DIRECT. War in Iran and the Middle East: aircraft carrier Gerald Ford returns to the United States after a mission "record"

Saudi Arabia denounced on Sunday the drone strike which caused a fire near a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates, a “brother” country.

In a statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry considered that this attack was a “threat to the security and stability of the region” and expressed its “solidarity”, saying “support all measures taken to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity” of the Emirates.

New Israeli strikes killed five people this Sunday, including two children, in southern Lebanon, announced the Lebanese Ministry of Health, despite an extension of the truce.

Three people died in Tayr Felsay and two in Tayr Debba, the ministry said in a preliminary report, specifying that around fifteen people had also been injured in this series of strikes on the south.

The Prime Minister will hold a press conference this Thursday devoted to the impact of the war in Iran on our country. “He will take stock of the situation and present the measures taken by the government to respond,” BFMTV learned from Matignon.

On this occasion, Sébastien Lecornu will unveil the new fuel aid system for the month of June.

On his Truth Social network, the American president assures that “there will be nothing left” of Iran if Tehran does not accept an agreement.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it “strongly condemns” the drone attack which hit the surroundings of a nuclear power plant in the Emirates.

The strike was not attributed but came from the west, according to Abu Dhabi.

According to the Iranian agency IRNA. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abderrahmane Al Thani, spoke this evening by telephone with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi about current events in the Middle East.

According to Lebanese authorities, more than 100 rescuers and medical personnel have been killed since the start of the war. Our report in Lebanon can be seen below.

The United Arab Emirates denounced the drone strike which caused a fire near the Barakah nuclear power plant, in the west of the country, without attributing the attack.

This “constitutes a dangerous escalation, an unacceptable act of aggression and a direct threat to the security of the country”, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release, affirming that “no threat to security and sovereignty would be tolerated, whatever the circumstances.”

The Israeli army issued a new forced evacuation order for five other villages in South Lebanon and Békaa: Sohmor (Békai©far Ké,ou Qestose), Roubat Houné (Jezzine) and Bnaafoul (Saà ̄da).

Four other villages were affected by a call to evacuate issued earlier in the day.

An Israeli military official said Hezbollah fired about 200 projectiles at Israel and Israeli troops in Lebanon over the weekend, despite an agreement between Israel and Lebanon to extend the ceasefire.

“Over the weekend, Hezbollah launched approximately 200 projectiles towards the State of Israel and army troops, in clear and continuing violation of the ceasefire agreements,” the official said in a statement sent to AFP.

Clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah continued even as envoys from the two countries agreed Friday to extend the ceasefire for another 45 days.

At least 2,988 people have died and 9,210 others have been injured in Lebanon since March 2 and the resumption of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, according to a new report from the Ministry of Public Health.

The Lebanese ministry announced that 19 people had been killed in Israeli strikes across the country in the past 24 hours.

The drone which struck the vicinity of a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday crossed the country’s western border, authorities said, saying they were investigating to “determine the origin of the attacks”.

In a press release, the Ministry of Defense indicates that the anti-aircraft defense systems detected “three drones which had entered through the western border”, two of which were successfully intercepted, while the other “a hit a power generator” near the Barakah power station.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was close to achieving one of its goals: eliminating all those responsible for organizing the October 7 attacks, according to a statement from his office.

His remarks followed the announcement the day before by the Israeli army of the death of Ezzedine Al-Haddad, commander of the armed wing of Hamas, killed during an air strike in Gaza on Friday.

The day after the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, 2023 on Israeli soil, Benjamin Netanyahu promised to track down and eliminate the masterminds of this attack which, according to an AFP count based on official figures, left 1,221 dead in Israel, the majority of them civilians.

“I promised that every architect of the massacre and hostage-taking would be eliminated to the last one, and we are very close to completing this mission,” Benjamin Netanyahu declared during the weekly cabinet meeting, calling Ezzedine Al-Haddad a “despicable terrorist”.

The Israeli army announced on X that it had eliminated Bahaa Baroud on Saturday, “commander within the headquarters of the operations of the terrorist organization Hamas”.

“Baroud posed an immediate threat to IDF forces and was eliminated in a precise airstrike,” the army said.

The Israeli government has authorized the construction of a military complex on the site of the former headquarters of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in East Jerusalem.

The Defense Ministry and the Jerusalem municipality announced that the site would include a military museum, a recruiting office and the defense minister’s office.

Israel, which accuses UNRWA of being corrupted by Hamas, destroyed the agency’s building at the start of the year. Since 2024, the Jewish state has banned all UNRWA activity on its soil and in the Arab part of Jerusalem, occupied in 1967 and annexed in 1981.

