US<\/a> president Donald Trump<\/a> has said the US is “low-keying it” with Iran<\/a> as talks to end their war and reopen shipping through the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> appeared to have stalled.<\/p>\n “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money,” he told Axios.Iran has set out a series of demands that it says the US must meet before it will sign off on a deal with Oman<\/a> to partially open up the Strait, including the payment of compensation for war damages.<\/p>\n The head of Iran\u2019s supreme national security council, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, said the Strait<\/a> will remain shut until the US meet six conditions, including ending the war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq forever.<\/p>\n It comes as the US<\/a> is pushing for defence companies to \u201cdramatically\u201d accelerate weapons production<\/a> as the Iran<\/a> war drains through their missile supplies.<\/p>\n Deputy defence secretary Steve Feinberg gave companies three weeks to lay out how they would \u201cdrive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and\/or increased production for critical capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYears-long development cycles are not acceptable,\u201d Mr Feinberg added in a memo obtained by The Washington Post.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe must dramatically accelerate our program schedules and expand our production capacity now.\u201d <\/p>\n <\/a>Yemeni military says Houthi attack on Mocha kills 7, wounds 30<\/p>\n The Yemeni military said seven people, including \u2060military personnel and civilians, were killed and 30 others wounded in a Houthi attack on the Red \u2060Sea port \u200bcity of Mocha.<\/p>\n “Four members of the armed forces and three civilians have been killed, and 30 others injured,” the Yemeni military said in a statement early on Monday. Air defences intercepted \u200cand shot down 11 Houthi drones that participated in the attack, the \u2060military said.<\/p>\n Footage shown by Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV showed the launch of several ballistic missiles and drones, which Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a post on Telegram targeted Saudi troop concentrations and weapons depots.<\/p>\n The \u200cYemeni military said \u2060the Houthi attacks had \u2060also targeted residential neighbourhoods in Mocha. <\/p>\n Namita Singh10 August 2026 06:17<\/p>\n <\/a>Iran replaces top security chief as Tehran denies direct US talks on ending war<\/p>\n Iran has appointed a senior commander from its powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as its new top security official, in a major reshuffle that comes as Tehran denies holding direct negotiations with Washington to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Mohsen Rezaei, previously an adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, will take over as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, a spokesperson for president Masoud Pezeshkian said late on Sunday.<\/p>\n He replaces Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who resigned from the post and will now serve as a political adviser to Khamenei.<\/p>\n Zolghadr had held the role since March, when his predecessor, Ali Larijani, was killed in an Israeli air strike.<\/p>\n The change at the heart of Iran’s security establishment comes amid competing accounts over efforts to bring the conflict to an end.<\/p>\n Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran was not engaged in direct talks with the United States over ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, despite US officials claiming that the two sides were close to reaching an agreement. <\/p>\n Namita Singh10 August 2026 06:08<\/p>\n <\/a>Israel and Hamas disagree over timings in Trump\u2019s plan<\/p>\n Donald Trump announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his plan to end the war, to which both Israel and \u2060Hamas agreed, with Israeli forces withdrawing as Hamas disarms and an International Stabilisation Force working with a new Palestinian police force to secure the \u200benclave.<\/p>\n But complications have swiftly emerged with questions over the plan’s timeline.”Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting with cabinet ministers.<\/p>\n The military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed … it means heavy weaponry, lighter weaponry, all weaponry”, he said. Netanyahu made similar remarks in a social media post on Tuesday and Israeli officials have said reservations have \u200cbeen shared with Washington.<\/p>\n He added that Israel was in talks with the United States on the plan. “They (the US) have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some of which are unacceptable to us and we know how to stand firm against these things,” Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters on Sunday that the group remained committed to the roadmap agreed in Cairo 10 days ago. <\/p>\n “We expect the mediators and the US guarantor to press Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap and not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons,” he said. <\/p>\n Namita Singh10 August 2026 05:30<\/p>\n <\/a>Netanyahu says Trump’s new Gaza plan is unacceptable<\/p>\n Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu restated his rejection of Donald Trump’s latest Gaza plan in televised remarks to his right-wing government on Sunday, even as Israel’s military has effectively halted attacks in the territory under pressure from the US president.<\/p>\n Netanyahu is struggling in the polls as he seeks re-election at a vote due on 27 October but is caught between far-right ministers angered by concessions in Gaza and his key military backer, Trump, who wants progress toward ending the conflict there with a new 15-point roadmap. Israel has scaled back attacks in Gaza since Monday, when Nikolay Mladenov, the Gaza envoy for Trump’s Board of Peace that oversees the ceasefire, met with Netanyahu.