Yemen – Winds of Jihad

President Donald Trump says the United States will seek compensation from Iran for casualties in the war. The move came days after Tehran demanded that Washington pay for damages from the five-month conflict as a condition for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei conveyed a message of unity during a recent seven-hour meeting. Pezeshkian confirmed that Khamenei is in perfect health despite making no public appearances since taking power.
Khamenei’s office has announced several new key appointments, including naming a former wartime commander and veteran political insider to head the nation’s highest security body.

Continue reading Iran: will it be a Bad War or a Bad Deal?

Iran: Tehran says it agreed coordinates of Hormuz route with Oman

Iran war updates: Trump says war to end ‘pretty soon’, Hormuz deal nears

US President Donald Trump expects the war on Iran to end “pretty soon,” telling reporters during questions on global and domestic energy prices that he does not think “they can go much longer.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian states that the US has applied “maximum” economic pressure, noting that Iran loses roughly 230 million cubic meters of gas daily as a result of US-Israeli attacks.
Yemeni forces reported that Houthi strikes using suicide drones and ballistic missiles left at least 18 troops dead.

US Central Command has said US forces have now redirected a total of 48 commercial vessels to enforce a US naval blockade of Iran.

Yemeni forces reported that Houthi attacks using suicide drones and ballistic missiles killed at least 18 soldiers.
Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree previously announced that the group had carried out attacks using “a large number of ballistic missiles and drones” on Yemen’s Emergency Forces posts in Marib and Hadramout. He said the strikes had killed personnel and destroyed weaponry and vehicles.

Iran’s Most Powerful Weapon Is Time—Here’s How To Turn It Against Them–Gen. David Deptula

The objective should not be destruction for its own sake or an agreement that trades substantial economic relief for temporary or unverifiable promises.

The objective should be to change Iran’s strategic calculation.

Iran must come to believe that each additional month of resistance will carry increasing cost, resulting in less revenue, fewer military options, greater isolation, diminished military capability, and a weaker negotiating position. At the same time, the United States should make clear that a verifiable agreement remains available if Iran abandons the behavior that created the crisis.

Iran’s foreign ministry says a deal with Oman on a route through the Strait of Hormuz is being “finalised”, but the US and Israel still pose a danger to ships in the vital waterway.
Yemen’s Houthis claim to have attacked a Saudi oil vessel in the Gulf of Aden, forcing it to turn around.
Iran’s deputy FM Kazem Gharibabadi says a final understanding between Iran and Oman on the Strait of Hormuz is “on the verge of being finalised”, with almost all matters resolved.
The US military says it has redirected a total of 48 vessels since declaring its naval blockade of Iran

Iran & Yemen: after 13 days of bombings, we’ve seen absolutely no progress…

Saudi Arabia, in coordination with the US, carried out strikes inside Iraq against armed groups with ties to Iran, after Riyadh accused the Iraqi groups of attacking its oil facilities.

Iran retains formidable control over the Strait of Hormuz, with shipping traffic reduced to almost nothing after 13 days of bombing and a settlement remains out of reach because neither side yet sees the conflict as ripe for diplomacy, according to Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

“After 13 days of bombings, we’ve seen absolutely no progress in the sense that ships will actually be going through the strait, or that the Iranians are losing control over it.”

Tehran says US to ‘pay the price’ for civilians killed in Qeshm strikes

IRGC says it targeted US bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain after US forces bombed a building on Iran’s Qeshm Island, killing a couple and their two-year-old child.
Saudi Arabia announces 14-member maritime defence alliance to protect shipping in Bab al-Mandeb, Red Sea and Gulf of Adan.
Iraq’s PM denies foreknowledge of US-Saudi attacks on Iran-aligned militias in the country, after Iraqi military says no evidence attacks were launched from its territory.

Trump: “not one boat gets in”

Trump says Iran is pleading the US to stop its naval blockade

Trump has asked a crowd at General Motors in Michigan: “How good is our navy with a blockade?”

Referring to the US naval blockade on Iran, he said that: “Not one boat gets in”.

He added that Iran is saying: “Please, please, no blockade”.

Update:

LOL! Trump Calls Iranian Leader Khamenei a “Gay Dictator” During White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner (VIDEO)

Netanyahu arrives in Washington, DC, for Trump talks

The Israeli prime minister has touched down on US soil, according to media reports in Israel.

