US-Iran war live updates: US assets in Gulf targeted; Chalmers warns of substantial economic impact; Khamenei’s son tipped to be next supreme leader

Greetings from Sydney Airport, where about 200 Australians caught in the Middle East as war broke out are expected to touch down in about 10 minutes.

The Emirates repatriation flight left Dubai early this morning, and is slated for a 10.26pm arrival time, according to Flight Radar 24.

It is the first repatriation flight from the Middle East to Australia, ahead of scheduled flights to Sydney and Melbourne expected to arrive on Thursday.

More than one hundred people are at the arrivals gate, some of whom have brought posters and flowers to welcome their loved ones home.

The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of a swathe of southern Lebanon, telling residents to move north of the Litani River on a third day of full-blown hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

While Israel has already warned residents to leave dozens of villages in southern Lebanon, Wednesday’s evacuation order was the broadest yet.

On Tuesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had authorised the military to advance and take control of additional positions in Lebanon, where Israeli troops have held several hilltops since a war with Hezbollah in 2024.

Israeli strikes have killed dozens of people in Lebanon since Monday, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Many thousands of Lebanese have already fled their homes.

The war in the Middle East spread to Lebanon on Monday, when Hezbollah opened fire, saying it aimed to avenge the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the US-Israeli attack on Iran.

Reuters

The farewell ceremony for slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been postponed, with a new ceremony to be announced later, Iranian state media report.

State TV earlier reported Khamenei’s 3-day symbolic funeral would begin Wednesday evening (local time).

With AP

Iran’s foreign minister said that by attacking Iran US President Donald Trump had betrayed the Americans who voted him into power.

“When complex nuclear negotiations are treated like a real estate transaction, and when big lies cloud realities, unrealistic expectations can never be met,” Abbas Araghchi said on X.

“The outcome? Bombing the negotiation table out of spite. Mr Trump betrayed diplomacy and Americans who elected him.”

The US and Iran had held three rounds of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear enrichment program before the US-Israeli attack.

US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said yesterday that it was clear to him the talks were not going to be productive.

Iran’s judiciary chief threatened “those who say or do anything” in support of the US-Israeli airstrike campaign now targeting the Islamic Republic.

Gholam Hosseini Mohseni Ejehei made the comments in an interview with Iranian state television today.

His remarks raised the possibility of those detained facing charges that carry the death penalty, charges, as co-operating with an enemy can mean execution if convicted.

“As we said during the unrest, riot cases are a priority,” Ejehei said, referring to January’s nationwide protests that Iran violently suppressed. “We have now also announced that those who co-operate with the enemy in any way will be considered an enemy.”

He added: “Those who say or do anything in line with the will of America and the Zionist regime are on the enemy’s side and must be dealt with on revolutionary, Islamic principles and in accordance with the time of war.”

AP

Iran’s assembly of experts tasked with choosing a new supreme leader are close to making a decision, state television reported.

The New York Times earlier reported that slain leader Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei was considered the frontrunner for the role.

Welcome back to our continuing live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East.

Here’s what you need to know.

• More than 200 Australians are returning home from Dubai on the first commercial flight bound to Australia from the Middle East since the war began.
• Data shows that half of the petrol stations in Melbourne and Sydney have already increased their prices by at least 5¢, before any international price increases flow through to local bowsers. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the consumer watchdog has been instructed to crack down on price gouging.
• The son of slain Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba Khamenei, is likely to be appointed the country’s new leader by a group of senior clerics, The New York Times reported.
• Thousands of mourners attended the funeral for victims of an airstrike on a girls’ school in southern Iran.
• Iranians are to farewell their late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a three-day ceremony at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini prayer ground.
• US President Donald Trump took questions from reporters in the Oval Office for the first time since the start of fighting, justifying the attack on Iran by saying a nuclear war had been imminent. He also said “someone from within” Iran’s government might be best placed to take power when the war ends.
• Four of the six US soldiers killed in a drone strike in Kuwait have been named by the Pentagon. Nicole Amor, Cody Khork, Noah Tietjens and Declan Coady were inside a US command centre in Kuwait when a drone strike killed them.
• Israel has deployed troops in Lebanon, beginning a ground offensive in a new escalation of its campaign against Hezbollah, while also launching fresh missile strikes on Tehran.
• Iranian Kurdish militias have consulted with the United States in recent days about whether to attack Iran’s security forces in the western part of the country.
  Read more on the US-Israel-Iran war:
• • Broadscale strikes: Israel vows to kill next supreme leader, steps up Tehran, Beirut strikes
  • Tracking the war: Where the US struck and where Iran retaliated
  • Iran’s nuclear threat?: A seven-page proposal was on the table. Then Trump learnt a tantalising fact, writes Michael Koziol
  • Israel attacks Lebanon: What is Hezbollah and why is Israel attacking Lebanon?
  • The three men to stop Trump: Who are the Islamic Republic’s interim leadership team?
  • Opinion: Trump will be forced to end his reckless war very soon, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard