Iranian state media publishes handwritten note by security chief Ali Larijani

Iranian state media publishes handwritten note by security chief Ali Larijani.

Israeli Defence Minister Katz says Iran’s security chief Larijani is dead

Israeli Defence Minister Katz says Iran’s security chief Larijani is dead.

Israel says it has killed head of Iran's Basij militia

Israel said on Tuesday it had killed the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' all-volunteer Basij force, a key force used to suppress demonstrations in the Islamic Republic.

The Israeli military said a strike on Monday killed Gholamreza Soleimani.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge Soleimani's killing.

"The Basij forces are part of the armed apparatus of the Iranian terror regime," the Israeli military said in its statement.

"During internal protests in Iran, particularly in recent periods as demonstrations intensified, Basij forces under Soleimani's command led the main repression operations, employing severe violence, widespread arrests and the use of force against civilian demonstrators."

Israeli military strike targeted Iran's security chief Larijani, fate unclear, officials say

Israel's military has targeted Iran's security chief Ali Larijani, four Israeli officials said, adding that it was not immediately clear whether he was killed or injured. Larijani was one of the targets of strikes carried out by the Israeli military last night across Iran, the officials told Reuters.

Iran has not yet commented on the report. If his death is confirmed, he would be the most senior Iranian official to be killed after the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who died on the first day of the war.

Larijani, a former nuclear negotiator and a close ally of Khamenei, was seen in Tehran on Friday taking part in Quds Day rallies.

Later that day, the U.S. offered a reward of up to $10 million for information on senior Iranian military and intelligence officials, including Larijani, as part of a list of 10 figures linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Multiple Israeli media outlets also said the strikes targeted Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij Resistance Force and other senior Basij figures, with the outcome of the strikes still being assessed.

Iraq in talks with Iran to allow oil tankers through Hormuz Strait, oil minister says

Iraq's oil minister said Baghdad is in contact with Iran to allow some oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the state news agency reported on Tuesday.

Iraq is also working to resume exports through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to Turkey as it seeks to offset disruptions to shipments caused by the Hormuz crisis, after some vessels were attacked off the Iraqi coast during transfers.

UAE air traffic operations return to normal

Air traffic in the United Arab Emirates returned to normal after temporary precautionary measures were lifted, state news agency WAM reported on Tuesday, citing the country's General Civil Aviation Authority.

Earlier on Tuesday, the authority announced a temporary closure of the country's airspace amid rapidly evolving regional security developments, after the defence ministry said it was responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran. 

IMO chief says escorts no guarantee of safe passage through Strait of Hormuz

The head of the International Maritime Organization has said that naval escorts through the Strait of Hormuz will not "100 percent guarantee" the safety of ships attempting to transit the waterway, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Military assistance was "not a long-term or sustainable solution" to opening up the strait, Arsenio Dominguez told FT.

The critical Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas flow, remains largely closed off, raising energy prices and fears of inflation.

The closure is also ‌forcing a rapid and costly supply chain rethink to maintain the flow of essential imports, with logistics companies racing to overcome the headaches of changing vessel destinations, moving goods overland, and keeping perishable items from spoiling.

"We are collateral damage of a conflict when the root causes have nothing to do with shipping,” Dominguez told the paper, adding that the IMO had serious concerns about ships stuck in the Gulf running out of food and supplies for their crews.

The IMO Council will meet for an Extraordinary Session on Wednesday and Thursday at its London headquarters to address the impacts on shipping and seafarers as a result of the ongoing mid-east conflict.

Dominguez called for ship managers “not to sail and not to put seafarers at risk and not to put the vessels at risk", the report said.

U.S. President Donald Trump accused some Western allies of ingratitude after several countries rebuffed his demand ​to send warships to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. 

Ten foreign individuals arrested in Iran's northeast for spying, Tasnim reports

Ten foreign individuals accused of collecting information on sensitive sites and preparing field operations in Iran's northeast were arrested by the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence organisation, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday.

The news report did not give details on the individuals' nationalities.

Fire at Abu Dhabi's Shah gas field caused by drone attack, media office says

Authorities in Abu Dhabi on Monday were dealing with a fire at the Shah gas field caused by a drone attack and said that no injuries had been reported so far, the Abu Dhabi media office reported.

The Shah field is one of the world's largest of its kind and is located 180 km (111.85 miles) southwest of Abu Dhabi.

Iran parliament speaker says regional security can only be established by local states

The U.S. military presence in the Middle East does not bring security, Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf told state TV on Tuesday, pointing out that regional security needs to be established by regional countries.

"The face and order of the Middle East will change, but not according to U.S. plans. We, the Islamic countries of the region, will establish regional order and security in the economic and security dimensions," Qalibaf said, adding that U.S. forces need to leave the region. 

Lufthansa CEO says Iran war will diminish Gulf carriers' dominance in Asia

Germany's Lufthansa expects the dominance of Gulf carriers like Emirates and Qatar Airways on Asian routes to be diminished by the Iran war, CEO Carsten Spohr told business magazine Manager Magazin in an interview published on Tuesday.

"The major hubs of the Gulf carriers are located in a region that is now clearly exposed to new risks. What this means for the future of global air travel remains to be seen," he said. 

UAE briefly closes airspace as Israel strikes Beirut, Tehran

A drone attack in the United Arab Emirates sparked a fire at an oil tank farm on Tuesday in Fujairah, an emirate on the country's east coast with the Gulf of Oman that has been repeatedly targeted, the state-run WAM news agency reported. It said no one was injured in the blast.

The report came after a brief closure of the UAE's airspace when the military reported it was "responding to missile and drone threats from Iran."

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had launched new attacks across Tehran and Beirut, with the strikes on the Lebanese capital targeting Hezbollah militants.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump said "numerous countries" have told him "they're on the way" to help police the Strait of Hormuz. But he also suggested some countries' reluctance showed a lack of reciprocity in defence agreements with the United States.

The war has killed at least 1,300 people in Iran, at least 850 in Lebanon and 12 in Israel, according to officials in those countries. The US military says 13 US service members have been killed and about 200 wounded.

Kuwait says 16 people arrested over Hezbollah links

Kuwaiti security forces arrested 16 people suspected of having links with Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group allied with Iran, the state-run Kuwait News Agency reported.

The interior ministry said in a statement late Monday that the 14 Kuwaiti and two Lebanese suspects sought to "create chaos, and disrupt public order," during the war, the agency reported.

The ministry did not identify the people arrested. It was not immediately clear if they had lawyers.

It said authorities found firearms, ammunition, weapons for training and assassinations, and encrypted communication devices and drones.

The ministry said the suspects aimed to recruit others to join Hezbollah.

Kuwait has for years experienced attacks that authorities linked to Iran.

Pakistani man killed in UAE missile attack

A Pakistani man was killed Tuesday morning in a missile attack on the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi, authorities say.

The Abu Dhabi Media Office says the man was killed when shrapnel fell in the Bani Yas area while air defences were intercepting a ballistic missile.

The death toll in the UAE since the start of the war is now at eight people, including two soldiers, according to authorities.