Iran rejects ceasefire and vows to fight on as Pete Hegseth guarantees they will ‘surrender’: Live updates

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on ’60 Minutes’ Sunday night that America is going to ‘make sure that their nuclear ambitions are never achieved,’ when asked about the operation in Iran.

‘We’re willing to go as far as we need to to be successful,’ he said.

When he was then asked about the option of sending boots on the ground, Hegseth said: ‘We reserve the right – we would be completely unwise if we did not reserve the right to take any particular option, whether it included boots on the ground or no boots on the ground.’

Hegseth was also asked what President Donald Trump meant when he said the US is demanding ‘unconditional surrender.’

”It means we’re fighting to win. It means we set the terms. We’ll know when they’re not capable of fighting. There’ll be a point where they’ll have no choice but to do that. Whether they know it or not, they will be combat-ineffective. They will surrender,’ he replied.

The Defense Secretary noted that Trump will ultimately set the terms of Iran’s surrender.

by Patrick Harrington

A spike in prices at the petrol pump is feared after the cost of a barrel of oil rocketed above $100 for the first time in four years.

An emergency meeting of the G7 has been called, where firefighting options including the release of all oil reserves will be discussed.

The Straight of Hormuz is at a standstill amid the Middle East conflict, which means there is major uncertainty hanging over short-term supply.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to ‘set ablaze’ any Western tanker that attempts to navigate the strait, meaning hundreds of ships laden with oil have amassed outside it.

For the first time since war broke out, the effect of the disruption was felt acutely this morning when the price of a barrel of Brent crude was up almost 24 percent.

About a fifth of the world’s oil supply is usually shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, but traffic through the narrow passage has all but halted since the war started a week ago.

This is the moment a fire broke out at Bahrain’s only oil refinery as Tehran continues to target energy sites across the Gulf.

Oil prices soared to more than $100 a barrel for the first time in four years today amid global fears over supply disruptions.

After Bahrain’s sprawling Al Ma’ameer oil facility was hit, causing a fire and damage, the country’s state-owned energy firm Bapco declared force majeure – the latest Gulf producer to activate the legal clause.

Energy producers in Qatar and Kuwait earlier made similar declarations, which are a warning that events beyond their control may lead them to miss export targets.

Vladimir Putin has backed Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

‘I would like to reaffirm our unwavering support for Tehran and solidarity with our Iranian friends,’ Putin said in a message to Khamenei, adding that ‘Russia has been and will remain a reliable partner’ to Iran.

‘At a time when Iran is confronting armed aggression, your tenure in this high position will undoubtedly require great courage and dedication,’ the Russian leader said.

Iran has downplayed the likelihood of a ceasefire while Tehran is under attack, Iran’s Student News Network has reported.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said there is ‘no point to talks about anything’ barring defence and ‘crushing retaliations’ against its ‘enemies’.

Baghaei then reiterated Tehran has no war to fight with its Muslim neighbours but must target ‘facilities used by aggressors’.

The foreign ministry spokesperson also denied any Iranian attack against Turkey, Azerbaijan and Cyprus, pointing instead at what he called ‘false flag attacks.’

Israel’s first responders said one person was killed by shrapnel as several blasts rocked central Israel today.

It comes after the military reported detecting new missiles launched from Iran.

‘After performing resuscitation efforts, we had to pronounce the death of a man, approximately 40 years old,’ Magen David Adom said in a statement, adding that the death occurred at a construction site in central Israel.

It added that another man was seriously injured and evacuated for treatment, with both casualties having sustained ‘several shrapnel injuries to their bodies’.

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to protect Brits from the the economic impact of the Iran war as oil prices soared to more than $100 a barrel.

The Prime Minister warned longer conflict goes on ‘the more likely the impact on our economy’ as he met with members of the public.

Sir Keir said: ‘People are also rightly worrying what this means for life at home – their bills, their jobs, their communities.

‘I want to address those concerns head on. I will always be guided by what is best for the British public. And no matter the headwinds, supporting working people and their families with the cost of living is always top of my mind.’

