Yemen’s armed forces carried out airstrikes on Houthi positions and equipment in western, southern and eastern Taiz province on Thursday, according to Yemen’s state-run Saba news agency. The strikes targeted missile launchers, radar and military communications systems, weapons depots, reinforcements and Houthi gathering points, the agency said.

Iran remains in “wartime conditions” and must strengthen its defenses against what officials describe as cognitive and media warfare, the head of Iran’s National Organization for Passive Defense, Gholamreza Jalali, said on Thursday. Jalali said Iran’s adversaries were seeking to divide society and target public services, adding that “cognitive warfare is a new battlefield that the enemy has planned for.” He said protecting infrastructure, markets and public services was part of national security and argued that maintaining electricity, water supplies and access to goods during the conflict reflected previous planning. Jalali also said authorities should prevent what he described as adversaries’ narratives from taking hold inside Iran, saying media remained a central tool in efforts to influence the public.

#ICYMI: Iran's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a protester arrested during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom movement over an explosion that his lawyer says caused about $56 in property damage. iranintl.com/en/202610211946

Saudi Aramco has instructed staff to leave its headquarters in Dhahran and work remotely, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing six people familiar with the matter.

Polarizing society during wartime is a “betrayal of the Islamic revolution,” a member of Iran’s parliament national security and foreign policy committee said on Thursday, calling for national unity. “Different views naturally exist in a free society, and people express their opinions; this does not conflict with unity and solidarity,” Alaeddin Boroujerdi said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a report that US President Donald Trump had recently stopped Israel from carrying out a planned strike on Iran, calling it “an incorrect report.” His comments, in an interview with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News published on Thursday, came a day after the Financial Times reported that Netanyahu had instructed the Israeli military to prepare a major new offensive against Iran earlier this month. The FT said the operation did not go ahead because Trump opposed restarting large-scale fighting before the November 3 US midterm elections. Netanyahu also reiterated that he had directed Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and military to work toward bringing down Iran’s government. “There’s only one way to guarantee that it’s over. And that is to bring down this regime,” he said. “That’s the directive that I gave the Mossad and the IDF.” Asked whether Israel could do so, Netanyahu said: “I think we can, and I know we will.” iranintl.com/en/202610221442

Turkey will host foreign ministers from Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Britain, France and Germany in Istanbul on Friday for talks on regional conflicts, a Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters. The ministers are expected to discuss the US-Iran war, the Strait of Hormuz, Yemen, the Israeli-Palestinian issue and efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is expected to call for a diplomatic solution to the US-Iran conflict and stress the importance of freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb, the source said. The meeting will be the first in this seven-country format and was initiated by Turkey, according to the source. iranintl.com/en/202610229477

Greece’s Finance Ministry said on Thursday it was implementing sanctions linked to Iran and supported efforts to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. The statement came after the US Treasury Department said the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network had issued an administrative subpoena as part of an investigation into an unnamed Greek bank. The ministry said Greece was working closely with US authorities and had taken note of Washington’s action targeting sanctions circumvention and illicit financial activity linked to Iran. iranintl.com/en/202610226039

Iran’s adversary sees any concession as a retreat and responds by advancing further, Army chief Amir Hatami said on Thursday. “Any compromise is seen as a retreat, and it takes a step forward,” Hatami said, describing the enemy as “100% untrustworthy.” He added that Iran was preparing for asymmetric warfare and had assessed how its adversary would operate. Hatami also said unmanned weapons - including drones, unmanned surface vessels and small drones - were being used more widely for a range of missions and had a prominent place in Iran’s defense strategy.

Iran's LPG exports have collapsed since the US naval blockade began in mid-July, leaving Tehran to find domestic uses for millions of tons of propane and butane that would normally be sold abroad. Iran has shipped only 4.1 million barrels of LPG, equivalent to around 350,000 tons, since the blockade began, Reuters reported, citing informed sources and shipping data. Data from Kpler and Vortexa obtained by Iran International show the figure was around 30 million barrels, or 2.6 million tons, over the same period last year. Vortexa and Kpler estimate Iran's LPG exports in 2025 at between 10.5 million and 11 million tons, worth more than $5 billion. Iranian Chamber of Commerce data show exports of 9 million tons of propane and butane worth $4.35 billion during the Iranian financial year that ended on March 20, 2026. The figures cover different periods and may also reflect differences in methodology, but both point to the scale of Iran's LPG exports before the war. iranintl.com/en/202610218399

The Saudi-led coalition said on Thursday that it intercepted and destroyed a drone in the Riyadh region.

