| Highlights from yesterday |
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Oil prices drop, but stay on track for monthly gain of about 20%
Oil prices dropped on Friday, though they remain on track for a monthly gain of about one-fifth.
Supply shipments increased through vital maritime passages despite a lack of progress in talks between Iran and the US.
Brent crude futures fell $1.03, or 1.2 percent, to $88 a barrel as of 02:15 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slipped $1.50, or 1.8 percent, to $82.09 a barrel.
On a monthly basis, both benchmark contracts were poised to rise by roughly 20 percent.
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Iran’s army claims drone strike on US airbase in Kuwait
The Iranian army says its forces targeted strategic US military facilities at Kuwait’s Ahmed Al-Jaber airbase in a drone attack, describing the operation as retaliation for recent US strikes.
In a statement carried by Tasnim news agency, the army said the attack targeted hangars, satellite communication systems, and equipment warehouses using drones.
The strike, according to the statement, was carried out in response to a US attack on a residential home on Qeshm Island, adding that the Kuwait facility serves as a vital hub for US aerial surveillance and operational support in the region.
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Trump says war ‘going well,’ US troops ‘hitting Iran hard’
US President Donald Trump has told Fox News that Washington and Israel’s war on Iran is “going well”.
Speaking to the US channel’s senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, Trump said US troops are hitting Iran “hard”.
“It’s going well. All you can do is keep winning, then eventually something will happen,” he said.
“But we’re hitting them hard, knocking them out for a loop, and we just keep winning. Eventually they’ll have no choice but to go home.”
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Trump claims Iran is being ‘decimated’ in attacks
Asked about reviving the ceasefire following back-and-forth attacks with Iran at a cabinet meeting in Camp David, Trump says, “We just want to win.”
“We’re doing very well. We’re trying to be nice, as nice as you can be in a situation like that, but you know, they’re being decimated. They have no navy, they have no air force, they have no anti-aircraft. Doesn’t mean they don’t have any capabilities — they have some, but very little,” he said.
“It’s very simple, they cannot have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, and they can’t have a nuclear weapon. If they did, the Middle East would’ve been wiped out,” Trump added.
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US to continue attacks on Iran: Trump
During his cabinet meeting, Trump tells reporters that Washington will be hitting Iran “very hard” when asked what he expects over the next four weeks.
“At some point, they’re going to say we just can’t take it anymore,” he said.
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Oil prices rise after Iran stops ships in the Strait of Hormuz
Oil prices have risen after Iran said it had stopped two vessels seeking to exit the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude was up $1.14, or 1.3 percent, at $90.17 a barrel as of 11:17am in New York (15:17 GMT).
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stopped two tankers from transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Friday while four others changed course, the country’s Fars News Agency reported.
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US says Strait of Hormuz ‘remains open’
The US military says the Iranian government’s claim that the Strait of Hormuz is closed is “false”.
“The Strait of Hormuz remains open for commercial vessel transit. Iran does not control it. Thousands of ships have sailed through the international waterway over the past four months,” the US military’s Central Command said in a post on X.
Earlier, Iran said it had stopped two vessels seeking to exit the Strait of Hormuz and added that four other tankers were turned back after its forces intervened.
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Treasury chief Bessent says US searching for Iranian assets ‘all around the world’
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has told reporters that the US is searching for Iranian assets “all around the world, and that money will go to the Iranian people”.
Last week, President Trump pledged to use frozen Iranian assets to pay for any damage to ships and cargo in the Strait of Hormuz, provoking strong condemnation from Tehran.
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Iran ‘does not want to give up its leverage’ over Hormuz
The Strait of Hormuz has now emerged as a key bargaining chip for Tehran, and Tehran says that it is not going to allow any ship to sidestep or bypass Iran’s authorised lanes for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
So Iran does not seem to be willing to give up this key leverage.
But at the same time, the Omanis and the Iranians have been engaged in legal consultations over who controls what and what share of the Strait of Hormuz should be controlled by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
But at least for now, as Iran is engaged in this war with the US, it does not want to give up its leverage. Iran wants to maintain its full control and authority over the inbound traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and, of course, the outbound traffic that passes through the southern lanes, closer to the Omani territorial waters.
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Why Iran attacked US base in Kuwait
The Iranian army said on Friday that its forces had targeted strategic US military facilities at Kuwait’s Ahmad Al-Jaber airbase in a drone attack, describing the operation as retaliation for recent US strikes.
In a statement reported by Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, the army said it had targeted hangars, satellite communication systems and equipment warehouses using drones.
The strike, according to the statement, was carried out in response to a US attack on a residential home on Qeshm island, adding that the Kuwait facility serves as a vital hub for US aerial surveillance and operational support in the region.
The US has not responded to Iran’s attack yet, and specific details about the damage and casualties are not known.
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The US navy’s role in the war on Iran is absolutely pivotal
They have two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Middle East, and they’re being used to launch daily missions and patrols.
They also have ships like the USS Bataan, which is an amphibious assault vessel, and that will allow them to transition from a war based at sea to one based on land, and a land invasion is still very much a possibility.
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UK, UAE discuss situation in region, Strait of Hormuz
British Secretary of State Ed Miliband met the UAE’s Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah bin Zayed and discussed the ongoing situation in the region.
In a post on X, Miliband said he also spoke to Zayed about “protecting freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz”, adding that they would take UK-UAE relations further.
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Pentagon refuses to comment on reports of planned US-Israeli attack on Iranian energy sites
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell says that they will not comment on possible Iranian targets before Trump makes a decision.
“The Department of War is locked and loaded, ready to execute the President’s directives at a moment’s notice,” Parnell said in a statement.
The spokesperson’s comments come after CBS reported that the US and Israel are allegedly planning a bombing campaign against Iranian energy infrastructure sites, with strikes possible throughout the weekend and ending before Monday due to the markets opening, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
The report added that Trump was yet to give the final go-ahead for the planned attacks.
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US crude heads to Israel for the first time in nearly three years, ship tracking shows
A cargo of flagship US light sweet crude oil loaded in Texas is headed to Israel today, the first shipment to the country in nearly three years, ship tracking data reviewed by Reuters news agency shows.
According to Reuters, the vessel is shipping about 550,000 barrels of crude, according to data from shipping tracker LSEG.
The last time US crude headed to Israel was in October 2023, Kpler data showed.
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Iran’s Zolqadr says US voters will ‘pay the price’ of Strait of Hormuz blockade
The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council says the continued US naval blockade will “tighten the lock on the Strait of Hormuz”, state news agency Fars reports.
“The US regime’s continued naval blockade and arson will both tighten the lock on the Strait of Hormuz and close other straits and bottlenecks; and the global economy, the energy market, and American voters will pay the price,” Mohammad Baqir Zolqadr said.
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Iran warns of response to US and Israeli infrastructure threats
An Iranian senior official says Iran has a comprehensive plan to respond to potential US and Israeli attacks on its infrastructure, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The official called US media reports regarding possible strikes a form of “madness” and warned that Tehran was fully prepared to retaliate.
He said Iran’s response “includes the vital infrastructure of the Zionist regime and the energy infrastructure of the US in the region”, according to Tasnim.
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