United News of Bangladesh

Momentum for a deal to end the Iran war appeared to grow Saturday as key mediator Pakistan said an agreement was closer than “ever before” and Iran made some of its most optimistic statements yet. U.S. President Donald Trump said on social media the deal was “scheduled to get signed tomorrow,” and that the Strait of Hormuz would open immediately. Iran foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei, however, said “although it will not happen tomorrow, the possibility that it could take place in the coming days cannot be ruled out." Each side was expected to sign electronically. Meanwhile, Trump was expected to discuss demining the Strait of Hormuz during the Group of Seven summit that starts Monday. And Iran’s state-run television said funeral ceremonies for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in the war's opening attack, will take place in July. A senior U.S. official, who briefed journalists on condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House, said Trump planned to meet on the G7 sidelines with the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and United Arab Emirates to discuss efforts to wind down the war. G7 members Britain and France have expressed interest in assisting with demining once the conflict is paused. It was not clear how many mines are in the strait that Iran has effectively controlled since shortly after the war began, virtually shutting down oil and natural gas shipments from the Persian Gulf. The U.S. has blockaded Iranian ports in response. A tenuous ceasefire has been in place since April 7. Pakistan says a deal to end the war is imminent Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said a deal aimed at ending the war was expected to be finalized within 24 hours. Pakistan's foreign ministry said the electronic signing ceremony was scheduled for Sunday, but did not provide details. Sharif told his Qatari counterpart “a peace deal was ready for signatures by the relevant parties very shortly,” another statement said. Iran signaled optimism but indicated more time was needed. Baghaei said in a statement carried by state TV that "the likelihood of finalizing the memorandum of understanding in the coming days is high.” Iran has long expressed wariness in negotiations, pointing out that previous talks with the U.S. last year and early this year ended with attacks by the U.S. and Israel. Baghaei said the memorandum under discussion was focused on ending the war and "at this stage, it has been decided that there will be no discussion of the nuclear issue.” Iran's nuclear program and highly enriched uranium have long been at the center of tensions with the U.S. and Israel and an international source of concern. Trump on social media asserted that “when all is calm,” the U.S. would go in and “downblend and destroy” the enriched uranium in Iran or in the U.S. The apparent breakthrough came after Iran exchanged fire with the U.S. and Israel earlier in the week, threatening to rupture the ceasefire and push the Middle East back into full-scale war. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X on Friday that an agreement “has never been closer.” Trump, who has asserted multiple times in recent weeks the countries were on the cusp of a deal, shared Araghchi’s post on social media. Trump on Thursday claimed significant progress in negotiations, hours after he threatened to seize Iran’s oil industry. Khamenei to be buried at the holiest of Shiite shrines The funeral, burial and farewell events for Khamenei will occur between July 4 and 9 during Muharram, a traditional period of mourning in the Shiite Muslim calendar. Khamenei is succeeded by his son, Mojtaba, who is considered less compromising and has not been seen publicly since the war began. Funeral ceremonies are expected to begin in Tehran and move to Qom, a stronghold of many senior Shiite clerics, then to Mashhad, Khamenei's birthplace. He’ll be buried there at the Imam Reza Shrine, considered the holiest place among Shiite devotees. Khamenei remolded the Islamic Republic following the death in 1989 of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the fiery, charismatic ideologue who led the overthrow of the shah and installed rule by Shiite Muslim clerics. Khamenei ruled far longer than Khomeini. He greatly expanded the Shiite clerical class and built the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard into the most important body underpinning his rule. The Guard became a military and business behemoth, the country’s most elite force and head of its ballistic missile arsenal — a key target for Israel and the U.S. in the war.

