War in the Middle East: Latest developments amid fragile ceasefire and rising tensions
The latest developments in the Middle East war:
Trump cancels envoys' Pakistan trip
US President Donald Trump told Fox News on Saturday that he had ordered his envoys not to travel to Pakistan to continue talks with Iranian officials on ending the war.
"I've told my people a little while ago they were getting ready to leave, and I said, 'Nope, you're not making an 18-hour flight to go there. We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you're not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing," Fox News reported the president as saying in a phone call. Trump said the move did not mean a restart of the war
Four killed in Lebanon
Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli strikes killed four people in the country's south, despite a ceasefire that was extended this week in the war between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Israel - US - Iran war protest
Israeli left-wing activists demonstrate in HaBima Square against the ongoing war with Iran and against the Israeli government, in Tel Aviv on April 25, 2026.
Since the ceasefire between Israel, the United States, and Iran came into effect, a relative calm has prevailed, with no bombings reported in Iran or the Gulf, after five weeks of conflict that left thousands dead, primarily in Iran and Lebanon.
German minesweeper
Germany will soon send a minesweeper to the Mediterranean for a possible mission in the Strait of Hormuz after the end of the US-Iran war, a defence ministry spokeswoman told AFP.
US 'quagmire
The United States "is looking for a face-saving way to escape the war quagmire it has become trapped in", a spokesman for Iran's defence ministry said.
Iran's military also warned it would respond if the US maintained its blockade of Iranian ports, calling it "banditry".
Iran execution
Iran extended its long series of executions carried out during the war with the capital punishment of a man its judiciary said had carried out a "mission" on behalf of Israel's spy agency during mass protests in January.
Kuwait frees journalist
An American-Kuwaiti journalist has been released after being held for weeks in Kuwait during a crackdown on sharing footage of the US-Iran war, a US State Department official said.
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who has contributed to The New York Times, PBS, and Al Jazeera English, was arrested on March 3 for allegedly spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone.
US freezes crypto
The United States has frozen $344 million in cryptocurrency assets over ties to Iran, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says, as Washington seeks to raise pressure on Tehran amid energy supply disruptions due to the war.