Hezbollah Ldr To Deliver Address @ 17hr Local Time Amid High Tensions

Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is set to deliver an address at 1700 local time (1000ET, 1500BST, 1600CET) amid still sky-high tensions as the region awaits what is likely to prove an inevitable Iranian-led response to the killing of Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, an act the Iranian gov't blames Israel for.

• US President Joe Biden convened a meeting of his national security council on 5 August to discuss the situation. Axios reports that Biden was informed by officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, that it remains unclear regarding the timing or nature of Iran's response. "...still unclear to U.S. intelligence who is going to attack first and what kind of attack they are are going to conduct, the officials said.
  One U.S. official said intelligence indicates the response by Iran and Hezbollah is still a "work in progress" and both are undecided about what exactly they want to do."
• Jerusalem Post reportsthat according to US officials there is speculation in the White House that Iran and Hezbollah could launch a two waves of attack in an effort to overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome defences and the IDF, already largely focused on the war in Gaza.
• Further ramping up tensions in the region, several US service personnel wereseriously injured in a multiple-projectile strike by Iraqi paramilitary groups on the Al-Asad Airbase, west of Baghdad.