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Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday that they would ban ships linked to Israel from the Red Sea after Israel renewed its military attacks on Iran, adding to concerns about global shipping and energy flows.

Israel conducted strikes on military targets in western and central Iran early Monday local time, the Israeli military announced, escalating a conflict that had already broken through the ceasefire just hours earlier when Iran fired multiple waves of missiles at Israel on Sunday. The strikes came despite a direct phone call from President Trump to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him not to retaliate immediately for the Iranian missile attack. A senior U.S. official told the Associated Press, on condition of anonymity to describe a private call, that Trump believed he had convinced Netanyahu to wait. Israel struck anyway....

Donald Trump said he would plead with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate against Iranian strikes on Israel - which came in response to Israeli strikes on Beirut on Sunday. ‘I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate,’ Trump was quoted as saying by Axios journalist Barak Ravid in a phone interview, using the Israeli leader’s nickname. ‘Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,’ Mr Trump said. Trump described the attack - the first Iranian strikes on Israeli soil...

Iran has launched a salvo of ballistic missiles toward Israel, triggering sirens across the northern region with no immediate reports of impacts or casualties

Retired four-star Gen. Jack Keane said enough with the diplomatic charade — Iran is stalling for time and the best solution is to resume full-scale war. The chairman of the Institute for the Study of War and former Army vice chief of staff on Friday blasted eight weeks of fruitless talks as a waste while the mullahs play games. “We have to accept the reality that’s just not going to happen,” Keane said on Fox News. “They have one motive: Stretch out negotiations as much as possible, get as close to the political situation in terms of midterm elections, and...

US President Donald Trump tells reporters that Washington does not need a deal with Iran to get enriched uranium from the country. “We could get it right now. I don’t think they could stop us if we wanted, but there’s no reason to. It’s entombed,” he says.Trump also says that he did not want to meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, but adds that “I’d be honored to meet him.”He says if Washington and Tehran reached a deal, it was possible that the two would meet and adds, “If it happened… I’d be respectful.” “In some circles he has...

The House offered a rare rebuke to President Donald Trump on Wednesday, passing a Democrat-led measure to end his war with Iran over objections from Republican leadership. It was one of two Democratic-led measures opposed by the White House that advanced in the GOP-led House. Lawmakers also passed a motion that would unlock a vote on sending aid to Ukraine. The Iran war powers resolution, offered by Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, had been heading for a vote before the House left for its Memorial Day recess on May 21. But...

House lawmakers passed legislation Wednesday evening that seeks to force the United States to end the conflict in the Middle East by making it withdraw troops from the hostilities with Iran. The House bill would make President Donald Trump end the conflict, marking a significant victory for House Democrats who have attempted three other times to pass an Iranian war powers resolution. The legislation passed in a 215 to 208 vote, which saw four Republicans vote with all Democrats. Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Tom Barrett of Michigan and Warren Davidson of Ohio voted in...

June 3 (UPI) -- Kuwait closed its main airport in Kuwait City on Wednesday after Iranian missile and drone strikes injured several people and caused "significant damage" to its main terminal building as renewed hostilities between the Iran and the United States escalated.The airport activated its emergency plan, suspending all flights indefinitely after its Terminal 1 building was the target of "Iranian aggression, resulting in significant damage to several airport facilities, in addition to recording human injuries," the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in an update on X.DGCA spokesman Abdullah Al-Rajhi said it has been decided to suspend air...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared Tuesday that the Iran war is “over now,” while laying out what he described as the Trump administration’s non-negotiable conditions for any broader agreement currently under discussion with Tehran — including the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the surrender of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile, and severe long-term restrictions on the regime’s nuclear program before any sanctions relief would be considered. Speaking in his first public congressional testimony since the launch of Operation Epic Fury in February, Rubio argued the Trump administration’s military and economic pressure campaign has significantly weakened the Islamic...

At least 300 non-Iranian ships have applied for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz with Tehran’s new authority seeking to create a permanent toll system along the vital passageway. The Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) said the majority of the ships applying were oil tankers, with at least 77% of the applicants looking to exit the Persian Gulf to reach Asia, particularly China and India, two of the Middle East’s largest fuel buyers. The PGSA’s remarks came as the IRGC announced that its naval forces have escorted 24 vessels through the Strait of Hormuz over the past 24 hours....

