The U.S. Senate will vote on June 20 on legislation seeking to block $8 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies, as lawmakers’ anger with Riyadh increases.
Israel is holding its first drills with US-purchased F-35 fighter jets this week, in a large-scale exercise designed to simulate a war with northern adversaries Hezbollah, Syria, and Russia.
China is seeking to deter the US from its current Iran policy, Reuters reports.
A squadron of American F-15E Strike Eagles arrived in United Arab Emirates on Thursday as part of reinforcements against the Iranian threat as announced last month by the Pentagon.
Iranian missiles are capable of carrying out precision strikes on aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami said Tuesday in an interview with Iranian state television.
Next week’s meeting in Jerusalem between the national security advisers of Israel, the United States, and Russia is ‘very important for the stability of the Middle East during these turbulent times,’ said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.
The Trump administration is not seeking conflict with Iran and its military buildup in the Persian Gulf is aimed entirely at deterring Iranian aggression and threats to US interests and international shipping, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday.
While few expect the advisors’ meeting this month in Jerusalem to produce immediate results, American and Israeli officials hope that it could prepare the ground for a deal that would further weaken Russian ties to Iran and reduce, if not terminate, Iran’s presence in Syria.
Iran will not hesitate from stepping up its uranium enrichment to 20%, an Iranian nuclear spokesperson said Monday.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) released new images Monday showing the aftermath of mine attacks against two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week, including some images purporting to show Iranian forces removing an unexploded device from the hull of one of the vessels.
Germany and Britain on Monday warned Tehran not to breach uranium stockpile limits set by the 2015 nuclear deal, as the EU’s diplomatic chief dismissed Iranian threats as ‘political dialectics.’
Diplomatic sources at the UN headquarters in New York revealed to Maariv that they are assessing the United States’ plans to carry out a tactical assault on Iran in response to the tanker attack in the Persian Gulf on Thursday.
Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan announced on Monday the deployment of about 1,000 more troops to the Middle East for what he said were defensive purposes, citing concerns about a threat from Iran.
The Royal Navy is drawing up plans to deploy marines to the Persian Gulf to protect British ships after a series of alleged Iranian attacks on oil tankers in the region.
Houthi rebels in Yemen recently shot down a U.S. government-operated drone with assistance from Iran, the U.S. military said in a statement on Sunday.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that the United States is considering ‘a full range of options,’ including a military response, to combat Iranian aggression.
While it is ‘unmistakable’ that Iran was responsible for the attacks on two tankers last week, the United States does not want to go to war with Tehran, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday.
After the US accused Iran of being behind the attack on the oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, senior Israeli officials told Channel 13 that they too believe that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were the ones who carried out the attack on the oil tankers in the Persian Gulf.
The head of an Iranian academic institute that conducts nuclear research has called for the Islamic Republic to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and renegotiate the 2015 nuclear deal, and repeatedly dubbed international nuclear inspectors ‘cockroaches.’
Tehran said it would take further action Monday to renounce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal signed with world powers.