🇱🇧🇮🇱⚡️- “We did not seek permission from any party to enter Lebanon, and we do not need permission to remain in Lebanon. We will continue to remain in the security zone in Lebanon and operate from within it as long as necessary until Hezbollah is disarmed throughout Lebanon and the threat to the residents of the north is removed.” - Israel Katz, Israeli Defence Minister.

🇳🇿🇦🇺🇫🇯⚡- New Zealand is considering joining the Ocean of Peace Alliance, a mutual defense pact signed by Australia and Fiji to counter China's aggressive expansionism in the Indo-Pacific.

🇮🇷🇧🇭⚡️- Explosions in Manama, the capital of Bahrain.

Interceptions are reported.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- Explosions are reported in Bushehr, southern Iran. Possible US strikes against the city.

🇲🇱⚡️- According to Malian outlets, the second FAMa+Africa Corps convoy from Gao headed to Anéfis has encountered FLA+JNIM forces near Tabankort.

🇸🇦🇮🇱⚡- Amichai Stein of The Jerusalem Post recently reported, citing two sources, that Saudi Arabia is seeking to side-line Israel from the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) through a series of infrastructure projects collectively referred to as the "Peace Railways." The plan would reroute the corridor through Syria instead of Israel, bypassing the Israeli land bridge altogether.

The Peace Railways project, more commonly known as the Hejaz Railway, is an Ankara-backed geopolitical infrastructure initiative aimed at restoring Turkey's influence across the Middle East while expanding its reach through Syria. Building upon the original Ottoman-era Hejaz Railway, the proposed network would stretch from Istanbul to the Port of Salalah in Oman via Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Much of the required railway infrastructure already exists at the national level, with Syria representing the largest missing link. Once completed, the network would provide a continuous overland corridor linking the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Gulf and the Arabian Sea.

While Stein noted that the project would bypass Israel, he missed that it would also reduce the strategic role of another key IMEC participant, the United Arab Emirates, by shifting the principal ship-to-land gateways towards Oman and, more recently, Yemen. Following developments in eastern Yemen last year between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, discussions have once again resumed between the Yemeni government and the Saudi Kingdom over a proposed railway linking the Port of al-Mukallah, the capital of the Hadhramaut Governorate, with the wider regional network.

Both the western route towards the Red Sea and the southern route towards the Gulf converge in Damascus, making the Syrian capital the critical junction of the entire network. Control of Damascus would therefore place Syria at the center of overland trade between Europe and the Gulf—and, by extension, India—effectively giving the Syrian government the key to the IMEC and considerable leverage over one of the world's most important emerging trade corridors.

However, the principal route via Riyadh is currently inoperable due to the conflict in As Suwaida, through which it passes. Druze militias controlling parts of the governorate have taken an anti-Damascus position and have, ironically, been funded and armed by Israel and the United Arab Emirates, threatening the Ankara-Riyadh railway project's most strategically important corridor.

Note, on Rerum Novarum's map, red lines denote existing railway infrastructure, while blue lines indicate proposed railway routes.

🇮🇷⚡- Explosions heard in the Bushehr countryside and the city of Bandar Abbas, southern Iran.

🇯🇴🇮🇷⚡️- Sirens activated in Jordan.

🇯🇴🇮🇷⚡️- 2-3 Ballistic missiles were launched towards Jordan, likely towards Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, which hosts US troops.

🇯🇴🇮🇷⚡️- Explosions heard over eastern Jordan, likely interceptions.

🇯🇴🇮🇷⚡️- Additional ballistic missile launch from Iran towards Jordan.

🇯🇴🇮🇷⚡- Air defenses are active over Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- Reports of US strikes on Bushehr, Iran.

🇯🇴🇮🇷 - Additional scenes from the latest Iranian attack on Jordan.

Footage shows air defenses operating over Muwaffaq Salti Air Base.

🇺🇸🇮🇷 - "The perimeter of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant was hit by American enemy projectiles," - Bushehr's Deputy Governor's Office.

🇺🇸🇮🇶⚡- Sirens at the U.S. Taji Air Base, north of Baghdad, Iraq.

🇺🇸🇮🇶🇮🇷⚡- Explosions over Erbil, Iraq's Kurdistan region.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- Over the last 10-15 minutes, there have been reports of US strikes near Shadegan, western Iran, and Kerman, southern Iran.

🇺🇸🇮🇶🇮🇷 - Confirmed: Ongoing Iranian drone attack against Kurdish opposition groups and U.S. military assets in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡- Explosions in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. Iranian attacks against U.S. military vessels ongoing.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡- U.S. attacks against Sirik, southern Iran, last night left 3 fishermen dead and 15 others injured.