Iran’s Defence Ministry said weapons and defence equipment production has doubled over the past year despite Israeli strikes during the 12-day war. A ministry spokesperson said some limited and specific parts of Iran’s defence industry were targeted during the conflict, but production continued to expand.

NATO’s top commander convened a videoconference earlier this week to facilitate possible contributions to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, his spokesperson told Reuters, adding that this is not a NATO mission.

“Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe hosted a meeting of interested Allies at the chief of defence level on Wednesday, 19 Aug 26, in order to facilitate their possible contributions to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” a spokesperson for the alliance’s top commander U.S. Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich said on Friday.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said his government would continue efforts to secure the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon and the return of Lebanese prisoners to their towns and villages, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

Salam visited the southern city of Tyre and met soldiers deployed there after Israeli troops withdrew from the area, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

Speaking at the Benoit Barakat Barracks, Salam said Beirut was seeking international support for the Lebanese army and other security forces amid what he called “Israeli aggression”.

“Strengthening the army is not a secondary item in our government’s programme, nor is it a technical matter; it is a strategic choice at the heart of our project to restore the state,” he said.

Defence Minister Michel Mansour, who also addressed troops in Tyre, said the Lebanese army would continue its efforts to restore “the sovereignty of the state and every inch of our land”.

Lebanese troops and other security agencies are also clearing mines from areas previously occupied by Israeli forces and helping displaced residents return to their homes.

A civilian’s home in Lebanon was targeted by Israel’s defence forces, reported Al Jazeera. At the time of publishing it was not clear if anyone died in the incident.

A civilian’s home in Lebanon was targeted by Israel’s defence forces, reported Al Jazeera. At the time of publishing it was not clear if anyone died in the incident.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said military power alone could not ensure Iran’s survival if its people faced hunger and the economy remained weak, Iran International reported.

“No matter how much military power we have, if people are hungry and we don’t have financial circulation, economic growth and domestic production, we will not endure,” Ghalibaf said at a meeting with Iranian and Iraqi business figures at Iran’s embassy in Baghdad on Thursday.

Ghalibaf said economic stability was essential to maintaining security, warning that military security could not last without a functioning economy.

“Security and the economy require each other,” he said, adding that security would not endure without economic support.

Ghalibaf also said Iran was neither seeking nor advocating war, but needed to remain militarily prepared to make diplomacy effective. His comments have come after Trump’s threat of imposing on Iran their “toughest sanctions” yet.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.3% on Friday, putting it on track for its worst weekly performance in more than a month as uncertainty over the Iran war pushed oil prices higher, Reuters reported.

The index was down about 4% for the week by the midday break, its biggest weekly decline since the week ending July 17.

The broader Topix index fell 0.1% and was heading for a 3.4% weekly decline.

Western-backed Yemeni forces and Iran-backed Yemeni force, the Houthis, have continued to engage each other in fighting at several fronts of this expanding war in the already war-ravaged nation, Saudi Arabia-based Al Hadath reported.

Houthis control the all-important, and most populous western regions of Yemen. The West-backed forces control sparsely populated fringe regions in the East and South of the country.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has condemned Israel’s decision to issue a tender for more than 1,200 housing units in the occupied West Bank as part of the E1 settlement project.

Anwar said the area east of Jerusalem was crucial to the viability of a future Palestinian state and warned that construction there could divide the West Bank and undermine the prospects of a contiguous Palestinian homeland.

Israeli warplanes carried out a series of overnight air strikes in southern Lebanon, targeting Ali al-Tahir Hill, the area between Al-Dabsheh Hill and Douhat Kfar Roummane, and the northern outskirts of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

The strikes were accompanied by artillery shelling in the area, including on Ali al-Tahir Hill, NNA said.

The expiry of a 25-year gas deal has changed the Iran-Turkey energy relationship, giving Ankara more supply options while Tehran risks losing one of its most reliable export markets, writes Umud Shokri for Iran International.

