Morning update

Good Morning Middle East Eye readers, If you are just joining us, here are key developments from across the region and beyond: * Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher has said the country must be prepared for war even as it negotiates with the United States, accusing Washington of "making promises and then breaking them". * US President Donald Trump has reiterated that the war on Iran will end “very soon”, while claiming Washington was in "total control" of the Strait of Hormuz. * The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has intercepted and destroyed an incoming drone over Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, spokesperson Major General Turki al-Maliki said in a post on X. * The Yemeni army says more than 200 Houthi fighters were killed or injured during fighting in the southwestern province of Taiz. * The US military said on Wednesday it destroyed an Iranian-affiliated vessel last week that it alleged was conducting surveillance and targeting US Navy ships in the Gulf of Oman. * Palestinian officials said Israeli strikes killed four people in Gaza on Wednesday, days after the anniversary of the declaration of a US-mediated ceasefire. * Australia and New Zealand have updated their travel advisories for Saudi Arabia, while Japan advised its citizens against non-essential travel to the kingdom. * The United Kingdom's new global sanctions regime against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank came into effect on Thursday. * Israeli forces have killed 1,501 Palestinians since the October 2025 “ceasefire”, Gaza's health ministry says. * United Nations deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq has said that partner organisations have called on Israel to "stop the crackdown on Palestinian civic space", after Israeli forces raided the premises of Palestinian civil society organizations and a medical complex in Ramallah. * The Houthis have claimed they targeted a Saudi military aircraft, a Eurofighter Typhoon, with an air-to-air missile in the airspace over Yemen’s Saada governorate. * The European Union called on Iran-aligned Houthi forces to lift their siege on Yemen’s southwestern city of Taiz to allow the entry of humanitarian aid. * X suspends more than 13,000 accounts involved in three suspected foreign influence operations, linked to Iran, Russia and China, that targeted US “political conversation”. * Irish author Sally Rooney can no longer sell her books in the UK because of her support for the activist group Palestine Action, her publisher Faber said Wednesday.