Iran’s health minister says 60 killed, 670 injured in recent US attacks

Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi said that 60 Iranian citizens were killed and about 670 injured in attacks by the United States in the south of the country, over a period of between 10 and 12 days, according to Iranian news agency reports.

The US is ‘winning big time’ with Iran, Trump says

Iran: ‘Former Supreme Leader Ordered Us to Negotiate’

Tankers and cargo vessels in the Gulf of Oman

Houthis and Saudi Arabia exchange fire as US-Iran war intensifies

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed its “condemnation and strong denunciation” of the Houthi attacks against ships in the Red Sea.

Saudi Arabia launches strikes on Yemen’s Houthi-held city of Hodeidah in the latest escalation during the regional war between the United States and Iran.
President Donald Trump says dialogue between Washington and Tehran continues and a threatened “massive” attack may be unnecessary, although the US remains “locked and loaded”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran does not fear threats or succumb to pressure.
Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia has claimed that “almost all” US military infrastructure in Iraq’s Erbil has been destroyed during recent attacks by the IRGC, he told Iranian state television, as reported by Anadolu Agency.
The Houthis have condemned those attacks and claimed air defences “intercepted enemy aircraft”.
The IRGC naval forces stopped four vessels in the Strait of Hormuz over the past 24 hours after firing warning shots, Iranian state television has reported.

A public rift has emerged between Iran’s government and state television over how to portray the state of war and negotiations with the United States, as mediators try to nudge both countries towards diplomacy.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, centre right, and Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, centre left, attend a farewell ceremony for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for international delegates at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla in Tehran, Iran, July 3, 2026

Former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly said there would be no negotiations with Washington – but privately had given his approval.

“We went to the dear leader, explained the situation, and asked him what to do since he had said the ‘no war, no peace’ conditions are bad for the country,” the president said. “He ordered us to go negotiate. We started the talks based on his order.”

‘Military action alone’ won’t change Iran’s perspective

Iran has “no perfect choices or even good ones”, according to Michael Mulroy, former US deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Middle East and a CIA paramilitary operations officer.

However, if Iran can sell energy, then the US is “not going to be able to isolate them to the point where they change their perspective on a new agreement that’s more conducive to the United States”, he told Al Jazeera.

“So I think we need to build an international coalition to identify how we’re doing this: sanctions, secondary sanctions, freezing assets, the IRGC’s global infrastructure – all these things need to happen”, he said, adding “they probably won’t happen fast enough for the White House’s perspective, but they do need to happen because it’s clear that just military action alone is not changing that perspective”.

“From the US perspective, it needs several things to happen for this not to be considered a strategic failure; they need the Strait of Hormuz to be open, completely open and they need a new nuclear agreement that guarantees Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon, and we’re pretty far from that.”

Iran summons Ukraine’s diplomats after Kyiv bombs an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea, killing at least one sailor and wounding another.
Ukraine says it was targeting Russian vessels carrying Iran-linked military cargo, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia is assisting Iran in its military campaign in the Middle East.
Yemen’s Houthis launch missile and drone attacks on Saudi Aramco oil facilities in Jizan and Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, in retaliation for Saudi-led coalition strikes on Hodeidah port and Kamaran Island.
Trump has ordered the US military to set aside plans to attack Iran, according to US media, amid concerns the conflict could “dangerously drain” air defence munitions stocks.
Kuwait’s ambassador to the US had denied a Wall Street Journal report that claimed the Gulf state had sent fighter jets to attack Iran.

Trump warns of unprecedented ‘massive attack’ on Iran

The US-Israeli war on Iran has triggered a global energy crisis

U.S. VOWS TO PUNISH IRAN AFTER HOUTHIS STRIKE TANKERS

Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait have reported retaliatory missile and drone attacks from Iran after a 12th consecutive day of US strikes, including an attack on Kuwait’s Al-Abdali border crossing with Iraq.
US President Trump says he is considering a “massive attack” on Iran, “bigger than ever before”, and that he is close to making a decision.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking on the sidelines of the ASEAN conference in Manila, says Iran is “begging for a deal” but are not ready to keep to one.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says a tanker is ablaze in the Strait of Hormuz, while Yemen’s Houthis also claim missile and drone strikes on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.

Houthi supporters hold a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, July 17, 2026, against the Saudi-led coalition. Banner in Arabic reads, “All Saudi oil facilities are targets to our missiles and drones.”

