Main Points
- US president Donald Trump threatened to ‘bomb and destroy one bridge or power plant’ any time Tehran targets a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, as US widens strikes against Iran
- Iran said Bulgaria’s plans to host US tanker aircraft would constitute complicity in ‘aggression and war crimes’ in the Middle East
- Fifty civilians have been killed and 500 wounded in the recent US strikes on Iran, a Tehran health ministry official said
- US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon’s latest estimate of the cost of the war against Iran was $37.5 billion
- Oil prices jumped to $95 a barrel, the highest levels since early June
Key Reads
- ‘Everything was wrecked’: Iran’s foreign minister describes attack that killed Khamenei
- Kuwait, scarred by 1990 Iraqi invasion, becomes Iran’s softest Gulf target
- ‘It could trigger global recession’: How new blockade by Iran-backed Houthis may impact energy prices
That concludes Wednesday’s live coverage of the US-Iran conflict.
A full recap of the day’s events can be found here.
New head of Israel’s Mossad travelled to US to discuss Iran war, Axios reports
The head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency travelled to Washington two weeks ago to discuss the Iran war, in his first visit to the US capital since taking office, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing two unidentified sources with knowledge of the situation.
He met CIA director John Ratcliffe and White House officials, the report said. – Reuters
‘No one will sell oil’ in Gulf if Tehran cannot, says Iranian negotiator
Iranian parliamentary speaker and key negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has said “no infrastructure will be safe” if his country’s security is not ensured.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ghalibaf said: “The equation of this war is clear: either all or none!”
“In a region where we do not sell oil, no one will sell oil. If our security is not ensured, no infrastructure will be safe, and the security of the strait is in the absence of American forces. We have repeatedly said that the situation of the strait will not return to pre-war conditions.”
US forces have redirected nine commercial vessels and “disabled” one.
US Central Command said the actions were taken to “enforce the naval blockade against Iran”.
Burnham allows US use of UK airbases to continue
Britain’s new prime minister has agreed to allow the US to continue to use UK airbases for bombing missions against Iran as the US steps up its attacks on the country.
Andy Burnham endorsed a decision taken by his predecessor Keir Starmer at a Cobra meeting on Friday to allow the US to resume strikes from UK bases against Iranian missile launchers and sites around the strait of Hormuz. – The Guardian
Houthis recorded sending warning to ships
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have been recorded sending radio warnings to ships, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) told AFP on Wednesday, after the rebels announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia.
“We can confirm that the Houthis were recorded transmitting a warning message to ships in the region,” the ICS said. – The Guardian
NYC’s Mamdani reaffirms ICC support
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani doubled down on his support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday, a day after calling on federal authorities to execute the court’s warrant for Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s arrest should he visit the city in the autumn.
“I call on the federal government to join the International Criminal Court and to execute both this warrant as well as any warrant the International Criminal Court holds,” Mamdani told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday.
Those remarks came less than 24 hours after Mamdani called the Israeli prime minister a “war criminal” who is “not welcome in New York City” in a video statement posted on social media on Tuesday.
The mayor admitted that he has no legal authority to direct New York police to arrest Netanyahu should he attend the United Nations general assembly in September.
The mayor had previously said he was “in conversation” with city lawyers to determine whether his administration could arrest Netanyahu, as he had pledged to do during his mayoral campaign last year.
“I believe that prime minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani told the New York Times last week, referring to the city in the Netherlands that is home to home to the court which issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024 over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
Neither the US nor Israel are members of the ICC, which the US government has long opposed and which US secretary of state Marco Rubio, this month threatened to “dismantle” by pressuring other nations to abandon it.
The warrant, which the ICC issued for the arrest of Netanyahu and the former defence minister Yoav Gallant, accused them of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including “starvation as a method of warfare, and ... murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.
Mamdani said he concluded his administration has no authority to execute the ICC arrest warrant, but shifted the burden on the Trump administration to do so.
“It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant,” he said in Tuesday’s statement. “The federal government, however, does – and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant.”
Trump has already said he will do no such thing.
Netanyahu “will not be arrested” on US soil, the president said in a social media post earlier this week, adding that the Israeli prime minister is “fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran” and “the only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented spiral of death and destruction”. – The Guardian
UK foreign secretary calls for calm in US-Iran conflict
The UK’s new foreign secretary Ed Miliband has called for calm in the conflict between Iran and the US.
