LONDON (AP) — U.K. police said Sunday they are investigating whether a string of arson attacks on Jewish sites in London are the work of Iranian proxies, as the country's chief rabbi said British Jews are facing a campaign of violence and intimidation.
The Metropolitan Police force says counterterror officers are probing fires at synagogues and other sites linked to the Jewish community, as well as an attack on a Persian-language media company.
No one has been injured in the blazes, the latest of which caused minor damage to a north London synagogue on Saturday night.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans said the attacks had been claimed online by a group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia.
“We are aware of public reporting that suggests this group may have links to Iran. As you would expect, we will continue to explore that question as our investigation evolves," she said.
“I’ve spoken previously about the Iranian regime’s use of criminal proxies, and we’re considering whether this tactic is being used here in London," she added.
Israel’s government has described Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, whose name means the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, as a recently founded group with suspected links to “an Iranian proxy” that has also claimed responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The police force has deployed extra uniformed and plainclothes officers to northwest London after attacks in the past month on synagogues, Jewish charity ambulances and a Persian-language media organization critical of Iran’s government.
In the most serious incident, four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were torched on March 23 in the Golders Green neighborhood,
No one has been injured in any of the incidents, which all happened within a few miles of each other. Several people, ranging in age from teens to people in their 40s, have been arrested and charged.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said on X that “a sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the UK is gathering momentum.
“Thank God, no lives have been lost, but we cannot, and must not, wait for that to change before we understand just how dangerous this moment is for all of our society,” he added.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “appalled” by the attacks, and pledged that "those responsible will be found and brought to justice.
"This is abhorrent and it will not be tolerated. Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain," Starmer said.
Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia also posted a video claiming Israel’s London embassy was going to be attacked with drones carrying dangerous substances. Police said the embassy was not attacked, but the force shut the nearby Kensington Gardens park on Friday as officers examined discarded items including two jars containing powder. Police said nothing harmful was found.
The U.K. has accused Iran of using criminal proxies to conduct attacks on European soil targeting opposition media outlets and the Jewish community. Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service says that more than 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots were disrupted in the year to October.
Some security experts say Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia is likely a flag of convenience rather than a coherent group, and its claims should be treated with caution.
Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes said any “thugs for hire” who carried out such attacks would face justice.
“Let’s be really clear — it’s a mug’s game,” he said. “That’s what people who are now serving long prison sentences have found out, and the same fate awaits those responsible for these recent crimes.”
FILE - A sign stands in front of the New Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the London Metropolitan Police, in London, Sept. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
Police officers patrol at a cordon near Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow, a suburb of London, Sunday, April 19, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
Trump said US negotiators will be in Pakistan on Monday for talks with Iran, resuming negotiations after Iran reversed its decision to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.
The escalating standoff over the critical choke point threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy and push the two countries toward renewed conflict, even as mediators expressed confidence that a new deal is within reach.
The strait is closed until the U.S. blockade is lifted, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy said Saturday night. Hours earlier, two gunboats from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard opened fire on a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. It reported that the tanker and crew were safe, without identifying the vessel or its destination.
Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait and supply constraints are driving prices higher once again. Meanwhile, a 10-day truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon appeared to be holding.
The fighting in the Middle East conflict, now approaching the two-month mark, has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, nearly 2,300 in Lebanon, 23 civilians and 15 soldiers in Israel, and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.
Here is the latest:
Vessels trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz have reversed course, according to the MarineTraffic shipping tracker.
The Iranian navy has reimposed tight restrictions on transit through the strait while the U.S. blockades Iran’s ports and waters. The standoff has left hundreds of vessels waiting in both directions for clearance through the waterway where a fifth of the world’s oil supplies normally passes.
Kpler, a maritime data firm, said 19 vessels had passed through the strait on Friday after Iran and the U.S. announced the reopening of the strait late last week as part of understanding between the two governments.
