Middle East crisis live: US renews strikes on Iran as Donald Trump threatens to attack underground nuclear site

Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said that a new round of US-mediated talks between israel and Lebanon are set to take place in Italy on 4 August, AFP reports.

This comes after a round of talks between the two countries in Rome last week.

Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has described how he was pulled from the rubble of a leadership compound after the US-Israeli airstrike that killed the country's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the war, and has survived since by constantly moving around the capital, Tehran, by car.

In an interview with the Iranian journalist Javad Mogouyi, Araghchi confirmed Israel and the US had accurate intelligence on the location of Khamenei and other officials, enabling them to target Iran's senior leadership.

Araghchi was reporting to Khamenei's deputy chief of staff, Ali Asghar Hijazi, when the building was shaken by three blasts within seconds – each closer than the last, he said. “The third explosion was almost next to our building. The section where Mr Hijazi's office was located was directly hit, and the left side of the building was completely destroyed.â€

Hijazi's secretary was killed instantly, but Araghchi and Hijazi escaped the full force of the detonation.

“We were on the other side of the building, and after the explosion, the ceiling, walls, and everything collapsed on us. I grabbed Mr Hijazi's hand, and we made our way through the beams and boards and pieces of wood, hearing the cries for help. Water was pouring from the ceiling. Everything was wrecked. We eventually got out, and I saw that various parts of the compound had been targeted.â€

Araghchi was rushed to the foreign ministry by a passerby since his official car had been hit.

“For three days we were cut off from everything trying to find out who was alive and who had been martyred,†he said. “The enemy thought they could paralyse us by targeting leadership, but they failed.â€

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In the UK, the new defence secretary Wes Streeting said that Israel has “fallen short†of British standards in its intense bombing of Gaza and its military operations in the West Bank in a briefing to journalists.

The newly appointed minister said that he stood by comments he had previously made in a July 2025 whatsapp exchange with Peter Mandelson that “Israel is committing war crimes before our eyesâ€.

“I'm not going to pretend I didn't make those comments,†Streeting said, although he noted that any decisions on future arms exports to Israel would be part of a “clear framework†across the UK government.

Streeting, in his second day in the job, then went on to offer a degree of criticism of Israel and its military campaign that was notable for a British defence minister:

I believe very strongly in Israel's right to defend itself, to defend its values, its freedom, and its democracy, just as we do every single day.

But I also hold Israel as a, as a friend and ally to the same standard that we hold ourselves to. That is the standard that should be applied to Israel. That is the standard that I think I feel they've fallen short of.

You know, we've got a responsibility as a country to make sure that we're good friends. We're good friends who are also critical friends when necessary.

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, posted on X on Wednesday that there is no nuclear activity at Kolang Kouh, otherwise known as Pickaxe Mountain.

“The repeated US attacks and threats against Iran's peaceful nuclear facilities not only constitute a flagrant violation of the core principles of the UN Charter, international law, and the relevant resolutions of the IAEA board of governors, general conference, and UN Security Council, but also reveal the United States' deep-rooted enmity toward Iran's scientific progress and technological development,†Baghaei wrote on X.

“Iran's nuclear activities have been fully declared to the IAEA in accordance with its safeguards obligations. Washington's obsessive focus on Kolang Kouh where no nuclear activity is taking place is nothing more than a fabricated pretext for aggression, destruction, and sabotage.â€

Read more on what Pickaxe Mountain is here:

Oil prices are climbing further this morning as investors grow fearful around the impact of the war in the Middle East on global supply.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, is up 4.6% to $95.16 a barrel, its highest point in six weeks. Oil prices have risen by abut 20% this month as Washington and Tehran have exchanged fire.

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• The US military completed its 11th night of strikes on Iran, including on aircraft hangars and drone storage sites, as the renewed conflict continues to undermine diplomatic efforts to salvage an interim ceasefire deal.

• Donald Trump warned that strikes would intensify and that the US would “soon†target “very heavily†the area near Pickaxe Mountain – a fortified underground site near one of Iran's primary nuclear enrichment facilities, which Iran's military leaders said would be considered a major escalation.