Miliband told foreign ministers gathered in the Philippines that the UK would “work intensively with others to seek to de-escalate this conflict”.
Miliband is in the Philippine capital Manila at the same time as Trump’s secretary of state Marco Rubio.
The pair are expected to meet during the event, an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) foreign ministers’ summit.
Speaking on Wednesday, Miliband told ministers from Asean member states: “I know in particular how much the Iran conflict is affecting Asean partners.
“You are feeling as much as anyone across the world the daily impact on your economies and the living standards of your citizens, as well indeed as the impact on seafarers from many Asean nations.
“We too in the UK, in our own way, are feeling the effects of the conflict on families and businesses in the impacts on the cost of living.”
Miliband said London “will work intensively with others to seek to de-escalate this conflict and find a diplomatic way forward”.
Any solution “must include reopening the Strait of Hormuz and upholding the fundamental principle of freedom of navigation,” he said. – PA
Pakistan seeks $10bn exchange facility after role in US-Iran talks
Pakistan has asked the United States for a $10 billion exchange stabilisation facility, according to two sources briefed on the matter, which, if approved, could provide a lifeline for the cash-strapped South Asian economy.
The request, which is being reported for the first time, follows Pakistan’s role in brokering talks over the Iran war, which raised its diplomatic profile and stirred hopes that it could seek economic gains from Washington and other partners.
Pakistani finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb made the request in a letter delivered during a meeting with US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, on Tuesday, a US official said.
In it, Islamabad asked for creation of a Bilateral Exchange Stabilisation Support Facility between the US and the Pakistani government worth $10 billion with maturity of up to five years.
The facility, if agreed to, would bolster Pakistan’s reserves, ease pressure on the rupee and reduce its reliance on multilateral financing, even as Islamabad undertakes tighter fiscal and monetary policies in line with its International Monetary Fund programme.
The US treasury declined to comment on the request. Pakistan’s finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of Asia business hours. – Reuters
Wednesday afternoon recap
Bulgaria plays down Iranian warning over US aircraft
Bulgaria played down on Wednesday Iran’s warning that its plan to host US tanker aircraft would constitute complicity in “aggression and war crimes” in the Middle East, arguing that the planes would only serve logistical purposes.
Prime minister Rumen Radev said it was “categorically out of the question for military operations in the Middle East to be conducted from Bulgarian territory”.
“These tanker aircraft are intended solely for logistical missions and they will be refuelled outside Bulgarian airspace,” Bulgarian media quoted Radev as telling ministers.
The government said on Monday it would seek parliamentary approval to station up to eight US tanker aircraft at an airbase in the Balkan country, which is a member of Nato and the European Union. Parliament is expected to greenlight the move at a session later on Wednesday.
The plan prompted a warning from Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, on Tuesday against allowing the US to use Bulgaria’s territory for military operations against Iran, which he said would make Sofia “an accomplice of aggressors and lawbreakers”.
The Bulgarian government has said it aims to station the US aircraft at the Bezmer military facility, about 260km southeast of Sofia. – Reuters
More ships change course in Red Sea after Houthi threats
Four tankers changed course in the Red Sea on Wednesday, with two signalling the Suez Canal as their new destination after Yemen’s Houthi militia warned ships to avoid sailing to Saudi Arabian ports, ship-tracking data showed.
The Iran-aligned Houthis on Monday declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, opening a potential new front against the United States in its war with Iran and raising the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf.
“The threat of Houthi hostile actions against Saudi Arabia ... has begun to have an overall effect on tanker activity,” ship broker Clarksons said in a note.
“There are reports of several tankers, having loaded in Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port in the Red Sea, that have shifted course towards the Suez Canal rather than sail south towards the Bab el-Mandeb strait, while others are holding their positions waiting for further instruction.” – Reuters
Iran issues warning to Bulgaria over plans to host US military aircraft
Iran has issued a direct warning to Bulgaria over plans to host US military aircraft.
The warning follows a Bulgarian government proposal to temporarily deploy up to eight US aerial refuelling aircraft at Bezmer Air Base in the country.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said any support for US attacks would make Bulgaria complicit in what Tehran describes as “aggression and war crimes”.
