Main Points
- The Wall Street Journal reports that the United Arab Emirates carried out military strikes on Iran without acknowledging them
- US president Donald Trump says the ceasefire with Iran is “on massive life support”
- He pointed to disagreements over several Iranian demands, such as the cessation of hostilities on all fronts, the removal of a US naval blockade and compensation for war damage
- Trump called the Iranian demands “totally unacceptable” and a “piece of garbage”
- Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf said on X that its armed forces were, “ready to respond and to teach a lesson for any aggression”
- Oil prices continued to rise on Tuesday as hopes for a swift end to the 10-week war receded
- Oil prices are around 50 per cent higher following the US and Israel’s attacks on Iran, largely due to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz being paralysed
- House building slowed sharply in Ireland in April due to uncertainty triggered by the Middle East conflict
- Trump is expected in Beijing on Wednesday and is set to ask China to use its influence to push Iran to make a deal
Key Reads
- Irish house building slows as Middle East conflict hits construction
- Airlines cut prices to entice tourists worried about fuel shortages
- David McWilliams: Iran war is an hostage situation - with UAE the hostage
- John FitzGerald: How high can oil prices go?
Protester disrupts US defence secretary Pete Hegseth
As Pete Hegseth started his opening statement before the US Senate’s appropriations subcommittee on defence, an anti-war protester stood up and pronounced “I am an Iranian American and against this war of aggression”.
The woman was removed by officers but continued to tell the Seante hearing room she opposed the war against Iran.
There were a handful more anti-war protesters wearing pink shirts with the message “no war on Iran” in the hearing but they remained silent.
AP reported that several of them stood and walked out while Hegseth was talking.
Hegseth went on to say “it’s evident” the US ceasefire with Iran remains in effect.
This is despite the US military saying that it intercepted Iranian attacks on three American destroyers in the strait of Hormuz last week.
He once again used invoked religious language in his speech, saying the US was on a “sacred mission”, although he did not explicitly mention the Middle East war.
“May almighty God continue to watch over all of our troops, and may we honour the legacy of those brave Americans that we’ve lost,” he said. “That is our sacred mission that we will continue to execute on.”
War in Iran has cost US $29bn, says Pentagon
The United States’ war in Iran has cost $29 billion (€24.7 billion) so far, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday. The figure is an increase of $4 billion from an estimate provided late last month.
With just six months before midterm elections in which US president Donald Trump’s Republicans may face an uphill battle to keep their House majority, Democrats are riding high in public opinion polls as they attempt to link the war with cost-of-living issues.
On April 29th, the Pentagon said the war at that point had cost $25 billion.
Jules Hurst, who is performing the duties of the comptroller, said the new cost included updated repair and replacement of equipment and operational costs.
“The joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate,” Hurst said. He was speaking alongside US defence secretary Pete Hegseth and chairman of joint chiefs of staff Gen Dan Caine.
It is unclear how the Pentagon arrived at the $29 billion figure. A source told Reuters in March that Trump’s administration estimated the first six days of the war had cost at least $11.3 billion. – Reuters
Iran seeks to send message to US via Beijing ahead of Trump trip
A day before US president Donald Trump is scheduled to arrive in Beijing for talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the Wall Street Journal reports that Tehran’s ambassador to China sought to deliver a message to the US through his country’s Chinese ally.
It says a senior Iranian official said any United Nations Security Council resolution on the Strait of Hormuz that failed to address the US blockade on Iran and Washington’s threats against the country would be “biased, political and doomed to fail”.
Yesterday, Trump said the ceasefire between the US and Iran was on “massive life support”, after he rejected Iran’s response to a proposal for ending the war as unserious.
Trump called Iran’s counter-offer “a piece of garbage”, saying he didn’t even bother reading the entire document.
Iran has called for an end to war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and has emphasised its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, demanded compensation for war damage and an end to the US naval blockade, among other conditions.
UAE has been secretly carrying out attacks on Iran – report
The Wall Street Journal has reported that the United Arab Emirates carried out military strikes on Iran without acknowledging them.
