Iran war live: Trump claims peace deal ‘approved’; Tehran says not so

By Christine Maguire, Alex Milan Durie and Federica Marsi

• US President Donald Trump says he called off air strikes on Iran because a peace deal is close to being agreed on and a time and place of the signing are “to be announced shortly”.

• Iran’s Foreign Ministry says “the main part of the text was almost finalised but the Americans were being greedy and raising new requests”.

• Earlier, Trump warned Iran would be hit “very hard” and threatened US forces would take Kharg Island and other oil infrastructure points.

• Attacks have now killed 3,711 people with 11,483 wounded as Israel’s army continues its deadly bombardment and occupation of southern Lebanon.

US back at square one – negotiating with Iran

Analyst Negar Mortazavi says the main thing the US-Israel war on Iran has proved is countries cannot bomb people’s homes and schools and expect them to rise up and overthrow their governments.

“Out of this the core military-intelligence apparatus [in Iran] was able to solidify more power and they’re going to come out of this having more control, at least for a short period after the war,” Mortazavi told Al Jazeera.

She said officials inside the US government haven’t learned lessons of the failure of attacking Iran, however the American public certainly has.

“Poll after poll show the majority of Americans are done with endless, pointless war in the Middle East. [Trump] as a president of peace eventually became a president of war and I would say he launched the most pointless Middle East war,” said Mortazavi.

“He’s achieved none of his goals: the nuclear programme, destroying the army, destroying the navy. It created a new problem, the Strait of Hormuz. Now the whole world wants it reopened, and now [they’re] going back to square one, which is the negotiating table.”

Hezbollah says drone attack kills Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon

Hezbollah claims it killed an Israeli soldier after targeting troops in a building in the town of Chamaa in Tyre district of southern Lebanon at midday.

In a statement, it said it used an “Ababil” drone for the strike as well as for an attack on an Israeli military vehicle in the town of Tayr Harfa in Tyre, southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has claimed multiple drone attacks on Israeli troops and vehicles in southern Lebanon over recent weeks, in retaliation to Israeli forces expanding their ground invasion and forced displacement orders for thousands of residents of southern Lebanon.

Trump under pressure to end war on Iran as midterm vote looms

By Kimberly Halkett

Reporting from Washington, DC

Donald Trump is under an enormous amount of pressure to reach a deal with Iran, and it has to do with the fact that his pressure point is the price of oil, which is rapidly going back and forth with every successive announcement.

Each rise in the price of oil translates into higher gasoline prices, and Trump has promised to bring the cost of goods and services down in the US. Yet, we’ve just had inflation numbers showing those prices are continuing to rise.

Trump has to satisfy American voters but the other big issue is the financial markets, not just domestically but also globally. Again, this instability is something Trump also has at the back of his mind.

Politically, there’s also another big price to pay and that’s satisfying the war hawks in Washington demanding Iran never has nuclear weapons. Trump withdrew from the 2025 JCPOA agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear programme, and he constantly said this was a bad deal and he could get a better one. But that’s proving difficult.

Trump is now under great pressure, not only to satisfy those war hawks but also to ensure that this is a better deal.

The fact that he has not managed to limit Iran’s nuclear programme or reopen the Strait of Hormuz will be a problem for Trump as the November midterm elections are looming.