US President Donald Trump reportedly lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call earlier today, calling him “fucking crazy” as he demanded that Israel agree to a ceasefire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and claimed the premier owes him for keeping him out of jail. Axios cites a US official summarizing Trump’s message to Netanyahu as follows: “You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”

Key Points Iranian negotiators will stop exchanging messages with the U.S. through intermediaries in retaliation for ongoing ceasefire violations, Iran’s state-affiliated news outlet Tasnim said. Tehran will also move to fully block the Strait of Hormuz, Tasnim reported. Oil prices leapt more than 5% higher following Tasnim’s report. ============================================================ Iranian negotiators will stop exchanging messages with the U.S. through intermediaries, and Tehran will move to fully close the Strait of Hormuz, in retaliation for ongoing ceasefire violations, Iran’s state-affiliated news outlet Tasnim said Monday. The report, in a translated post on the social media site Telegram, homed in on Israel’s...

President Donald Trump declared that Iran 'really wants to make a deal' early on Monday morning, just hours after the US military launched strikes against Iranian drone facilities. In a late-night Truth Social post shortly after 1am, Trump insisted diplomacy remained within reach despite the latest exchange of fire, while simultaneously lashing out at critics he said were undermining his negotiating position. 'Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the USA and those that are with us,' Trump wrote. But the president also took aim at what he called 'Dumocrats' and 'seemingly...

President Trump has toughened the terms of a potential framework for a deal to end the war in Iran, and has sent those proposed changes back to the country for consideration, according to three officials. Mr. Trump has been concerned about parts of the potential deal that would include unfreezing funds for the Iranians, two officials said. He has been harshly critical of President Barack Obama for doing the same in the more than decade-old agreement that was signed to curtail Iran’s nuclear program. Mr. Trump has also been frustrated by how long it has taken for Iran to respond...

Tehran is preparing to submit a fresh round of modifications to a preliminary agreement with Washington following US President Donald Trump’s recent demands for stricter conditions in the text, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday, citing an individual familiar with the ongoing negotiations. The media outlet, which maintains close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and hard-line factions within the Iranian government, reported that the indirect negotiation process remains active. “Iran will make its own revisions to the text, and nothing is final yet," the unnamed source stated. In addition to confirming the continued diplomatic back-and-forth, the Iranian...

If the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz is a game of chicken, it sounds as though the Iranians will either swerve first – or accelerate. One way or the other, though, the blockade appears to have succeeded in bringing the regime to its crisis point. As discussions around a potential deal (really a pre-deal) continue, the IRGC has begun to demand an end to the US Navy's complete siege on Iranian ports. That message has come from the top of the food chain today, including the Nepo Babytollah's supposed attaché: [X links at source article] The "direct action" threat...

If the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz is a game of chicken, it sounds as though the Iranians will either swerve first – or accelerate. One way or the other, though, the blockade appears to have succeeded in bringing the regime to its crisis point. As discussions around a potential deal (really a pre-deal) continue, the IRGC has begun to demand an end to the US Navy's complete siege on Iranian ports. That message has come from the top of the food chain today, including the Nepo Babytollah's supposed attaché: Mohsen Rezaei, military advisor to Mojtaba Khamenei: If the...

The times, they are a-changin', as then-folk music troubadour Bob Dylan once sang about the radical era America found herself swimming/wading through in the Sixties. You could say the same thing about whatever they end up calling this era, and the second Trump administration at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Readers may have seen some of our pieces - so far on Wednesday - covering the Cabinet meeting open to the media. Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent, per a Playbook report on the team meet-up, explained that "The continued resilience of the economy speaks for itself, even during the Iran — the conflict."...

The US military carried out new strikes in Iran Wednesday, targeting a military site that threatened American troops and commercial shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. “Today, US Central Command Forces shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz,” a US official said in a statement. “US forces also struck an Iranian ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone,” the official added. Despite the skirmish, the fragile cease-fire that has been in place since April 8 is still considered to be holding.“These actions were...