CNN: President Donald Trump said the US has agreed to continue talks with Iran but that Washington has informed Tehran the ceasefire is over. It comes during a lull after a flareup of strikes this week. Qatari negotiators, in coordination with the US, are visiting Iran to meet with officials, a source says.
Near key strait: A CNN team embedded with the US Navy spotted multiple commercial vessels in the Gulf of Oman, not far from the Strait of Hormuz. Crossings of the critical strait have dropped recently as shipping companies operate with more caution…
Israel shared intelligence with US of Iranian plot to assassinate Trump, sources say
One of the sources said the warning came this week. Another source said the US had picked up a steady drumbeat of intelligence in recent weeks about possible plans to assassinate Trump, but the warning from Israel was new and concerned a specific plot.
Other American officials suggested the Israeli report could be an effort to sway Trump’s decision-making as he weighs whether to intensify American military action against Iran…
Iran Hatched Fresh Plot to Kill Trump, Israel Told U.S.
The Israeli embassy in Washington declined to comment. Iran’s Mission to the United Nations didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House referred The Wall Street Journal to comments the president made on Wednesday…
As U.S. Steps Up Attacks on Iran, Prospect of All-Out War Rises
The attacks have left the region deeply unsettled and seemingly caught in an ongoing cycle of sporadic war. They have raised the prospect of a return to the full-scale war that began in late February, when the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran…
Bombing and a Tentative Accord Didn’t Work. Does Trump Have a Plan C for Iran?
The administration appears to be reverting to an all-stick, no-carrot approach. But it has yet to answer why it believes economic warfare and bombing will yield a different result this time…
Iran is seeing through Trump’s bluff
In the meantime, Trump is stuck in a cul-de-sac of his own making. He showed his frustration in Ankara this week by berating Nato allies for providing no help during Operation Epic Fury. He also resumed his bromides about Greenland, which is the diplomatic equivalent of kicking the dog. But even that routine is losing its edge. As time passes, Trump’s European counterparts plus Canada’s Mark Carney are finding ways to navigate Trump’s bluster. They are in the early stages of creating what Carney calls a “dense web of connections” to lessen their dependency on the US. Trump’s counterparts nodded politely to him in Turkey and agreed that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. But their serious discussions are with each other nowadays…
What options does Trump have now in Iran? Not many, and they’re all bad
Does he escalate the war — at a potentially high human, economic and political cost — to try to shatter a new status quo that hands Iran the most leverage? Or does he try to revive a flawed ceasefire that pays Iran billions just to talk?
The latest flare-up, just three weeks after Trump signed the MOU with Tehran that he hailed as a deal only he could make, underscored the broad futility of the US war effort so far…
Oil Tankers Still Cross Hormuz on Oman Side Despite Flare Up
At least two oil supertankers controlled by Kyklades Maritime Corp appeared to cross the Strait of Hormuz on a US protected route through the waterway.
The level of observable oil tanker traffic through the strait has slowed in the past 24 hours, after the US and Iran traded missile and drone strikes…
Iran’s supreme leader missed his father’s momentous funeral – now what?
Believed to have been wounded in the February attack by Israel and the US that killed his father, mother and wife, the new supreme leader has remained in hiding since the war began, communicating with his supporters only through written statements, never showing his face or using his voice…