Issued on: 01/05/2026 - 05:13Modified: 02/05/2026 - 07:06
The US Treasury on Friday warned shippers not to pay tolls to Iran for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, including charitable donations to organisations such as the Iranian Red Crescent Society, as the US Navy maintains a blockade to prevent Iran’s oil tankers from getting out to sea. Read about the day’s events as they unfolded on our liveblog.
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Middle East war's impact on shipping hitting refugee aid, says UNHCR
The UN refugee agency on Friday said the Middle East war had sent its freight rates soaring, hitting the delivery of aid to refugees in the wider region and Africa.
Shipping rates from UNHCR's three main source countries for emergency supplies -- India, Pakistan and China -- have shot up by nearly 18 percent, the agency said, while delivery delays and port congestion are also having an impact.
Every extra dollar spent on fuel and higher war-risk shipping insurance premiums is a dollar less that can be spent in the field, UNHCR added.
"The Middle East crisis has generated far-reaching ripple effects well beyond the region, with growing consequences for global humanitarian supply chains and the delivery of aid," spokeswoman Carlotta Wolf told a press conference in Geneva.
14 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard killed by an explosion of bomb remnants, state TV reports.
Getting around the 60-day US Congressional approval of war mark
The US war on Iran will cross the 60-day mark at midnight on May 1, when under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, the US president needs Congressional authorisation for the use of force.
But the date is set to pass without any action in both Republican-majority houses as the two chambers continue to defer to the White House.
The law was passed during the Vietnam war and no US president has ever applied it, explains FRANCE 24’s Philip Turle.
President Donald Trump has shown no interest in seeking congressional approval for the war in Iran.
“In theory, Congress should have a vote on whether or not the war should continue. What the Trump administration is saying is, well, we've won the war already, and we've imposed a ceasefire. So that 60-day period does no longer exist,” explains Turle.
Lebanon says six killed in Israeli strikes on southern town
Six people, including a woman and a child, were killed Friday in Israeli strikes on a town in southern Lebanon, said the Lebanese health ministry.
The Israel's army issued an evacuation order for the town of Habboush despite a ceasefire.
The ministry statement said eight other people including a woman and a child were wounded in the two strikes on Habboush, where an AFP photographer saw clouds of smoke rising after the raids.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported unspecified casualties in Habboush after Israeli warplanes "launched a series of heavy strikes... less than an hour after warning" residents to evacuate.
Imprisoned Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi transferred to hospital
Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has been urgently transferred from prison to a hospital in northwestern Iran after a “catastrophic deterioration” of her health, her foundation said Friday.
The Narges Mohammadi Foundation said the Nobel Prize laureate had two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis.
Earlier Friday, Mohammadi had fainted twice in prison in Zanjan northwestern Iran, according to the foundation. She was believed to have suffered a heart attack in late March, according to her lawyers who visited her a few days after the incident. At the time, she appeared pale, had lost weight and needed a nurse to help her walk.
The hospital transfer comes “after 140 days of systematic medical neglect,” since her arrest on Dec. 12, the foundation said.
Trump repeats that oil prices will fall after Iran war ends
President Donald Trump has repeated his prediction that oil and gas prices would fall when the Iran war ends.
Chinese envoy says Strait of Hormuz high on agenda if closed when Trump visits
China's UN ambassador Fu Cong has told reporters that he is sure that the Strait of Hormuz issue will be high on the agenda if the waterway is still closed when US President Donald Trump visits China this month.
Trump has told reporters at the White House that he believes his upcoming visit to China will be great and that he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump says he is not satisfied with Iran's latest proposal
President Donald Trump has told reporters that he is not satisfied with Iran's latest proposal for resolving the conflict and that negotiations were taking place by phone.
US Treasury warns shippers not to pay Hormuz tolls, even in form of charity
Any shippers paying tolls to Iran for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, including charitable donations to organisations such as the Iranian Red Crescent Society, are at risk of punitive sanctions, the US Treasury warned on Friday.
The advisory, from Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), said the US is aware of Iranian threats to shipping and demands for payments to receive safe passage through the Strait.
OFAC said demands may include several payment options, including fiat currency, digital assets, offsets, informal swaps, or other in-kind payments, such as nominally charitable donations made to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Bonyad Mostazafan, or Iranian embassy accounts.
"OFAC is issuing this alert to warn U.S. and non-U.S. persons about the sanctions risks of making these payments to, or soliciting guarantees from, the Iranian regime for safe passage," it said. "These risks exist regardless of payment method."
Tehran has proposed fees or tolls on vessels passing through the Strait, as part of proposals to end the war with Israel and the US.
The warning came as Iran sent its latest proposal for negotiations with the US to Pakistani mediators. Details of the new proposal have not been released.
White House declines to comment on new Iran proposal
The White House has said it will not detail private diplomatic conversations when asked about Iran's new proposal to the US that was submitted to Pakistani mediators.
"We do not detail private diplomatic conversations. President Trump has been clear that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon, and negotiations continue to ensure the short-and long-term national security of the United States,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Reuters.
Hezbollah says reinforced fighters in south Lebanon despite disarmament
Hezbollah has brought reinforcements and weapons to southern Lebanon since the start of the war with Israel on March 2, according to the group's head of media relations.
In an interview with a group of journalists, Youssef Al Zein said the group had been able to "introduce forces and arms in the course of the battle" with Israel.
Zein said the reinforcements did not use roads controlled by the Lebanese army.
