Category Archives: US-Israel war on Iran

Shipping firms question safety in strait of Hormuz despite Trump plan

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President says US navy will ‘guide’ stranded ships out of waterway but report says warship was hit by Iran

The world’s shipping industry has questioned whether vessels will be able to travel safely to and from the Gulf after Donald Trump announced his latest plan to open the strait of Hormuz.

Trump wrote on Monday that the US navy would “guide” stranded ships out of the waterway, writing on his social media site Truth Social that the operation, “Project Freedom”, would be a humanitarian gesture “on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran”.

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Iran executes three men in relation to January anti-regime protests

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Hangings are latest in wave of near-daily killings as authorities seek to instil fear amid war with US and Israel

Iran has executed three men charged in connection with political protests this January, authorities have said, the latest in a wave of hangings against the backdrop of the war against the US and Israel.

Iranian authorities have carried out executions on a near-daily basis in recent weeks in what activists have denounced as a bid to instil fear in society at a time of international and domestic tension.

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Trump says US navy will ‘guide’ trapped ships from strait of Hormuz amid ‘very positive’ talks with Iran

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US president’s post follows flurry of mixed signals including concern Tehran had not ‘paid big enough price’

Donald Trump has announced that the US will “guide” ships trapped by the Iran war out of the Gulf through the strait of Hormuz on Monday morning, and claimed his representatives were having “very positive” discussions with Iran.

Trump wrote on his social media site that the operation, called “Project Freedom”, would be a humanitarian gesture “on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran”.

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Nato seeks to ‘understand the details’ of US decision to withdraw troops from Germany

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German government calls redeployment of 5,000 troops ‘anticipated’ and reminder of Europe’s need to invest in its own defence

Nato is seeking to “understand the details” of a US decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, a redeployment ordered by Donald Trump amid a feud with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz.

The German government sought to play down the severity of Trump’s move, describing it as “anticipated”, and a reminder of Europe’s need to invest in its own defence. The US withdrawal, which the Pentagon said would take place over the next six to 12 months, comes after criticism from Merz over Trump’s war with Iran and his handling of subsequent talks with Tehran.

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Trump says US navy like ‘pirates’ while seizing a ship in Iranian blockade

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US president says ‘we took over the cargo, took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business’

Donald Trump has said the US navy acted “like pirates” as he described an operation seizing a ship amid the tit-for-tat American blockade of Iranian ports.

“We … land on top of it and we took over the ship. We took over the cargo, took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” said Trump at a rally in Florida on Friday.

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Trump claims hostilities have ended in Iran in letter to congressional leaders

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President seemed to suggest that legislative deadline to approve war no longer applies as Democrats push back

Donald Trump said in a letter sent to congressional leaders on Friday that hostilities with Iran have “terminated”, suggesting that the 60-day deadline to seek approval from the legislative branch no longer applied.

Friday marks 60 days since the US president notified members of Congress that the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on 28 February. Under the War Powers Act of 1973, the president can deploy troops to respond to an “imminent threat” but must receive congressional approval within 60 days to continue military operations.

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NatWest faces £140m hit from Iran war as UK growth slows and inflation rises

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Profits ahead of expectations but almost half of £283m impairment charge follows forecast reassessment

NatWest said the economic fallout from the conflict in the Middle East could cost it £140m amid slowing growth and rising inflation even as it reported profits ahead of expectations.

Overall, the FTSE 100 lender booked a £283m impairment charge and said that almost half of that was because of a reassessment of its economic forecast to “reflect increased geopolitical risk and weaker equity markets”.

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Trump administration says hostilities in Iran ‘terminated’ ahead of war powers deadline

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US president faced a 60-day deadline on Friday to end the Iran war or make the case to Congress for extending it

A US-Iran ceasefire that began in early April has “terminated” hostilities between the two sides for the purposes of an approaching congressional war powers deadline, a senior official of the Trump administration said on Thursday.

Donald Trump faced a deadline on Friday to end the Iran war or make the case to Congress for extending it, but the date was most likely to pass without altering the course of the war.

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Iran supreme leader issues defiant statement on strait of Hormuz

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Mojtaba Khamenei says Tehran will eliminate ‘enemy’s abuses of the waterway’ and guard its nuclear and missile programmes

Iran’s supreme leader has broken his recent silence with a defiant statement hailing Iran’s control over shipping in the strait of Hormuz and vowing to guard the country’s nuclear and missile programmes.

“Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s bullies in the region, and the United States’ disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the strait of Hormuz,” Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement read by a state television anchor.

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Britain to create joint naval force with nine European countries as ‘complement’ to Nato

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Royal Navy chief says unified naval force will deter future Russian threats from the ‘open sea border’ to the north

Britain has agreed to create a unified naval force with nine European countries to deter future Russian threats from the “open sea border” to the north, the head of the Royal Navy has announced.

Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins said that despite the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, where the strait of Hormuz remains closed after the US-Israeli war in Iran, “Russia remains the gravest threat to our security”.