Trump: US will use Iranian money in its ‘possession’ to pay for damage to ships, cargo

The US president says on his Truth Social platform that, from now on, “Any and all damages done to Ships, Cargo, or anything related thereto, will be paid for by Iranian Money that the United States has in its possession, and controls”.

“These damages may be very substantial but, nevertheless, this is the fair and equitable thing to do”, Trump added.

Tehran has nearly $100bn in assets frozen by other countries and beyond its control.

China Demands Middle East Parties ‘Remain Calm’ as Houthis Threaten Its Oil Tankers

The Chinese Communist Party has historically supported Iranian interests in the Middle East and Iranian terrorist proxies such as Hamas. Communist leaders, including genocidal dictator Xi Jinping, have maintained a marked distance from Iran during the current conflict with the United States, however, repeatedly demanding that all sides of the war respect freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have blockaded on and off since March. China is heavily dependent on the Middle East for its oil and other fossil fuel supplies, placing it in an especially vulnerable position despite not being an active combatant in the conflict.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry pronounced Beijing “deeply concerned” on Thursday over the ongoing war between Iran and its proxies and the United States in the Middle East, demanding all parties “remain calm.”

Iran Defiant:

Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker has mocked the US military strategy aimed at degrading Tehran’s ability to control the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting it has backfired.

US State Department tells citizens in Middle East to prepare for potential flight cancellations due to Iran war

The US State Department has issued an advisory urging US citizens in West Asia to be prepared for emergency travel situations due to potential flight cancellations and disruptions to air travel as a result of the Iran war.

This warning comes amid President Trump’s latest threat to carry out a “massive attack” on Iran.

Iran War: Yemen’s Houthi’s announce maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia

The Pentagon has released photos of Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, a 19-year-old U.S. soldier from Carrollton, Texas, and 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii

President Trump will attend the dignified transfer of the two soldiers who were killed by Iranian attacks in Jordan. The ceremony will take place tomorrow evening at Dover Air Force Base. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says “the President and the entire White House are praying for their families” in a post on X. The president, in a Truth Social post, says “Every time Iran kills an American soldier they will pay for that killing many times over, as the U.S. continues its military campaign in the Middle East.”

Explosions in Iran as US carries out ‘new round of strikes’

Iranian media is reporting explosions in Bandar Abbas and Sirik as US CENTCOM says new round of strikes being carried out on Iran.
In a social media post, US President Donald Trump says “every time Iran kills an American soldier they will pay for that killing many times over”.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels announce a maritime embargo of their foe Saudi Arabia after the two sides traded fire last week for the first time in years.

Multiple explosions heard in Chahbahar

Fars news agency is reporting multiple explosions in Chahbahar in eastern Iran.

Yemen’s Houthis announce maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels announce a maritime embargo of their foe Saudi Arabia after the two sides traded fire last week for the first time in years.
A vessel is on fire in the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by a projectile forcing the crew to abandon ship. They were later rescued by a tugboat.
Hamas says Khalil al-Hayya has been chosen as head of its political bureau succeeding Yahya Sinwar who was killed by Israel in Gaza in 2024.
A US service member has died in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone, according to CENTCOM.

Houthis see Saudi maritime embargo as an ‘opportunity’

The Houthis appear to be using the announcement of a maritime embargo targeting Saudi Arabia to “redraw the rules” while regional powers are under pressure, an analyst says.

Zeidon Alkinani, founding director of the Arab Perspectives Institute, told Al Jazeera there is “very clear” messaging in the announcement.

There was “no mention of Iran” suggesting the Houthis are acting to exploit what they see as a window of opportunity while both Saudi Arabia and the United States are pre-occupied with Iran. “They’re taking it as an opportunity to redraw the rules imposed on them before,” he said.

Negotiations with the Houthis could be “easier” than talks involving either the US or Iran, which remain in direct confrontation. “From a Houthi perspective they are controlling Yemen, which is in the GCC orbit,” he said.

Alkinani said direct negotiations with the Houthis would now make sense.

Saudi Arabia condemns Houthi’s blockade

Saudi Arabia has condemned remarks by the Houthis accusing the kingdom of besieging Yemen and announcing that the group will prevent maritime navigation to Saudi ports.

In a statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry called the accusations “baseless”.

Category: Yemen

Iran: will it be a Bad War or a Bad Deal?

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