Trump renews threats to attack Iranian infrastructure
US president Donald Trump renewed his threats to attack Iranian infrastructure on Wednesday, saying the US would “bomb and destroy one bridge or power plant” any time Tehran targets a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran.”
Strait of Hormuz shocks beginning to ease as electricity prices dip, CSO figures show
The strain on global energy and fuel supplies provoked by US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz has shown small signs of easing within the Irish economy, reports Stephen Conneely.
Wholesale electricity prices fell by 6.2 per cent in June compared to the previous month, although that price still sits 42.2 per cent higher than June last year, according to figures released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Wholesale electricity prices refer to the cost energy retailers – such as Electric Ireland, Bord Gáis Energy, SSE Airtricity and others – pay to generators before selling the electricity to business and households.
Read the full article, here.
New round of talks between Israel and Lebanon to be held in Italy
Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said that a new round of US-mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon are set to take place in Italy on August 4th, AFP reports.
This comes after a round of talks between the two countries in Rome last week. – The Guardian
Iran’s foreign minister pulled from rubble after first US-Israeli strikes
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has described how he was pulled from the rubble of a leadership compound after the US-Israeli air strike that killed the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the war.
In an interview with the Iranian journalist Javad Mogouyi, Araghchi confirmed Israel and the US had accurate intelligence on the location of Khamenei and other officials, enabling them to target Iran’s senior leadership.
Araghchi was reporting to Khamenei’s deputy chief of staff, Ali Asghar Hijazi, when the building was shaken by three blasts within seconds – each closer than the last, he said.
“The third explosion was almost next to our building. The section where Mr Hijazi’s office was located was directly hit and the left side of the building was completely destroyed.” Hijazi’s secretary was killed instantly, but Araghchi and Hijazi escaped the full force of the detonation.
“We were on the other side of the building and after the explosion, the ceiling, walls, and everything collapsed on us. I grabbed Mr Hijazi’s hand, and we made our way through the beams and boards and pieces of wood, hearing the cries for help.
“Water was pouring from the ceiling. Everything was wrecked. We eventually got out, and I saw that various parts of the compound had been targeted.”
Araghchi was rushed to the foreign ministry by a passerby since his official car had been hit.
“For three days we were cut off from everything trying to find out who was alive and who had been martyred,” he said.
“The enemy thought they could paralyse us by targeting leadership, but they failed,” he said. – The Guardian
US-Israel war on Iran has cost $37.5bn, says US defence secretary
The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has told the senate that the US-Israel war on Iran has cost $37.5 billion (€32.9 billion) so far, as he faced lawmakers furious over the conflict’s soaring price tag and the deaths last week of three American service members.
He defended the Trump administration’s roughly $88 billion (€77.1 billion) supplemental funding request, calling it “urgent, necessary”.
EU aviation agency adds Jordan to no-fly warning list as fighting continues
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency on Wednesday asked airlines not to operate within the airspace of Jordan after it and other US Gulf allies were struck by Iran in the renewed conflict.
The agency last week reinstated and toughened its warning to airlines operating in the Middle East, telling them to avoid the airspace of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and over the Gulf of Oman.
The advisory for the Middle East countries was extended on Wednesday to August 31st, from the previous July 29th deadline, while the newly issued advisory for Jordan is also valid until August 31st, EASA said.
Iran’s army said it attacked US military facilities in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain with drones early on Wednesday. – Reuters
US tanker aircraft and military personnel to be stationed in Bulgaria
Bulgarian lawmakers approved a US request to station tanker aircraft and military personnel at one of the country’s airports to support operations in the Middle East.
As many as eight US KC-135 jet tankers with their crews and 250 troops with weapons and ammunition could be placed at Bezmer military base from July 24th until early October, according to the measure parliament backed on Wednesday.
Bulgaria’s civilian Sofia airport hosted tankers from mid-February until the end of June.
While both the government and the US embassy in Sofia have said the planes are designated for drills related to Nato’s forward presence, secretary of state Marco Rubio has praised the readiness of Bulgaria and other countries to offer logistical support to the US amid its Middle East campaign. – Bloomberg
Oil price jumps 30 per cent this month
Oil jumped above $95, extending this month’s price jump to 30 per cent, as the US and Iran played down the prospect of talks and disruptions to global supplies continued to mount.
The surge has sent Brent futures to levels last seen in early June, before an interim peace deal that has now unravelled. Iran said there are currently no negotiations, and only an exchange of messages was possible, according to the Mehr news agency.
