• President Donald Trump said the US military was “looking at some very strong options” for action against Iran over a deadly clampdown on protesters. “We’re looking at it very seriously,” the US President told reporters on Air Force One. “The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options. We’ll make a determination.” He also said Iran had reached out to the US and proposed to negotiate a nuclear deal. “We may meet with them. A meeting is being set up. but we may have to act because of what's happening,” he said.
  • Iran will attack US military assets in the Middle East in response to any strikes in support of the anti-government protests that are rocking the country, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, as rights groups reported a sharp rise in the deaths of protesters.
  • Iranian authorities have committed “mass killing” in its crackdown on the biggest protests against the country in years, the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said. The death toll from two weeks of protests sparked by economic hardship rose to more than 500 on Sunday, the US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) reported. The deaths included 490 ​protesters and 48 security personnel, according to HRANA, which relies on a network of activists inside and outside Iran.
  • Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Iranian shah, ousted in 1979, said in a video posted on X that those repressing protests should be regarded as "legitimate targets”. “Employees of state institutions, as well as members of the armed and security forces, have a choice: stand with the people and become allies of the nation, or choose complicity with the murderers of the people,” he said. Who is Iran's exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi? Read here.
  • Syrian authorities said calm and stability had returned to Aleppo on Sunday as the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces announced a ceasefire had been reached, ending days of deadly clashes, Nada Maucourant Atallah reports from Aleppo. Read more of her reporting from the ground here.
  • Representatives of Palestinian factions and the Palestinian Authority are to meet in Egypt's capital in the coming week to agree on a final list of candidates for an independent committee to run Gaza's day-to-day affairs, sources in Cairo told The National. Why it matters: President Trump is expected to announce the Gaza Board of Peace this week as part of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement. The board will supervise the Palestinian technocratic committee that will be formed and will oversee the future of the territory, including reconstruction.
  • In an interview with state TV marking one year in office, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said Hezbollah should act "reasonably" and place itself under the authority of the state, which would ensure the country's protection. He said that the Iran-backed group’s weapons were no longer a deterrent and had become “a burden on Lebanon” as well as Hezbollah’s own constituents.
  • Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris has announced the government’s return to Khartoum, after nearly three years of operating from its wartime capital of Port Sudan. In the early days of the civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, the army-aligned government fled the capital, which was quickly overrun by rival troops.
  • The Israeli army carried out several strikes on southern Lebanon on Sunday, killing one person, according to Lebanese authorities, with the military saying it targeted a Hezbollah militant and infrastructure.
  • ​Egypt signed renewable energy ‌deals ‍worth $1.8 ‍billion on Sunday as it seeks to diversify its national power mix and position itself as a regional energy centre and exporter, the country’s state news agency said.

More goings-on

  • The Organisation of Islamic Co-operation has denounced Israel's recognition of Somaliland as an independent state as a serious violation of Somalia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
  • Global clean energy company Masdar has signed a power purchase agreement for the 150MW Quipungo solar photovoltaic project in Angola. The pact secures long-term electricity offtake from the Quipungo project, the first contracted site under Project Royal Sable, a planned 500MW renewable energy programme in southern Angola.
  • Airlines operating from the UAE and Qatar resumed flights to Iran on Sunday after suspending services for two days due to widespread social unrest in the country.
  • British court rules on banning of Palestine Action group
  • Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi visits Qatar

This newsletter was compiled by Vanessa Ghanem, Arab affairs editor.

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