But on Saturday, U.S. Central Command said it had sent 23 ships back to Iran since its blockade began, and at least three vessels were attacked by Iran Saturday while attempting to cross the strait, bringing shipping to a standstill again and further straining the global energy market.
Chris Wright said the United States “is not too far away from a deal.”
“There are negotiations with the Iranians going on, despite what you hear in the chatter in public, I think those are actually going well,” Wright said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Wright said Trump is “a creative negotiator” who uses “pressure in different ways, uses uncertainty in different ways.”
“I think we’ll have a nice end of this conflict,” Wright predicted, adding that restarting shipping “will take time but probably not too much time” once the strait is reopened.
Trump is renewing his threat to “knock out” every Iranian power plant and bridge if Tehran doesn’t agree to U.S. terms for ending the war.
Some experts in military law have said targeting civilian infrastructure can be a war crime, an issue that could turn on whether the power plants are legitimate military targets, whether the attacks are proportional compared with what Iran has done and whether civilian casualties are minimized.
When the war crimes question was posed to Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz said “that would be an escalatory ladder.”
Iran and its proxies “have a long history of actually deliberately hiding military infrastructure in hospitals, schools, neighborhoods and … and other civilian assets. … They have no ground to stand on,” Waltz told ABC’s “This Week.”
“It’s perfectly acceptable in the rules of land warfare,” Waltz added, noting that Iran has used drones and missiles to strike hotels, resorts and homes across the Gulf.
“So this is just a ridiculous argument,” he said.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Sunday that the U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports and coastline is an act of aggression that violates the shaky Pakistani-mediated ceasefire between the two countries.
By “deliberately inflicting collective punishment on the Iranian population, it amounts to war crime and crimes against humanity,” Baghaei said on social media.
Baghaei’s comments came after Iran’s renewed threats on shipping, in response to the U.S. blockade, fully reclosed the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart on Sunday, ahead of a new round of negotiations between the United States and Iran.
The Pakistani foreign ministry said Dar discussed with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “the need for continued dialogue and engagement as essential to resolving the current issues as soon as possible.”
According to the ministry, Iran’s president will speak by phone with Pakistan’s prime minister later Sunday.
Vice President JD Vance and envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be traveling to Islamabad for the talks, according to the White House.
Bahrain’s king has ordered a review of citizenship of those deemed a threat to the island kingdom.
The decision has come amid an intensified crackdown on dissent during the war in the Middle East.
According to the state-run Bahrain News Agency, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa ordered the government to immediately take measures against “those who have betrayed the nation or undermined its security and stability,” including stripping Bahraini citizenship from those “who don’t deserve it.”
“The situation is still delicate,” the king was quoted as saying.
Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, has been one of the hardest hit by Iranian missile and drone attacks during the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
Authorities in the small Shiite-majority island, which is ruled by a Sunni monarchy, have detained many people over the course of the war.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wants the 27-nation European Union to tear up its long-standing Association Agreement with Israel.
The agreement, in force since 2000, sets out the legal and institutional framework within which the bloc and Israel conduct trade and cooperation.
“We have nothing against the people of Israel; quite the contrary,” Sánchez said in a post on X on Sunday. “But a Government that violates international law and, therefore, the principles and values of the EU cannot be our partner.”
Spain will present a formal proposal at an EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Tuesday to end the agreement with Israel, he said.
Sánchez has been a vocal critic of the decision by the U.S. and Israel to attack Iran, drawing sharp public criticism from Trump.
About 150 residents from Kiryat Shmona, located near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, traveled to Jerusalem on Sunday to demonstrate against the ceasefire with Hezbollah.
The 10-day ceasefire announced by Trump began Friday. It is meant to shore up a broader ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.
Residents of northern Israel, whose communities were subject to round-the-clock barrages of Hezbollah rockets, have reacted angrily to the truce. They say Hezbollah remains a threat and has not been disarmed.
“It’s time to remove this threat from over the heads of the northern residents,” said Kiryat Shmona’s mayor, Avichai Stern.
