’t consulted on it. There was not a process, a broader process for it. It would appear, prima facie… to be inconsistent with international law.”

Lisa O’Carroll

An oil tanker was hit last night east of Fujairah, in UAE, the UK maritime trade operations centre has said in an alert to shippers.

“The tanker experienced a loud blast and debris from an unknown projectile was found on deck,” UKTMO said.

The organisation which verifies and corroborates security issues in the gulf said there was “no major damage” and no environmental implications with the funnel sustaining the damage.

The Strait of Hormuz remains open but trade has dropped 80%.

The EU said it does not see any immediate effect from the conflict in Iran on the security of natural gas supply, officials told Reuters news agency.

No response measures are currently planned at national or EU level, the officials added.

Rachel Savage

South Africa is willing to mediate in the war in the Middle East, the country’s president Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters on the sidelines of an energy conference in Cape Town.

“South Africa is always ready to play a contributing role, either in mediation or whatever. And if a gap opens or if we are asked, we always live up to our obligations,” Ramaphosa said, in comments broadcast on local TV station Newzroom Afrika.

“If the opportunity were to open, we would talk and say: there must be a ceasefire. Dialogue is always the best way of ending conflict and then ending the war. And we want this war to come to an end immediately.”

South Africa maintains relationships with countries the US has deemed enemies, including Venezuela, Iran and Russia, the latter a legacy of Soviet support for the African National Congress party’s fight against apartheid.

Earlier this year, Iran took part in a joint naval exercise in South African waters, something Ramaphosa said had happened against his instruction that they not be allowed to participate. The US embassy in Pretoria criticised South Africa at the time, accusing it of “cozying up to Iran”.

Ramaphosa had previously criticised what his office labelled “international law violations”, without specifying which party to the conflict it was referring to.

“Anticipatory self-defence is not permitted under international law and self-defence cannot be based on assumption or anticipation,” a statement released by the presidency on Saturday said.

Hezbollah says it launched a wave of drone strikes against the headquarters of Israel Aerospace Industries in central Israel.

The group said it fired “a swarm of attack drones” against the state-owned Israeli defence and aerospace company “in response to the criminal Israeli aggression that targeted dozens of Lebanese cities and towns”, the AFP news agency reported.

No further details were provided and there was no immediate comment from Israel.

Reuters news agency has reported that Iran is close to choosing a new supreme leader, quoting Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Iranian assembly of experts which is tasked with finding a new leader.

“The Supreme Leader will be identified in the closest opportunity, we are close to a conclusion, however the situation in the country is a war situation,” Khatami is quoted as saying on state TV.

Khamenei did not officially declare who would succeed him, but his second son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is among a handful of clerics tipped as likely successors, but it remains unclear where they are, or if they are alive.