Yemen’s Houthis claim attacks on Red Sea tankers as US launches 12th night of strikes on Iran – Middle East crisis live

The UN secretary general, António Guterres , has told the security council that the Middle East is being pushed to the “edge of the unimaginable” amid mounting fears over the trajectory of the conflict.

“ The situation is getting out of control. It is teetering on the edge of the unimaginable. The region is being pulled into an ever-widening circle of confrontation. One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next ,” Guterres told a security council meeting.

“ As this dynamic spreads, the political objectives are becoming increasingly obscured by the confrontation itself ,” he said.

It comes after Donald Trump said he was close to deciding whether to launch “a massive attack” against Iran , on a scale larger than strikes already witnessed during the months-long conflict with Tehran as the US president flounders in his attempts to get a grip on the spiralling crisis in the region.

Amid growing evidence that a major escalation may be imminent, the UK announced that it was temporarily withdrawing diplomatic staff from Iran on Wednesday, and the German military announced on Thursday that it would withdraw two vessels from the Red Sea.

And as Israeli cities opened bomb shelters, the US state department warned Americans living in the region of the risk that flights may be cancelled.

With Trump’s poll ratings in freefall, and his war against Iran deeply unpopular at home, the US president and his administration are running short of time before the midterm elections in the autumn to force a resolution to the conflict on Washington’s terms.