The strikes included an attack on a refinery on Iran’s Lavan island in early April, around the time the US announced a ceasefire, according to the WSJ.
The US welcomed the involvement of Gulf states wanting to join US military action against Iran, a source said.
Iran, however, described the incident as an “enemy attack” and responded with missile and drone strikes against the UAE and Kuwait.
The UAE, which hosts a large US airbase, has borne the brunt of Iranian attacks throughout the war, shaking the country’s economy, disrupting air traffic and hurting all-important tourism streams.
Israel issues more forced evacuation orders for towns and villages in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military has ordered residents of towns and villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately “by a distance of at least 1,000 metres to open areas” in advance of attacks on these areas.
The affected towns and villages are: Arzun, Tayr Debba, Al-Bazouriyeh and Al-Hawsh, according to a social media post by the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee.
The IDF claims the attacks are being launched due to Hizbullah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, violating the US-mediated ceasefire agreement Israel signed with the Lebanese state in mid-April.
The attacks have sparked criticism from international law experts, who say many of Israel’s warnings are inconsistent and often open-ended and lead to the slaughter of innocent people.
In a new update, the Lebanese health ministry said since March 2nd, Israeli attacks have killed at least 2,869 people, including many women and children.
More than one million people have already been displaced by the conflict.
Iran war unpopular in US as fuel prices rise
In the US, surveys show the war is unpopular with voters who are paying more for fuel less than six months before nationwide elections that will determine whether Trump’s Republican Party retains control of Congress.
Two out of three US adults, including one in three Republicans and almost all Democrats, think Trump has not clearly explained why the country has gone to war, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday.
Washington has also struggled to build international support, with Nato allies refusing to send ships to reopen the waterway without a full peace deal and an internationally mandated mission.
In separate statements on Monday, the state department said US secretary of state Marco Rubio held separate calls with his Australian and British counterparts to discuss “ongoing efforts to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz”. It did not elaborate.
Oil prices continue to rise
Brent crude oil prices extended gains in early Asian trade on Tuesday, climbing above $104.50 a barrel, as the deadlock left the Strait of Hormuz largely closed, Reuters reports.
Before the war began on February 28th, the narrow waterway carried a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, and has since become a central pressure point in the conflict.
Disruption caused by the near-closure of the strait has forced oil producers to cut exports, and Opec oil output dropped further in April to the lowest in more than two decades, a Reuters survey showed on Monday.
The United States on Monday imposed new sanctions on individuals and companies it said were helping Iran ship oil to China, part of efforts to cut off funding for Tehran’s military and nuclear programmes, while also warning banks about attempts to evade existing curbs.
Traffic through Strait of Hormuz slows to a trickle
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is at a trickle compared with before the war. Shipping data on Kpler and LSEG showed that three tankers laden with crude exited the waterway last week, with trackers switched off to avoid an Iranian attack.
A second Qatari LNG tanker was attempting to transit the strait, the data showed, days after the first such cargo crossed under an arrangement involving Iran and Pakistan.
Hakan Fidan, the foreign minister of Turkey, which has been liaising closely with the US, Iran and mediator Pakistan since the start of the war, will hold talks in Qatar on Tuesday on the conflict and on ensuring navigational safety in the strait, a Turkish diplomatic source said. – Reuters
Peace deal on ‘life support’ – Trump
Hopes for a peace deal on Iran faded on Tuesday after Donald Trump said a ceasefire with Iran was “on life support” as Tehran rejected a US proposal to end the conflict and stuck to a list of demands the US president described as “garbage”. Iran has called for an end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, where US ally Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hizbullah militants. Tehran also emphasised its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, demanded compensation for war damage and an end to the US naval blockade, among other conditions. Trump said Iran’s response threatened the status of a ceasefire that began on April 7th.
“I would call it the weakest right now, after reading that piece of garbage they sent us. I didn’t even finish reading it,” Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to end the ceasefire, told reporters.
Trump is expected to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday, where Iran is set to be among the topics discussed with Chinese president Xi Jinping. – Reuters
