New York Times: The Israeli military said it had sent a broad wave of strikes at the Iranian capital early Saturday. Some strikes hit an area near the Mehrabad Airport. Footage shared on state media showed multiple explosions and columns of smoke…
Washington Post: Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces in the Middle East, the first indication that another major U.S. adversary is participating — even indirectly — in the war, according to three officials familiar with the intelligence.
The assistance, which has not been previously reported, signals that the rapidly expanding conflict now features one of America’s chief nuclear-armed competitors with exquisite intelligence capabilities.
New York Times: President Trump declared on Friday that he would settle for nothing short of “unconditional surrender” by Iran, the latest and broadest expansion of his goals for the conflict, and one that could portend a much longer war if he persists in that aim…
CNN: President Donald Trump told CNN Friday that Iran’s leadership has been “neutered” and that he’s looking for new leadership that will treat the United States and Israel well, even if that’s a religious leader and it’s not a democratic state.
“Iran is not the same country it was a week ago. A week ago they were powerful, and now they’ve been indeed neutered,” he told CNN in a brief but wide-ranging phone interview…
Bloomberg: Saudi Arabia has stepped up direct engagement with Iran to try and contain a war in the Middle East that is causing havoc and stressing global markets, according to several European officials.
In recent days, Saudi officials have deployed their diplomatic backchannel to Iran with greater urgency to de-escalate tensions and prevent the conflict from worsening, the officials said, asking not to be named discussing private and sensitive conversations. Several European and Middle Eastern nations are backing these efforts, according to these officials…
Wall Street Journal: The conflict with Iran throttled one of the key shipping routes for global energy and brought the world to the brink of a shock. Costs of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel have surged at paces that echo 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked some of the wildest commodity trading on record…
Financial Times: Brent crude settled 8.5 per cent higher on Friday, leaving the international oil benchmark up 28 per cent this week to $92.69 a barrel. US marker West Texas Intermediate leapt 36 per cent this week to $90.90, in its biggest weekly rise on records stretching to 1983…
Financial Times: The US Development Finance Corporation is creating a $20bn reinsurance facility to restart maritime cargo and oil commerce stalled by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz following the American and Israeli strikes on Iran…
Financial Times: Qatar’s energy minister has warned that war in the Middle East could “bring down the economies of the world”, predicting that all Gulf energy exporters would shut down production within days and drive oil to $150 a barrel.
Saad al-Kaabi told the FT that even if the war ended immediately it would take Qatar “weeks to months” to return to a normal cycle of deliveries following an Iranian drone strike at its largest liquefied natural gas plant…
Bloomberg: Iran has destroyed a key $300 million radar system crucial to directing US missile defense batteries in the Gulf that risks further straining the region’s ability to counter future attacks, according to a US official…
Wall Street Journal: Tehran’s leaders crafted a plan ahead of the current conflict that would escalate the fight across the region, and let the military keep battling even if its top commanders fell…
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