LIVE War in the Middle East: Bahrain denounces “blatant aggression…

The Iranian selection will have to enter and leave the United States on the same day of its matches in the United States, having seen drastic visa restrictions imposed on it for the Football World Cup, the Iranian ambassador to Mexico said on Saturday.

“We can enter in the morning and we have to leave the same day,” Iranian envoy Abolfazl Pasandideh told reporters, speaking before the arrival later Saturday of the Iranian soccer team whose base camp is in Tijuana, northern Mexico.

The Israeli army announced Saturday evening that it had struck “around 150” positions of the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah in 48 hours in southern Lebanon, where President Joseph Aoun denounced the “incessant Israeli attacks, which remain unpunished.” » despite the ceasefire supposed to be in force.

Among the targets are “arms depots, general quarters, [et] “launchers” of missiles or rockets, indicates an Israeli military press release.

Rodolphe Haykal, head of the Lebanese army, is on his way to Pakistan, where he is to meet his counterpart Asim Munir, the Lebanese army said on Saturday, a visit linked, according to another source, to talks to end the war in the Middle East. “Lebanon is an essential part of these negotiations” between Iran and the United States, said this source close to the matter.

Pakistan is the main mediator in talks aimed at bringing a lasting end to the war sparked by the February 28 Israeli-US attack on Iran, and which then spread to the region.

The Iranian football team flew to Mexico after a two-week training camp in Antalya, Turkey, Iranian state television announced this Saturday, a few days before the start of the World Cup in North America.

The players must arrive in Tijuana, their base camp for the duration of the competition, after obtaining their visas for the United States where they must play their first match on June 15.

The United States has refused to grant visas to 15 people from the Iranian delegation sent to the FIFA World Cup in North America (June 11-July 19), according to Iranian state television.

“Visas have been issued for the national team and technical staff, but 15 members of the administrative and management team are facing problems and have not yet received their visas from the United States,†an envoy said on Saturday. channel’s special in Türkiye, where the players are currently located.

Iran described this Saturday as a “tool of political pressure” a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expressing concern about the lack of access to Iranian nuclear sites and calling on Tehran to “cooperate constructively”.

Tehran was engaged in discussions with Washington regarding its nuclear program when the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, as in June 2025 during the 12-day war. During these two conflicts, Iranian nuclear sites were bombed several times.

“If the IAEA wants to contribute to a diplomatic solution, it must avoid transforming a technical report into a tool of political pressure,” Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi wrote on X.

In a confidential report seen Thursday by AFP, the IAEA declared that the lack of access to nuclear sites in Iran constitutes a “cause for concern in terms of proliferation.”

Kuwait condemned “a dangerous escalation” after Iranian strikes this Saturday against its territory and Bahrain, calling them a “direct threat” to the “lives of citizens and residents”.

These attacks “represent a dangerous escalation” and “constitute a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the State,” the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Iran denounced this Saturday what it considers to be “discriminatory treatment” after the refusal by the United States to issue visas for the Football World Cup to several members of the national team management.

“Why don’t you say that visas were refused to a large part of the management and supervisory staff, technical advisors and others who are an integral part of the national team?” the Iranian embassy in Turkey wrote on X, calling the refusals “the highest level of treatment intentional discrimination against him.

She thus responded to a statement from the American ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, who announced that the players and the “necessary support staff” had obtained their visas for the United States.

The military advisor to the Iranian Supreme Leader, Mohsen Rezaï, declared that negotiations between Washington and Tehran were stumbling in particular over the issue of Iranian assets frozen abroad, in an interview with the American channel CNN broadcast on Friday. Iran has been the subject of US sanctions for decades which penalize its economy and financial system. The country also saw its foreign assets frozen in the wake of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

« S’il [Donald Trump] wishes to reach an agreement with Iran, these 24 billion dollars constitute a test of confidence, estimated Mohsen Rezaï. There are no official figures regarding frozen Iranian assets but local media recently estimated that this amount was in the order of 100 to 123 billion dollars.

Bahrain, already targeted at the start of the week, denounced this Saturday the strikes carried out by Iran against its territory and neighboring Kuwait, saying it had intercepted seven missiles. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemns these new attacks,” he wrote in a press release. “This blatant aggression constitutes a clear violation of the sovereignty of both countries,” he added.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards said during the night that they had fired, in retaliation for American strikes, ballistic missiles towards the Ali Al-Salem air base in Kuwait, where American aircraft are stationed, and the headquarters of the Fifth American Fleet in Bahrain.

The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araghchi, called this Saturday on Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who had called on Tehran the day before to no longer “intervene” in the affairs of his country, to “save” Lebanon against its “true enemy,” Israel.

“From Mr. Aoun’s words, one might believe that it was Iran that occupied a fifth of Lebanon, displaced a quarter of the Lebanese and bombs its country daily,†he wrote on X, referring to Israel without naming it. “If Lebanon had been a bargaining chip for Iran, we would have reached a deal long ago. Save Lebanon from your real enemy, Mr. President,” he added.

The United States announced Friday that it had struck several Iranian radar sites after downing four drones that it considered a threat to the safety of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. Washington assures that this operation was carried out in “self-defense”.

In a statement published on After their interception, the US military carried out strikes against coastal surveillance radars located in Goruk and on the island of Qeshm, in Iran, in order to prevent further attacks, according to Centcom.

In an interview with NBC and broadcast in part on Friday, Donald Trump estimated that Iran still retained between “21 and 22%” of its missile stock after more than three months of conflict. “They have a few missiles, they have a few drones. I would say as a percentage maybe 21, 22% of their missiles. “That’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we launched our first attack,” the US president said.

This estimate is higher than the one he put forward at the beginning of May, when he affirmed that Tehran only had “18 to 19%” of its arsenal. Donald Trump also argued that “most of the drone factories have been destroyed, most of the launch pads have been destroyed, and most of the missile manufacturing sites have been destroyed.”

An Israeli strike carried out on Friday in southern Lebanon cost the lives of five people, including a woman and a rescuer, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Two other people were also injured in the attack.

According to health authorities, the bombing hit the town of Zebdine, in the district of Nabatiyé. Among the injured is a member of the Risala relief association, affiliated with the Amal movement, an ally of Hezbollah. The ministry also denounced the fact that “rescuers in intervention are being targeted”.

The American army indicated on Friday that it had intercepted in the Indian Ocean an oil tanker targeted by American sanctions for its alleged involvement in the transport of Iranian crude oil.

In a message published on The US military added that it would continue its maritime control operations around the world in order to “disrupt illicit networks” and intercept ships providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Friday called on Iran to no longer use Lebanon as a lever in its discussions with the United States aimed at ending the war in the Middle East.

During a press conference devoted to an appeal for aid for Lebanon, the head of government directly called out Tehran. “If I can say one word to Iran, it is this: have pity on our south, stop treating it […] as a means of pressure aimed at improving the terms of your negotiations,” he declared.

As early as March, two weeks after the start of the war led by the United States and Israel against Iran, the UN World Food Program (WFP) warned of the risk of a major worsening of hunger in the world. The organization estimated that nearly 45 million additional people could fall into acute food insecurity “if fighting continues into June and oil prices remain above $100 per barrel.”

According to this projection, which now seems to be confirmed, these new vulnerable people would be added to the approximately 320 million individuals already facing acute food insecurity on a global scale.

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