LIVE: Saudis push Trump to resume Iran strikes

by Jon Michael Raasch, US Political Reporter

Saudi Arabia’s leader has urged Donald Trump to deploy ground troops in Iran and believes the war is a ‘historic opportunity’ for regime change.

Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) urged Trump in several calls over the past week to keep fighting Iran, attempting to persuade the President that the job could not be left half finished, sources told the New York Times.

The Saudi Crown Prince made the case that Iran’s government will pose a long-term threat to the region if it isn’t completely wiped out, the officials said.

MBS urged Trump to send troops into Iran to take over the country’s energy infrastructure and to force the current government out of power, the sources added.

Trump expressed concerns that escalating further could push oil prices even higher, with the national average gas price hitting $4.00 on Monday, up from $2.90 per gallon when the war began on February 28.

MBS’s private views contrast with Saudi’s public statements that highlight the kingdom’s desire for a diplomatic end to the war, which has led to retaliatory strikes on its energy sites and strangled its oil exports.

Here are the latest developments on day 25 of the US-Israel war with Iran:

• Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is urging Donald Trump to continue the US war with Iran, according to The New York Times
• Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Islamabad stands ‘ready and honoured’ to host peace talks between the US and Iran with Donald Trump sharing his annnouncement on Truth Social
• Iran named a former Revolutionary Guards commander, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, as head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council to succeed the assassinated Ali Larijani
• The Gulf states will need to re-evaluate their shared security after the war, which has resulted in a ‘breakdown of the security system’, a Qatar foreign ministry spokesman said
• Israel said its military will seize control of a ‘security zone’ around 20 miles into southern Lebanon as it presses its fight against Iran-backed Hezbollah
• Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has declared a state of ​national energy emergency in response to the Middle ‌East conflict and what he called an ‘imminent danger’ posed to the country’s energy supply
• A British Special Forces base in northern Iraq repelled a record 14 Iranian suicide drones last night in a dramatic escalation of the conflict
• New Zealand has announced it will provide cash handouts to help families afford petrol in response to the energy crisis
• European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has declared the time has come for negotiations with Iran to reopen the blocked Strait of Hormuz with the crisis now ‘critical’ for countries
• Vietnam’s national air carrier will suspend nearly two dozen domestic flights a week starting next month because of limited fuel supplies caused by the Iran war

UK forces shot down 14 kamikaze drones, according to defence secretary John Healey.

Healey told ministers today that a counter-drone team had brought down the fleet.

They were gunned down from the Erbil base, which houses both UK and US troops.

It was the largest British take-down of drones since war broke out on February 28.

The Pentagon is planning on deploying 3,000 soldiers from the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal reports.

A written order for the deployment is expected in the coming hours.

Three people have today been wounded after fragments from an Iranian missile fell in Israel’s Negev desert.

The impact affected a Bedouin community, hurting a man in his 40s, his 26-year-old wife and his two-month-old baby.

The man was said to have been in a serious condition, while his wife and child were described as lightly hurt.

The Times of Israel reported that the wounded man was himself a doctor, who had just returned from a shift.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun today accused Israel of exacerbating tensions in the region.

In a post to X, he said the current conflict between the nations could’ve been avoided if Israel had withdrawn from areas as outlined in the 2024 ceasefire deal.

He wrote: ‘The war could have been avoided had Israel responded to calls to withdraw from the territories it occupied and complied with the 2024 agreement.’

A rocket and drone attack from Lebanon has killed one woman and left two other people lightly injured, Haaretz reports.

by Sabrina Penty, Foreign News Reporter

Countries around the world are scrambling to save fuel as the vital oil pathway of the Strait of Hormuz remains at a standstill.

The escalating war with Iran has pushed oil prices above $100 a barrel, despite pleas from global leaders for Tehran to unblock the waterway.

Sri Lanka has ordered street lights, neon signs and billboard lighting to be switched off from Tuesday as part of measures to cut energy consumption by 25 per cent to tackle supply shortages.

Government spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa said all state institutions had been asked to reduce the use of air conditioning as the Middle East war entered its fourth week, driving up oil and gas prices.

Sri Lanka has already raised fuel prices by a third since the United States and Israel began bombing Iran, triggering retaliatory attacks that have disrupted global energy supplies.

China’s top diplomat urged his Iranian counterpart ‘talking is always better’ than fighting after Tehran denied Donald Trump’s claim that negotiations were underway.

The war between the United States, Israel and Iran has spiralled throughout the Middle East and caused a worsening energy bottleneck in the Strait of Hormuz, the route for about a fifth of global crude shipments.

The US President said on Monday his administration was speaking with an unidentified ‘top person’ among Iran’s leadership, as he extended by five days a deadline to hit the country’s power plants.

But Tehran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf insisted ‘no negotiations’ were taking place, accusing Trump of seeking ‘to manipulate the financial and oil markets’.

Beijing remains a key partner of Iran, but has said it ‘does not go along’ with Tehran’s strikes on Gulf states hosting US bases and has urged a ceasefire.

According to China’s foreign ministry, Wang Yi told Abbas Araghchi he hoped ‘all parties can seize every opportunity and window for peace and start the peace talks process as quickly as possible’.

Donald Trump is being repeatedly mocked on social media by Iran as the President is accused of backing down in the US-Israel war against Tehran.

On Sunday, a spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards mocked Trump with his own ‘you’re fired’ catchphrase on X.

Speaking in English, Iranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari said: ‘Hey, Trump, you are fired. You are familiar with this sentence. Thank you for your attention to this matter.’

Today, the Iranian embassy in South Africa joked following Trump’s claim he could jointly run the Strait of Hormuz with the Ayatollah in any peace deal.

Israeli soldiers stand beside military vehicles near border with Lebanon

France has urged Israel to ‘refrain’ from occupying an area of southern Lebanon after Israeli ministers announced they were establishing a ‘security zone’ in the country.

French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the AFP news agency such a move would have ‘major humanitarian consequences’.

‘We urge the Israeli authorities to refrain from such ground operations, which would have major humanitarian consequences and would exacerbate the country’s already dire situation,’ Barrot said.

Israel said earlier its military would take control of south Lebanon up to the Litani River, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border.

by Imogen Garfinkel, Senior Foreign News Reporter

Donald Trump has postponed US strikes on Iranian infrastructure for five days, backtracking from earlier threats to ‘hit and obliterate’ the Islamic regime’s power plants if it didn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz in 48 hours.

But the US President’s U-turn might be a delaying tactic, granting US marines enough time to arrive in the Gulf and seize Iran’s Kharg Island, the ‘crown jewel’ of the Islamic Republic.

The five-mile-long territory, located 15 miles from the Iranian coast in the Strait of Hormuz, processes more than 90 per cent of Tehran’s crude oil exports and is vital in funding the country’s war effort.

Trump has already dispatched the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) to the region, comprised of the USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship, and two amphibious transport docks, USS San Diego and USS New Orleans, with about 2,200 marines embarked across the fleet.

On top of that, a similar sized fighting force, led by amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, set sail from San Diego last Wednesday, reportedly destined for the Middle East.

Now, senior military officials are weighing up a possible deployment of a combat brigade from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to support military operations in Iran.