• In what could open up a potential new front in the war, Yemen's Iranian-aligned Houthis have warned shipping companies that their tankers risk being attacked if they use Saudi Arabian ports, as the militia moved quickly to enforce a blockade announced the previous day. Underlining how seriously the Houthi threat is being taken, three oil tankers that had loaded Saudi crude â this week for China and India made U-turns on Tuesday away from Houthi-controlled coast at the mouth of the Red Sea and headed towards the Suez canal. The Houthis claimed six ships had changed course.

• The Jordanian army said it intercepted four Iranian missiles on Wednesday with two additional missile falling in an open area, AFP reports. The two missiles that the army did not intercept fell in “two remote, uninhabited areas, without causing any human casualties or material damage†the army said in a statement.

• Iran has executed a man after finding him guilty of charges related to protests that swept the country last winter, according to AFP. The Iranian judiciary announced on Wednesday that Iran has executed a man identified as Mehdi Khanaki, who was arrested on 10 February in Karaj, west of Tehran, while in possession of a large arsenal. Khanaki “was condemned to death and the confiscation of all his property for having acted in favour of the Zionist and American regimes,†the website said. These allegations could not be independently confirmed.

• In Lebanon, the focus is on “a complete Israeli withdrawal from the southâ€, Lebanese prime minister Nawaf Salam said on Wednesday. Salam was visiting Zawtar al-Gharbiya, one of several “pilot zones†intended to demonstrate that the Lebanese army can remove and disarm Hezbollah as part of a Washington-sponsored deal with Israel, AFP reports.

• The US war in Iran has cost $37.5bn so far, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said, an increase of nearly $8bn since the last public estimate. Hegseth told the Senate on Tuesday that the defence department needs an additional $67.1bn to “pay our service members, rapidly replenish equipment and munitions, and sustain vital operations without disruptionâ€.

• The US secretary of state Marco Rubio warned south-east Asian foreign ministers on Wednesday that Iranian control of the strait of Hormuz would set a dangerous precedent with repercussions beyond the Middle East. “If we create a precedent in the Middle East where a nation state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll and if you don't pay them, blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent which will repeat itself in other parts of the world, including in this region,†Rubio said.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke to southeast Asian leaders on Wednesday in the Philippine capital of Manila and warned them that Iran's demand to control the strait of Hormuz threatens the global economy and freedom of navigation, the Associated Press reports.

“If we create a precedent in the Middle East where a nation state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll and if you don't pay them, blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent which will repeat itself in other parts of the world, including in this region,†Rubio said.

Rubio also accused Iran of reneging on commitments under a failed peace deal.

Iran “has been reaching out to the United States, both directly and indirectly, to engage in talks about settling the differences,†Rubio said, but gave no indication that the US was considering returning to peace talks with Iran.

Lebanese interior minister Ahmad Hajjar said the US remains the best actor positioned to pressure Israel into completely withdrawing from Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency reports.

A full Israeli withdrawal is Lebanon's top priority, Hajjar said. Despite continued Israeli attacks in the south, Lebanon's security situation remained “very good†despite continued Israeli attacks in the south, Hajjar said.

Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, acknowledged on Tuesday he does not have the authority to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, but urged US federal authorities to do so if the Israeli prime minister visits the US later this year.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people,†Mamdani said in a video posted to social media.

Mamdani said he believed the international criminal court warrant for Netanyahu's arrest over alleged war crimes was justified, but admitted he lacked the legal authority to enforce it.

Netanyahu is expected to travel to New York in September for the UN general assembly.

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The number of vessels transiting the strait of Hormuz continues to drop, shipping data showed.

Three commodity vessels crossed the strait on Tuesday, down from four on Monday, according to data from Kpler. The Kaiser, a general cargo ship, exited the strait loaded with cargo, while dry â bulk carrier H7 Smb8 entered the strait in ballast, meaning ‌it will take ‌on a cargo in the Gulf. The Hsin Ocean entered the ‌strait carrying refined palm olein, Kpler said.

No visible very large crude carrier or liquefied natural gas tankers passed through the strait on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a news agency in Yemen that is run by the Houthis, Saba, said six ships in the Red Sea were forced to reroute after they received warnings from the rebel group. The claim could not be independently verified. During the war, the Red Sea has served as the main alternate route out for â millions of barrels of Saudi oil per day.