Hormuz Strait closed until US meets seven agreed conditions

• Iran’s top negotiator says the era of “wasting time and dictating demands is over” and the United States must fulfill seven conditions agreed on in the June Islamabad deal.
• Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces carry out air attacks on the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa as fighting displaces more civilians.
• US President Donald Trump signals a decision on Iran is coming saying “the only question is … the easy way or the hard way”.
• The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations agency says another crude oil tanker was attacked off the coast of Oman, the third ship attack in the area in two days.

• 7m ago

  (12:00 GMT)

  

  Iran’s ‘porcupine strategy’ a deterrent to new US attack

  Military analyst Alexandru Hudisteanu says another American aircraft carrier is on its way to the Middle East and will likely arrive just before the US midterm elections.

  “We will see an overlap of three aircraft carriers in the region increasing the military pressure the US can impose on Iran. It signals options,” Hudisteanu told Al Jazeera.

  “It expands the quantity of tools the US has. We’re talking about three carrier air wings able to do 24-hours a day of combat missions. Additionally, we have a Marine expeditionary unit joining with this third aircraft carrier.”

  This gives the Trump administration more options “in case they want to go to this military coercive type of negotiations or diplomacy”, he said.

  Hudisteanu noted Iran over the past seven months of war has learned many lessons and implemented “a porcupine strategy” – making it clear “the cost is so big that the opponent will not do it”.

  

  A F/A-18 Super Hornet lands aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt [File: Michelle Bir/AFP]
• 22m ago

  (11:45 GMT)

  More Israeli attacks reported in southern Lebanon

  Israeli forces have attacked towns across southern Lebanon with artillery and air strikes, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

  The town of Mansouri is being hit with intermittent artillery shelling, launched from positions in occupied Lebanese territory south of the city of Tyre.

  Mansouri sits close to occupied Lebanese territory, and has seen frequent attacks by Israel since it invaded Lebanon.

  The agency also reported that Israel carried out a bombing Barashit in the Bint Jbeil district.

  There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the attacks.

  These attacks are in addition to the aerial bombinga of Kfar Tebnit and Wadi al-Hujair reported earlier.

  

  An airstrike is seen on the southern Lebanese town of Mansouri on September 30 [File: Adri Salido/Getty Images)
• 37m ago

  (11:30 GMT)

  Settlers assault Palestinian farmers and steal olives in West Bank

  Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian farmers as they harvested olives and have stolen their produce and agricultural equipment.

  A family was assaulted in Ramin, a village east of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, and settlers forced the Palestinians to leave their land before taking their olives, ladders and sheets used during the harvest, witnesses told the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

  Another farmer was beaten in Ramin.

  The annual olive harvest is a vital economic lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. It contributed about $100m a year to the Palestinian economy before Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began. Revenue now is significantly lower because of increased West Bank attacks.

  

  A settler threatens a Palestinian farmer at an olive grove during the harvest [File: Ammar Awad/Reuters]

1h ago

(10:45 GMT)

Iran to increase missile range as US forces retreat from the Gulf

Iran ⁠will upgrade its long-range missiles with US forces now positioned as ‌much as 1,000km (620 miles) away from the Iranian coast, army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia says.

“During this war, we concluded that ⁠we absolutely must increase ⁠the range ⁠of our missiles, and we have now ‌moved in that direction,” he told Fars news agency.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told foreign ambassadors and diplomats on Sunday that Tehran ‌hopes Washington will choose diplomacy, but he warned it is prepared to respond if the US again chooses military action.

On Thursday, unnamed sources told Reuters news agency Iran is preparing a broader and more forceful response if the US resumes large-scale military attacks.

“If they again move ‌towards ‌military solutions, we are more prepared than before and will take whatever action is necessary to defend ourselves,” Araghchi said.

An Iranian soldier with a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher in Tehran [Vahid Salemi/AP]