War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

The Israeli military claims it has begun striking targets in southern Lebanon in response to a “blatant violation of the ceasefire” by Hezbollah, just as Israel and Lebanon hold talks in Rome, AFP reports.

“In response to a blatant violation of the ceasefire by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, the IDF has begun conducting precise strikes in southern Lebanon,” a statement from the military reads, shortly after telling residents to evacuate a village in the area.

Two Israeli soldiers have been killed and seven others injured in an explosion inside a booby-trapped building in southern Lebanon, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

“This explosion occurred during the demolition of houses in the border cities of Kafr Tibnit, Al-Mansouri, and Hadatah,” Fars adds, citing Israeli media.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has held a bilateral meeting with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi in which the two leaders discussed the recent developments in the US-Iran conflict, the Foreign Office (FO) has said.

They underscored the importance of dialogue and diplomacy for de-escalation and reaffirmed their commitment to “close coordination at bilateral and multilateral levels … to promote peace and stability”, including at the United Nations and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the statement added.

Oil prices have risen after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels said they attacked a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea, denting hopes of a de-escalation in Iran war hostilities that could restore shipping traffic and oil flows in the Middle East, Reuters reports.

Brent crude futures were up $1.51, or 1.9 per cent, at $80.87 a barrel by 11:23 GMT (4:23pm PKT). US West Texas Intermediate futures gained 90 cents, or 1.19pc, to $76.67.

The Houthis said they had launched a missile attack on a Saudi oil tanker off the coast of Yanbu, a key port for Saudi crude oil exports. Saudi officials did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Chairman of the National Security Committee of Iran’s Parliament Ebrahim Azizi has said that the US will soon be “expelled from the region and from the countries that are hosting US bases,” Press TV reports.

Any agreement between Iran and Oman on future shipping arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz would not lead to the immediate reopening of the strategic waterway, Al Jazeera reports, citing Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB.

The source said negotiations on future navigation arrangements are being conducted exclusively between Tehran and Muscat and “have nothing to do with the United States”.

“The possible agreement between Iran and Oman on the arrangements for vessels to pass through the Strait of Hormuz has nothing to do with the immediate opening of this strait,” the source added.

Even if Iran and Oman reach an agreement, the strait will remain closed as long as what Tehran describes as “US violations” continue, according to the report.

“The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz depends on a change in US behaviour and the correction of its violations,” the source said.

The remarks also followed reports in Iranian media that Tehran was close to reaching an understanding with Muscat on a new navigation corridor, provided the US stopped interfering in the negotiations.

China has further relaxed limits on refined fuel exports for a second month in August, five industry sources tell Reuters, an unexpected move that facilitates the return of flows to pre-war levels.

Beijing has granted refiners temporary approval to ship 2.7 million metric tons to destinations excluding Hong Kong and Macau this month, the sources say.

China, the world’s largest oil importer, slashed fuel exports from March through June to protect domestic supplies after the Iran war disrupted crude flows and forced a sharp cut in imports.

It started loosening the export tap in July following the US-Iran peace deal. The latest allowances for August have come as surprise to several trade sources.

A member of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee has called Trump’s approach to negotiations with Iran “contradictory and unreliable,” Al Jazeera reports, citing IRIB.

Esmail Kowsari told Iranian broadcaster IRIB that Trump claimed 75 times that the Strait of Hormuz was open, when it actually wasn’t.

Kowsari also said Trump has spoken of “Iran’s defeat” 106 times and claimed an “imminent deal” with Tehran 88 times.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis said that they had attacked a Saudi oil tanker off Yanbu, in the Red Sea, as the rebels pressed on with their declared maritime blockade of the Saudi Arabia, AFP reports.

The group “successfully targeted the Saudi oil tanker ‘Wafa’ in the northern Red Sea, off the coast of Yanbu, with a number of ballistic missiles,” their military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a video statement, adding this was the eighth ship they targeted since the start of the blockade on July 22.

More than 800,000 people displaced by war in Lebanon have begun returning to their hometowns following a lull in violence amid the Israel-Hezbollah war, the United Nations said, according to Reuters.

UN humanitarian agency the OCHA said “821,077 people had begun the return to their areas of origin as of 30 July”, but added that more than 360,000 remained displaced, around 26,000 of them in government shelters.

