WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was very happy with the work Pete Hegseth was doing at the Pentagon, dismissing a report that the two clashed over concerns about missile depletion from the Iran war. “I am extremely happy with the job that Pete Hegseth is doing,” Trump posted on social media.
President Trump said the United States has a vast supply of munitions and threatened those who suggested otherwise with jail terms as his frustration with the Iran war boiled over.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt branded coverage of the exchange with Hegseth “FAKE NEWS!” “I was at Camp David with President Trump and Secretary Hegseth. This literally never happened,” she wrote on X.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the reports about Trump’s clash with Hegseth and the weapons shortages were “equally fictional.”
Meanwhile, an Iranian parliamentary committee is reviewing a preliminary bill that would bar US, Israeli and other “hostile” vessels from transiting the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing a lawmaker.
The draft bill would impose fines of up to 20 per cent of a ship’s cargo value for violations of the proposed restrictions. The lawmaker said the legislation was still under expert review and that parliament had invited specialists to submit recommendations before the draft is finalised.
President Trump said talks with Tehran seemed “to be working out quite well,” reiterating his positive portrayal of the negotiations on the Iran war without elaborating on the specifics of the discussions. “I hear they are doing very well,” Trump said in an interview on the “FOX5 1-ON-1” show with FOX5 Las Vegas journalist Tom Durian. The interview was published on Wednesday evening.
A proposed deal between Iran and Oman that would give Tehran control over ships entering the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz is not easily workable due to US sanctions and restrictive insurance clauses on any payments, four industry sources said.
Under the latest proposal, Tehran would be able to intervene if necessary with any inbound traffic, while outbound traffic would follow a route between Iran and Oman, with exit clearance granted through Oman after notifying Iran, a senior Iranian source told Reuters this week.
The ability of merchant ships to navigate international waterways “safely, predictably and without unnecessary impediment is fundamental to resilient supply chains, economic stability and energy security,” the world’s leading shipping associations said in an open letter this week. Introducing compulsory charges through the strait for transit or service fees was “a toll in all but name”, the letter said, which was sent to the UN’s shipping agency. “It would establish a precedent that could undermine the internationally recognised legal framework governing straits used for international navigation and transit passage.”
Iran intensified its threats towards its Gulf neighbours last week, conveying messages that it would “black out” the entire region if the United States struck its power plants and rattling off a list of specific targets, two officials told AFP.
“Iran threatened to black out the Gulf, country by country, if Trump attacked its power plants,” a Gulf official told AFP, with another regional official confirming the messaging. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Iran conveyed through intermediaries that any attacks on its power plants would trigger strikes on the same targets in the Gulf, the officials said.
Oil prices barrelled ahead again Thursday, extending their volatile run, while global stock markets were stuck as investors assessed corporate earnings, with tech firms back under pressure.
With traders awaiting developments surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, the main oil contracts rose, Brent crude adding three percent to almost $82, while the main US contract WTI added 2.3 percent to nearly $77.
Wall Street was in cautious mode with the Dow starting off flat then dropping 0.6 percent two hours into the session. The broader based S&P 500 was off 0.2 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq inched just into the green.
European main indices closed mixed with London’s FTSE 100 losing 0.2 percent while Frankfurt added 0.1 percent and Paris 0.4 percent though fresh highs proved elusive.
Five months into the US war with Iran, Americans who expect the Middle East to slide toward chaos outnumber those who see the war bringing more stability by three to one, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The six-day poll concluded on Monday, as Republican President Donald Trump again backed away from threatened “massive attacks” on Iran, underscoring uncertainty surrounding a conflict he initially predicted would bring a swift victory.
Fifty percent of poll respondents said they thought US military action in Iran would destabilise the Middle East over the next year, about three times the 17 per cent who said the war would lead to more stability in the region. Another 16 per cent said stability would stay about the same and 17 per cent said they were unsure or didn’t answer the question.
Americans were also pessimistic about gasoline prices, which have risen as Iran has choked off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil supplies. Some 58 per cent said they expected gas prices to worsen, while just 15 per cent expected them to improve.
Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, the key maritime chokepoints in the Gulf, reduced significantly on Wednesday from the previous day, shipping data showed. Just two vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz, including a Panama-flagged coal-laden carrier entering the waterway and another commodity Marshall Islands-flagged vessel exiting, shipping data from Kpler showed, down from eight vessels a day earlier.
Authorities in Kuwait ordered the closure of a local Iranian school, a source at the education ministry told AFP on Thursday, after the country came under repeated Iranian attack during the Middle East war.
The ministry source did not specify the reason for shutting the country’s only Iranian school, though similar measures were taken in the UAE at the start of the war against schools and a hospital that authorities deemed to be linked to the Iranian government.
Two former Iranian women footballers said Thursday they were “proud” to have been granted Australian citizenship after being branded traitors at home for refusing to sing the national anthem before a game.
Fatemeh Pasandideh and Atefeh Ramezanisadeh were members of a group of seven from Iran’s delegation who asked for Australia’s protection following the high-profile protest during the women’s Asian Cup in March.
Iran and Oman have agreed a route for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz and were finalising arrangements for jointly managing the strategic waterway, Tehran said Wednesday, even as fresh security incidents highlighted continued risks for regional shipping.
The agreement would be a step towards reopening the key energy route, but official sources briefing Iranian media stressed that any easing still hinged on Washington ending its own naval blockade of Iran’s ports.
“The geographical coordinates of the route envisaged by the two sides have been agreed upon and, if certain third parties do not obstruct the process, the joint statement of the two countries, containing the main considerations and points of agreement, is also in the final review and drafting stage,” Iran foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said, according to state news agency IRNA.
According to the report, Baqaei told journalists that talks with Oman were moving forward, but that even if an understanding was reached, it would not mean that the strait had become safe for all passing vessels. “The factors making the Strait of Hormuz insecure still exist on the part of the United States, particularly the naval blockade and other aggressive and threatening actions against Iran and its interests,” he said.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday told reporters that he believes the war with Iran would be over soon.
“I think it’s going to end pretty soon. I don’t think they can go much longer,” Trump said in the Oval Office in a reference to Iran.
Meanwhile, Oman is sending response teams to the Caroline Bezengi, an oil tanker stranded near the Hallaniyat Islands off the southern governorate of Dhofar, to limit any potential environmental impact, Omani state media reported on Thursday.
A senior Saudi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said intelligence reports from Saudi Arabia, the US and regional countries indicated Iraqi militias coordinating with Yemen’s Houthis were preparing imminent attacks on the kingdom under the guidance of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The official said the attacks could target civilian and economic infrastructure, including energy facilities, ports and airports, and that Saudi Arabia had observed drones and missiles being moved, suggesting coordinated operations from the kingdom’s north and south.
