Strait of Hormuz

Iran, Oman reaffirm commitment to ‘safe, free’ navigation through Hormuz after US deal

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Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Hamad Al Busaidi meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi ahead of the US-Iran talks, in Muscat, the capital of Oman, on February 06, 2026. [Oman Foreign Ministry – Anadolu Agency]

Iran and Oman reaffirmed their commitment on Tuesday to ensuring safe and free maritime navigation through the Strait of Hormuz following a memorandum of understanding between Tehran and Washington, Anadolu reports.

During a phone call, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi and his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi reviewed bilateral ties and underscored their shared commitment to strengthening cooperation across various fields based on principles of good neighborliness and longstanding historical and cultural links, according to Oman’s state news agency ONA.

In light of the recent US-Iran understanding, the two ministers renewed their commitment to international law regarding “the safe and free passage of maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz,” the agency said.

They also expressed hope that all parties would undertake “serious efforts to foster a sustainable environment supportive of a constructive political and diplomatic process aimed at preserving regional security and stability,” it added.

READ: Switzerland confirms US-Iran memorandum signing set for Friday at Burgenstock

The call came days after Washington and Tehran announced that they had reached a memorandum of understanding intended to pave the way for ending the conflict that began with US and Israeli military operations against Iran on Feb. 28.

US President Donald Trump has said the understanding has already been signed and that the Strait of Hormuz would be “fully reopened by Friday.” Iranian officials, however, have said the memorandum is expected to be signed by the heads of the two negotiating delegations during a meeting in Switzerland on June 19.

The Strait of Hormuz, located between Iran and Oman, is one of the world’s most important energy transit routes, linking the Gulf to international waters through the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

READ: Iranian ships cross US naval blockade area without obstruction for 1st time after deal: Report

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Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/

Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes' concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country's economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.

Continue ReadingIran, Oman reaffirm commitment to ‘safe, free’ navigation through Hormuz after US deal

Iran threatens to halt US negotiations if Israeli attacks continue in Lebanon

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A view of streets as daily life continues amid fragile ceasefire in Tehran, Iran on May 12, 2026, as geopolitical tensions rise following recent statements from the United States. [Fatemeh Bahrami – Anadolu Agency]

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf warned on Sunday that negotiations for a peace deal with the US could be halted if Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue, Anadolu reports.

In a post on US social media company X, Qalibaf explained that the ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon reflect the US’ inability to fulfill its commitments.

“The Zionist attacks on the southern suburbs of Beirut once again demonstrate the United States’ lack of will or ability to fulfill its commitments,” he added.

The Israeli attacks on Lebanon “will not go unanswered,” Gen. Mohammad Jafar Asadi, deputy inspector brigadier general at Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters of the Iranian Armed Forces, said in a statement, according to Fars News Agency.

Asadi added that the Israeli attacks targeting the southern suburbs of Beirut “will not go unanswered.”

At least three people were killed and 15 others injured when the Israeli army launched airstrikes on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut on Sunday despite an ongoing ceasefire, state news agency NNA reported.

READ: 3 killed as Israeli army launches airstrikes in Lebanese capital in new ceasefire violation

The Israeli army has continued a bombing campaign on Lebanon since March 2 and occupied several towns in the country’s south.

The attacks have killed over 3,700 people, wounded nearly 11,500, and displaced over 1.5 million since March 2, according to Lebanese officials.

While US President Donald Trump said the deal with Iran that will open the Strait of Hormuz will be signed on Sunday, Iran has disputed the timeline, and said a final decision is under consideration. After the Israeli strike in Beirut on Sunday, Trump said the attack “should not have happened … when we are so close” to the deal. He urged both Israel and Hezbollah to “stand down,” and hoped for a “long and beautiful peace.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country has been mediating between the US and Iran, also said on Saturday that the deal could be finalized in the next 24 hours.

