Pentagon asks White House for $200bn more to fight Iran war – report
Robert Mackey
The Pentagon “has asked the White House to approve a more than $200bn request to Congress to fund the war in Iran, according to a senior administration official”, the Washington Post reports.
The newspaper explains:
The funding request is likely to stage a major political battle in Congress, as public support for the effort remains tepid and Democrats have been sharply critical. Republicans have signaled support for the forthcoming supplemental request but haven’t committed to a legislative strategy, or found a clear path to surpass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.
President Donald Trump campaigned on ending American adventurism abroad and frequently hammered the Biden administration for the amount of money approved to finance the war in Ukraine. By December, Congress had approved roughly $188 billion in spending for the war in Ukraine, according to the U.S. special inspector general for Operation Atlantic Resolve.
As the Post notes, Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised his predecessor for helping Ukraine defend its territory from the full-scale Russian invasion that began in 2022. But Trump has constantly exaggerated or lied about how much the US has spent to help Ukraine deter Russia, offering vastly inflated estimates that could make the cost of his war with Iran seem small by comparison.
Key events
Three dead in first Iranian attack to kill Palestinians in West Bank
Three Palestinian women were killed in an Iranian missile attack in the occupied West Bank late on Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, in the first deadly Iranian strike there and the first to kill Palestinians since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran.
A missile struck a hair salon in the town of Beit Awwa, south-west of the city of Hebron, Reuters has cited the Palestinian Authority’s official Wafa news agency reported. Thirteen were wounded, one of them seriously.
The Israeli military said it understood the strike was caused by a cluster munition, a warhead that splits into tiny bomblets that scatter into a disparate area.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reportedly initially confirmed four deaths but the medics then said that one woman remained in critical condition.
Wafa said the salon had been set up in a metal caravan next to a house. It also said missile fragments landed in multiple locations in the West Bank, including in Hebron.
Iran has been launching missiles towards Israel daily amid the war but there have been no reports of it deliberately targeting Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
Most Israelis have access to bomb shelters that protect them from cluster munitions and falling debris but virtually no such shelters exist for Palestinians in the West Bank, Reuters said. Many Palestinians rely on either the sound of sirens from Jewish settlements or neighbouring cities in Israel to alert them to rocket volleys.
French president Emmanuel Macron is reportedly calling for a moratorium on strikes on civilian infrastructure amid the Iran war.
We’ll bring you more on this shortly.
Foreign worker killed in Israel after Iran attack – medics
A man has been killed in central Israel in the latest round of Iranian missile fire, medics say.
It brings the death roll in Israel from the war to 15.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency services said on Thursday the victim was a “foreign worker” aged in his 30s and that he was killed in Moshav Adanim, about 20km north-east of Tel Aviv.
“Metal shrapnel was scattered across the scene, and nearby lay a man … unconscious and suffering from severe shrapnel injuries,” MDA medic Idan Shina said in a statement, cited by the AFP news agency.
The injuries were very severe, and unfortunately we had to pronounce him dead at the scene.
Shortly before the death the Israeli military said it had identified another round of missile fire headed toward the country from Iran and was “operating to intercept the threat”.
Gabbard won’t say if White House claim Iran posed an ‘imminent nuclear threat’ is true
Robert Mackey
As my colleagues Joseph Gedeon and George Chidi report, over in the US, Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee pressed Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, to explain why her deputy, Joe Kent, said in his resignation letter on Tuesday that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation”, which contradicts weeks of statements to the contrary by Donald Trump.
The president and his aides have repeatedly described the threat posed by Iran as imminent to justify the war, although when he announced the start of “major combat operations in Iran” from his Florida beach club on 28 February, Trump declared that it was a mission “to defend the American people by eliminating eminent threats from the Iranian regime”, having apparently misread the word “imminent” on the Teleprompter.
In a carefully worded statement after Kent’s resignation on Tuesday, Gabbard, who made opposition to war with Iran the central plank of her failed run for the presidency in 2020, said that “determining what is and is not an imminent threat” was up to the president, not the intelligence community she oversees. She notably failed to say that the intelligence she had seen supported Trump’s claim that Iran was about to attack the US.
In his questioning of Gabbard, Senator Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, pointed out that on day 2 of the conflict the White House website called the US attack a “military campaign to eliminate the imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime”.
“Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was an ‘imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime’, yes or no?” Ossoff asked.
When Gabbard replied, “Senator, the only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president,” Ossoff shot back: “False. This is the ‘Worldwide Threats’ hearing, where you present to Congress ‘national intelligence, timely, objective and independent of political considerations’. You’ve stated today that the intelligence community’s assessment is that Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated and that ‘there had been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability’.”
“Was it the intelligence community’s assessment,” he continued, “that, nevertheless, despite this obliteration, there was a quote ‘imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime’? Yes or no.”
“It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat,” Gabbard replied.
“No, it is precisely your responsibility to determine what constitutes a threat to the United States. This is the ‘Worldwide Threats’ hearing, where, as you noted in your opening testimony, quote, you ‘represent the IC’s assessment of threats’.”
When Ossoff again repeated the question of whether there was intelligence to support the White House claim Iran posed “imminent nuclear threat”, Gabbard repeated her claim that it was up to the president to say if a threat was imminent.
“You’re evading a question because to provide a candid response to the committee would contradict a statement from the White House,” Ossoff concluded.
Abu Dhabi gas facilities shut down due to falling debris after missiles intercepted
Operations at Abu Dhabi’s Habshan gas facilities have been shut down over two incidents caused by falling debris from the successful interception of missiles, according to the Abu Dhabi media office.
It added that the missiles had been on course for the Habshan gas facility and the Bab oilfield.
Operations at the gas facilities have been suspended, and no injuries have been reported.
The day so far
Qatar’s state-owned oil and gas company reported “extensive damage” caused by fires following Iranian missile attacks on the key industrial city of Ras Laffan. Qatar’s foreign ministry called Tehran’s “brazen” attacks a “direct threat to its national security and the stability of the region” and said it was “pushing the region toward the abyss and drawing in countries that are not parties to this crisis into the circle of conflict”.
Doha later expelled two diplomats and their staff as a result of Iran’s repeated attacks on the country, the latest of which targeted Ras Laffan. Its foreign ministry said that if Iran continued to take “hostile” action then Qatar would have to take “additional measures” to protect itself.
It came after Iran vowed to retaliate by attacking Gulf energy infrastructure in response to an Israeli strike on its South Pars gas field facilities – the largest in Iran and one of the largest in the world. The strikes on the South Pars gasfield, which Iran shares with Qatar, were widely reported in Israeli media to have been carried out by Israel with the consent of the US. Tehran named several energy facilities across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar to target in retaliation.
Donald Trump supported the strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field to send a message to Tehran about the strait of Hormuz, but didn’t want any further strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. But, according to the Journal’s report, the US president could be open to targeting more Iranian energy facilities, depending on whether Tehran impedes traffic in the critical waterway.
Saudi Arabia said it successfully intercepted four ballistic missiles launched towards Riyadh. Debris fell in various parts of the capital due to the interceptions, the ministry said. No damage or injuries were reported. It also intercepted drones attempting to approach gas facilities in the country’s eastern region, with no damages reported there either.
The UAE also intercepted Iranian missiles and drones.
The oil price climbed towards $110 a barrel on Wednesday afternoon as the mounting threat to the Gulf’s oil and gas infrastructure fuelled concerns of more disruption to global supplies, amid the continuing blockade of the strait of Hormuz.
Trump wants no more strikes on Iran’s energy sites – report
Donald Trump does not want any further strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure after Israel struck facilities linked to Iran’s South Pars gas field today, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing US officials.
The officials told the Journal that Trump supported that attack as a message to Tehran over its blocking of the strait of Hormuz, but is now against any further attacks.
But, according to the Journal’s report, the US president could be open to targeting more Iranian energy facilities, depending on whether Tehran impedes traffic in the critical waterway.
IDF says it’s working to intercept Iranian missiles
The Israel Defense Forces said earlier that it had identified missiles launched from Iran towards Israel this evening.
“Defense systems are operating to intercept the threat,” the IDF said in a statement, adding that those in affected areas would receive instructions on their phones.
Israel says it’s attacking northern Iran ‘for first time’
Israel has said it has begun striking targets northern Iran for the first time since the war began on 28 February.
The announcement was made in a brief post on Telegram by the Israel Defense Forces with no further details.
