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.
The U.S. military’s Central Command has released a video is says shows Iranian forces removing an unexploded limpet mine from one of the two ships suspected to have been attacked near the Strait of Hormuz.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blamed Iran for the ‘blatant assault’ on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman earlier Thursday.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneni said Thursday that while Tehran doesn’t want an atomic bomb, ‘America could not do anything’ to stop it if it did, just days after the UN’s nuclear watchdog did not explicitly report that Iran was implementing its nuclear-related commitments and said that its rate of uranium enrichment was increasing.
The US Navy said it is helping the crew of two oil tankers after a ‘reported attack’ in the Gulf of Oman, just weeks after the US accused Iran of attacking other oil vessels in the same area.
Saudi Arabia has said it will carry out urgent reprisals as it accused Iran of being behind a late-night cruise missile attack by Houthi rebel fighters on a Saudi international airport that injured 26 people.