Iranian professor Mostafa Khoshcheshm was quoted by Al Jazeera saying Iran is self-sufficient enough to withstand the loss of the limited economic support it receives from abroad.

His comments came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday that Washington plans to impose “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran.

Aisha Wahab, the first Muslim woman elected to the California state Senate, has won the special election for California’s 14th Congressional District.

Wahab defeated transit official Melissa Hernandez to succeed former Congressman Eric Swalwell.

Her victory came despite millions of dollars in outside spending against her campaign in the final weeks of the race.

Super PACs primarily affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent heavily on advertisements opposing Wahab and supporting Hernandez.

AIPAC’s United Democracy Project spent US Dollars 1.2 million in August alone to oppose Wahab, while another affiliated group spent US Dollars 1.7 million on the race. Wahab remained the frontrunner despite being significantly outspent.

Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell on Thursday amid rising safety concerns in the Middle East, as US-Iran peace talks remain stalled, Reuters reported.

Preliminary data from ship-tracking firm Kpler showed that seven commodity vessels passed through the waterway on Thursday, down from 14 the previous day. Four of Thursday’s vessels were entering the Gulf, while three were exiting.

United States’ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant on Thursday urged its rival China to participate in the sanctions regime they have implemented against the Islamic Republic of Iran. “Keep in mind, the Chinese get 50 per cent of their energy from the Gulf. So, it would do them a big service to get with the programme,” he was quoted saying by CNBC.

The USS Abraham Lincoln is leaving the Middle East after an approximately nine-month deployment and is heading back to its home port in San Diego, CBS News reported. The carrier, which has around 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard, had its mission extended after the Iran war began in February and has served as a launch point for thousands of aircraft sorties supporting US strikes.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday said Washington will impose the “toughest sanctions in history” on Iran, suggesting that maximum economic pressure could reduce the need for another major military operation.

“If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart,” Bessent told CNBC, referring to the use of military force.

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The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned the United States’ latest economic sanctions against Tehran, calling them “economic terrorism” and “crimes against humanity” while accusing the US of continuing a decades-long policy of hostility towards the Iranian people.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Ministry said the new sanctions announced by the US were “another indication of the continuation of 73 years of hostility and animosity by US policymakers toward the Iranian people.”

“The US ruling establishment has announced the imposition of sweeping economic and trade sanctions against the Iranian people, coinciding with the anniversary of the disgraceful coup d’etat of 28 Mordad 1332 (19 August 1953). This action is not only another indication of the continuation of 73 years of hostility and animosity by US policymakers toward the Iranian people, but also further demonstrates the anti-human, lawless and hegemonic nature of the US ruling establishment,” the statement read.

The Trump administration on Thursday imposed new sanctions on Hezbollah and redesignated the group as an Iranian proxy. The US Treasury Department announced sanctions on 10 individuals alleged to be “part of a network responsible for transferring cash” to Hezbollah.

According to the Treasury Department, the network used couriers travelling on commercial airline flights between Lebanon, Turkiye, the UAE and Iran to move large amounts of money across jurisdictions.

“The network utilizes couriers travelling on commercial airline flights between Lebanon, Turkiye, the UAE, and Iran to move up to hundreds of millions of dollars between jurisdictions, providing an avenue outside the formal financial system for Hizballah to obtain foreign currency and evade sanctions,” the Treasury said in a statement.

US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday (local time) said economic pressure remains the “most effective tool” available to Washington against Iran, while describing the approach as a “delicate dance”.

Speaking to CNN, Vance said the US could use economic measures to influence Tehran but warned that such pressure could also have wider consequences. “The most effective tool that we have is the economic pressure we can apply to them. And this is a delicate dance, because we apply economic pressure to them, they’re going to try to apply economic pressure to us,” Vance said, according to CNN.

“What has been true over the last couple of weeks is they have felt a lot more pressure than we have,” he added.