One of the protesters, Einat Dardari, said she’s “very disappointed” that the Israeli military was forced to halt its offensive against Hezbollah. “We want security, I want security at home, I want security for my children,” she said.
A senior Iranian military official said Sunday that Iran has begun rebuilding its stockpile of weapons and munitions as the two-week ceasefire nears to expire, state media reported.
Brig. Gen. Seyed Majid Mousavi, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Aerospace Force, said they have repaired missiles and drone launchers during the ceasefire which started on April 8, according to Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.
“Our speed in updating and refilling missile and drone launch platforms is even greater than before the war,” he said.
The broadcaster aired a two-minute video paired with uplifting music, showing missiles and drones in warehouses as well as mobile launches of missiles.
The United States and Israel say they have degraded Iran’s military capabilities over the course of the nearly six-week war.
Hakan Fidan was asked whether Turkey could replace Iran as Israel’s main adversary, a question raised in both Turkish and Israeli media in recent weeks.
“This is a fundamentalist government. They are a problem for the whole world. This is not just a problem for Turkey,” Fidan told a news conference at the close of a three-day diplomacy forum in southern Turkey.
Turkish officials have described Israel’s military operations in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon and Syria as an “expansionist” threat to global stability. Fidan said stopping this threat is clearly on the international community’s agenda. He also described the defense agreements signed between Israel, Greece and Cyprus in December last year as a “military alliance against the Muslim countries in the region.”
The president’s post on social media Sunday did not detail which official the U.S. would be sending to a second round of in-person talks with Iran is Islamabad.
The White House and the office of Vice President JD Vance, who led the first round of talks, did not immediately respond to messages Sunday morning.
Trump in his post accused Iran of violating the ceasefire agreement by firing bullets Saturday in the Strait of Hormuz, and threatened to destroy civilian infrastructure in Iran if it does not take the deal the U.S. is offering.
“If they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,” Trump wrote.
The far-right South American leader landed on Sunday for a three-day visit, meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and visiting the Western Wall of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
Milei is scheduled to sign new binational accords with Israel and receive a Presidential Medal from Israeli President Isaac Herzog celebrating his commitment to fighting anti-semitism, Herzog’s office said. It is at least Milei’s third visit to the Western Wall.
He has backed the United States and Israel’s decision to launch a war on Iran. Earlier this month Argentina expelled Iran’s ambassador from Buenos Aires.
Milei is among a small cohort of right-leaning leaders who have deepened ties with Netanyahu’s government even as Israel faces diplomatic isolation over wartime conduct, including in Gaza and Lebanon. Some of Argentina’s South American neighbors have cut diplomatic ties or withdrawn their ambassadors,
Speaking at the end of his Mass in Kilamba, Angola, Leo said the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was a “sign of relief for the Lebanese people.”
He said: “I encourage those who have been committed to the search for a diplomatic solution to continue peace talks so that the end of hostilities throughout the Middle East becomes permanent.”
Leo said he prays for a permanent ending of hostilities in the Middle East.
The pope is on an 11-day, four-nation African journey that has been characterized by repeated appeals for peace.
Pakistani authorities have begun tightening security in the capital, Islamabad, ahead of a possible second round of ceasefire talks between the U.S. and Iran.
Authorities on Sunday deployed troops at roadside checkpoints, closed tourist sites and ordered major hotels to cancel bookings and keep facilities available.
Islamabad’s streets are largely deserted, as residents stayed home to avoid road closures seen earlier this month during the first round of talks.
While there were no formal announcements, Pakistani officials said arrangements are in place for talks in the coming days.
A regional official involved in the mediation efforts said mediators were finalizing the preparations. He said U.S. advance security teams are already on the ground. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the preparations.
Pakistan has led mediation efforts to end the war. Its military chief visited Tehran last week, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with regional leaders in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.
The Israeli army says it carried out a series of strikes that killed more than 150 Hezbollah fighters.
