The Iranian Foreign Ministry attempted to respond positively to the news this weekend that Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey had signed a joint defense pact apparently intended to protect each other from Iran, claiming instead that it conveyed the countries no longer trust the United States.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met in the Saudi city of Mecca on Friday to sign a pact called the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement.
The Houthi Iranian proxy terror organization in Yemen proudly announced on Thursday the alleged killing or injuring of hundreds of “Saudi enemy mercenaries” in a large attack on military assets associated with the legitimate government of Yemen.
Ship tracking data released on Monday showed six Saudi-flagged supertankers turning away from the Gulf of Aden and heading for southern Africa to avoid the Red Sea. The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen have declared a “maritime ban” on Saudi shipping, backed up by terror attacks.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the de facto chief executive of Saudi Arabia, reportedly urged President Donald Trump to avoid turning the Iran crisis into a “wider conflict whose repercussions would affect regional and international security and stability” when they spoke by telephone on Sunday.
Saudi Arabia on Thursday held the first planning session for its proposed Red Sea maritime defense coalition which would secure the vital trading passage through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Gulf of Aden against piracy and terrorism, primarily from the Iran-backed Houthi separatists of Yemen.
A consortium of companies from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia plans a $5 billion oil refinery outside the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran is reportedly anticipating the first delivery installment of 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles within a matter of weeks, the fruit of a deal worth over $60 million arranged by a Hong Kong-based intermediary.
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Iran are reportedly considering a plan to extort “fees” for safe passage of international shipping vessels in the Red Sea, modeled on Iran’s plans to collect ransoms for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry announced on Monday that it intercepted multiple drones targeting eastern oil facilities that were launched by Iran-controlled Shiite militia forces in Iraq.
With a pause in U.S. attacks stretching into a fourth day on Monday, Iran has shifted its aggression toward Saudi Arabia, and especially at sabotaging Saudi efforts to shift their oil exports from the Strait of Hormuz into the Red Sea.
The Reuters news agency, citing four sources, reported on Thursday that Iran’s IRGC flew aid to the Houthis, including missile parts.
The U.S. military carried out a 13th consecutive night of strikes against Iran early Friday, targeting military command centers, drone facilities, communications networks, and maritime capabilities. The action came as President Donald Trump said he was weighing a “massive attack bigger than anything before” while Tehran rejected a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal and warned the conflict could expand further across the region.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is close to deciding whether to order a “massive attack” on Iran “bigger than ever before,” as the United States expands its military campaign against the Islamic Republic, reinforces its force posture across the region, and warns Tehran that further escalation will bring increasingly severe consequences.
The oil-producing nations of the Persian Gulf are stepping up their efforts to divert shipping away from the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has been launching terror strikes on civilian vessels.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry pronounced Beijing “deeply concerned” on Thursday over the ongoing war between Iran and its proxies and the United States in the Middle East, demanding all parties “remain calm.”
International and U.S. benchmark oil surged by over 4 percent on Wednesday amid renewed fears of supply disruptions, as Iran’s terrorist proxies in Yemen began implementing their “maritime ban” against Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea, turning several ships away with threats of force.
Pro-Israel research group Canary Mission said Monday that a video shows several Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-aligned politicians joined an online rally where a speaker lamented that neutralizing Iran would strip Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis of their funding.
Iran’s attacks on neighboring countries are causing massive disruptions of commerce and travel in Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, from reduced oil exports to canceled airline flights, even though most of Iran’s missiles and drones have been intercepted.
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen on Monday declared a “maritime ban” against Saudi Arabia, implicitly a threat to attack Saudi oil tankers passing through the Red Sea on their way to the Suez Canal.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday threatened to cut off all supplies of Middle Eastern oil to the rest of the world, in retaliation for the restored U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.
The Iran-backed Houthi terrorist insurgents of Yemen on Monday condemned Saudi Arabia for allegedly bombing the airport in Yemen’s occupied capital city of Sanaa and launched missiles against Saudi targets to retaliate for the act of “blatant aggression.”
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen declared “a complete and total ban on Israeli maritime navigation” through the Red Sea on Monday.
Israel struck military and petrochemical targets inside Iran for the first time since an early-April ceasefire on Monday after Tehran launched ballistic missile barrages at the Jewish state.
CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper said Thursday that Iran’s military capabilities have been “severely degraded” across “every domain” following the U.S. air campaign against the Islamic Republic.
A report released this week by researchers at Conflict Armament Research (CAR) revealed that the Houthis, an Iran-backed Yemeni terrorist organization, has been rapidly rebuilding its weapons arsenal through shipments of components, including for missiles and underwater weapons.
The government of Somalia on Thursday announced Israeli ships are no longer allowed to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital passage that links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
Spain’s prime minister is facing a complaint at the International Criminal Court alleging his government enabled Iran’s “terror machine” through dual-use exports, with the legal group behind the filing arguing that responsibility for war crimes extends to those who provide the means.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib and 23 House Democrats urged the Trump administration to restore Yemen TPS, which is set to expire May 4.
President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Iran that “time is running out” and gave the regime 48 hours to either “MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT” before “all Hell” would rain down, escalating his pressure campaign on the 36th day of Operation Epic Fury as the White House signaled that Tehran is rapidly running out of time to avoid even harsher consequences.
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen claimed on Thursday to have struck Tel Aviv, Israel, with a “barrage of ballistic missiles.”
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgency in Yemen announced on Wednesday it has launched an operation called “Holy Jihad Battle” against Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Tuesday that Iran no longer poses an existential threat to Israel after what he described as a month of joint U.S.-Israeli operations that crippled Tehran’s nuclear and missile capabilities, while President Donald Trump said the war is nearing its end and “won’t last much longer.”
The Houthi insurgents of Yemen appear to have joined the Iran conflict on behalf of their arms dealers and paymasters in Tehran by launching missiles and drones at Israel on Saturday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that a long-term solution to the escalating Strait of Hormuz crisis would require rerouting oil and gas pipelines westward across Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea and Mediterranean, bypassing what he described as Iran’s “geographic choke point,” as Tehran moves to impose tolls on ships transiting the vital waterway and restrict passage through the corridor.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels announced their entry into the Middle East war on Saturday by launching a ballistic missile towards Israel, as the world struggled to contain the economic damage of a conflict now entering its second month.
A significant number of House Democrats voted “no” on declaring the Islamic Republic of Iran a “state sponsor of terrorism.”
The shipping industry is concerned that the war in Iran could disrupt worldwide supply chains, far beyond the loss of oil and liquid natural gas (LNG) shipments moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
Retired British Army Colonel Richard Kemp, a former operational commander in Afghanistan, said Iran “seriously miscalculated” President Donald Trump’s resolve — a misjudgment he argued led to the most significant strike against the Islamic Republic since 1979 and one that could now fundamentally reshape the regional order.
On Thursday’s “CNN News Central,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) argued that if there is a deal with Iran, it has to include their funding of terrorist proxies in it, “because if they are funneling their oil revenues to Hezbollah, to
