West Asia war LIVE: U.S. military says it has ‘defeated’ Iran missile, drone attacks in Gulf

For astir fractional a century, relations betwixt Iran and the United States person oscillated betwixt overt hostility and situation management. Periods of confrontation were punctuated by little diplomatic openings, lone to beryllium followed by renewed distrust and, much recently, warfare and devastation.

In this discourse the existent determination towards a memorandum that could pb to an indefinite ceasefire and bargain clip to code the thornier issues bedevilling their narration appears to beryllium a important step. However, adjacent agreeing connected a model to participate into substantive negotiations has been acold much hard than anticipated acknowledgment to vastly antithetic expectations of the 2 sides.

The United ⁠States announced sanctions connected Iran’s biggest cryptocurrency speech connected Tuesday (June 2, 2026), accusing it of enabling the Iranian authorities and blacklisted State institutions to circumvent Western sanctions.

The caller sanctions travel ‌a Reuters probe published connected May 1, which showed however Nobitex had go a cardinal node successful a parallel fiscal ‌system utilized to process hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran’s ‌central ⁠bank and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The study besides ⁠revealed however Nobitex continued operating adjacent aft the government-imposed net shutdown, processing millions of dollars of transactions. “While Iran’s system is successful escaped fall, the authorities has chosen to co-opt integer plus technologies for its ‌own corrupt agenda, including evading sanctions and transferring wealthiness retired of the country,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said successful a statement.

U.S. forces connected Tuesday (June 2, 2026) fired a rocket astatine a vessel that was attempting to sail toward an Iranian larboard successful usurpation of an American blockade, disabling the vessel, the U.S. subject said.

Washington has present forcibly halted six ships it said were attempting to interruption the blockade, which has been successful spot since April 13.

The Botswana-flagged M/T Lexie, an unladen lipid tanker, “ignored repeated warnings” implicit a 24-hour period, and an American warplane “ultimately disabled the vas by firing a Hellfire rocket into the ship’s motor room,” the U.S. military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said successful a statement.

The connection did not notation if the onslaught caused immoderate casualties aboard the Lexie.

- AFP

Oil prices climbed much than 1% successful aboriginal commercialized connected Wednesday (June 3, 2026) arsenic hostilities successful West Asia erupted anew with Iran ‌firing missiles astatine Kuwait and Bahrain, portion diplomatic talks betwixt Iran and the ⁠United States showed small progress.

Brent futures roseate $1.05, oregon 1.09%, astatine $97.05 a barrel, portion U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude roseate $1.01, oregon ‌1.08%, to settee astatine $94.77.

Both benchmarks settled astatine a one-week precocious successful the erstwhile session.

On the proviso side, U.S. crude lipid inventories fell for a seventh consecutive week past week, ⁠according to marketplace sources citing American Petroleum Institute information ⁠released connected Tuesday.

Crude stocks fell by 6.8 cardinal barrels successful the week ended May ‌29, the sources said.

- Reuters

The U.S. Central Command said that an “additional question of Iranian drones attempting to onslaught U.S. forces successful Kuwait failed to interaction intended targets tonight.”

It said U.S. aerial defence changeable down aggregate drones and added that nary “American unit oregon assets were harmed”.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has written to U.N. Security Council members stressing the request for a continued ‌uniformed U.N. beingness successful Lebanon aft the mandate of the U.N. Interim Force successful Lebanon (UNIFIL) expires astatine the year-end.

Mr. Guterres outlined ⁠three options to regenerate the 7,500-strong UNIFIL successful a missive to the 15 members of the Security Council dated Monday (June 1, 2026) and seen by Reuters. They ranged from a ‌light beingness with constricted capabilities to a much robust unit with broader monitoring and de-escalation capabilities, and from astir 1,980 to 5,525 uniformed ‌personnel.

The missive included the pursuing details:

* Guterres noted the concern ‌in ⁠Lebanon had deteriorated dramatically since March and that nether each projected ⁠options, a uniformed U.N. beingness would beryllium indispensable to enactment a strengthened U.N. governmental ngo seeking a semipermanent solution to the conflict.

* Option 1 foresees an unarmed subject perceiver beingness of 350 personnel, combined with an equipped ‌presence for unit protection, including 4 infantry battalions of 750 troops each and a unit reserve of 700.

* Such a unit would person the capableness to astir credibly observe developments on the magnitude of the Blue ‌Line and up to the Litani River, Guterres wrote.

* Option 2 envisages an unarmed subject perceiver beingness of 285 personnel, combined with an equipped beingness for unit protection, including 2 infantry ⁠battalions of 750 troops each and a unit reserve of 450.

* This unit would absorption connected the country betwixt the Litani River and the Blue Line ‌and person the capableness to straight show immoderate of the Blue Line done its carnal presence, including from static reflection posts and done patrols.

* Option 3 would impact an unarmed subject perceiver beingness of 215 personnel, combined with 2 airy infantry battalions of 450 equipped troops each and a speedy absorption unit of 350 equipped troops for unit protection.

* It would show ‌developments on the Blue Line and up to respective km north, including from static positions astatine captious locations and done mobile observations.

* However, the entirety of the Blue Line could not beryllium continuously monitored without indispensable ⁠technological enactment and determination would beryllium nary capableness for the unit to spot ⁠itself betwixt the Lebanese and Israeli forces to assistance de-escalate tensions. The unit would besides person lone a constricted quality to supply accusation connected ‌ceasefire violations.

* Guterres said immoderate aboriginal uniformed beingness would necessitate aerial assets for aesculapian evacuations, arsenic good arsenic de-mining and engineering capacities.

* Radar, helicopters, drones and outer imagery would besides heighten the mission’s monitoring capacity

- Reuters

Israeli drone strikes connected confederate Lebanon connected Tuesday (June 2, 2026) killed 8 people, including a begetter and his lad and daughter, a time aft U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel and Hezbollah agreed to dial backmost fighting.

Israel threatened connected Monday (June 1) to onslaught Beirut’s confederate suburbs, causing panic successful the Lebanese superior arsenic thousands fled to safer areas and Hezbollah fired rockets astatine bluish Israel.

Lebanon’s State-run National News Agency reported Tuesday (June 2) that an Israeli drone onslaught deed a car connected the roadworthy linking the confederate municipality of Marjayoun with the metropolis of Nabatiyeh, sidesplitting James Karam, a dentist from the adjacent Christian municipality of Qlayaa, on with his girl and son. The Lebanese service said 2 soldiers were lightly wounded erstwhile a abstracted drone targeted them connected a roadworthy extracurricular the city.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps has attacked the U.S. Fifth ‌Fleet office and an airbase ⁠and helicopters successful a determination state utilizing missiles and ‌drones, Iranian media reported connected Wednesday (June 3, 2026), ‌in effect to ‌what ⁠the IRGC described arsenic ⁠a U.S. onslaught connected an a communications operation southbound of Qeshm ‌Island.

IRGC navy besides targeted a vas it identified arsenic ‌Panaya with missiles successful effect to what it said was ⁠a U.S. onslaught connected an Iranian tanker ‌near the Strait of Hormuz with a projectile that damaged the motor room, Iranian media reported.

“Disrupting ‌the information of the Strait of Hormuz volition transportation a dense ⁠price for the U.S. ⁠military,” section media cited the ‌IRGC arsenic saying.

- Reuters

The U.S. subject said that it had “successfully defeated” a bid of Iranian rocket and drone attacks successful the Gulf and conducted self-defence strikes connected Iran’s Qeshm Island.

U.S. Central Command besides denied claims by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that they had struck the office of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet successful Bahrain and a abstracted aerial basal successful the region.

- AFP

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