Asian stock markets posted strong gains on Friday while oil prices fell after US President Donald Trump said progress had been made in efforts to end the Iran war, boosting investor confidence across global markets. US stock futures also moved slightly higher following sharp gains on Wall Street. South Korea's Kospi index surged 7.8 percent to 8,370.82, recovering much of the losses linked to recent sell-offs in artificial intelligence-related stocks. The benchmark index has nearly doubled over the past six months, though it remains below its record closing high reached on June 2. Shares of Samsung Electronics jumped 11.2 percent, while chipmaker SK Hynix gained 7.2 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 advanced 3.5 percent to 66,442.95, led by technology stocks. SoftBank Group rose 2 percent and semiconductor equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron soared 10.3 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 1.8 percent to 24,689.32, while China's Shanghai Composite gained 1.6 percent to 4,050.51. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.9 percent to 8,798.10. Taiwan's Taiex added 2.6 percent and India's Sensex increased 1.2 percent. Investor sentiment improved after Trump said on Thursday that he had cancelled planned military strikes against Iran and claimed the United States had reached a significant understanding to end the conflict. He also suggested that an extension of the fragile ceasefire between the two sides could be agreed within days, although he provided few details. Markets had come under pressure earlier this week as tensions between Washington and Tehran intensified. Rising oil prices have fueled inflation concerns worldwide, particularly as the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route for global oil and gas shipments, remained largely closed. Analysts at ING said there appeared to be more encouraging signs surrounding a possible agreement this time, although they cautioned that any ceasefire extension remained uncertain and could still prove fragile. Oil prices retreated as hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough increased. Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell 1.7 percent to $88.87 per barrel, while US benchmark crude dropped 1.6 percent to $86.33 per barrel. Both remained significantly above pre-war levels of around $70 a barrel. On Thursday, Wall Street recorded broad-based gains. The S&P 500 rose 1.8 percent to 7,394.30, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.9 percent to 50,848.75, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.5 percent to 25,809.66. Technology and AI-related stocks have experienced heightened volatility in recent days amid concerns that rapid share price increases and heavy investment spending could signal a market bubble. Marvell Technology jumped 11.1 percent, while Oracle fell 8.5 percent despite reporting stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings, as investors worried about its growing spending commitments. Investors were also watching the highly anticipated Wall Street debut of SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company, which is expected to become the largest initial public offering on record with plans to raise about $75 billion. In currency trading, the US dollar strengthened to 160.22 Japanese yen from 159.93 yen, while the euro slipped slightly to $1.1574 from $1.1578.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he had called off new military strikes on Iran, claiming a breakthrough in negotiations to end the war just hours after the American leader threatened to escalate the conflict by seizing control of Iran’s oil industry. Trump has said multiple times in recent weeks that the warring parties have been on the cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition. A spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a live phone call on state television that mediators were active and nothing had been finalized to end the conflict that began Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel jointly attacked Iran. Trump opened an Oval Office event Thursday afternoon saying: “We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran.” He offered scant details, other than to say he expects an agreement to extend a fragile ceasefire that started in April to be finalized “over the next few days.” Extending the terms of the ceasefire gives U.S. leaders more time to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear program, the main reason Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used to justify launching the war. Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that Israel is not a party to the emerging agreement between the U.S. and Iran. The announcement came after two days of back-and-forth attacks between the U.S. and Iran had pushed the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war. Trump had threatened further escalation earlier Thursday, posting on social media that the U.S. would hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT” and take “total control” of its oil and gas industries. A few hours later, Trump posted on social media that significant points in the negotiations “have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved.” Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said in his phone call on state television that text of a deal is “mostly finalized.” “The problem is that the contradictions in America’s position has caused turbulence to this process,” he said Thursday night. A major sticking point in negotiations has been Iran’s nuclear program, which the U.S. and Israel fear could lead to an atomic weapon, but which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes. Another key issue is Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane for transporting oil and natural gas. Trump again moves quickly from threats to negotiating Trump’s rapid shift Thursday from dire threats to promoting peace negotiations again underscored his whipsaw approach to the war. He suggested on Monday that a deal to end the conflict could be reached in a matter of days. Then back-and-forth strikes rattled the Middle East this week. The first involved attacks between Iran and Israel, followed by the two rounds of fire between the U.S. and Iran, which targeted countries where U.S. troops are based. The U.S. strikes began after Trump blamed Iran for downing an American attack helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. Both pilots were rescued safely. Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the U.S. attacks had “effectively rendered the ceasefire ... meaningless,” without saying it was abandoning it. After Trump threatened more attacks were to come on Thursday, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, responded on social media that “wrong strategies and impulsive decisions” would wreak havoc on energy markets and “create an endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years.” It wasn’t the first time Trump threatened escalation before giving negotiations another chance. In April, he warned Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if it didn’t agree to his terms, before extending a ceasefire.

