Category Archives: Iran

Bluster and backdown have turned Iran war into Trump’s own Groundhog Day

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The US president’s profound ignorance of his enemy has led to an impotent cycle of empty threats, analysts say

Being the subject of mockery may be the most intense of all Donald Trump’s known aversions.

Yet more than five months after embarking on a war of choice against Iran, the US president risks attracting ridicule as he struggles to secure a military victory – while repeatedly threatening devastating bombardment against the Tehran regime, only to back down on the pretext of renewed negotiations.

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Iran plots to deal Trump a blow in midterms by keeping him entangled in war

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By dragging out talks, Tehran aims to damage the US president politically – but some fear a bruised and weakened Trump could lash back

Tehran has set out a protracted negotiating timetable designed to keep Donald Trump embroiled in the Iran conflict until the midterm elections, in the hope of inflicting the same ruinous blow on his presidency as Jimmy Carter suffered over the 1979-81 US embassy hostage crisis.

For many inside Iran, inflicting meaningful revenge on Trump is a legitimate and self-standing war aim, reflected in the mood of those attending the funeral of the supreme leader Ali Khamenei where demands for retribution were ubiquitous.

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Two Iranian female footballers granted Australian citizenship after protest

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  • Players stayed in country after Asian Cup in March

  • Duo condemned as traitors in Iran for not singing anthem

Two former Iranian footballers said on Thursday they were proud to have been granted Australian citizenship after being called traitors at home for refusing to sing the national anthem before a game.

Fatemeh Pasandideh and Atefeh Ramezanisadeh were members of a group of seven from Iran’s delegation who asked for Australia’s protection after the protest during the women’s Asian Cup in March.

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Understanding reached on coordinates for shipping route through Hormuz, Iran says

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Joint statement with Oman is being finalised, but Tehran says deal alone would not guarantee waterway’s security

Iran and Oman have reached an understanding on ⁠the geographic coordinates for a shipping route through the strait of Hormuz, and ⁠a joint announcement ⁠is ​being finalised provided certain third parties do not interfere, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail ⁠Baghaei said on Wednesday.

Baghaei added that any such agreement between Iran and Oman would not, by ⁠itself, guarantee security in the strategic waterway.

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Understanding reached on coordinates for shipping route through Hormuz, Iran says

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Joint statement with Oman is being finalised, but Tehran says deal alone would not guarantee waterway’s security

Iran and Oman have reached an understanding on ⁠the geographic coordinates for a shipping route through the strait of Hormuz, and ⁠a joint announcement ⁠is ​being finalised provided certain third parties do not interfere, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail ⁠Baghaei said on Wednesday.

Baghaei added that any such agreement between Iran and Oman would not, by ⁠itself, guarantee security in the strategic waterway.

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Iran’s president denies threatening to resign during talks over strait of Hormuz

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Masoud Pezeshkian dismisses talk of internal rift as hardline Assembly of Experts call US negotiations ‘futile’

Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, has been forced to deny claims that he has repeatedly threatened to resign as he battles hardline factions opposed to reaching a settlement with the US over the strait of Hormuz.

The US and Europe hope a deal is imminent to reopen the strait and they are putting pressure on Oman to accept a temporary agreement that officials in Muscat fear will leave Iran retaining near permanent dominance of the vital oil shipping channel. Ships would enter the strait in a route close to Iran, but leave on a route that passes through Iranian and Omani waters.

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US and Qatar report progress on Iran ceasefire and reopening Hormuz strait

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Optimism echoes Trump’s claims on Monday that deal is close as mediators say they are exchanging proposals

US and Qatari officials have said progress is being made in restoring a ceasefire in the US-Iran war and reopening the strait of Hormuz.

The optimistic speculation on Tuesday brought oil prices down 2%, but the strait remained closed to shipping and a cargo vessel was reportedly struck by an unidentified projectile off Oman’s coast close to the strait.

