CNN: Efforts to resolve the US-Iran conflict are “in very progressive stages,” Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said, adding that drafts of a potential agreement are “being circulated” but that there are no direct talks between the two sides. Qatar’s emir received a phone call from President Donald Trump and discussed ways to bridge US-Iran differences, the emir’s office said.
Missile stockpiles: The US military has burned through nearly 80% of its interceptors for a key missile defense system, leaving the Pentagon’s munitions stockpile “dangerously low,” commanders warn, according to sources familiar with the matter…
US has used ‘virtually all’ of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war, sources say
The missiles are principally the Army’s surface-to-surface weapons, known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM). The U.S. has used “virtually all” of these weapons, according to two of the sources.
The degree to which the military is running out of ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles has not been previously reported…
An Angry Trump Struggles to Understand Iran’s Defiant Leaders
But Mr. Trump may be the president who “has least understood Iran’s leadership,” said Kenneth Pollack, a former C.I.A. analyst and National Security Council official who has studied Iran for decades.
“In many ways, Trump represents the epitome of America’s frustrations with Iran,” Mr. Pollack said. “He has been both the most desirous of making a deal with Iran, and the one who used the most force against it. He has found that neither got him what he wanted.”…
Talks With Iran to Reopen Strait of Hormuz Make Progress, Officials Say
Qatar said that draft language of a deal was being circulated, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed optimism about the talks but added that nothing was final yet…
Iran demands inbound control of Hormuz and outbound oversight, source says
Iran wants control over inbound shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and visibility over outbound traffic, with the ability to intervene if necessary, under a temporary plan being discussed with Oman to reopen the strategic waterway, a senior Iranian source told Reuters on Tuesday.
The source, who is involved in the talks, said this is “the general idea currently being discussed”, and specified that the outbound lane would follow a route between Iran and Oman, with exit clearance granted through Oman after notifying Iran…
Donald Trump trapped between escalation and an Iran deal on Tehran’s terms
“The denuclearisation of Iran is the ultimate deal,” US secretary of state Marco Rubio told reporters on Tuesday. “The immediate deal, and the one that you’ve seen a lot of focus on, is the strait.”
In itself, that would mark something akin to strategic humiliation, say critics. Iran exploited its strategic leverage over the strait only after Trump launched the war. Now any settlement could give Tehran control over some of the waterway and without denying it the power to eventually charge fees from vessels using it — conditions that would have seemed unthinkable to US geostrategists just a year ago…