Iran and Israel have announced a halt to direct attacks against each other following a fresh exchange of fire, while both sides warned of strong retaliation if the fragile ceasefire is violated again. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel was holding fire “at the moment” but stressed that the campaign against Iran and the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement was “not finished.” His remarks came hours after Iran’s armed forces announced that they had suspended military operations after delivering what they described as a “painful response” to Israel. Tehran also warned that any new Israeli attacks, including strikes in Lebanon, would trigger “more severe and crushing measures.” The latest escalation began after Iran launched missiles at Israel on Sunday in retaliation for an Israeli strike on Beirut. Israel responded early Monday with air strikes targeting what it described as military facilities inside Iran. US President Donald Trump denied suggestions that Netanyahu had ignored his requests by carrying out the strikes, saying the Israeli operation was already underway when he intervened. The White House confirmed that Trump spoke with Netanyahu regarding the crisis. Trump said he urged restraint, citing ongoing efforts to secure a broader agreement with Iran aimed at preventing the development of nuclear weapons. According to US media reports, Trump also warned Netanyahu that Israel could find itself isolated if it resumed a full-scale conflict with Iran. Despite the ceasefire announcement, hostilities continued into Monday morning. Israeli authorities reported additional Iranian missile launches targeting Jerusalem and central and southern Israel. The Israeli military said it subsequently carried out another wave of strikes, targeting a petrochemical complex in Mahshahr in southwestern Iran, alleging the facility was involved in producing materials used for ballistic missiles. Iranian officials said at least 15 people were injured in the latest Israeli strikes, including 14 in Mahshahr and one in Tehran. Meanwhile, violence continued in Lebanon. The Lebanese Health Ministry said an Israeli strike on the southern city of Tyre killed five people and injured eight others on Monday. Four members of the Red Cross were among those wounded. Hezbollah said it launched rockets at Israeli military vehicles and troops in southern Lebanon earlier in the day. Trump publicly urged both sides to stop military actions, warning that continued attacks could undermine ongoing diplomatic efforts. The conflict began on February 28 when Israel and the United States launched a joint military operation against Iran, resulting in the deaths of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several senior Iranian officials, according to reports cited in the conflict. The war quickly expanded across the region, with Iran retaliating through missile and drone attacks against Israel and Gulf states hosting US military facilities. The conflict later spread to Lebanon after Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel in support of Iran. A US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has so far failed to end hostilities, with Hezbollah demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory. According to figures cited by Iranian and international rights groups, more than 3,400 people have been killed in Iran since the conflict began. Lebanese authorities report over 3,600 deaths from Israeli attacks in Lebanon. Israeli authorities say 20 civilians have been killed in Iranian missile strikes, while dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians have died during fighting involving Hezbollah. Additional casualties have also been reported across several Gulf countries and among US military personnel stationed in the region. Source: BBC

China's exports grew at a faster-than-expected pace in May, increasing 19.4 percent year-on-year despite disruptions linked to the Iran war, according to data released Tuesday by the country's customs authority. The May figure marked an acceleration from April’s 14.1 percent annual growth rate, underscoring the resilience of China's export sector. Analysts attributed the strong performance to continued overseas demand for Chinese automobiles, technology products and artificial intelligence-related goods, including semiconductors. Imports also posted robust growth, rising 27.4 percent in May from a year earlier, compared with a 25.3 percent increase recorded in April. Meanwhile, trade with the United States continued to weaken amid ongoing tariff tensions. China's exports to the U.S. declined 2.7 percent during the January-May period compared with the same period last year, while imports from the U.S. fell 5.5 percent. The decline in bilateral trade extends a trend that began after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed broad tariffs on China and several other major trading partners following his return to office. Despite geopolitical tensions and regional conflicts, China's overall trade performance remained strong during the first five months of the year, supported by growth in high-tech and manufacturing exports.