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Trump meets his obstinate match in Iran’s hardball regime

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US president reduced to bemoaning Tehran’s ‘unbelievable duplicity’ as he struggles to find solid negotiating ground

The Donald Trump doctrine has always contained a tenuous relationship with the truth. It was his mentor, the infamous New York lawyer Roy Cohn, who taught the young real estate mogul always to claim victory and never to admit defeat. Unfortunately for Trump, in Iran the US president has found a counterpart just as stubborn as himself.

As Trump claims new negotiations are to begin with Tehran this week, Iran has shown it can also reignite the conflict by lobbing ballistic missiles at US bases in the region and maintaining a stranglehold on the strait of Hormuz, effectively taking initiative in the stalled peace process. And time is of the essence for Trump as the clock ticks toward a global energy crisis and a painful midterm elections for him and his Republican party.

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Fresh US-Iran talks are ‘last chance’ for Tehran to avoid war escalating, Trump says

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US president expects negotiations to begin in next day or two but Iran says it is not reviving talks with Washington

New talks between Washington and Tehran are the “last chance” for Iran to forge a deal and avoid an escalation of US strikes on the country, Donald Trump said on Monday.

Trump said he expected negotiations to begin in the next day or two to reopen the strait of Hormuz and create a pathway for Iran to address the US’s concerns about its nuclear programme.

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Trump climbs down on Iran strikes after Saudi alarm and threats from Tehran

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President claims delay is ‘subject to being able to rapidly make a deal’ as intervention by Saudi crown prince is revealed and Iran warns neighbours

Donald Trump said on Saturday night that the US would hold off on any new strikes on Iran provided a deal to end the months-long conflict is quickly reached – marking the president’s latest climbdown from extravagant threats to hit the Tehran regime hard.

The Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman called Trump on Saturday to express concerns about his strike plans, it was reported. Trump’s reversal also came after Iran threatened to retaliate decisively against its neighbours in the event of US strikes, while Kuwait reported being hit by Iranian drones on Saturday and two ships were attacked off Oman in the strait of Hormuz.

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Iran strikes tankers under US escort in Hormuz strait as Trump gathers cabinet to discuss war

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Energy prices have soared again since fighting between US and Iran resumed two weeks ago as conflict spreads across Middle East

Iran has said it struck two tankers trying to pass through the strait of Hormuz under the escort of the US military as Donald Trump gathered his cabinet to discuss the stalling war and rising prices as midterm elections in the US loom.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Friday that the “non-compliant oil tankers … were struck and brought to a halt, while four other oil tankers quickly changed course and returned to their previous positions”. The military body said the ships had tried to pass through the strait via an “undeclared route” and under US aerial escort.

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British-Azerbaijani man arrested in Cyprus over alleged spying on UK airbase for Iran

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Rashad Sultanov, from London, suspected of conducting hostile surveillance and passing information to Revolutionary Guards

A British-Azerbaijani national has been arrested ⁠in Cyprus on suspicion of spying on a British airbase on the Mediterranean island and passing information to Iran’s ⁠Islamic Revolutionary Guard ⁠Corps, the Metropolitan police ​said.

Rashad Sultanov, 44, from Islington, north London, was arrested on 17 July by Cypriot authorities ⁠and is being held in custody as extradition proceedings continue, the police said in a statement on Friday.

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Saudi Arabia prepares sea and possible land offensive against Houthis

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Yemeni sources say Saudis concentrating forces for what could be attack in central Yemen

Saudi Arabia is preparing for a major military offensive against the Houthis by sea and possibly by land in central Yemen, Yemeni sources believe, in a move to break the chokehold on its oil exports through the southern Red Sea.

Saudi forces have been seen withdrawing from the east of Yemen in what could be preparation for a land offensive. At the same time, Riyadh is trying to organise a naval coalition to protect shipping from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab strait.

