THE LATEST | CANADANew York Times: President Trump said on Monday that the United States would attack Iran for as long as it took to leave it incapable of posing a threat, and his secretary of state signaled that the military campaign would escalate, in comments that indicated that the expanding war in the Middle East could intensify and continue for weeks or more.
“Whatever the time is, it’s OK, whatever it takes,” Mr. Trump said at his first public event since U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran began on Saturday. “Right from the beginning we projected four to five weeks, but we have the capability to go far longer than that.” On Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that “the hardest hits are yet to come from the U.S. military.”…
CNN: Trump on Iran: President Donald Trump told CNN’s Jake Tapper the “big wave” is yet to come. Separately, US Central Command said six service members died in an Iranian attack on US troops in Kuwait on Sunday…
Wall Street Journal: The U.S. is facing increasing risks to its military forces and diplomatic presence in the Middle East as Iran is launching waves of missile and drone attacks across the region that are testing its ability to defend a swath of territory…
Bloomberg: The United Arab Emirates and Qatar are privately lobbying allies to help them persuade President Donald Trump to reach for an off-ramp that would keep US military operations against Iran short, according to people familiar with the matter.
The countries are seeking to build a wide coalition to advance a swift and diplomatic end to the conflict, the people said, in order to prevent regional escalation and a prolonged energy price shock. They were speaking on condition of anonymity discussing matters that have not been made public…
Financial Times: US liquefied natural gas exporters are racing to capitalise on a 50 per cent price surge in European and Asian markets triggered by the conflict in Iran, which knocked out supplies from LNG powerhouse Qatar…
CNN: Iran’s neighbors have spent decades preparing for a potential attack. But the ferocity of Tehran’s retaliation has left both governments and people of the region stunned…
Washington Post: In less than three days, the conflict ricocheted beyond the original targets in Iran, Israel and Iraq to threaten some 300 million civilians across more than a dozen nations…
Financial Times: The US launched its offensive against Iran because it knew Israel was going to attack and “that would precipitate an attack against American forces”, secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Monday.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio said on Capitol Hill after briefing members of Congress on the offensive. “We knew that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”…
Politico: With no clear successor and much of Iran’s power structure still intact, the White House faces a far more complex fight than it did in Venezuela…
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