Iran war: Tehran warns of earth-shattering blow; drones target Riyadh

By Heba Habib, Alex Milan Durie and Christine Maguire

Published On 31 Oct 202631 Oct 2026

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• Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warns of an “earth-shattering blow” if Iran is attacked again as Germany complains of soaring energy prices as a result of the war.
• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says four oil tankers have caught fire and exploded in the Strait of Hormuz while travelling along “unauthorised routes”.
• Iranian media say a Qatari delegation has returned to Tehran for talks, while an Iranian source confirmed to Al Jazeera that Iran has received a letter from the US on ending the war.
• The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis says it intercepted Houthi drones over the Riyadh, Eastern, Medina and Mecca regions. The Yemeni group denied launching any attacks towards Saudi Arabia on Friday.

4m ago

(07:00 GMT)

Pezeshkian remembers young people killed in US-Israeli strikes

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has called on Iranians to become so strong that no one would dare threaten their country.

In a post on X ahead of National Youth Day on November 8, Pezeshkian remembered the “unfulfilled dreams” of young people killed in US-Israeli strikes on Minab, Lamerd and other parts of Iran.

“The names and memories of our children remain in our minds and shape our collective historical memory, so that we know we must be so strong that no one dares to covet our land and identity,” he wrote.

34m ago

(06:30 GMT)

Trump wants standoff with Iran over quickly, ‘through peace or war’

Mohamed Elmenshawy, a Washington-based analyst, says Trump wants to end the standoff with Iran “whether through peace or war as quickly as possible”, and may launch new attacks after the November 3 midterm elections.

“What breaks this state of stalemate, this condition of ‘no peace, no war’, is either achieving some progress in the negotiating track, or the attacks beginning anew,” Elmenshawy told Al Jazeera.

He said Trump believes “time is on his side”, pointing to “strict economic pressure” on Iran, including the US naval blockade that has curtailed Tehran’s ability to export oil as well as sanctions on Iranian aviation and land border closures by several other countries.

Elmenshawy said Tehran “must realise” Trump will not let the conflict “remain suspended like this” and that this pressure should push “the Qatari and Pakistani mediators to drive the efforts more forcefully in order to avoid the path of war”.

Trump faces “pressure from the Israeli side to launch the attacks, and opposite pressure from the Arab Gulf side to push the negotiating track”, he added, saying Trump, “whose next moves cannot be predicted”, could yield to either.

US President Donald Trump speaks at a midterm campaign rally at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida [Brendan Smialowski/AFP]

• 49m ago

  (06:15 GMT)

  

  Israeli forces kill 2 Palestinians in Gaza

  Israeli shelling has killed a Palestinian in central Nuseirat, while another person has died from injuries sustained in a previous air attack on Gaza City, according to medical sources.

  The killings come as the death toll from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has passed 74,555 people.

  At least 1,575 people have been killed after a US-brokered “ceasefire” took effect last October.
• 1h ago

  (06:00 GMT)

  

  No ‘tangible progress’ in US-Iran negotiations but efforts ‘still ongoing’

  Abas Aslani, a researcher at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies in Tehran, says a deep lack of trust lies behind Iran’s failure to respond to the US proposals it has received.

  “Washington wants Iran to make concessions on the nuclear issue in advance, but Iran insists on the seven conditions,” Aslani told Al Jazeera, referring to Tehran’s seven-point plan to end the war.

  “In Iran, they fear that if they commit and fulfil their obligations, the United States will not honour its obligations and will backtrack. Instead, the United States would launch another attack.”

  He said Trump is “trying to use this potential agreement to promote it to the public and to use it for electoral purposes in the United States”, while “Iran wants an agreement that will be vital and bring peace to the region”.

  Aslani said “the conditions and the sequencing” also remain in dispute.

  Iran is using mediators to send a message “that its position has not changed”, he said, but Washington “also insists on its position”.

  “We don’t see any tangible progress – but despite this, efforts are still ongoing,” he said.
• 1h ago

  (05:50 GMT)

  

  Saudi-led coalition says Houthi drone destroyed in Riyadh region

  Turki al-Malki, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition, says the kingdom’s air defences have “intercepted and destroyed a hostile drone” in the Riyadh region.

  The announcement on X came hours after al-Malki said two other drones had been shot down in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province and in its southern region.
• 1h ago

  (05:45 GMT)

  

  Israeli forces bomb southern Lebanon

  Israeli forces have launched an air attack on the town of Kfar Tebnit in the Nabatieh district, southern Lebanon, according to our colleagues on the ground.

  Israeli warplanes have also carried out an air attack on Wadi al-Saluki in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA).

  The agency is reporting that Israeli forces opened heavy machinegun fire on woodland in Wadi al-Hujeir and the outskirts of the town of Chaqra in the Bint Jbeil district.

  Wadi al-Saluki lies between the towns of Hula and Majdal Selem in the Marjayoun district and Chaqra in the Bint Jbeil district. It is an extension of the much larger Wadi al-Hujeir, which connects the Litani River to the Lebanese-Israeli border. Wadi al-Hujeir, which spans the Bint Jbeil and Marjayoun districts, was declared a nature reserve in 2010.

  The attacks come as Israeli forces continue demolitions and artillery shelling in towns in the Bint Jbeil and Tyre districts in the south, large parts of which continue to be occupied by Israel’s military.

  

  3:26

  Destruction in Lebanon: Israeli military razes southern towns