US-Iran War Highlights: Israel Continues To Attack Lebanon Despite 45-Day Ceasefire Deal, Hezbollah Hits Back

A fire broke out at an engine oil plant in northwestern Iran on Saturday, Reuters news agency reported citing Mehr news.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the incident.

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Iran and the West Asia crisis with his UAE counterpart Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, RIA cited the Kremlin as saying.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, in its latest update, said the cumulative toll from ongoing attacks by Israel between March 2 and May 16 has reached 2,969 killed and 9,112 wounded, Al Jazeera reported. 

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that artillery fire struck the area around the Sarbin junction in southern Lebanon.

The attack killed one person and wounded another, according to the report. 

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi arrived in Tehran for an unannounced visit to meet with Iranian officials, according to informed sources cited by IRNA, Iran’s official state news agency.

A diplomatic source in Islamabad told IRNA that Naqvi is expected to hold talks with several Iranian officials, including the interior minister. 

Israeli settlers have injured the head of Ras Karkar village council, west of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

Marwan Nawfal told the Wafa news agency that a group of settlers, protected by Israeli soldiers, stormed the entrance to the village, and two of them assaulted him with rifle butts, causing him moderate facial injuries, Al Jazeera reported. 

He added that he was later transferred to hospital for treatment.

At the same time, settlers assaulted Palestinians in the Wadi al-Rakhim area, west of Susya village, south of Hebron.

Local activist Osama Makhamra told Wafa that armed settlers, under the protection of soldiers, assaulted citizens and let their livestock graze on Palestinian crops.

Makhamra added said farmer Muhammad Shanaran suffered bruises and contusions in the attack, for which he received on-site treatment for.

Sri Lanka slapped a 50% surcharge on customs duties on vehicles on Saturday in a bid to discourage imports and ease currency pressure stemming from the West Asia conflict.

The increase in taxes comes as the local rupee has sharply depreciated since the start of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, which prompted retaliation by Tehran.

“Given the current pressure on foreign exchange, we want people to delay their imports [of vehicles] by three months,” Junior Finance Minister Anil Jayantha Fernando told reporters in Colombo, AFP reported. 

The United Arab Emirates on Saturday said its decision to exit from the OPEC was a sovereign and strategic choice based on a comprehensive assessment of its production policy and future capabilities. 

UAE energy minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said in a post on X that the move was not politically motivated and did not reflect divisions with partners.

The UAE’s decision to exit OPEC and OPEC is a sovereign strategic choice rooted in its long-term economic vision, evolving energy capabilities, and enduring commitment to global energy security.
This decision follows a comprehensive assessment of national production policy and…

— سهيل المزروعي (@HESuhail) May 16, 2026

Iranian state television said on Saturday that European countries were in talks with Tehran regarding the passage of ships through Strait of Hormuz. 

“Following the passage of ships from East Asian countries notably China, Japan and Pakistan we received information today indicating that Europeans have also begun negotiations with the Revolutionary Guards navy” to obtain permission to transit, state television reported, according to AFP.

Hezbollah said in a statement via its Telegram channel that it had carried out a drone strike targeting a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the southern Lebanese town of Khiam, Al Jazeera reported.

The attack came in response to what it described as Israeli violations of a ceasefire and attacks on villages that killed and wounded civilians.

Iran has prepared a mechanism to manage traffic through the Strait of Hormuz along a designated route and will announce the plan shortly, a senior Iranian politician said.

Ebrahim Azizi, who heads parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said only commercial ships and countries that cooperate with Tehran would be eligible to use the arrangement. He added that Iran would collect fees for specialised services provided under the mechanism. 

Most strikingly, he declared that "this route will remain closed to the operators of the so-called 'freedom project'" — a pointed reference widely understood to be aimed at US-led naval operations in the region, which Washington has framed as ensuring freedom of navigation.

Iran, within the framework of its national sovereignty and the guarantee of international trade security, has prepared a professional mechanism to manage traffic in the Strait of Hormuz along a designated route, which will be unveiled soon.

In this process, only commercial…

— ابراهیم عزیزی (@Ebrahimazizi33) May 16, 2026

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, has condemned Israel’s attacks on paramedics in Lebanon, following a drone attack that killed two Lebanese Civil Defence workers and wounded a third in the southern city of Nabatieh.

As per Al Jazeera, the attack occurred on May 12, as the three paramedics were attempting to assist an injured person who had survived a previous attack, MSF said in a statement. Paramedics from an ambulance that had departed from a nearby hospital witnessed the attack on their colleagues, later returning to the site to collect human remains.

“We are outraged over the killing of paramedics who were simply doing their job, taking huge risks to save lives,” said Jeremy Ristord, MSF head of mission in Lebanon. “Attacks on healthcare are unacceptable and must not be normalised.”

MSF said the incident is part of an alarming pattern of air attacks, drone attacks and artillery fire damaging hospitals, ambulances and medical equipment across southern Lebanon. The organisation noted that rescue teams are increasingly forced to delay or limit lifesaving interventions due to fear of being attacked.

Israeli warplanes have launched a raid on the town of al-Shahabiya in the Tyre district, southern Lebanon, Paletine's State run news agency Wafa reported.