While Iran has called for ending the war on all fronts including Lebanon, release of its frozen assets and end of US blockade of its ports; the US is demanding that Tehran halt its nuclear program and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

READ: Israeli ministers call for bombing Beirut despite ceasefire

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Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/

Continue ReadingIran threatens to halt US negotiations if Israeli attacks continue in Lebanon

OPINION: Trump’s Strategic Mistakes in His War Against Iran

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US President Donald J. Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Iran: Operation Epic Fury, February 28, 2026. [White House X Account – Anadolu Agency]

by Jasim Al-Azzawi

In January 2026, flushed with the swift, covert removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration rolled the dice on a far more volatile and deeply rooted adversary. President Donald Trump operated under the seductive assumption that a high-tech, stealth excursion against the Islamic Republic of Iran would yield a parallel, cost-free triumph. Yet, months into the conflict sparked by the administration’s aggressive “Maximum Pressure 2.0” campaign and escalated via Operation Epic Fury, Washington finds itself trapped in a familiar, agonizing quagmire. Tactical brilliance has once again been mistaken for strategic victory. As Winston Churchill famously observed in the wake of early wartime triumphs, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” By prioritizing spectacular kinetic displays over coherent political end states, the administration has committed critical strategic errors that echo America’s past blunders in the region, ultimately leaving the United States more vulnerable, its deterrence degraded, and the Middle East fundamentally destabilized.

The administration’s first and most glaring mistake was the illusion of the “quick win”—a fundamental misreading of Iranian resilience, nationalism, and asymmetric depth.

The opening salvos of the 2026 campaign achieved extraordinary tactical milestones, including the systematic destruction of Iran’s conventional naval assets and the stunning decapitation of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Yet, as the Cato Institute observed shortly after the dust settled, “tactical successes cannot mask what has quickly become another strategic failure… the administration’s strategy is divorced from its ostensible aims.” Airpower and targeted assassinations did not trigger a domestic democratic uprising, nor did they erase decades of deeply entrenched institutional control. Instead, power quickly consolidated around an even harder-line, war-hardened faction of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), proving General Omar Bradley’s timeless maxim that “amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals talk about logistics” and long-term sustainability.

Furthermore, the administration drastically underestimated Iran’s capacity for regional, asymmetric retaliation. For years, Washington’s defense establishment operated under the comfortable assumption that Tehran would limit its responses to localized attacks on U.S. assets or proxy skirmishes.

Instead, the conflict immediately metastasized into a multi-theatre conflagration. On day one, Iranian missiles and sophisticated loitering munitions struck across all six Gulf Arab states, completely shattering the regional security umbrella and exposing the fiction of impenetrable air defenses. Rather than dismantling Iran’s missile architecture, the war revealed that a staggering 70 percent of Iran’s ballistic missile stockpile and mobile launchers remained entirely intact, deeply buried in hardened underground “missile cities” and fully operational weeks into the fighting.

READ: Iran threatens to halt US negotiations if Israeli attacks continue in Lebanon

This massive miscalculation triggered the second strategic error: a failure to anticipate and mitigate crippling global economic blowback. The administration’s aggressive naval blockade was met with a brutal, symmetric counter-strategy in the maritime chokepoints. Tehran seized effective de facto control of the Strait of Hormuz—the vital artery through which 25 percent of the world’s oil transits—implementing a coercive toll and mining system that drove global crude prices past $100 a barrel. The economic ripples disrupted fragile global supply chains and sparked inflationary spikes across Western economies. In a supreme irony, the administration was forced to quietly ease certain oil sanctions and grant waivers to keep global energy markets afloat, giving Tehran unexpected economic leverage in the middle of a war meant to break its financial resolve.

This economic vulnerability recalls the warning of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who noted that defense cannot be sustained if it destroys the economic foundation upon which national power rests.

The deeper tragedy of this conflict lies in how it has perversely incentivized the very behavior Washington sought to deter. The administration’s stated rationale for military intervention was the total, permanent elimination of Iran’s nuclear program. However, by demanding what amounted to “unconditional surrender” while systematically dismantling the remaining diplomatic guardrails, the administration left Tehran with zero peaceful off-ramps. Before the outbreak of hostilities, regional intermediaries noted that Iran was willing to offer nuclear concessions that went well beyond the original international agreements. By replacing diplomacy with existential military threats, Washington has practically guaranteed that any post-war Iranian regime will view a functional nuclear deterrent not as a negotiable luxury, but as an absolute requirement for national survival. As the legendary strategist Carl von Clausewitz famously wrote, “War is the continuation of politics by other means.” When war loses its political objective and becomes merely punitive, it transforms into an engine of endless escalation.

READ: Trump agreed to release $24B in frozen Iranian assets without formal announcement: Report

Finally, the war has accelerated a structural shift toward an aggressively post-American global order, severely damaging U.S. credibility among allies and adversaries alike. Writing on the cascading geopolitical fallout of the conflict, foreign policy analyst Robert Kagan noted that the war has triggered an “accelerating global adjustment to a post-American world as a result of this massive miscalculation.” Far from isolating Iran, the conflict has bound Washington’s primary geopolitical rivals closer together. U.S. forces have faced an adversary heavily fortified by external collaboration, ranging from advanced Chinese semiconductor chips and real-time satellite imagery to shared tactical innovations in drone warfare.