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King Charles agrees with me on Iran nuclear weapon ban, claims Trump

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Remarks by US president likely to cause embarrassment for aides of UK monarch, who usually remains neutral

Donald Trump has said King Charles agrees with him that Iran should never be allowed nuclear weapons.

Trump made the remarks at a White House state dinner on Tuesday in honour of the visiting Charles and Camilla, after the two men sat down to bilateral talks earlier that day.

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Calls for humanitarian corridor through strait of Hormuz as Iran war hits vital aid

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Soaring oil prices and the blockade are preventing food, fuel and medicine being delivered to millions of people in desperate need, say NGOs

The volatility of global oil prices caused by the US and Israel’s war on Iran is taking a toll on the most vulnerable people, by slowing or blocking food and medical aid from reaching them.

Now aid organisations are calling for a “humanitarian corridor” to be opened through the strait of Hormuz amid rocketing transportation costs.

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Hezbollah drone strikes target Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon

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Ceasefire frays further as Israel also carries out airstrikes and issues new displacement orders for south Lebanon

Hezbollah launched several drones at Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon on Tuesday, while Israel issued new displacement orders for south Lebanon and carried out airstrikes, as the fraying ceasefire failed to stop fighting between the two sides.

Hezbollah claimed Tuesday’s attack injured several Israeli soldiers, but no confirmation was given from the Israeli military, apart from a statement saying interceptor missiles had been fired at incoming Hezbollah drones.

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UAE quits Opec in win for Trump as oil cartel weakened

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US president has accused organisation of ‘ripping off the rest of the world’ by inflating oil prices

The United Arab Emirates has quit the Opec oil cartel after 60 years of membership, in a heavy blow to the group and its de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, as global energy markets contend with the biggest supply crisis in history.

The shock loss of the UAE, Opec’s third-largest oil producer, is expected to weaken the group, which for decades has worked together to use its collective oil production to influence global oil market prices.

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Russian oligarch’s superyacht allowed through strait of Hormuz, source says

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Billionaire Alexei Mordashov’s vessel, Nord, reportedly able to cross blockaded strait with US and Iranian approval

A superyacht owned by the Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov was able to transit the blockaded strait of Hormuz after undergoing maintenance in Dubai because neither Iran nor the US objected, a source close to Mordashov said on Tuesday.

It has been unclear how the multi-deck pleasure vessel, worth more than $500m (£370m), gained permission to sail on Saturday through the commercially important waterway at the heart of the US-Iran conflict, where traffic has been severely restricted since February.

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US is being ‘humiliated’ by Iran’s leadership, says Friedrich Merz

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German chancellor suggests Trump administration is being outwitted at negotiating table by Tehran

The US is being “humiliated” by Iran’s leadership, according to Friedrich Merz, Germany’s chancellor, who suggested the Trump administration was being outwitted at the negotiating table by Tehran.

Two days ago Donald Trump cancelled a trip by US negotiators to Islamabad for indirect talks with an Iranian delegation. A previous round in the Pakistani capital two weeks earlier, when JD Vance, the American vice-president, led the US delegation, broke up without progress.

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No headway in Middle East peace efforts as US and Iran refuse to yield

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Deepening sense of deadlock despite regional diplomacy as Washington and Tehran show no signs of compromise

Hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations between Iran and the US faded further on Sunday, amid a deepening sense of deadlock in the nearly two-month-long conflict despite intense regional diplomatic activity.

Washington and Tehran appear unwilling to moderate rhetoric or make concessions, and there are no negotiations scheduled that might bring the war to a definitive end.

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Trump cancels his envoys’ Pakistan trip for Iran ceasefire negotiations

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Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were to travel to Islamabad to attempt to revive ceasefire negotiations

Donald Trump said he has told US envoys not to go to Pakistan for more talks with Iran, shortly after Tehran’s top diplomat left Islamabad late on Saturday.

Trump added to Fox News: “They can call us anytime they want.” The White House on Friday said Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would travel to Pakistan’s capital to attempt to revive ceasefire negotiations.

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Hanged under the cover of war: letters and videos tell stories of Iran’s death row victims

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Testimony emerges from Babak Alipour, who spent three years on death row before being taken to gallows in March

Writing from his cell in the Rajai Shahr prison in the northern Iranian city of Karaj, Babak Alipour wanted to tell his friends about those who had already gone to their execution.

There was Behrouz Ehsani, 69, the elder statesman of the group, who was “never angry” about their predicament. Then there was Mehdi Hassani, a 48-year-old father of three who he saw a couple of times in the prison hospital and who would ask him to pass on to the children the message that he was “fine”.

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Iran foreign minister to embark on three-nation tour as US peace talks remain stalled

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Abbas Araghchi to visit Pakistan, Oman and Russia to see if talks can be reopened, with both sides still in stalemate

The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, is planning a tour of Pakistan, Russia and Oman in an effort to see if there is a basis to reopen peace talks that can end with a permanent US-Israeli commitment to cease its attacks on Iran, now one of Tehran’s key demands.

Araghchi is also likely to discuss a potential permanent new arrangement on governing the strait of Hormuz with Oman, which oversees the south of the strait.

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