New York Times: Even as Israeli drones hovered over Beirut, Lebanon, the Israeli military said it had begun a “broad-scale wave of strikes” against the Iranian regime infrastructure’s in Tehran in the early morning hours of Friday in the Middle East. Israel made the announcement only hours after it had unleashed a major bombardment Thursday evening on a Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, in another sign that Lebanon is fast becoming a new front in the widening conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran…
The Independent: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the United States has “only just begun” in the Iran conflict, where President Donald Trump will have a “heck of a say” in its next supreme leader…
Axios: President Trump told Axios in an interview Thursday that he needs to be personally involved in selecting Iran’s next leader — just as he was in Venezuela…
Financial Times: The Pentagon and at least one Gulf government are in talks to buy Ukrainian-made interceptors to fend off attacks by Iranian drones, according to industry figures in Ukraine…
CNN: Middle East countries continue to intercept fresh retaliatory attacks. New satellite images in the Arabian Peninsula suggest Iran is seeking to degrade air defenses by destroying US-made radars that detect missiles and drones…
Financial Times: Energy and insurance specialists have cast doubt on Donald Trump’s plans to insure tankers in the Gulf, complicating the US president’s efforts to curb the oil price surge triggered by his war in Iran…
Politico: President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is telling his advisers to bring ideas to the Oval Office to lower gasoline prices in the wake of the U.S. attack on Iran, according to two energy industry executives familiar with the conversations…
Bloomberg: The Trump administration is weighing options to address the spike in oil and gasoline prices amid the war in Iran, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Possible actions include releasing crude from the country’s emergency oil reserve, waivers of fuel-blending requirements, and the US Treasury trading oil futures.
The administration has announced plans to provide insurance guarantees and naval escorts to ensure safe passage for oil tankers and other vessels through the Strait of Hormuz…
Wall Street Journal: The United Arab Emirates is weighing freezing billions of dollars of Iranian assets held in the Gulf state, according to people familiar with the discussions, a move that could sever one of Tehran’s most important economic lifelines.
If the U.A.E. goes ahead, it would significantly curb Tehran’s access to foreign currency and global trade networks as its domestic economy, already buckling under inflation, is now engulfed in a military conflict…
Washington Post: But so far, some six days into a war that has now touched 12 countries across the Middle East, major military operations have not threatened the Iranian regime’s grip on power, according to European and Arab officials briefed on assessments of the regime’s standing since the conflict began…
Financial Times: Iran’s strikes against other Middle Eastern countries are increasingly reliant on Shahed-style drones, drawing on its deep stockpiles of the relatively cheap devices as its drone launchers evade detection from the air.
Tehran’s capacity to sustain those strikes may determine the course of a conflict that has come down to a contest between US and Israeli air power and Iran’s dispersed missile and drone forces on the ground, said analysts…
Bloomberg: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is trying to leverage his nation’s war savvy to keep it on the world’s agenda as the Iran conflict increasingly absorbs the attention of President Donald Trump.
Zelenskiy offered to share his country’s expertise in protecting against explosives-laden Iranian drones, and said Ukraine received a request from the US to help protect the Middle East region against Iran’s drones.
Ukraine can help the Gulf countries because they have developed drone interceptors and drone protection, according to EU Foreign Affairs Chief Kaja Kallas, who said Europe needs to do more and speed up its own production of drones and interceptor drones…
More:
Pentagon Races to Secure Money for Iran Operations, Munitions
Who Is Eyal Zamir, the Architect of Israel’s War Plans?
How the Decision to Start a War Became the President’s
Its Missile Threat Degraded, Iran Is Taking Fewer Shots at More Targets