Middle East

It comes as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched a new wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia overnight after the kingdom’s 1200-kilometre east-west crude pipeline was damaged last week.

Iran has condemned the exclusion of the head of its atomic energy organisation from an annual gathering of the United Nations nuclear agency in Austria.

Houthi fighters have gained more ground in Yemen, taking control of two strategic islands in the southern Red Sea.

The capture of the islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish is the latest in the rebels’ swift advance around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key passage for Saudi oil shipments.

Hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough in the Middle East conflict have been dashed after a meeting between Iran and the Gulf states' was postponed.

The Yemen conflict has intensified as government forces launch attacks in an attempt to regain Houthi-held positions along the Red Sea coastline.

Donald Trump’s Iran war has taken a dangerous new turn, with a lightning Houthi advance threatening one of the world’s most crucial shipping routes.

Drivers have began preparing for more pain at the bowser after global oil exports were threatened by Yemen rebels capturing an island at the entrance to the Red Sea, one of the world’s key shipping lanes.

Israel said it demolished key tunnels built by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group beneath the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, triggering a 4.1 magnitude tremor.

The Iran-backed rebels are reportedly a step closer to their goal of establishing a stranglehold over Bab el Mandeb, a crucial waterway linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

THE WASHINGTON POST: Israel has ramped up strikes in southern Lebanon, killing more than two dozen people and prompting fears of an even larger-scale military escalation ahead of Israel’s elections.

US President Donald Trump has declared the US will defeat Iran as renewed fighting around the Strait of Hormuz sends oil prices soaring.

The US military said it had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers in reprisal for attempted strikes by Iran on a US Navy warship

LATIKA M BOURKE: A cast of countries led by the UK has declared a ban on Israeli goods from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank — with Australia a notable omission.

As Moscow missiles continue to rain down on Kyiv, President Trump has told President Putin that he wants a swift end to war.

Energy infrastructure across the Gulf region remains exposed, with Iran threatening to strike US oil and gas assets in the wake of escalating tension.

Lebanon's Health Ministry says Israel's air force has carried out two strikes on a southern Lebanese village, killing at least 11 people.

A senior Iranian official says the government plans to announce an ‘exclusion zone’ outside the Strait of Hormuz.