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Any damage inflicted by Iran on ships in the Strait of Hormuz will be paid for by Iranian money that the U.S. holds, President Donald Trump said on Thursday in a Truth Social post. The comment follows after the U.S. has pounded Iran for about 12 days straight. Iran and the U.S. tore up a memorandum of understanding that sought peace after Iran repeatedly fired upon ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. “Please let this statement serve to represent, until further notice, that from this point forth, any and all damages done to Ships, Cargo, or anything related thereto, will...

A contentious Senate hearing on a supplemental budget request of nearly $88 billion, largely earmarked to cover the ongoing war on Iran, revealed new figures about the war’s cost to date and the effects of the military’s Project Freedom initiative to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz. The hearing did little, however, to provide concrete answers on what it would take to end the conflict. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations Committee alongside the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, to defend the request, more than $67 billion...

On Morning Joe's June 18th episode, Scarborough railed that the Memorandum of Understanding leaves the Iranian regime "more powerful than they've ever been."But on Wednesday's Scarborough chat-a-thon, Kim Ghattas, a contributing editor at the Financial Times, acknowledged that while Iran may appear to hold the upper hand with actions like threatening the Strait of Hormuz and inflicting casualties, the reality on the ground tells a different story. “It's very interesting to hear Richard speak about Israeli overreach and American overreach. Because I also think the Iranians are overreaching at this moment in the conflict . . . They also feel...

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a testy exchange on Iran and the state of the Strait of Hormuz. At a Tuesday Senate hearing, Kennedy questioned both Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. John D. Caine on the Strait as tensions have escalated between the United States and Iran with the U.S. launching days of strikes and Iran continuing to target ships in the Strait. “Will they put tolls on the Strait?” Kennedy asked Caine. “I don’t know, sir. That’s a decision that’s a hypothetical and will depend on what happens in the...

The Iranian regime unveiled a shocking giant mural in central Tehran on Wednesday depicting President Donald Trump lying in a coffin and captioned with the brazen threat, “We kill Trump.” The mural, erected in Tehran’s Islamic Revolution Square, shows Trump with his hands folded across his chest and his face protruding from the coffin. It was unveiled just weeks after the funeral of Iran’s late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed at the outset of the U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, where crowds were filmed chanting slogans calling for death to America. It remains unclear who commissioned the mural,...

DOHA — With the U.S. blockade of the important waterway back on amid renewed hostilities in Iran, President Donald Trump announced that he would secure the Strait of Hormuz by posting an old man who asks you three questions before you may pass. The old man, who was reportedly discovered by U.S. military officials as he guarded a rickety bridge over a chasm in rural Britain known as the Gorge of Eternal Peril, will now be stationed on a dinghy in the Strait of Hormuz, where he will bar the passage of any vessel unless its crew can answer...

Oil producers in the Persian Gulf are making plans to bypass the Strait of Hormuz with new pipelines and a new port after Iran has repeatedly attacked ships and blocked traffic. The idea is to minimize Tehran’s leverage on the waterway that once saw 20% of the world’s oil pass through it as the war stretches into its fifth month. Iran has already insisted that it will impose tolls on the strait, which could cost tens of billions of dollars. And in some cases, it is extracting millions of dollars of protection money per oil tanker. Two such projects are...

The US announced a new round of strikes on Iran on Monday, hours after President Donald Trump said that the United States is 'reinstating' a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. 'We're taking out all of their capability for anything having to do with the strait, the Hormuz Strait,' Trump told CBS News Monday evening. 'And I think in the end we will end up just controlling the whole thing.' Trump said the US is prepared to hit Iran 'very hard' on Monday and Tuesday, saying the country’s heavily fortified nuclear facility at Pickaxe Mountain was a target....

President Trump just put Iran on a very short clock. By Saturday, the regime is expected to publicly acknowledge that the Strait of Hormuz is open and pledge that commercial ships will not be attacked. Washington is demanding more than another foggy diplomatic promise. Tehran must say the words in public, where the entire world can hold the regime to them. Axios reported that the demand was delivered both directly to Tehran and through regional mediators, according to three U.S. officials who briefed reporters Friday. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to meet Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi in...

