US military hits Iran’s Kharg Island: Live updates

Kharg Island has been hit by several strikes, Iranian media has reported.

The island is one of the most important owned by Iran, as it is an oil export hub.

Earlier in the way, the US bombed it but Donald Trump explicitly said he was leaving Iran’s oil infrastructure alone.

But he has, on several occasions, threatened to invade the island to take control of Iran’s oil.

Martin Griffiths, the UN’s former humanitarian chief, told Al Jazeera that while leverage can be useful to end conflicts, ‘what is not useful … is a cliff-edge situation like we have at the moment’ with the US and Iran.

He said: ‘That is not going to be helpful at all. It isn’t helpful at all’.

Griffiths said that concessions are a ‘vital component of any negotiation to end war.’

He added: ‘You have to provide space for enemies to come to an agreement that does global good. This is clearly the case in the Strait of Hormuz, and it’s clearly not the case with which both parties … are approaching this.’

Iran’s hardline judiciary chief on Tuesday urged courts to speed up verdicts linked to the US-Israeli war, including capital punishment.

Since the war began on February 28, Iran has hanged seven people in connection with January protests, six convicted of membership of banned opposition group the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) and a dual Iranian-Swedish citizen on charges of spying for Israel.

Rights groups have warned dozens more are at risk of execution over the January protests or after being arrested on suspicion of helping the enemy during the current war.

You need to speed up the issuing of sentences for executions and the confiscation of property,’ judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei told a televised meeting of senior judiciary officials.

Using existing laws on punishing espionage, ‘it is necessary to continue issuing judicial verdicts for elements and agents of the aggressor enemy with greater speed’, he added.

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, who now lives in exile, said on Telegram that instead of defending Iranians in the face of threats by US President Donald Trump, the Islamic republic’s response ‘is to accelerate executions, repression and confiscation of the opposition’s property.’

Two teenagers are among those who have been executed over the January protests, which were suppressed by authorities in a crackdown that left thousands dead, according to rights groups.

Authorities have branded those facing hanging over those protests as ‘terrorists’ who acted on behalf of Israel and the United States, but rights groups have said they were convicted in ‘grossly unfair’ trials.

‘In the midst of the ongoing war, the execution of death sentences for protesters and political prisoners through non-transparent and hasty processes is seen as an attempt to instil fear and maintain control over society,’ said the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre rights group.

With wartime arrests continuing, national police chief Ahmad Reza Radan was quoted by state media as saying that 85 people had been arrested in 25 provinces for operating in an alleged ‘organised network’ sending location information to Iran’s enemies.

‘The confessions of the accused and the full details of how they collaborated with the enemy will be published soon,’ he added.

Rights groups accuse Iranian authorities of using torture to extract from prisoners false confessions that are then broadcast during televisions news bulletins.

Iran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for ’empty promises’, a senior source told Reuters.

They said that Iran will only be flexible with the US and Israel ‘when we see flexibility from the US side.’

The source added that while mediator Pakistan continues to share messages with the US, Washington ‘has not changed its tone.’

Lebanon’s health ministry said today that the death toll in more than a month of war between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah had reached 1,530.

The toll includes 102 women and 130 children, as well as 57 heath workers, a ministry statement said, adding that 4,812 people have been wounded.

The New York Times, citing US and Israeli officials, reported that both America and Israel are intensifying attacks to put pressure on Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

The newspaper also reported that they are also keen to force Iran to reach a ceasefire deal.

Israeli prime minister Netanyahu said Israel struck on Tuesday railways and bridges in Iran ‘used by the Revolutionary Guards’, after Iranian officials reported damage to at least two bridges and railway infrastructure.

He said in a video released by his office: ‘We are crushing the terror regime in Iran… with even greater vigour and with increasing force.

‘Yesterday, our pilots destroyed transport aircraft and dozens of helicopters at an Iranian Air Force base. Today they struck the railways and bridges used by the Revolutionary Guards.’