US downs Iran drones near Strait of Hormuz

The United States said it shot down a pair of Iranian drones threatening the Strait of Hormuz, the latest escalation of violence as the war reached its 100th day yesterday with no end in sight.

“Earlier today, US forces in the Middle East shot down two Iranian one-way attack drones that threatened international maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz,” US Central Command said on its X account yesterday.

“American forces remain postured and ready to continue defending against Iranian aggression.”

CENTCOM said late Friday its forces shot down four Iranian attack drones launched toward the strait, then struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites.

The tit-for-tat strikes, including a salvo of Iranian missiles fired Saturday at US allies Bahrain and Kuwait, come despite Washington and Tehran being engaged in weeks of indirect talks on how to end the war.

The US government will attempt to redirect Iranian assets to Gulf states for rebuilding and repairs of damage caused by Iran, a source familiar with the matter said.

US President Donald Trump said in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he would not unfreeze Iranian assets or lift any sanctions before a peace deal is reached.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has directed a team to assess costs for damages already inflicted on Gulf allies by Iran, the source said, adding that the US will consider using Iranian assets for repairs of any future destruction as well. The source did not specify what kind of assets the Treasury was examining.

The disclosure came a day after Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, told CNN that a peace deal to end the three-month war hinged on the release of $24 billion in Iranian assets frozen by the United States.

Peace negotiations appear to have stalled, although a minister from mediator Pakistan traveled to Tehran on Saturday with a letter for Khamenei, Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

Meanwhile, US intelligence has raised the alarm about “unhinged” spying by Israel on America’s senior Iran negotiators. Israel has been eavesdropping on Steve Witkoff, Trump’s chief negotiator, Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy official, and Michael DiMino, a senior Middle East policy adviser, intelligence officials claimed.

The allegations, reported by The New York Times, come despite extensive military co-operation between Washington and Jerusalem during the war. Israeli officers have been working with their counterparts at US Central Command, sharing operational intelligence.

The Pentagon has raised its counterintelligence threat level for Israel to its highest level, US media reported.

In a separate development, a plane carrying Iran’s World Cup football squad landed early yesterday in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, AFP journalists witnessed, after the United States kicked off a bitter diplomatic row over visas.

In the Lebanese front, Israel’s military yesterday said it intercepted two projectiles launched from Lebanon into Israeli territory, as it carried out more strikes on Lebanon despite an ongoing truce. The military later issued an evacuation warning for most of the southern Lebanese city of Tyre and its surroundings.

An Israeli attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs hit two buildings in the area, Lebanese state media reported after Israel said it struck the Hezbollah stronghold.

Hezbollah claimed it has attacked a “command headquarters” belonging to the Israeli military in the Lebanese town of Naqoura with Ababil drones, Al Jazeera reports.

On Saturday, Israeli forces killed Lebanese Brigadier General Wissam Sabra and two high-ranking soldiers in an incident the Lebanese presidency called a “blatant violation” of sovereignty.

He was killed in southern Lebanon when an Israeli air strike hit his convoy on the road between Kfar Tebnit and Khardali.

OPEC+ ministers yesterday decided to increase oil quotas by a total 188,000 barrels per day for July, in a move analysts said would be unlikely to have an impact on prices sent higher by the Mideast war.

The hiked production output was agreed in a video meeting of oil ministers from key OPEC+ countries Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman, a statement from the organisation said.