Arab countries attacking Iran

‘My whole life, all I do is deals,” President Trump said Wednesday, but Iran’s regime “is from a different school,” he had to admit. “They’re liars, they’re cheats, they’re sick people.” Mr. Trump cited the tens of thousands of Iranians slaughtered by the regime in January and explained how its word has proved worthless. “I don’t want to deal with them anymore,” he said.The President is so mercurial that it’s impossible to know if he’s serious that the cease-fire is “over,” as he said. He could declare it back on tomorrow. But he’s right that Iran’s regime has been wasting...

President Donald Trump flew home from a NATO summit in Turkey on an old baby blue Air Force One plane instead of the new Qatari-gifted and retrofitted red, white and navy blue jet he arrived in, a surprise swap that came as the U.S. and Iran once again began trading strikes. Trump offered little clarity on the swap, instead saying he would fly on the legacy aircraft “for old time’s sake,” and indicating that both aircraft would make a previously unscheduled stop on the way back to the U.S. at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, a base used by U.S. troops....

President Donald Trump appeared to confuse Iran with Japan during a jaw-dropping verbal slip at the NATO summit in Ankara on Wednesday, telling reporters that the “Islamic Republic of Japan” had fired more than 100 missiles at a U.S. aircraft carrier as he touted the effectiveness of Patriot missile defense systems.

The US military struck a railway bridge in north-eastern Iran overnight, Iranian state media reported early on Thursday. Several projectiles hit the bridge in Golestan province, state broadcaster IRIB said on social media platform X. Press TV, a broadcaster aligned with Iran's leadership, said it was the first attack in the region since a ceasefire took effect in April. Journalist Barak Ravid, citing a US official in a post on X, said two railway bridges in Iran had been attacked as part of the latest wave of US military strikes. Journalist Barak Ravid, citing a US official in a post...

Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claimed on Wednesday that they had targeted 85 allegedly “American military facilities,” in reality launching sweeping bombing campaigns against neighbors Kuwait and Bahrain. The IRGC’s aggression follows Iran bombing various vessels attempting to navigate the Strait of Hormuz, reportedly ships linked to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The Iranian regime’s attacks prompted U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) to resume targeted strikes on Iran’s terrorist infrastructure to protect free navigation in the strait, which the IRGC used as its reasoning for bombing Kuwait and Bahrain. The IRGC’s statement, as shared by the Iranian government’s Islamic Republic...

President Trump said Wednesday that he believes his memorandum of understanding with Iran is dead after he ordered overnight airstrikes on 80 targets after Iranian forces attacked three commercial ships. “I don’t like them at all. And frankly, I think we wasted a lot of time with them, I think we should just do our business,” Trump said in his first public remarks after ordering the airstrikes. When asked by a reporter if the preliminary peace deal, which Trump signed June 17, was dead, Trump replied: “To me, i think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them anymore....

The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday it will cancel its authorization of Iranian oil sales following a series of attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. The decision comes after Iran launched multiple attacks on tankers transiting the critical waterway this week, despite having promised safe passages to commercial ships under an interim deal to reopen Hormuz. The Trump administration had previously waived U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil as part of that agreement. The Office of Foreign Assets Control is ending the license that had allowed the production, delivery and sale of Iranian oil, which was set to run...

“The US launches “powerful strikes” against Iran after attacks on three ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, including Qatari and Saudi Arabian tankers. Iranian media reports that explosions have been heard in the Iranian port city of Sirik, in Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island. The US also revokes a waiver that allowed Iran to sell oil under an interim peace agreement signed between Washington and Tehran on June 17.“

War is back on in Iran on Wednesday after Tehran launched attacks on trade vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he considers the tentative ceasefire with Iran to be "over," telling reporters alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the alliance's annual summit in Ankara, Turkey, that the agreement had become "a waste of time." "For me, I think it's over," Trump said. "As far as I'm concerned it's just a waste of time." "They're liars," Trump said. "We make a deal. ... They go outside, talk to the press. They say, 'We never even...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A tanker traveling off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz caught on fire early Tuesday morning after being struck by a projectile, the British military said.The attack was the latest targeting a vessel moving through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. Iranian state television said the liquefied natural gas tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings but did not directly claim the assault. Tehran has repeatedly declared that only its approved route through the strait...