US-Iran War Live Updates: Iran has no plans for talks, focus on defence, says Foreign Ministry spokesperson

The Iranian Army said in an attack which took place early Wednesday, the US military fired 13 missiles at a base belonging to the Iranian Army’s 388th Iranshahr Brigade in Bampur County, in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, the IRNA news agency reported. The outlet added that the Army statement said seven people were killed and 13 others were wounded in the strike.

Shipping companies are avoiding using a U.S. military-guided transit scheme through the Strait of Hormuz after a wave of Iranian attacks on vessels sparked safety concerns, seven maritime security and shipping industry sources said.

For decades ships sailed into and out of the Gulf using a safe set of lanes down the middle of the strait established by the U.N.'s shipping agency in 1968 dubbed the Traffic Separation Scheme.

Since the Iran war began on February 28, Iranian forces have mined this area, forcing vessels to use one of two makeshift routes close to either the Iranian or Omani coast. Reuters

Deer from Kharg Island were seen taking refuge on the streets after being reportedly startled by explosions caused by US airstrikes, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Iran's top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is likely to issue a statement on the ongoing war and recent developments, according to an official announcement.

President Donald Trump is headlining a defense summit at the U.S. Army War College on Wednesday, planning to tout major investments in battlefield technology when the war in Iran has reduced the U.S. supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot and THAAD interceptors. The gathering in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is organized by Republican Sen. David McCormick. It has also featured Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Army Secretary Dan Driscoll; CIA Director John Ratcliffe; and Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.Trump has been a frequent visitor to the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, including last month, when he went to a Mack Trucks facility in Macungie, outside Allentown, hoping to boost Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie's reelection chances. AP

Since restarting the naval blockade against Iranian ports 17 hours ago, the US forces have redirected two commercial vessels attempting to run the blockade, the US Central Command said in a post on X.

Greater Tunb Island's strategic significance lies in its location at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's busiest oil transit chokepoints.

The island enables Iran to maintain a heavily fortified military outpost overlooking key international shipping lanes, with the capacity to deploy coastal defence systems, drones and cruise missiles. The Greater Tunb was taken over by Iran in 1971, two days before the British protectorate ended and the United Arab Emirates was officially established.

Together with Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa, it forms a critical part of Iran's maritime security network, allowing Tehran to monitor vessel movements, support fast-attack craft and submarine operations, and project military power across the narrow shipping corridor.

Situated close to the UAE's maritime boundary, Greater Tunb also remains at the centre of a longstanding territorial dispute, making it a strategically sensitive flashpoint with implications for regional security and global energy supplies.

Israeli airstrikes have killed about a dozen people in Gaza over the past two days, local health officials said on Wednesday, part of a wider campaign of attacks on the territory by Israel despite a months-old ceasefire with Hamas. Among the dead were a woman and six police officers killed in an airstrike on a police station in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp, in northern Gaza, on Tuesday, hospital officials said.

In another strike on Wednesday, three members of the same family were killed in central Gaza, while a man died on Tuesday in the bombing of a tent camp in Khan Younis in the south. Israeli forces also shot and killed a child on Tuesday in the Muwasi area, west of the southernmost city of Rafah, according to hospital officials.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes in central and southern Gaza. AP

WATCH | US strikes hit a civilian maritime control tower in Chabahar, southern Iran.

The dollar was steady on Wednesday as investors balanced renewed U.S. strikes on Iran against softer-than-expected inflation data that reduced expectations of a near-term Federal Reserve interest rate hike. The dollar was little changed at 162.34 yen. The euro held at $1.1418, while sterling traded at $1.3399. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the currency against six major peers, edged up less than 0.1% ⁠to 100.97. ​It fell 0.4% in the previous session, its biggest decline in nearly two weeks, after touching its highest level since July 2. Reuters

Two human rights groups say Trump administration sanctions imposed on the International Criminal Court over its investigations of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza have illegally impeded their ability to advocate for Palestinians.The organizations say in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that they have been forced to censor their own advocacy work to avoid scrutiny from the White House, which in an executive order last year not only targeted the Hague-based criminal court but prohibited providing or receiving services to or from entities that have been sanctioned.The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan against top administration officials by DAWN and Taxpayers Alliance Against Genocide, seeks a court order that would strike down the restrictions on their advocacy and their ability to interact with Palestinian human rights groups and other sanctioned parties. AP

The U.S. reimposed a naval blockade on Iran and intensified its airstrike campaign early Wednesday in retaliation for Tehran’s attacks on ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

The American strikes hit an Iranian army barracks, killed at least seven troops and wounded more than 260 people across the country, Iranian officials said.Days of back-and-forth strikes by the U.S. and Iran across the Middle East — and renewed threats to the waterway crucial to global energy supplies — have shredded the interim deal to end the conflict and the region could tip back into all-out war.

The U.S. first imposed a blockade in April and then lifted it last month after signing the interim deal that paused the fighting and set a 60-day period for negotiations over issues like Iran’s nuclear program. Those talks have stalled as fighting over the Strait of Hormuz has intensified.When the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively closed the waterway to shipping traffic — a move that sent the price of oil, fertilizer and many other goods soaring far beyond the region and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations.

Those rising prices pose a particular challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican Party, which hopes to retain control of Congress in elections in November — but Washington has struggled to successfully reopen the waterway.Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened Wednesday to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the blockade. AP