The Trump administration entered this conflict under the hubristic assumption that it could unilaterally dictate the terms of a short, low-cost engagement. Instead, it has ignored the foundational rule of strategic statecraft: never launch a war without a clear, achievable definition of peace.

By chasing the mirage of an effortless regime collapse, the administration has degraded America’s conventional deterrence, exposed the global economy to severe energy shocks, and driven a resilient adversary deeper into the camp of our most formidable global competitors. If Washington does not pivot swiftly toward a realistic, diplomatically enforceable ceasefire, Operation Epic Fury will not be remembered as a historic triumph but as a textbook case of how tactical hubris breeds strategic disaster.

OPINION: The end of American forward presence in the Persian Gulf

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/

Continue ReadingOPINION: Trump’s Strategic Mistakes in His War Against Iran

Trump says Israeli strike on Beirut ‘should not have happened’ amid Iran peace talks

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United States President Donald Trump walks toward the White House upon his arrival in Washington, DC, from Memphis, Tennessee, United States, on March 23, 2026. [Celal Güneş – Anadolu Agency]

US President Donald Trump on Sunday criticized an Israeli attack on Beirut, asserting that the strike should not have occurred while Washington is on the verge of a peace agreement with Iran, Anadolu reports.

“This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a peace deal,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

He argued that the incident Israel was responding to was “small and meaningless,” resulting in no casualties, and urged all parties to “stand down” to avoid disrupting the diplomatic process.

“We are very close to a deal that will bring peace to the region, including to Lebanon,” he said, calling for an immediate halt to all Israeli attacks in Lebanon, as well as a cessation of strikes by Hezbollah.

READ: 3 killed as Israeli army launches airstrikes in Lebanese capital in new ceasefire violation

“This could be the beginning of a long and beautiful peace — Let’s not blow it,” added Trump.

Earlier, Axios, citing Israeli and US officials, claimed Israel had informed US Central Command before the Beirut attack.

Trump on Saturday said that a deal with Iran is scheduled to be signed on Sunday, even as Tehran disputed the timeline. Sources in Tehran told the Fars News Agency that the proposed memorandum of understanding remains “under consideration” and no final decision has been announced.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, speaker of Iran’s parliament, accused Washington on Sunday of lacking the “will or ability” to meet its obligations, citing continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

While Iran has called for ending the war on all fronts including Lebanon, release of its frozen assets and end of the US blockade of its ports; the US is demanding that Tehran halt its nuclear program and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

READ: Iran threatens to halt US negotiations if Israeli attacks continue in Lebanon

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Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/

Continue ReadingTrump says Israeli strike on Beirut ‘should not have happened’ amid Iran peace talks

US claims 125 million barrels of oil escorted through Strait of Hormuz

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U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference in James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on April 06, 2026 in Washington, DC. [Kyle Mazza – Anadolu Agency]

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested on Sunday that Washington has maintained control over the Strait of Hormuz, successfully guiding millions of barrels of oil through the strategic waterway despite regional tensions, Anadolu reports.

“Project Freedom never stopped, and we have run 125 million barrels of oil through the straits, and Iran could not do anything about it,” Hegseth told CBS News.

He claimed that not a single Iranian vessel managed to transit the American blockade, asserting that US President Donald Trump’s administration holds “absolute leverage” in ongoing diplomatic negotiations from a position of strength.

READ: Iran threatens to halt US negotiations if Israeli attacks continue in Lebanon

The defense chief warned that the US military posture will remain active to ensure Tehran complies with the memorandum of understanding within the next 60 days. He noted the military has developed plans to ensure nuclear material is “down blended, destroyed, or removed.”

Hegseth said the document on table stipulates that Tehran “will never have a nuclear weapon, won’t seek one, won’t buy one, won’t have one.”

Trump on Saturday said a deal with Iran is scheduled to be signed on Sunday, even as Tehran disputed the timeline.

Sources in Tehran told the Fars News Agency that the proposed deal remains “under consideration” and no final decision has been announced.

OPINION: Trump’s Strategic Mistakes in His War Against Iran

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Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Strait of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don't need people to join wars after they've already won. He's challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Strait of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/

Continue ReadingUS claims 125 million barrels of oil escorted through Strait of Hormuz