CNN: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched an attack targeting an American air base they say was the source of US strikes on Iranian targets hours before. The US strikes targeted Iranian drones and a launch site around the Strait of Hormuz, according to a US official.
US President Donald Trump said he won’t be rushed into a deal, warning that Iran’s efforts to outlast him won’t work because he doesn’t “care about the midterms.” The White House dismissed Iranian reports that a memorandum of understanding being negotiated would lift the US blockade of Iranian ports in exchange for the reopening of the strait…
Trump Says He Feels No Political Pressure to Make an Iran Deal
He rejected any suggestion that the looming midterm elections and high gas prices stemming from Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz had increased the pressure on him to strike an agreement that would reopen the waterway to oil tankers and other commercial ship traffic.
“I don’t care about the midterms — look what happened last night,” he said…
“Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow ‘em up,” Trump said at a White House Cabinet meeting.
It was particularly striking because it was phrased like an aside — something Trump seemingly casually dropped with little thought beforehand…
Lebanese Resigned to a Long War, Even if U.S. and Iran Make a Deal
Few in Lebanon believe that diplomatic efforts to end the wider war will bring peace to their country, as clashes between Israel and Hezbollah intensify in the south…
How Long Can Iran Withstand the Economic Pain of the U.S. Blockade?
Now, battered by war and suffocated by a U.S. naval blockade, the country is in even worse shape as Washington presses Tehran into a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, leaving its leaders weighing whether they can withstand the pain long enough to extract more concessions…
Iran’s forever war: Deal or no deal, Iran’s challenge to America will outlast Trump
For nearly five decades, American presidents of both parties have approached Iran with different combinations of diplomacy, sanctions, deterrence and military force. Yet the conflict between the United States and the Islamic Republic persists because the central driver of Iran’s behavior has remained remarkably constant: the revolutionary ideology of the Islamic Republic itself…
The High-Seas Black Market That Keeps Iran’s Illicit Oil Flowing
Despite U.S. sanctions, the regime has managed to sell billions of dollars in crude to China using a clandestine network of aging tankers…