War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

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.

US Central Command (Centcom) says American forces have redirected 45 commercial vessels, disabled two and boarded two others are part of a naval blockade of Iran.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has held a phone conversation with US President Donald Trump on recent regional developments, including efforts to “deescalate” US-Iran tensions and “bridge the gap” in their positions, Al Jazeera reports citing a statement by the Emir’s office.

During the call, Trump commended Qatar’s role in “supporting diplomatic efforts and facilitating dialogue”, while Sheikh Tamim stressed the need to press forward with dialogue and for all parties to adhere to the US-Iran MoU agreed in mid-June, according to the statement.

The White House is expected to extend a waiver of the century-old Jones Act in the coming days, sources say, reaching for one of the few tools it has to try and hold down gasoline prices as President Donald Trump escalates his attacks on Exxon Mobil and Chevron for making “too much money”, Reuters reports.

The Jones Act requires cargo moving between US ports to be carried on ships built in the US, owned by US companies and crewed by American workers, and the waiver aims to lower gas prices by increasing shipping flexibility and reducing transport bottlenecks.

The oil industry expected an extension by the end of July. But administration officials have continued meeting with maritime industry representatives and lawmakers over potential changes to narrow the scope of the waiver while preserving flexibility to move critical fuel supplies, according to three people familiar with the discussions who requested anonymity because they are not authorised to speak publicly.

The current waiver is set to expire on August 16 and has already become the longest suspension of the Jones Act rules in the programme’s history.

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Oil prices have fallen to a three-week low after comments by Qatari and US officials raised hopes for a diplomatic resolution to the Iran war that could improve oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports.

Brent crude futures have dropped $3.30, or 3.9 per cent, to $80.47 a barrel by 1519 GMT (8:19pm PKT), and US West Texas Intermediate futures have dropped $3.67, or 4.6pc, to $76.67 a barrel.

The latest round of US-facilitated talks between Israel and Lebanon has begun in Rome and will continue through Thursday, Reuters reports quoting State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott.

“The United States remains fully committed to supporting both governments as they carry this process forward in a manner that delivers lasting security for both countries, eliminates security threats to Israel, and restores Lebanese state authority throughout the south,” Pigott writes in a post on X.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says Iran and Oman are continuing talks aimed at ensuring the safe flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, with discussions focused on designating safe inbound and outbound lanes, Al Jazeera reports.

In comments carried by Iran’s IRIB broadcaster, Baghaei says the talks have “been assessed positively at both the technical and political levels” as Iran works to develop the needed “mechanisms” to manage traffic in the strait.

Indian Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has said that an Indian vessel, the MSV Faize Noore Oliya, has been hit by a projectile near Yemeni waters, causing it to capsize and sink.

“India strongly condemns this unprovoked attack on the defenceless mechanised sailing vessel,” he writes on X. “The safety of our people is our supreme priority and I am relieved to inform that all 14 seafarers (including 13 Indians) have been safely rescued by the Yemeni Coast Guard and brought to the Port of Mokha.”

He adds that he has instructed the director general of Maritime Administration to take immediate steps in coordination with all agencies to “ensure the absolute security of Indian seafarers in the region and provide all necessary assistance to the rescued crew”.

Operations have been suspended at an airport in Saudi Arabia, a regional source with knowledge of the matter tells AFP, after Yemen’s Houthis claimed they had attacked the site.

The regional source adds that the airport’s main radar was hit, affecting operations.

The airport website the status of flights scheduled for the next few days as “unknown”.

Saudi Arabia has not, so far, issued any comment on the claimed attack.

The small airport is located near the Yemeni border and has a single terminal handling a few flights a day.

Iraq exported over 30 million barrels of crude oil in one month through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, AFP reports citing data from the maritime tracking firm Kpler.

Before the Middle East war, which choked shipments through the vital waterway, Iraq produced around four million barrels per day, and exported an average of 105 million barrels per month, mostly from its Basra oil terminal via the strategic waterway.

Around 30 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil passed through Hormuz between July 4 and August 4, according to vessels detected by Kpler.