Israel said Monday that Iran had launched missiles targeting it, hours after Israel launched airstrikes targeting central and western Iran in response to missile fire from Tehran. The exchange of strikes threatened to drag the wider Middle East back into a regional war. Sirens sounded in central Israel, and the government urged the public to seek shelter. Explosions could be heard in central Israel as Israeli air defenses sought to intercept the incoming Iranian fire. Iran did not immediately acknowledge the attack. Monday marked the 100th day of the Iran war, launched Feb. 28 when Israel and the United States killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian leaders. The war raged until reaching a nominal ceasefire on April 8, but a permanent end to the hostilities have been challenged by Iran's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime, as well as fighting between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. With global energy supplies threatened, Iran still holding a vast stockpile of highly enriched uranium and even Yemen's Houthi rebels apparently getting involved in the fighting Monday, the risks of the war fully erupting again appears to be rising. Israel strikes Iran Iranian state television reported the sound of explosions being heard in Isfahan, Karaj, Tabriz and Tehran, without immediately elaborating. A witness in Tehran described hearing at least one large blast somewhere to the west of the country’s capital city. Iran closed the airspace around Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country’s main airfield, after the Israeli attack. Sirens sounded across Israel on Monday after its military said a missile launched from Yemen targeted the country, without elaborating. Israel’s rescue services said there were no reports of casualties or impacts from the launch from Yemen. Yemen is home to the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The Houthis have fired missiles at Israel during the Israel-Hamas war and later, but haven’t been fully involved in the Iran war. The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack, though it can take them hours or even days to acknowledge their assaults. In Iran, officials offered no details on what had been struck, nor any damage information. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said that Israel used air-launched ballistic missiles in its attack Monday morning, without elaborating. The Israeli military at dawn in Iran issued a short statement as the strikes started: “A short while ago, the Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran.” It did not elaborate. In Saudi Arabia, missile alert sirens sounded Monday morning in an area home to an air base that hosts U.S. forces. Saudi state media reported the alert around its Al Kharj governorate, home to Prince Sultan Air Base. The alert came after Israel’s strikes on Iran. Saudi Arabia shortly after said the missile danger in the area had passed, without elaborating. Trump says ‘I call the shots,’ not Israel The White House did not respond to messages about the strikes and whether they were done in coordination with the U.S. A senior U.S. official on Sunday said U.S. President Donald Trump had called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge him not to retaliate immediately for the Iranian missile attack. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private phone call, said that Trump believed he had convinced Netanyahu to wait. Trump “got Bibi to hold off for the time being,” the official said. The official would not offer any other details of the call, and there was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office. For days, negotiations between Iran and the United States over the fragile ceasefire in the war had been stalled by the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. Israel now occupies southern Lebanon and had moved into areas of the country it hadn't held in a quarter century — leading to fears about them further widening their campaign. On Sunday, Israel launched airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs. Iran retaliated with its own strike on Israel, which led to Monday morning's attack by Israel on Iran. Trump earlier told a Fox News Channel reporter that he wanted the Iranians to stop firing missiles and return to the negotiating table. He also said that Israel’s strikes in Lebanon earlier Sunday were not coordinated with the U.S. and “I’m not happy about it.” Speaking to The Financial Times before the Israeli strikes on Iran, Trump insisted he dictated terms to Netanyahu on how the war should be prosecuted. “He won’t have any choice,” Trump told the newspaper in a telephone interview. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He (Netanyahu) doesn’t call the shots.”

