Europe ‘really wants to keep NATO alive’, says German chancellor
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that Europe wants to work to keep the NATO alliance functioning, despite apparent growing fissures with the US president over the war on Iran.
The tensions have increased after Germany and other European countries refused to support the US and Israeli war against Iran.
“We are really willing to keep this alliance alive for the future,” Merz said news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
“We know that there are some differences. We know that we are seeing challenges, all of us, but our final goal is to bring this conflict to an end and to guarantee that Iran is not able to produce nuclear weapons,” Merz said.
“And this goal is a common goal between America and Europe.”
UK’s HMS Dragon warship to redeploy to Middle East for potential role in Hormuz
A British Royal Navy warship is being sent to the Middle East to be ready to join an international mission to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, according to a Defence Ministry spokesperson quoted by the Press Association news agency.
“We can confirm that HMS Dragon will deploy to the Middle East to pre-position ahead of any future multinational mission to protect international shipping when conditions allow them to transit the Strait of Hormuz,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
“The pre-positioning of HMS Dragon is part of prudent planning that will ensure that the UK is ready, as part of a multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and France, to secure the strait, when conditions allow,” they added.
HMS Dragon is being sent from the eastern Mediterranean, where it had been defending British bases on Cyprus.
Israel will release two foreign activists abducted from a Gaza-bound flotilla later today, before handing them to immigration authorities for deportation, the rights group representing them has said.
“Today, the Shabak Israeli intelligence agency informed Adalah’s legal team that Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) activists and leaders Thiago Avila and Saif Abukeshek would be released from Israeli detention today, Saturday 9 May 2026,” Adalah said in a statement.
It added the pair “will be handed to Israel’s immigration authorities later today and kept in custody pending their deportation”.
Spanish national Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian Thiago Avila were abducted and brought to Israel for questioning last week after their flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters off Greece.
The package will help the country confront the economic difficulties stemming from the US-Israeli war on Iran, says Stephane Guimbert, the World Bank’s division director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti.
The package, consisting of $800m from the World Bank and a $200m British guarantee, is to support private sector-led job creation, macroeconomic stability and the green transition. The bank’s board approved it on Friday.
The bank’s share was increased from $500m due to “the uncertainty in the region and the shock facing Egypt, like other countries, because of the war in Iran”, he said.
The financing is on terms unavailable in commercial markets – at about 6 percent interest, with a maturity of 30 years and a grace period before repayments begin, Guimbert said.
The operation is the second in a three-part programme. The first was approved in June 2024; a third is planned for next year.
Other lenders, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, are expected to provide complementary parallel financing.
We have been speaking with Muhaned Seloom, an assistant professor of international politics at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, on the road ahead for Iran and the US over the ongoing hostilities in the region.
Seloom noted that Washington has gone from a diplomatic approach to war and back to talks now.
“Today, the US says that we have achieved some military success, and that we want to translate this somehow into a diplomatic success, and the Iranians are pushing back,” he said.
However, while Seloom underlined that the US started the war, Washington still possesses balance between deterrence, offensive capabilities and diplomacy.
Iran, on the other side, does not have many cards, except their control of the Strait of Hormuz, he said.
“Iran now is much weaker than before the war started in February,” Seloom told Al Jazeera. “There is a difference between surviving a war and succeeding in the war.”
While Tehran prefers a diplomatic path, he said, Iran is not willing to return to the status quo without getting “something more” out of the US.
What is China’s role in the US-Israel war on Iran?
Muhanad Seloom, an assistant professor of international politics at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says the US-Israel war on Iran has affected China’s economic as well as strategic interests.
Seloom told Al Jazeera that Beijing did not intervene to back Iran in the war, given the “very costly” risks of consequences. However, it could not leave Iran alone, either, and let “the international system look as if it’s only the US acting in it”.
“China has already exercised its right of vetoing,” Seloom said, referring to earlier resolutions tabled in the UN Security Council, cornering Iran on its handling of the Strait of Hormuz.
“I do not see China supporting Iran in terms of military capabilities for the time being. But maybe some companies, which have been sanctioned by the US, have provided Iran with technical support,” Seloom added.
The war against Iran that the United States and Israel launched on February 28, 2026, will likely end in a retreat. The US cannot continue the war without producing disastrous consequences. A renewed escalation would likely lead to the destruction of the region’s oil, gas, and desalination infrastructure, causing a prolonged global catastrophe. Iran can credibly impose costs that the US cannot bear and that the world should not suffer.
The US-Israel war plan was a decapitation strike, sold to President Donald Trump by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and David Barnea, the director of the Mossad. The premise was that an aggressive joint US-Israeli bombing campaign would so degrade the Iranian regime’s command structure, nuclear programme, and IRGC senior leadership that the regime would fracture. The US and Israel would then impose a pliable government in Tehran.
Trump seems to have been convinced that Iran would follow the same course as had occurred in Venezuela. The US operation in Venezuela in January 2026 removed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in what appears to have been a coordinated operation between the CIA and elements inside the Venezuelan state. The US won a more pliant regime, while most of the Venezuelan power structure remained in place. Trump seems to have believed naively that the same outcome would occur in Iran.
We are receiving new information on the previously reported Israeli drone attack in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh.
A young girl, who was previously reported as injured, has died at the Nabih Berri Governmental University Hospital in Nabatieh, after she and her father were targeted in a triple-tap drone attack, according to the country’s National News Agency.
The father was reported killed on the spot in the attack, the agency earlier said, adding that the victims were riding on a motorcycle near al-Sabah High School when the first drone attack struck them, followed by two more.
Iran’s football federation (FFIRI) has said that the men’s national team will take part in the 2026 World Cup this summer, but demanded that joint hosts the United States, Mexico and Canada agree to its conditions amid the US-Israeli war on the country.
The call comes after Canada refused entry to the federation’s chief last month before the FIFA Congress because of his links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the ideological arm of Iran’s military, which it designated as a “terror” group in 2024.
Iran’s presence at the tournament, which will take place between June 11 and July 19, has been shrouded in uncertainty since the eruption of war on Iran in February.
“We will definitely participate in the 2026 World Cup, but the hosts must take our concerns into account,” the FFIRI said on its official website. “We will participate in the World Cup tournament, but without any retreat from our beliefs, culture, and convictions.”
The FFIRI president Mehdi Taj told state TV on Friday that Tehran has 10 conditions for attending the global spectacle, seeking assurances over the country’s treatment. The conditions include visas being granted and respect for the national team staff, the team’s flag and its national anthem during the tournament, as well as demands for high security at airports, hotels and routes to the stadiums where they will play.
Iran’s near-total internet blackout enters 11th week
A nationwide near-total internet blackout imposed by the Iranian authorities has entered its 11th week, according to the monitoring group NetBlocks.
“The censorship measure presents an extraordinary barrier to knowledge, information and communications for Iranians trying to go about their daily lives,” the group said in a post on X.
The heavily restricted internet has affected jobs and businesses across the country.
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