<\/p>\n A source familiar with Israel’s position said it had agreed that the military would only act against what it perceives as immediate threats in Gaza and no longer carry out targeted assassinations as it had been doing on a near-daily basis. Mladenov said on Sunday that discussions on the new roadmap were ongoing. <\/p>\n Namita Singh10 August 2026 04:45<\/p>\n <\/a>Houthis attack Saudi refinery<\/p>\n Iranian strikes on Strait of Hormuz shipping have been coupled \u200cwith increased attacks by its Yemen-based allies, the Houthi rebels, who have targeted ships at another oil chokepoint on the other side of \u200bthe Arabian Peninsula between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.<\/p>\n The Houthis also declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea last month in response to what they said was a Saudi siege on them in Yemen, an allegation denied by Riyadh, which backs Yemen’s internationally recognised government.<\/p>\n The Yemeni rebel group said they had attacked Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery on Sunday, two days after the kingdom signed a defence pact with Sunni Muslim allies Turkey and Pakistan in response to growing regional instability from the US-Israeli war on Shi’ite Iran.<\/p>\n The Saudi energy ministry said a fire had broken out at the refinery but was later extinguished with no injuries and authorities were dealing with the incident, without giving a cause. <\/p>\n Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said \u200bthe new alliance was not directed against Iran or any other country, but rather served as a general pledge to support security. <\/p>\n Namita Singh10 August 2026 04:32<\/p>\n <\/a>US \u2018low-keying\u2019 talks with Iran<\/p>\n US president Donald Trump said in an interview with Axios that the US was “low-keying” it with Iran. <\/p>\n “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”<\/p>\n Washington and Tehran agreed to a ceasefire in June, but the US reimposed a blockade on Iranian shipping in the Gulf in July, a move that Tehran said violated the truce, which by then had already broken down.<\/p>\n “Once \u2060the deal is announced to restore commercial shipping without impediments, the United States will lift the blockade of Iranian ports,” a US official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. <\/p>\n Namita Singh10 August 2026 04:15<\/p>\n <\/a>Fallout from war in Iran is leaving millions vulnerable to hunger<\/p>\n The economic fallout from the regional conflict has driven up food and fuel prices, while more than four months of conflict with Iran has driven renewed escalation in Yemen<\/a>, compounding one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.<\/p>\n More than half the population were already facing hunger, but slow progress from world leaders to re-open the Strait has caused months of disruption to global food and energy supplies<\/a>, disrupting humanitarian aid operations.<\/p>\n Maryam Zakir-Hussain10 August 2026 04:00<\/p>\n <\/a>Iran says Oman deal on strait is near but sets US conditions<\/p>\n Iran said it was nearing a final pact with Oman defining new shipping lanes between them through the Strait of Hormuz but repeated that the US must meet other conditions, including compensation and an end to sanctions and military threats, before the strategic waterway is reopened.<\/p>\n A US official told Reuters on Friday that Iran and Oman were close to a \u2060deal that could pave the way for restoring safe passage through the strait, a major conduit for oil and gas shipping before Iran blocked Hormuz in response to US and Israeli attacks on Tehran that began in late February.<\/p>\n Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday an agreement with Oman on the strait was in its “final stages” but reiterated comments made on Saturday that Tehran would not reopen the channel unless the US met certain demands made by Tehran.<\/p>\n Mr Araqchi said reopening the strait would \u200cdepend in part on the US paying compensation for damage it caused in widespread attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n The secretary of Iran’s top national security body, Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr, also listed ending further US threats against Iran; halting aggression toward Iran and its Lebanese, Palestinian, Yemeni and Iraqi allies; removing a US naval blockade in the \u200cGulf; lifting sanctions on Iran; and releasing frozen Iranian assets. <\/p>\n Namita Singh10 August 2026 03:52<\/p>\n <\/a>‘We’re low-keying it on Iran’, says Trump<\/p>\n![\"Houthis](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2026-08-09T152333Z_1790186626_RC2VUMAYT0P9_RTRMADP_3_YEMEN-SECURITY.JPG\")
Houthis carry out missile and drone strikes on Yemen’s Mocha port city (Reuters)<\/p>\n![\"Armed](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2289182941...jpeg\")
Armed Israeli soldiers patrol a street in the Old City of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, on 8 August 2026 (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2026-07-29T181026Z_773799974_RC2KQIARFC61_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRUMP-NETANYAHU-IRAN.JPG\")
US president Donald Trump points his finger towards Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference after meeting at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, 29 December 2025 (Reuters)<\/p>\nHouthis carry out missile and drone strikes on Yemen’s Mocha port city (Reuters)<\/p>\n![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2026-08-10T005149Z_1094743152_RC2BVMAND3MU_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRUMP.JPG\")
US president Donald Trump disembarks Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, 9 August 2026 (Reuters)<\/p>\n![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786339649_409_download.-1..jpeg\")
Iran has seized upon the Strait of Hormuz as a tool of leverage in the war with the United States (AP)<\/p>\n