The Israeli army announces that four soldiers were injured, including one seriously, “following the activation of an explosive device in southern Lebanon” last night.

The International Atomic Energy Agency expresses “its deep concern” after the strike near a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates.

The United States granted “no concrete concessions” in their response to the Iranian proposals, particularly on the nuclear issue, the main subject of divergence between the two countries, said the Iranian media.

The United States presented a list of five points demanding in particular that Iran maintain only one nuclear site in operation and transfer its stock of highly enriched uranium to Washington, the Fars agency indicated.

For its part, the Mehr agency affirmed that the United States had granted Iran “no tangible concession”, denouncing “excessive conditions” imposed by Washington.

The Israeli army issues a new evacuation order to residents of four localities in South Lebanon: Arzay, Marwaniyeh, Babliyeh and Bissariyah.

“In light of the violation by the terrorist party Hezbollah of the ceasefire agreement, the Defense Forces are forced to act against it with force (…) You must evacuate your homes immediately and move away from villages and towns for a distance of at least 1000 meters”, warns on the Arabic-speaking spokesperson for the army.

“We remain vigilant about the situation in Iran. I will speak today, as I do regularly, with our friend President Trump,” declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, quoted by the Haaretz newspaper.

A fire broke out after a drone strike near the Barakah nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates, without causing injuries or causing an increase in radioactivity, the media office of the local government of Abu Dhabi announced.

“Abu Dhabi authorities intervened after a fire broke out in a power generator located outside the internal perimeter of the Barakah nuclear power plant (…) following a drone strike,” the statement said. office in a press release.

“No injuries were reported and no impact on radiological safety levels was noted,” according to the office.

According to the Iranian Fars agency, close to the Revolutionary Guards, Iran has made any negotiation with the United States conditional on five prerequisites:

• End of the war on all fronts, especially in Lebanon
• Lifting of anti-Iranian sanctions
• Release of Iran’s frozen assets
• Compensation for damage caused by war
• Recognition of Iran’s sovereign right over the Strait of Hormuz

The Secretary General of Fifa, Mattias Grafström, judged the meeting organized on Saturday in Istanbul with the Iranian Football Federation to guarantee Iran’s participation in the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico as “very constructive”.

“Our meeting with the Iranian Football Federation was very constructive. We work closely together and look forward to welcoming the Islamic Republic of Iran to the World Cup,” the FIFA representative said in a statement.

“We were able to address certain operational issues, as we do with each member association. I am very happy with the richness of our exchanges. Ultimately, both the Iranian Football Federation and Fifa are very satisfied with this meeting and are delighted to welcome Team Melli to Canada, the United States and Mexico,” he added.

Hezbollah rejects direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, the first in decades between the two countries which do not maintain diplomatic relations.

These negotiations relate in particular to the thorny issue of disarming the group, which the group refuses.

“The direct negotiations” with Israel “did not result in a ceasefire and threw the Lebanese authorities “into an impasse (…) which will lead them from compromise to compromise and without result”, declared Sunday a Hezbollah deputy, Hussein Hajj Hassan.

“The power in Lebanon has thrown the country into (…) very serious crises, since it will not be able to carry out what (Israel) wants, in particular with regard to the disarmament” of Hezbollah, he added.

The Pakistani Interior Minister arrived in Tehran on Saturday “to facilitate” the currently stalled peace talks between Iran and the United States, Iranian media reported.

This trip comes just a few days after the visit to Tehran by the head of the Pakistani army, the powerful Marshal Asim Munir.

Iran said yesterday that European countries were in discussions with it to obtain authorization to cross the Strait of Hormuz.

“After the passage of ships from East Asian countries, including China, Japan and Pakistan, we received information today that Europeans have started negotiations with the Revolutionary Guard Navy” to cross the passage, state television announced Iranian without specifying the names of these countries.

An Israeli soldier was killed in southern Lebanon, the army announced yesterday Saturday, bringing to 21 the number of deaths in its ranks since the start of the war with pro-Iranian Hezbollah in early March.

The American aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, which was dispatched by President Trump to the Middle East before the start of the war in Iran, returned to the United States on Saturday, breaking a record for a mission at sea, the Pentagon announced.

The largest aircraft carrier in the world has returned to its home port in Norfolk, on the east coast of the United States, welcomed by Pentagon boss Pete Hegseth, the American Defense Ministry said on social networks.

The Gerald Ford thus completed a 326-day mission, the longest for a carrier strike group since the Vietnam War, the Pentagon said.

Hello everyone and welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to developments in the conflict in the Middle East this Sunday, May 17.

Israel carried out a series of strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, despite the truce being extended the day before for another month and a half. The Lebanese National Information Agency (ANI, official) indicated that around twenty villages had been affected.