Those remarks came a day after US president Donald Trump vowed to respond if Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen disrupted shipping in the Red Sea, and reiterated threats to strike at Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected Iranian nuclear site. The European Union naval force in the Red Sea advised some ships to stay away after the Houthi threats.
Oil futures have rallied this month as the US and Iran escalated hostilities across the Middle East, with three tankers attacked in recent days in Hormuz near Oman.
The Trump administration plans to announce on Wednesday that it has reached a broad nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that could lead to the country enriching its own fuel for nuclear reactors, US officials have said.
The move is likely to trigger a debate over whether the Saudi government can be trusted with a technology that can also be used to produce nuclear weapons.
Read more here.
Trump to witness return of US soldiers killed in Iran war
US president Donald Trump will attend a ceremony on Wednesday for four US service members killed in Iranian attacks in the Middle East, who will return to American soil in flag-draped caskets.
The ceremony, known as a “dignified transfer” of the bodies, comes amid growing frustration with Trump’s war against Iran.
The war has cost US taxpayers at least $37.5 billion so far, has led to the deaths of 18 US service members and injured more than 450 troops. It has killed thousands of Iranians.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have raised questions about the war.
Trump will travel to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for the ceremony.
US presidents, vice-presidents and dignitaries regularly attend the solemn transfer ceremonies at Dover – home of the largest US military mortuary – during times of war or conflict that result in the deaths of US troops.
The Pentagon said on Monday that 100 service members have been injured since July 7th and 96 per cent have returned to duty.
Four in five Americans expect the US war with Iran to drag on for an extended period, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted earlier this month. More than a third of respondents approved of US military strikes against Iran.
US says it will intensify bombing campaign until Iran agrees to reopen Strait of Hormuz
The US widened the scope of its air strikes on Iran overnight, as Donald Trump signalled talks were unlikely in the near-term.
American forces struck a military site near the northwestern city of Tabriz, according to Iranian media, the first time the area is thought to have been hit since hostilities between the warring sides worsened two weeks ago.
The Iranian government also activated air defences early on Wednesday in Tehran, the capital, Iranian media reported, adding that the US struck Abdanan and Chovar in the west, near the border with Iraq.
Those were the 11th straight day of attacks on Iran, which again fired on US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.
Iran’s interior minister visited Pakistan – the main mediator in the conflict along with Qatar – on Tuesday but there was no sign his meetings had de-escalated tensions.
The US says it will intensify its bombing campaign until Iran agrees to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and stop attacking energy tankers and other ships going through the vital waterway. So far, Iran isn’t backing down and has dismissed Trump’s claims it’s seeking a new round of negotiations.
The interior ministry in Tehran said an “exchange of messages” with the US is possible although there are currently no negotiations under way, according to Mehr news agency.
“They want to desperately meet and until they’re ready to meet in a meaningful way we have no interest” in talks, Trump said at the White House on Tuesday.
Trump administration plans to announce broad nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia
The Trump administration plans to announce on Wednesday it has reached a broad nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that could lead to the country enriching its own fuel for nuclear reactors, US officials have said.
The move is likely to trigger a debate over whether the Saudi government can be trusted with a technology that can also be used to produce nuclear weapons.
The accord is intended to further bind the United States with the Saudi government as the war with Iran strains the relationship. The Trump administration, according to officials, thinks it will provide billions of dollars for the US nuclear industry – starting with Westinghouse, which designs many of the reactors sold abroad.
The administration plans to formally sign and announce the agreement with the Saudis on Wednesday, said two US officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to The New York Times to discuss sensitive diplomacy.
It would tell the details to Congress soon afterward. Although the agreement would have support among many Republicans there, some US lawmakers from both parties and Israeli officials have expressed opposition to such a plan, fearing that the kingdom could use a civilian nuclear project to eventually develop nuclear weapons.
The accord has been under discussion for years, and during the Biden administration it was envisioned as part of a broader agreement that would include Saudi diplomatic recognition of Israel. But after the October 7th attacks on Israel by Hamas in 2023, that prospect receded.
US president Donald Trump separated the proposal for US-Saudi civilian nuclear co-operation from any demand that Saudi Arabia recognise Israel. The agreement will require review by Congress, which under the Atomic Energy Act has the power to vote a resolution of disapproval.
