LIVE: UAE under attack from Iran for second day in a row

The UAE has declared it is responding to a missile threat from Iran as the country’s air defence systems are activated.

In a social media post, authorities said: ‘The UAE’s air defenses are currently dealing with missile and drone attacks originating from Iran.

‘The Ministry of Defense confirms that the sounds heard in scattered areas of the country are the result of the UAE’s air defense systems intercepting ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones.

‘UAE Air Defences system are actively engaging with missiles and UAV threats.’

Iran has set up a new mechanism to manage the transit of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has warned the US Navy to stay out of the Strait of Hormuz and that ​commercial vessels will need to coordinate any passage with its military.

It ​also issued a new ⁠map of the strait with an expanded Iranian area of control.

Ali Al-Zaidi, the incoming president of Iraq, has offered to become a mediator between the US and Iran.

The offer was reportedly made during a phone call with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian today.

Italy has rebuked Trump after he reignited a war of words with Pope Leo, following the Pontiff’s criticism of the Iran war.

Following Trump’s claims today that Pope Leo was ‘endangering a lot of Catholics’, Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said ‘attacks against the Holy Father’ are ‘neither acceptable nor helpful to the cause of peace.’

He added: ‘I reiterate my support for every action and word of Pope Leo; his are testimonies in favour of dialogue, the value of human life and freedom.’

Iran has claimed it bears ‘no hostility toward Arab countries of the Gulf’, despite attacks on the UAE yesterday and today.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baqaei also warned Iran’s neighbours against what he described as ‘imported security.’

He said the US’ presence in the region was its ‘only source of insecurity.’

Baqaei said: ‘Iran’s defensive measures are entirely against American assets and bases that are actively used to attack Iran and are in no way against regional countries. Iran insists on avoiding any escalation of tensions with its neighbours and is confronting the roots of instability in the region, namely foreign adventurism.

‘Currently, Tehran is focused on ending the war, instead of spending time on overly complicated issues, and based on past experiences, we decided not to waste our time on issues that have already proven to be so complicated that we cannot reach an agreement on them.

‘Iran’s current priority is clear; For now, our decision is to focus on ending the war, because this is a concern for all regions, for our nation, and for the international community.’

Donald Trump has reignited a war of words with Pope Leo, accusing the American pontiff of ‘endangering’ Catholics and others by claiming he was content with Iran getting a nuclear weapon.

The first US-born pope has not said this, but has been critical of the Middle East conflict and called for peace, while condemning the use of religion to justify war.

The head of the Catholic Church also previously warned the world is being ‘ravaged by a handful of tyrants’, and branded Trump’s threat to wipe out Iranian civilisation ‘truly unacceptable.’

In turn, Trump declared he was ‘not a fan of Pope Leo’, accusing him of being ‘weak’ and pandering to the ‘radical left.’

The row was inflamed further after the president posted an image on social media that portrayed him as Jesus Christ.

It was subsequently deleted following a backlash.

In his latest criticism, Trump told conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt: ‘The Pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

‘And I don’t think that’s very good. I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people.’

He added: ‘But I guess if it’s up to the Pope, he thinks it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.’

His comments came on the eve of secretary of state Marco Rubio, himself a Catholic, travelling to the Vatican, where he will meet Pope Leo.

He is also due to hold talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, an erstwhile ally of Trump who took issue with his remarks about the Pope.

It led Trump to round on her as part of his wider criticism of NATO over what he sees as a lack of support for the Iran war.

Portugal’s government will request parliament’s approval in the coming weeks to impose a windfall tax on energy companies profiting from an energy price surge amid the Iran war.

Portugal, along with Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria, sent a letter to the European Commission in April, calling for such a tax at a European level, but Brussels left it up to individual countries to decide.

Miranda Sarmento said Portugal ‘would seek the highest possible level of coordination’ with other countries and ‘learn from each other about potential measures that each may be preparing.’

‘We will take the measures adopted in 2022, recalibrate them, improve them and, in the near term, present a proposal to parliament,’ Miranda Sarmento told reporters in Brussels, referring to the previous energy price shock after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He said the current situation differed from 2022 as overall inflationary pressures are now far lower, with core inflation – excluding food and energy – running at around 2.2%.

Although the centre-right government holds only a minority of seats in parliament, the proposal is expected to be approved with the backing of the Socialist Party, which introduced the mechanism in 2022.

Lebanese president Joseph Aoun has said he is open to hosting soldiers from France and other European nations after the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) leaves at the end of the year.

He said on X that Lebanon ‘welcomes the willingness of France and other European countries to keep their forces in the south after the beginning of the withdrawal of UNIFIL, in order to help the Lebanese army maintain security and stability, provided that the framework under which these forces will operate is defined in consultation with the concerned countries and the United Nations.’

The IRGC has warned vessels in the Strait of Hormuz to only travel through approved routes, or else face a ‘decisive response.’

It said: ‘We warn all vessels that intend to transit the strait, the only safe route… is the corridor previously announced by Iran.

‘The diversion of vessels to other routes is unsafe and will face a decisive response from the IRGC Navy.’

A lawyer for the now-defunct Spirit Airlines today said that sharply higher jet fuel prices left ‘no remaining way out’ of bankruptcy and forced the budget carrier’s shutdown, as it seeks approval for an expedited plan to sell off assets and pay retention bonuses to remaining employees.

Marshall Huebner, a lawyer for the airline, said at a US Bankruptcy Court hearing that the airline learned on Thursday afternoon that the government financing initiative would not be proceeding and apologised to customers and the American public on behalf of the carrier.

The Trump administration had proposed a $500million bailout last month to help Spirit exit bankruptcy but faced objections from some creditors.

Huebner said that after the airline learned on Thursday that the government financing initiative would not be happening, the airline transported 50,000 passengers on Friday as it sought to wind down operations before it made the news public.

Global carriers are contending with surging jet fuel prices since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, in the air travel industry’s worst crisis since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Spirit was already struggling to turn a profit before the fuel shock and has faced $100million in incremental fuel costs since March 1.

He noted that the airline faced many hundreds of millions of dollars in high fuel costs for the rest of the year.

Spirit is seeking court approval to pay $10.7million in retention bonuses to employees who remain as the company ends operations – averaging $76,000 per participant – and will pay more to the top three executives but has not yet disclosed how much.

The US Trustee, the Justice Department’s bankruptcy watchdog, has raised concerns about the bonuses.

Spirit says it does not have money to conduct an organized auction of its aircraft, engines and other equipment, and is asking the court for permission for fast sales or to abandon and let the lenders repossess.

Donald Trump has said Iran will be on the agenda when he meets China’s Xi Jinping in Beijing next week.

He said: ‘I’ll be talking about that, that’ll be one subject. But, he’s been very nice about this.’