An air raid was also reported in the area between the towns of Arnoun and Yohmor al-Shaqif.

US-Iran War Live Updates: Israel continues to attack Lebanon despite 45-day ceasefire pact

Israel has continued to attack Lebanon after Lebanese and Israeli negotiators agreed on Friday to a 45-day extension to an earlier "ceasefire", which was in name only and saw southern Lebanese towns and villages come under daily assaults, according to Al-Jazeera. More than a dozen people were killed, including three paramedics, in attacks on south Lebanon as the ceasefire talks in the United States were taking place.

US-Iran War Live Updates: China says war shouldn't have started

US President Donald Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed Tehran must reopen the Strait of Hormuz, though China gave no indication it would weigh in. Flying back from Beijing on Friday after two days of talks with Xi, Trump said he was considering whether to lift US sanctions on Chinese oil companies buying Iranian oil. China is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil.

"I'm not asking for any favors because when you ask for favors, you have to do favors in return," Trump said when asked by a reporter on Air Force One whether Xi had made a firm commitment to put pressure on the Iranians to reopen the vital strait. Xi did not comment on his discussions with Trump about Iran, although China's foreign ministry expressed frustration with the Iran war, calling it a conflict "which should never have happened, has no reason to continue."

US-Iran War Live Updates: No BRICS statement exposes divisions over war in Iran

Top diplomats from BRICS nations, including rivals Iran and the United Arab Emirates, failed to issue a joint statement on Friday after a two-day meeting in Delhi, leaving host India to release only a chair's statement that exposed their differences.

Tehran had wanted the grouping of emerging economies to condemn the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and accused U.S. ally the UAE of direct involvement in military operations against it. Iran has struck the UAE with missiles and drones several times since the war began on February 28.

"There were differing views among some members as regards the situation in the West Asia/Middle East region," India said in the statement and outcome document. Without naming the UAE, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told a news conference that a BRICS member blocked some parts of the statement.

"We have no difficulty with that certain country, they have not been our target in the current war. We only hit American military bases and American military installations which are unfortunately on their soil," he said, adding that he hoped things would change when BRICS leaders meet later this year.

US-Iran War Live Updates: US accuses Iraqi man of helping Iran

An Iraqi national accused of involvement in multiple attacks against U.S. interests in Europe has been arrested and brought to the U.S. to face six terrorism-related counts, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday. Prosecutors said the suspect, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, was a senior member of the Iran-backed militia Kata'ib Hezbollah and accused him of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

Al-Saadi is accused of coordinating or supporting nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the United States, "including his efforts to kill on U.S. soil," said US Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York in a statement.

The US government and independent experts say Kata'ib Hezbollah operates at the direction of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The charges come amid heightened US scrutiny of Iran-backed militias accused of targeting American personnel and allies across multiple regions amid the ongoing U.S. and Israeli war against Iran.

US-Iran War Live Updates: China called for a rapid reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a goal it shares with the US, though there was no sign of a breakthrough between the superpowers on how to achieve that after President Donald Trump's trip to Beijing.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday that the strait should be opened to shipping as soon as possible, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency. Both Iran and the US are blocking traffic through the crucial waterway for global energy flows.

The statement came as the world's two largest economies sought to emphasize points of agreement on the Middle East conflict during Trump's meetings with President Xi Jinping this week - even as they're essentially on opposite sides, with China repeatedly criticizing the US-Israeli attack on its Iranian ally. 

US-Iran War Live Updates: US may ask Israel to divert Palestinian tax money

The US is considering asking Israel to give some tax money it is withholding from the Palestinian Authority to Donald Trump's Board of Peace to fund the U.S. president's post-war plan for Gaza, five sources familiar with the matter told news agency Reuters.

The Trump administration has not yet decided whether to make a formal request to Israel, said three of the sources, officials with knowledge of U.S. deliberations with Israel.

The two other sources, Palestinians with knowledge of the deliberations, said that under the proposal a portion of the tax money would go to a U.S.-backed transitional government for Gaza and other funds to the PA if it makes reforms.

US-Iran War Live Updates: US President Donald Trump said Friday that American and Nigerian forces had killed a senior Islamic State group leader.

"Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield," Trump said on Truth Social.

"Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing."

US-Iran War Live Updates: Israel, Lebanon extend ceasefire by 45 days on conclusion of US talks

Israel and Lebanon agreed to a 45-day extension of a ceasefire that has tamped down the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, as two days of talks facilitated by Washington concluded on Friday with an agreement to hold further meetings in the coming weeks. Read Full Here

"The April 16 cessation of hostilities will be extended by 45 days to enable further progress," State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said on X, adding that the talks aimed at settling decades of conflict between the two countries were "highly productive." The ceasefire was set to expire on Sunday.

US-Iran War Live Updates: Welcome!

Hello and welcome to NDTV Profit's live coverage of the US-Israel-Iran geopolitical conflict on Saturday, May 16. Stay tuned to our live blog for all the latest updates on the US-Iran ceasefire talks, Trump-XI meeting, and other developments from the Middle East conflict throughout the day.