India’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday as it waits to see whether volatile oil prices caused by the Iran war feed wider inflationary pressures, AFP reports.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the benchmark repurchase rate, the level at which it lends to commercial banks, would remain at 5.25 per cent after a unanimous vote by a six-member panel.

Emerging and frontier market central banks from Indonesia to Sri Lanka have raised rates to curb price rises and boost their currencies since the outbreak of the Middle East crisis in February.

Two Pakistan-flagged oil tankers carrying Saudi crude have sailed through the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb without incident, despite the Houthi blockade against Saudi Arabia, according to maritime intelligence company Windward, Al Jazeera reports.

The Aframax crude tankers loaded oil at Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port before travelling back to Pakistan with their tracking systems switched on, Windward said.

Since the Houthis announced the blockade on July 20, Saudi-linked tankers, excluding vessels affiliated with China, have either been attacked or diverted around the Cape of Good Hope, the company said.

The crossings came days after the Foreign Office (FO) warned the Houthis that any attack on a Pakistani-flagged vessel would be treated as a threat to the country’s security.

The US president has told reporters that negotiations with Iran are “moving along very nicely,” Al Jazeera reports.

“We’ll find out. We’ll know in 48 hours,” he added.

Sources reported explosions followed by a fire along the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to Press TV.

Arab media outlets, citing local sources, said at least seven explosions were heard within a span of 20 minutes in Dubai’s Jebel Ali industrial area.

Videos circulating on social media showed thick columns of smoke rising from Jebel Ali Port.

The US military has exhausted nearly 80 per cent of its interceptors for a key missile defence system as senior US military commanders are warning that the Pentagon’s munitions stockpile is “dangerously low,” according to multiple sources familiar with the matter, CNN reports.

Stockpiles of key air defence systems have been particularly depleted during the war with Iran. The US military has burned through nearly four-fifths of its THAAD missile inventory compared to pre-war numbers and roughly half of its Patriot interceptors since the start of the war, according to two sources familiar with the latest inventory report.

The disclosure of the low THAAD inventory has not been previously reported.

President Donald Trump said there was an “all-day negotiation” on Tuesday with Iran, characterising the talks positively while also threatening to hit Iran “really hard” if a deal was not reached, Reuters reports.

Trump made the comments in an interview with Fox News’ “@Night” show.

From the looks of it, America has no exit strategy to extricate itself from the disastrous war with Iran. US President Donald Trump has alternated between issuing bombastic threats to the Iranians, to claiming that peace was at hand, sometimes making a sharp U-turn within hours. This is not how responsible statecraft plays out.

In the past, he had threatened to destroy Iranian civilisation, while more recently he said the US was ready to use “Military Terror … not seen since World War II” against the Islamic Republic. In his latest pronouncement, the US leader has given Iran a “last chance” to choose between a “deal [or] total surrender”. The five-month-old war has shown that the Iranians have mostly remained unfazed by Mr Trump’s threats.

The chaos at the White House is understandable. Mr Trump jumped headfirst into the war on Feb 28 at Israel’s persuasion, without doing his homework. Perhaps if he had studied the mistakes his predecessors had made in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, he would have refrained from launching a new war. But the US leader is not known for deep reflection, not even on critical issues.

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US President Donald Trump has said that the Strait of Hormuz will open “very soon” or Iran will be “hit very hard”. He made the remarks while speaking to Fox News.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said that “the southern route through the Strait of Hormuz remains free and open for all commercial vessels seeking to transit the international waterway”.

“Over the past three months, US forces have assisted more than 1,000 vessels in successfully transiting the strait despite unwarranted Iranian aggression, and these transits continue today,” it said.

Oil has steadied after steep falls in the previous two trading sessions, as investors waited to see if efforts to end the US-Iran war and restore traffic through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz were making progress, Reuters reports.

Brent crude futures rose 26 cents, or about 0.33 per cent, to $79.62 a barrel by 0110 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate futures rose 0.16pc, or 12 cents, to $75.90 a barrel.

Qatar said on Tuesday mediators were making progress in efforts to end the war, driving oil prices lower, although Tehran has denied US President Donald Trump’s assertion that talks are already under way. Brent closed on Tuesday below $80 a barrel for the first time since July 13.

Brent closed more than 5pc lower on Tuesday after the comments from Qatar, extending Monday’s steep losses on hopes that an arrangement could soon be reached.