But as a practical matter, the agreement would likely pass, because Congress would have to assemble a veto-proof majority to override Trump’s initiative.
Senior Saudi and United Arab Emirates officials posted co-ordinated social media messages highlighting the two countries’ long-standing ties, a display of public alignment after months of tensions between the Gulf neighbours and a renewed escalation in the Iran war.
Saudi media minister Salman Al-Dosary and Abdulla bin Mohammed Alhamed, chairman of the UAE National Media Authority, posted on X at the same time on Tuesday night, affirming their close ties and underscoring their “shared history”.
The posts came as the conflict involving the US and Iran entered a new phase, with Tehran-backed Houthis threatening to impose a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia. On Wednesday, the UAE condemned the Houthis’ latest moves and reaffirmed its support for measures aimed at safeguarding Saudi security and stability.
Months of strains between Saudi Arabia and the UAE have spilled into business and financial ties. Unusual delays in bank transfers from Saudi to the UAE have raised concerns among companies operating across the region’s two largest economies, while Wall Street bankers and private equity executives have drawn up contingency plans in case relations deteriorate further.
US strikes continue for 11th night
The US military resumed strikes in Iran early Wednesday, its 11th straight night of attacks, as a Red Sea blockade threat by the Iran-allied Houthi militant group in Yemen to affect global oil supplies already strained by the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz.
The Houthis have yet to make good on its threat by firing on passing ships at the southern passage in and out of the Red Sea. But two oil tankers in that sea made U-turns, heading north instead, toward the Suez Canal, according to Kpler, a maritime intelligence firm.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth, under questioning during a congressional budget hearing, said the Pentagon’s latest estimate of the cost of the war against Iran was $37.5 billion.
That is in line with some independent assessments of direct expenses, but experts say indirect costs including higher fuel prices caused by standoffs such as those in the strait – and now potentially the Red Sea – have made the total much greater.
The Houthis’ announcement Monday added to fears of a wider regional war while global energy markets have been rocked for months by danger in the Strait of Hormuz, the portal to the Gulf. The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, surpassed $90 a barrel Tuesday, nearing its highest level in the past month.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Donald Trump said that if the Houthis follow through on their threat, the United States would strike them as it did when they had targeted ships during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. “If something like that happens, we take care of it,” Trump said.
Eighteen US service members killed in Iran war
US president Donald Trump confirmed that 18 US service members had been killed so far in the war, including four in Iranian attacks on US military bases in Jordan and Iraq over the last few days.
The Pentagon said that an army sergeant from the New York City borough of Queens was believed to have been killed last Friday “during an enemy attack at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan.” The soldier, Angel S Rampersad (28), had been listed as missing.
On Tuesday, Trump renewed his threats to again attack Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz “pretty soon”, which he said in June 2025 had been “totally obliterated” after the US military bombed the facility, buried in a mountain range, that month. “We’ll be hitting that area very, probably pretty soon, and there’s not a thing they can do about it,” he said.
Iran promised it would retaliate.
Fifty civilians have been killed and 500 wounded in the recent US strikes on Iran, a Tehran health ministry official said.
Rubio claims Iran not serious about peace talks
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said the United States is still willing to negotiate an end to the Iran crisis but Tehran is not serious about talks, as the widening conflict disrupted two of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints.
Rubio made his comments in a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers a day after three oil tankers carrying Saudi crude to Asia reversed course in the Red Sea, apparently in response to threats from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis.
The Houthis, who control the coast at the mouth of the Red Sea, announced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on Monday, opening a potential new front in the war which has killed thousands of people across the Gulf since it began on February 28th with US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
A senior Iranian official said on Monday that Tehran had received a proposal from mediators for a 10-day ceasefire in efforts to salvage the interim ceasefire agreement signed by the US and Iran in June, which replaced an earlier April ceasefire.
In another sign that diplomacy remains alive, Iran’s interior minister Eskandar Momeni has visited mediator Pakistan and asked Islamabad to continue its efforts.
Rubio said Washington was “always committed to diplomacy” but doubted whether Tehran was equally committed to negotiations.
“The problem we’re having right now is that they’re not serious about talks. If they’re serious, we’re serious. If they’re not, then we will do what’s necessary to protect our interests, and also the interests of our allies,” Rubio said in Manila.
Nearly 100 US troops injured in two weeks since Iran war resumed
