Hopes rose that the Iran war could begin winding down as U.S. President Donald Trump said his government was holding productive talks with Tehran. Fighting showed no signs of slowing and Iran denied there were talks. Trump extended his deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. He says the U.S. will hold off striking Iranian power plants for five more days to allow talks with a “respected” Iranian leader. Iranian officials say the American leader had backed down following its “firm warning.” Financial markets were relieved Monday as oil prices eased. Markets have had vicious swings since the war began.
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AP Wire
Airstrikes battered Iran and Iranian missiles and drones targeted Israel’s Tel Aviv and sites across the Mideast. Those attacks came Tuesday after President Donald Trump said the United States was in talks with the Islamic Republic to end the war. With thousands more U.S. Marines on their way to the Gulf, both sides firing intense barrages and Iran denying any negotiations are taking place, the war’s tempo remained high. A day earlier, Trump delayed his self-imposed deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Officials from three countries said Pakistan has offered to host diplomatic talks. But Iran remained defiant. The spokesman of its top military command said that the armed forces would fight “until complete victory.”
Officials say an oil refinery fire near the Texas coast has been put out and a shelter-in-place order has been lifted, hours after a large explosion at the complex shot plumes of smoke into the air. Mayor Charlotte M. Moses says no one was injured in Monday’s explosion at the Valero refinery in Port Arthur. The explosion comes amid a spike in gas prices driven by uncertainty over the global oil supply because of the Iran war. Valero’s website says the refinery has about 770 employees and can process about 435,000 barrels of oil per day. The plant refines heavy sour crude oil into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
U.S. President Donald Trump says the U.S. is talking with an Iranian leader and claims the Islamic Republic is eager for a deal to end the war. He also extended a deadline for Iran to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on its power plants, saying Monday that it has an additional five days. Trump’s turnaround, which held out the possibility of resolving the war now in its fourth week, served to drive down oil prices and jolt stocks. It offered a reprieve after the U.S. and Iran traded threats over the weekend with potentially catastrophic repercussions for civilians across the region.
President Donald Trump has paused military pressure on Iran by extending his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and delaying strikes on Iranian power plants for another five days. Trump said the US has been negotiating with a “respected” Iranian leader but Iran denies any talks and said Trump is backing down after their warnings and hoping to reassure financial markets with “fakenews.” Oil prices did decrease and stocks jumped, but markets remain uneasy. Meanwhile Trump said any deal must involve ending Iran’s nuclear capacity by allowing the U.S. to take its enriched uranium.
Global oil futures tumble after President Trump says US will hold off on Iranian power plant strikes
Global oil futures tumble after President Trump says US will hold off on Iranian power plant strikes.
The head of the International Energy Agency says the global economy faces a “major, major threat” because of the Iran war. Fatih Birol told Australia’s National Press Club in Canberra on Monday that the crisis in the Middle East has had a worse impact on oil than the two oil shocks of the 1970s combined, and a worse effect on gas markets than the Russia-Ukraine war. Israel launched a new wave of attacks early Monday against Tehran. Iran renewed strikes on its Gulf neighbors and threatened to start hitting their power plants.
President Donald Trump has warned that the U.S. will “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if it doesn’t fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, prompting Tehran to say it would respond to any such strike with attacks on U.S. and Israeli energy and infrastructure assets. Iranian missiles, meanwhile, struck two communities in southern Israel late Saturday, leaving buildings shattered and dozens injured in dual attacks not far from Israel’s main nuclear research center. The developments signaled the war was moving in a dangerous new direction at the start of its fourth week.
AP Wire
The United States and Iran are threatening to target critical infrastructure as the war in the Middle East puts lives and livelihoods at risk. Iran on Sunday warned it would close the Strait of Hormuz immediately if the U.S. attacks Iranian power plants. President Donald Trump late Saturday set a 48-hour deadline to reopen the strait. Iran’s parliament speaker warned that Tehran would target regional energy and desalination sites in retaliation. The war, now in its fourth month, has taken a dangerous turn after Iranian missiles hit near a nuclear research area in southern Israel and Iran said its main nuclear enrichment site was struck Saturday.
President Donald Trump is cycling through what seems to be an increasingly desperate list of options as he searches for a solution to the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. After trying diplomacy, he's now threatening Iran’s civilian power grid. On Saturday, he said he was giving Iran 48 hours to open the vital waterway or face strikes on major power plants. Critics in Congress say he has no clear plan and is panicking. Legal experts say attacks on power plants could qualify as war crimes. Trump aides defend the threat as leverage to force Iran to back down.