Rooma News: Ceasefire Declared “Over” as Iran and US Trade New Strikes Across the Gulf

 Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Islamabad Edition

Vol. I · No. 1

Rooma News

Reporting the World, from Islamabad

By Rooma Mehmood, Editor-in-Chief

Islamabad, Pakistan

World

Middle East Crisis

Ceasefire Declared “Over” as Iran and US Trade New Strikes Across the Gulf

The Strait of Hormuz is effectively shut after tanker attacks, and Tehran has hit US allies from Jordan to Qatar, a month after a Pakistan-brokered truce.

President Trump declared the ceasefire with Iran “over” last week, after Iranian forces struck tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and Washington answered with fresh waves of airstrikes on Iranian targets. The exchange has pushed the region back toward open conflict barely a month after the Islamabad memorandum of understanding, a Pakistan-brokered truce, opened a window for wider talks.

Iran has hit back at several of Washington’s regional partners, striking an air base in Jordan and targeting sites in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, while the United Arab Emirates said it was responding to missile and drone threats. Tehran says the strait, through which a large share of the world’s oil passes, will stay closed “until further notice.”

US Central Command has carried out repeated rounds of strikes on Iranian military infrastructure, and Trump has floated charging a 20 percent toll on vessels transiting the strait once it reopens, while warning he could target Iranian power and desalination plants if the closure continues.

Oman and Qatar are working to revive the diplomatic track that produced last month’s truce, with Omani officials drafting a proposal to manage traffic through the strait, though talks have yet to produce a breakthrough. Oil prices have climbed on the disruption.

Iran

Six-Day Funeral Closes for Khamenei, Killed Nearly Four Months Ago

Iran this month completed a six-day state funeral for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at 86 in a joint US-Israeli strike on his Tehran compound on February 28. Mourners filled Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla before the procession moved on to the Shia holy city of Qom and finally to Najaf and Karbala in Iraq.

Pakistan’s prime minister, foreign minister and army chief were among the dignitaries who travelled to Tehran for the funeral prayers, a gesture Iran’s government publicly thanked Islamabad for as the country continues pressing both sides toward de-escalation. (See Pakistan, below.)

World in Brief

Russia–Ukraine

Ukrainian forces struck dozens of Russian tankers and cargo vessels in the Sea of Azov over the past week, part of a campaign to disrupt oil shipments and supplies to Crimea; Russia briefly halted traffic on a key canal in response. Russian missile and drone strikes killed civilians in Kyiv and Odesa.

Europe Heatwave

More than 10,000 excess deaths have now been linked to last month’s record heatwave, with Germany hit hardest. Wildfires continue to burn across Spain, Portugal, France and Greece; a blaze in southern Spain ranks among the deadliest in the country’s history.

Bangkok

At least 27 people were killed when fire tore through a crowded music bar in the Thai capital’s deadliest blaze in seventeen years. Most of the dead were found trapped near the rear exits.

Israel

Israel’s governing coalition has set October 27 for national elections — the first time in nearly four decades a Knesset will serve a complete term.

Pakistan

A2

Balochistan

Operation Shaban Presses On as PM Reviews Security in Quetta

The militant death toll has passed 110 since a wave of coordinated attacks killed 42 people across the province.

By Our Correspondent

QUETTA: A wave of coordinated militant attacks between July 4 and 8 left 42 people dead, most of them security personnel, in the deadliest stretch of violence Balochistan has seen in months. Assaults on villagers in Hanna Urak, a police post guarding a dam site in Ziarat, and an army convoy near Bela-Winder in Lasbela district accounted for most of the casualties.

The Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps Balochistan and provincial police answered with Operation Shaban, a sweeping air and ground campaign against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in the province’s north and the Balochistan Liberation Army in the south. State media have put the militant death toll above 110 as the operation continues, though Baloch groups dispute those figures.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif flew to Quetta on July 9 to chair a meeting of the provincial Apex Committee, joined by army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Balochistan’s governor and chief minister. He paid tribute to the personnel killed in the attacks and pledged federal support until “the last disruptive terrorist is eliminated.”

Islamabad has again pointed to Indian backing for the militant groups behind the violence, a charge New Delhi has previously rejected.

Diplomacy

Islamabad Pushes for Restraint as Its Iran Truce Unravels

ISLAMABAD: Having brokered June’s ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, Pakistan spent the past week trying to save it. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar telephoned his Iranian and Saudi counterparts to urge de-escalation, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held separate calls with Iran’s president and Qatar’s emir, conveying solidarity with Qatar following the recent attacks targeting the country and appealing for calm.

“There is no alternative to continued engagement, dialogue and diplomacy…”

Pakistan Foreign Office statement

The Foreign Office repeated its call on all sides to honour the Islamabad memorandum of understanding signed last month, and Pakistan joined Saudi Arabia in warning that renewed conflict serves no one’s interest in the region.

Pakistan in Brief

Economy

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank’s July outlook shows Pakistan’s economy grew 3.7 percent in the fiscal year that ended June 30, but the bank trimmed its forecast for the year ahead to the same rate, citing higher energy costs and pressure on remittances linked to the Middle East conflict. It also raised its inflation forecast to 8.3 percent for FY2027. Separately, Pakistan is among roughly sixty economies facing proposed new US tariffs of up to 12.5 percent, with a delegation in Washington seeking relief ahead of a July 24 deadline.

Weather

ISLAMABAD: Flood and landslide alerts remain in force for the capital, Rawalpindi and other cities as an active monsoon spell continues. Rain-related incidents have killed at least eighteen people nationwide since late June, and rising inflows have pushed the water level at Tarbela Dam well above its dead level.

Rooma News is compiled from wire and staff reports

All figures current as of press time, July 14, 2026, and subject to change as these situations develop