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son has been wounded in the Iran war, it emerged today after he was named as the country’s new Supreme Leader.

Mojtaba, 56, the second son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was excluded from a list of three senior clerics his father reportedly identified last year, but on Sunday was announced as his successor after being appointed by the regime’s 88-person assembly.

The ‘vengeful’ hardline cleric is already marked for assassination by Israel after it vowed to ‘eliminate’ whoever succeded the late Ayatollah, having killed him and Mojtaba’s wife Zahra Haddad-Adel in strikes on the first day of the conflict.

In one report on his ascension to Supreme Leader on Iranian state TV, it refers to him as being wounded in the war.

The anchor describes him as ‘janbaz’, or wounded by the enemy, in the ‘Ramadan war,’ which is how media in Iran refer to the current conflict.

It does not elaborate on how he was injured, although his wife and father were killed in Israeli strikes on Tehran.

by Eliana Silver

Iran has unleashed a huge attack overnight on countries in the Gulf, with Bahrain experiencing the highest number of casualties since the beginning of the war.

32 people were injured in an Iranian attack on Bahrain’s island of Sitra, the interior ministry said, after Bahrain’s Bapco refinery was hit by drones overnight.

All of the wounded were Bahraini citizens and there were four ‘serious cases’, including children, the health ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency.

The wounded included a 17-year-old girl who suffered severe head and eye injuries, and a two-month-old baby, according to the ministry.

‘As a result of the blatant Iranian aggression, injuries among citizens were reported, one of them serious, and a number of houses in Sitra were damaged as a result of an attack by drones,’ the ministry said.

by James Tapsfield and Patrick Harrington

Brits could face the highest ever pump prices as the Middle East crisis sends energy bills spiralling.

Experts have warned that petrol could hit £2 a litre for the first time, amid a staggering spike in global oil costs.

Keir Starmer is desperately trying to calm fears of another 2022-style cost of living squeeze, hinting at another bailout despite the fragile state of the government’s finances. He is also scrambling to limit damage to the Special Relationship from his refusal to back Donald Trump’s decision to launch the war on Iran.

The president has dismissed the soaring oil and gas prices saying they are a ‘small price to pay’ for taming Tehran.

The price of a barrel of oil has rocketed over $100 for the first time in years, with supplies threatened by attacks on infrastructure of major producers in the region.

Iran has also managed to effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which around a fifth of the world’s oil travels.

Iranians living abroad could have property confiscated and face other legal penalties if they express support for the United States and Israel, the Iranian prosecutor general’s office has said.

Some Iranians who want political change in Tehran took to the streets of European and American cities to celebrate the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the US-Israeli war against Iran.

‘A warning has been issued to those Iranians living abroad who in different ways sympathize, support or cooperate with the American-Zionist (Israeli) enemy,’ the prosecutor general’s office was quoted as saying by state media.

‘They will be met with the confiscation of all their properties and other legal penalties in accordance with the law.’

Newly established channels on Telegram have shared details of prominent Iranians living abroad who have posted comments critical of Iran’s clerical authorities and supportive of the U.-Israeli military campaign that began on February 28.

Up to 5 million Iranians live abroad, the majority of them in the United States and Western Europe, according to Iranian government data. Iranian media put their numbers closer to 10 million.

Qatari authorities have arrested more than 300 people for sharing images and ‘misleading information’ during days of attacks by Iran, the interior ministry has said.

The people arrested ‘filmed and circulated video clips and published misleading information and rumours that could stir public opinion’, a statement said.

The people of various nationalities were held by the Department for Combating Economic and Cyber Crimes at the ministry’s General Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

The announcement follows a spate of arrests elsewhere in the region.

In Bahrain, four people were arrested for ‘filming and broadcasting clips about the effects of Iranian attacks and spreading false news’, the interior ministry said on Friday.

And in Kuwait, authorities on Saturday said three people had been arrested over a video showing them mocking the situation in the country.

Residents in the United Arab Emirates have received text messages warning of possible legal action for sharing sensitive images or ‘reposting unreliable information’.