Iran president says more war not in Tehran’s interest

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian yesterday said that more war with the US was not in his country’s interest after the two sides traded fire for the first time in more than a month.

Tehran attacked US military targets in the Middle East in retaliation for US strikes on an island in the Strait of Hormuz, raising fears of a return to major hostilities.

After six months of war, the foes remain at an impasse, with Iran keeping the strategic Strait of Hormuz closed and the US persisting with a naval counter-blockade of Iran.

On Sunday, the US said it attacked Iranian rocket launchers on the island of Larak to prevent Tehran planting mines in the key shipping lane.

Iran responded yesterday by targeting Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), saying it attacked US forces, but Pezeshkian later in the day talked up dialogue.

“We continue to strive for a path of agreement and understanding, and we believe that continuing the war is neither in our interest, nor in the interest of the region,” he said at a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan.

“We believe that the solution to the existing problems is dialogue and cooperation, and all capacities must be used to prevent the spread of insecurity and conflict,” he added, according to a statement from the Iranian presidency.

State media reported that two people were killed in the US attack on Larak, with several others wounded.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the ideological arm of its military, said they responded by striking two US air bases with ballistic missiles in Washington-allied Jordan, causing “heavy damage.”

Jordan’s army said it had intercepted eight missiles, without stating their origin.

Iran also claimed it targeted US personnel at an air base in the UAE and shot down a US drone over Hormuz.

Abu Dhabi responded by saying it intercepted a drone over the country’s waters, but dismissed claims that Al Minhad Air Base had been targeted as “baseless.”

The exchange of fire between the US and Iran came at a time when hostilities had been subsiding.

In the past few weeks, US President Donald Trump’s administration had prioritized “economic warfare” over military action.

Trump yesterday said on social media that Iran was “officially a Failed Nation.”

“They have no Navy, they have no Air Force, they have no currency, they are not paying their soldiers or police, Inflation is at 300%, and their leadership is in total disarray and incapable of properly representing the country,” he wrote.

The two sides are still vying for control of the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran having blocked the passage of commercial ships since the war began and attacked vessels.

China deployed a record number of coast guard, scientific research and other ships near Taiwan’s waters last month, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said, as Beijing dials up pressure on Taipei. The coast guard warned of an increasingly severe situation, as analysts say the increased activity is part of China’s bid to map the region for submarine warfare. The number of Chinese ships detected around Taiwan proper soared to a record 244 last month — an average of nearly eight every day, official data showed.

That compares with 55 ships detected in June and 30 in May, and 58 in July last year. In

Taiwan is bracing for heavy rain in the south and rough seas around outlying Lienchiang County (Matsu), as Typhoon Saudel passes north toward eastern China, with forecasters yesterday warning of localized flooding over the next two days. Saudel is expected to pass closest to Taiwan today, when its outer rain bands are forecast to brush past Matsu, before making landfall at about noon in China’s Zhejiang Province and weakening significantly, the Central Weather Administration said.

The storm’s outer bands, combined with strengthening southwesterly winds, are expected to bring heavy rain to southern and southeastern Taiwan today, it said. As the storm approaches Matsu,

The Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday launched an investigation following allegations by a former foreign correspondent in Taiwan of widespread vote-buying in Hualien County. In an interview with Formosa TV (FTV, 民視) aired on Saturday, former Financial Times Taiwan correspondent Kathrin Hille spoke about Taiwan’s democracy and said that she now lives in rural Hualien, where “all the votes are bought.” Neighbors would talk about who had come by and leave cash on the table showing “how much each vote was worth that year,” Hille said.

The practice needs to be addressed, considering Taiwan has been a democracy for many

LIMITED: The bill’s NT$40bn annual spending cap would prevent Taiwan from effectively building up its drone combat capabilities, National Defense Minister Wellington Koo said The legislature yesterday rejected the Executive Yuan’s NT$210 billion (US$6.62 billion) special budget proposal to buy military drones and instead passed its own plan, which earmarks NT$40 billion per year over six consecutive years. The Executive Yuan said its plan to buy about 210,000 drones by 2031 could not wait, as the wars in Ukraine and Iran showed the importance of uncrewed systems in modern warfare amid a rising threat from China.

However, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their opposition majority to pass a bill providing NT$240 billion through annual budgets over six years, with annual