Welcome to our live updates of US politics and the Iran war.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has taken to social media to liken Iran to a “Wuhan Lab” that spreads jihadist groups across the Middle East.
Mr Huckabee wrote on X: “What @realDonaldTrump understands is that Iran is like the Wuhan Lab from which the disease of jihadism has ‘gain of research’ & puts out the poison of Hamas, Hezbellah (sic) & Houthis that hate America as much as they hate Israel”.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology is a Chinese research facility located in Wuhan, Hubei province, and made headlines during the Covid-19 outbreak as many debated whether a laboratory leak could have been the origin of the virus.
Mr Huckabee added on his post: “Notice that ppl who hate Israel also hate USA?”
Earlier, he noted that “Iran’s proxies are pure evil”.
Meanwhile, Iran’s judiciary announced the execution on Sunday of a man who was convicted of running over several police officers with his car during anti-government protests in January.
“Shahram Sadeghi, sentenced to death for having carried out an operational action in support of the Zionist regime and the United States, was executed this morning,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said.
It added that the man had run over several police officers with his car on January 8 in Karaj, west of Tehran, wounding seven of them.
A protest movement initially sparked in late December by the high cost of living rapidly evolved into widespread anti-government demonstrations that peaked on January 8 and 9.
Read on for more updates.