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Iran’s war with the US is not its only conflict as internal crises mount

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Government fears social discontent on ‘most important battlefield’ of economy and livelihoods as war takes its toll amid anti-state dissent

Iran, in the middle of an escalating five-month war with the US, continues to stumble from one internal crisis to another – whether it is over public executions, the rising cost of living, the alleged bias of the state broadcaster or even the post-midnight destruction of pavements outside liberal-leaning Tehran cafes. Very little that happens in Iran, cultural or political, momentous or trivial, does so uncontested.

But there is now a growing threat of a long diplomatic deadlock, forged by mutual distrust in which neither side believes the other will stick to any agreement. That impasse has occurred as the war broadens, drawing in Yemen, Iraq and now Egypt. In Iran, at least, the advocates of escalation are winning. As a result, a convergence of Iran’s conflicts, internal and external, becomes more likely.

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US hits dozens of targets in Iran overnight as peace efforts under threat

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Central Command says strikes aimed at diminishing Iranian military while mediators say talks are continuing

The US struck Iran overnight and Tehran retaliated at US allies in the region, reigniting the low-intensity, tit-for-tat war as mediators struggled to pull the two countries back to the negotiating table.

The US carried out overnight strikes on Iran – the first in more than five days – hours after Donald Trump vowed to hit the country “very hard” following Tehran’s targeting of a base in Jordan that hosts American troops.

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US joins forces with Saudis to strike Tehran-backed militias in Iraq

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Oil price spikes after flare-up of fighting and claimed Iranian attacks on three tankers in strait of Hormuz

The US military said it knocked down an Iranian missile barrage and worked with Saudi Arabia forces to strike sites in Iraq that Tehran-backed militias have used to launch attacks in recent days. The strikes on Wednesday killed at least 20 members of a former paramilitary alliance that includes pro-Iran groups.

In what Washington cast ⁠as “an attempted surprise ⁠attack” by Tehran, Iran had launched multiple ballistic missiles at US forces in the Middle East, shattering a brief pause in fighting. Iran’s target was a US base in Jordan, Axios cited a US official as saying.

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Prisoners at Iran’s largest jail sew lips shut in hunger strike as executions soar

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At least 1,500 protest after six men on drug-related charges put in solitary confinement before possible execution

Prisoners at Iran’s largest jail have sewn their lips shut as hundreds of them joined a mass hunger strike amid a surge in executions over drug offences and charges linked to anti-government protests.

The hunger strike, involving at least 1,500 death row prisoners at Ghezel Hesar prison near Tehran, began two weeks ago after six men convicted on drug-related charges were transferred to solitary confinement before their possible execution, according to Iranian rights groups.

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Trump warns of return to ‘strong military action’ if Iran diplomacy fails

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Washington and Tehran issue conflicting messages over the status of talks to end Middle East crisis

Donald Trump has once again warned that the US will return to “strong military action” against Iran if diplomatic efforts do not bring a rapid resolution to the crisis in the Middle East.

“We are in very deep talks with Iran. If they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action,” the US president told Axios on Monday. Asked for how long he would allow the talks to proceed, he answered: “Not much time. Either it goes fast or not at all.”

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US pauses Iran attacks after Trump advised to halt bombing

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Top military officials say campaign has reached its limit of effectiveness and warn of dwindling stocks of munitions

The US has paused strikes on Iran for a third night as top military officials advised Donald Trump to halt his bombing campaign, and diplomatic negotiations have continued to avoid a return to all-out war.

Oil prices fell on Monday as markets responded to the pause in combat.

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Iran-backed Houthis claim missile attack on Saudi Arabia as regional tensions escalate

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Saudi air defences intercept ballistic missiles as Iran reports first night without US strikes in two weeks

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed a missile attack on the southern Saudi city of Jizan on Saturday, after vowing retaliation against the kingdom for attacks this week.

Iran, meanwhile, reported no strikes overnight on Saturday for the first time after two weeks of US attacks. The Iranian health ministry spokesperson, Hossein Kermanpour, said: “Iran had a peaceful night” in a post on X. Tensions, however, remain high.

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