The conflict with Iran will be resolved “one way or the other” fairly soon, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, adding that many expected a resolution after November’s US midterm elections. Asked about negotiations with Tehran, Trump said there was “a little bit” of activity, and claimed the US was doing “very well, militarily and financially” against Iran. "What we've done with Iran is amazing," Trump added,

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei warned on Thursday that if war continues, it could keep energy markets unsettled for up to three years, according to state media. “Continuing the current situation will have strategic consequences, including that energy markets will not stabilize for the next three years,” he said. He said Iran prefers diplomacy if it can make clear that any action against the country carries a cost, but is prepared to keep responding if the war continues. “We did not use all our capabilities in previous stages,” he said, adding that Iran had brought more capabilities into operations as the war intensified and was ready for the next stage. Rezaei also said the war was shifting regional ties in Iran’s favor, with countries around the Persian Gulf rapidly reassessing their relations with Tehran. He said they had come to believe that the US military could not even defend its own bases, despite those countries’ expectations that Washington would protect them. iranintl.com/en/202610228857

An attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam on Wednesday evening killed two people and injured eight, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said Thursday. The Saudi authority said airport operations had resumed and air traffic had returned to normal. Saudi authorities informed India’s embassy that one Indian national was among two people killed in the attack, the embassy said. Two other Indian nationals were injured, the embassy said, adding that it was contacting the families and seeking further details.

Iran’s offensive and defensive capabilities will improve significantly through initiatives already underway, Defense Minister Mehrdad Akhlaghi said on Thursday, state media reported. Akhlaghi briefed military officials on the Defense Ministry’s performance during the recent war and its plans, according to the report.

Iran has asked the UN secretary-general and Security Council president to condemn and immediately end what it describes as a US naval blockade, IRGC-linked Tasnim reported on Thursday. In a letter sent on Wednesday, Iran’s UN representative Gholamhossein Darzi called the blockade “a clear violation of the UN Charter” and urged the Security Council to hold the US responsible for damages, according to the report. Darzi also urged other countries not to support Washington’s unilateral measures. He said Iran would continue legal efforts to seek compensation and exercise its right to self-defense against what he described as aggression.

Iran’s IRGC Navy accused the US of encouraging ships to cross what it described as an illegal, mined passage and warned that continued activity could lead to attacks on US bases in the region. “US forces should know that if this continues, the confrontation could extend to their bases in the region. This is a serious warning,” the navy said.

More than 80 Iranian lawmakers have asked the Supreme National Security Council to review the country’s defense doctrine, a member of parliament from Mashhad said on Thursday. The request had been referred to officials for expert review, Hassanali Akhlaghi Amiri said. He said developments around the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, and their impact on oil shipments, had increased political pressure on the US administration. “If the US commits an act of aggression against the country, Iran will respond proportionately and will not hesitate to defend its territorial integrity and security,” he said.

Iran could close its land border with Pakistan if Islamabad continues to prevent trucks from Iran entering Pakistan, said the head of the Iran-Pakistan parliamentary friendship group on Thursday. Fadahossein Maleki, who is also a member of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said that trucks in Pakistan were allowed to enter Iran, but traffic in the opposite direction remained blocked. He said he had asked Pakistan’s ambassador to attend parliament with provincial officials to discuss the issue. Pakistan had attributed the restrictions to a “technical problem,” Maleki said. He blamed US pressure, adding: “We did not expect this from our Pakistani friends, and did not expect them to come under the influence of American pressure.” iranintl.com/en/202610228008

Germany’s financial regulator BaFin said on Thursday that Bank Saderat Iran’s Hamburg branch had lost its banking license and must be wound up. The branch, which operated in Hamburg and Frankfurt, is no longer allowed to conduct banking business. BaFin revoked the license on November 5, 2025, citing persistent legal violations that the bank had failed to remedy. A 2023 special audit found serious shortcomings in its business organization, and the bank had been inactive for more than six months. BaFin also cited sanctions against the institution, saying German banking law therefore presumes its managers to be unreliable, regardless of whether they personally engaged in misconduct. iranintl.com/en/202610224573