US President Donald Trump has rejected criticism that the ongoing conflict with Iran contradicts his campaign promise of “no new wars,” arguing that he never guaranteed his presidency would be free of military conflicts. In an interview aired Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump said he had not promised there would be no wars if he returned to office. “First of all, I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?” Trump said. The president also defended a now-abandoned $1.8 billion fund that was intended to compensate political allies and repeated his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud in California’s prolonged vote-counting process following last week’s primary election. Trump, who campaigned in 2024 portraying himself as a leader who started “no new wars” and accusing Democratic rivals of being warmongers, maintained that the conflict with Iran does not amount to an extended military engagement. “I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months,” he said, referring to the conflict with Iran that began on February 28. He argued that US actions were necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, saying he was “doing the world a service” and “doing our country a service.” At the same time, Trump reiterated his claim that US strikes last year had “obliterated” Iranian nuclear facilities, despite also citing the need to stop Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Trump further defended his decision during his first term to withdraw from the nuclear agreement negotiated under former President Barack Obama, a deal he has long criticized while promising to secure a better alternative. “It takes years to do these things,” Trump said.

President Donald Trump increasingly appears to be boxed in. U.S. and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement a week ago to extend the ceasefire by 60 days and start a new round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program. Trump, however, has called for unspecified changes, and Iranian officials have shown no public sign of agreeing to the deal. The fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large swaths of the south while saying it targets the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, also challenges efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has demanded that any lasting truce extends to Lebanon. The Trump administration has touted the latest ceasefire agreed to earlier in the week by the Lebanese government and Israel after U.S.-brokered talks in Washington. However, Hezbollah has rejected the agreement. Meanwhile, Iran fired ballistic missiles and drones toward Bahrain and Kuwait that were intercepted early Saturday, Bahrain’s government said, and called on Tehran to halt attacks on Gulf neighbors that test a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East conflict. Iran said that it targeted American military assets in both countries, after the U.S. attacked surveillance facilities on Qeshm Island and near Sirik that Iran said were used to protect borders and “ensure the security of navigation in international waters.” Tehran called the attack a ceasefire violation. Later Saturday, U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces had shot down two Iranian attack drones over the Strait of Hormuz. The latest exchanges came as the Trump administration presses Iran to make a deal to end the war, which has strained the global economy and threatened a hunger crisis in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries.  

The UN food agency has warned that the Iran conflict is pushing millions more people into hunger, with rising food and fuel prices worsening conditions in already fragile countries. The World Food Programme (WFP) said new analysis shows an additional 2.5 million people in Somalia, 2.3 million in Afghanistan and 1.3 million in Sri Lanka are now struggling to afford basic food needs. The agency had earlier estimated that up to 45 million more people could fall into food insecurity by the end of June, adding to the 318 million already facing acute hunger worldwide. “We remain by that prognosis,” said Carl Skau, speaking to UN reporters. He said food insecurity is closely tied to energy prices, especially in poorer countries where families already spend most of their income on food. The WFP said in a report released Thursday that the Middle East crisis is creating wider global “spillover effects,” driving up fuel and food costs and disrupting trade routes. It warned that these pressures are likely to worsen in the coming months, even if the situation in the Middle East stabilises The agency also pointed to other hunger hotspots, including Sudan, Gaza, southern Lebanon, Yemen and Haiti. The Rome-based organisation said it has been forced to reduce food assistance in several countries due to funding shortages, and urged donors to increase support urgently, particularly for Somalia and Afghanistan, warning that the humanitarian consequences could be severe if aid does not increase.

Iran’s Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator in talks with the United States, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has warned that Tehran could halt its dialogue with Washington if Israel continues its military operations in Lebanon. In a statement posted on X following a phone conversation with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday, Ghalibaf said he had stressed Iran’s position regarding the ongoing conflict. He said that if what he described as the “crimes of the Zionist regime” in Lebanon continue, Iran would not only suspend the negotiation process but would also take a firm stand against Israel. Ghalibaf reaffirmed Iran’s support for Lebanon and the resistance movement, expressing solidarity between the Iranian and Lebanese people. His remarks came amid heightened tensions in the region as Israeli military operations in Lebanon continue and diplomatic efforts involving Iran and the United States remain under way. Source: Al Jazeera