Among those killed was Ali Rida Abbas, which it said was Hezbollah’s commander in Bint Jbeil. The southern Lebanese town and its surroundings were the site of intense clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants in the days leading up to the ceasefire.
Israel gave no evidence to support its claims, and Hezbollah didn't immediately confirm the death of its commander.
The ceasefire took effect early Friday.
Iran’s chief negotiator says his country wants “a lasting peace so that war is not repeated again.”
Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made the comments in a televised interview late Saturday, a few days before a ceasefire deadline is set to expire, according to Iranian state media.
“What is fundamental for us is distrust of the United States,” he said. “At the same time, we have good intentions and seek a lasting peace — one that prevents the recurrence of war.”
He said that the Islamabad negotiations didn’t address the mistrust, but that the U.S. and Iranian negotiators “reached a more realistic understanding of one another.”
He said that the two sides achieved progress in the Islamabad talks, but disagreement remained on some key issues, including the nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz.
“The gaps remain wide and some fundamental issues are still unresolved,” he said.
He didn’t elaborate with further details.
The Lebanese army said in a statement Sunday that it reopened the Khardali road that links the southern city of Nabatiyeh with the town of Marjayoun.
The army said that it also reopened the road that links the port city of Tyre with the village of Bourj Rahhal. The army is also working on reopening other roads, including a bridge on the Litani River in the village of Tayr Filsay.
During Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon over the past several weeks, Israel’s air force has destroyed several bridges on the river.
After a 10-day ceasefire was declared as of midnight Thursday, the Lebanese army and the Litani Authority have been working on putting up temporary bridges to replace the destroyed ones.
Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf says the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as long as the U.S. imposes a naval blockade on Iran.
“It is impossible for others to pass through the Strait of Hormuz while we cannot,” he said in televised comments aired by Iranian semiofficial media late Saturday.
Qalibaf, who is Iran’s chief negotiator with the United States, said that the strait is now under Iran’s control, linking the choke point’s reopening to the U.S. lifting of its blockade.
“If the U.S. does not lift the blockade, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be restricted,” he said.
He said that the ceasefire was on verge of collapse when the U.S. attempted to mine-clear the strait.
He said Iran viewed the U.S. attempt as a violation of the ceasefire.
“The situation escalated to the point of conflict but the enemy retreated,” he said.
Israel’s military says another soldier died in combat in southern Lebanon, the second death announced in under 12 hours.
It brought the total number of soldiers killed in Lebanon to 15, and was the second soldier killed in combat since the ceasefire.
The military said that another soldier was badly wounded, along with four moderately wounded and four slightly injured.
The navy of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said that it extended the closure to the corridor it had earlier designated for the safe passage of vessels through the strategic waterway and declared the strait fully closed until the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports and ships is lifted.
On Friday, Iran said that vessels could move through the strait in coordination with it and against the payment of a toll.
But in a statement late Saturday carried by Iran’s state media, the navy warned that any violating vessel would be targeted.
Iran considers the U.S. blockade a violation of the ceasefire between the two countries. Two vessels were attacked earlier on Saturday in the Strait of Hormuz and off Oman’s coast, at least one of them by Iranian gunboats.
President Donald Trump listens in the Oval Office of the White House, Saturday, April 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Displaced people cross on foot a destroyed bridge as they return to their villages, following a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, in Tayr Felsay village, southern Lebanon, Sunday, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Excavators remove rubble from destroyed buildings that were hit on Thursday by Israeli airstrikes, as they keep searching for victims in Tyre city, southern Lebanon, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A woman member of the Basij paramilitary, affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard, holds her gun during a state-organized rally in support of the supreme leader marking National Girl's Day in Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
President Donald Trump listens to speeches before signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, Saturday, April 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Barber Mohammad Mehdi cuts the hair of his client Ayman Al Zein inside his shop, which was damaged in an Israeli airstrike that also damaged Al Zein's shop, in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
The sun rises behind a tanker anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Qeshm Island, Iran, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Asghar Besharati)