He said that if Israel had been able to penetrate deeper into Lebanese territory it was because Hezbollah had been disarmed south of the Litani river, which runs around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border, and its infrastructure there, including tunnels, destroyed.
Nevertheless, he insisted that Hezbollah was able to "reconstitute its forces" after the last war with Israel, and that it was "prepared for a long battle".
Israel announced on April 7 that it had completed the deployment of its ground forces in southern Lebanon and would maintain a 10-kilometre-deep "security zone".
The Lebanese army said in January it had finished disarming the group near the Israeli border in southern Lebanon.
But Zein said the Lebanese army was a "national army" and the group was sure it "will not enter into a confrontation with Hezbollah".
Israeli police arrest a man suspected of attacking a nun near Jerusalem’s Old City
Israeli police say they have arrested a 36-year-old caught on video attacking a nun in the latest incident targeting Christians near Jerusalem's Old City.
Police said the unnamed man was arrested after the attack Wednesday near David’s Tomb — a holy site outside Zion’s Gate on the southern side of the Old City — “on suspicion of a racially motivated attack,” and remained in custody.
Police video showed the nun bruised and the attacker wearing tzitzit, a fringed undergarment worn by some observant Jewish men.
The arrest comes as Israeli treatment of religious minorities is under scrutiny, weeks after police limited access for holiday worship to Muslims as well as Christians, up to Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
India raises cooking gas, jet fuel prices
India has raised the prices of commercial liquified petroleum gas and jet fuel for international airlines, according to a state-run energy firm, as supply pressures from the Iran war mount.
The South Asian nation is heavily dependent on imported energy, including for roughly 60 percent of its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the fuel used for cooking by a vast section of its population, the largest in the world.
As imports have been disrupted since the Middle East war began in late February, New Delhi has moved to ensure households and essential sectors remain adequately supplied, leaving many restaurants, manufacturers and power plants in the lurch.
The government has maintained India faces no overall fuel shortage.
"Prices of bulk and commercial LPG cylinders have been revised," the state-run Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), the country's leading energy marketing company, said.
IOCL's price chart shows an increase of 993 rupees ($10.50) in the price of a 19-kilogramme LPG cylinder meant for commercial use.
Iran delivered new proposal for US talks to Pakistan, Iranian state media reports
Iran delivered its new proposal for US talks to Pakistan on Thursday, Iranian state media reports.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran delivered the text of its latest negotiating proposal to Pakistan, as the mediator in talks with the United States, on Thursday evening," the official IRNA news agency reported, without elaborating.
It was not immediately clear what was included in the new proposal.
Pakistan, which shares a 900-kilometer border with Iran, is facilitating indirect talks between Washington and Tehran aimed at easing tensions.
Iran and the US held a single round of talks in Islamabad against the backdrop of a fragile ceasefire following nearly 40 days of war that broke out on February 28.
Talks have since stalled as the US imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, while Iran has kept the key Strait of Hormuz largely closed, allowing only a trickle of ships through the waterway since the start of the war.
On Friday, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held phone calls with counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Iraq, and Azerbaijan on the latest "initiatives of the Islamic republic to end the war," according to a ministry statement.
Has Trump missed the deadline for congressional approval for the Iran war?
FRANCE 24 international affairs editor Kethevane Gorjestani breaks down the timeline leading up to the 60-day deadline for US President Donald Trump to secure congressional approval for the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Israeli authorities taking 2 activists who led a Gaza-bound flotilla to Israel for questioning
Israeli authorities say they are taking two activists who led an aid flotilla bound for Gaza – and who were captured by Israel in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea – to Israel for questioning.
The activists, Palestinian-Spanish citizen Saif Abukeshek and Brazilian citizen Thiago Avila, were among dozens of activists intercepted by the Israeli navy off the coast of Crete. They are members of the Global Sumud Flotilla's steering committee, whose mission was to break Israel's naval blockade and bring some humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory.
Israeli officials said they needed to take early action against the flotilla before it reached Israeli waters because of the high number of boats involved.
According to the Global Sumud Flotilla, 175 activists are now in Crete
"Following the attack on the flotilla, 175 activists were taken to the Greek island of Crete to face deportation proceedings.
The Turkish nationals among the activists are expected to arrive at Istanbul Airport between 5:00pm and 6:00pm today."
Iran judiciary chief says Tehran open to US talks but against policy 'imposition'
"The Islamic Republic has never shied away from negotiations... but we certainly do not accept imposition," Ejei said in a video carried by the judiciary's Mizan Online website.
"We do not welcome war in any way; we do not want war, we do not want its continuation," he said.
He however insisted that Iran was "absolutely not willing to abandon our principles and values in the face of this malicious enemy in order to avoid war or prevent its continuation".
63rd day of internet blackout in Iran
Activists on Gaza aid flotilla detained by Israel disembark in Crete
Dozens of activists on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla which was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off Crete disembarked in the Greek island, an AFP journalist saw.
Escorted by Greek coast guards, some 175 activists were taken in four buses to a town whose name was not disclosed by the authorities.
Israel's foreign ministry earlier said around 175 activists had been taken off more than 20 boats on Thursday. Flotilla organisers put the number at 211.
"In coordination with the Greek government, the individuals transferred from the flotilla vessels to the Israeli vessel will be disembarked on a Greek beach in the coming hours," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X late Thursday, thanking Greece "for its willingness to receive the flotilla participants".
Several European governments with nationals among those arrested have called on Israel to free the activists and called its action a flagrant contravention of international law.
Yesterday's key developments:
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
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