Trump ‘satisfied’ with naval blockade, White House says
Donald Trump is “satisfied” with the naval blockade, and “understands Iran is in a very weak position” – according to the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
She highlights that reports of a three-to-five-day deadline for the extended ceasefire are “not true”. “The cards are in President Trump’s hands right now,” she told the media during a press conference in Washington.
When asked how long the war will continue for, she said that is up to the president, who will “do so when he feels it’s in the best interests of the United States and the American people”.
She also told reporters that the US is inflicting serious economic pain on Iran. “We are completely strangling their economy through this blockade, they’re losing $500m a day. Kharg Island is completely full, they can’t move oil in and out. They can’t even pay their own people as a result of this economic leverage that President Trump has inflicted over them,” said Leavitt.
Key events
United Airlines has implemented broad-based rises of 15-20% on fares as it seeks to offset the surge in petrol prices while protecting profits, executives say.
The big US carrier has also cut its 2026 flying capacity by 5%.
Chief executive Scott Kirby described oil prices as “incredibly volatile” amid the war in Iran but said the company’s plan was based on the assumption that “fuel may remain higher for longer.”
The airline was yet to see pullback from customers due to high fares but United might cut back additional flights in 2027 if demand dropped, Kirby said on Wednesday, quoted by AFP.
The airline says it expects fuel prices to average $4.30 a gallon in the year’s second quarter, up 55% from the first quarter average.
Other airlines have also announced fare increases and capacity curtailments in response to the surge in oil prices amid the Middle East war.
The head of the International Air Transport Association last Friday called on authorities to put “well-coordinated plans in place” in case of jet fuel rationing.
Iran war is weakening Europe, says Erdoğan
The US-Israeli war against Iran is “starting to weaken Europe”, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has told his German counterpart.
Erdoğan said:
The war in our region is likewise starting to weaken Europe, and if we do not address this situation with an approach that prioritises peace, the damage caused by the conflict will be far greater.”
Erdoğan made the comment to Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Turkish leader’s office, cited by AFP.
US navy secretary to leave office ‘immediately’, says Pentagon
The Pentagon has announced that US secretary of the navy John Phelan will depart the office “immediately”, without providing an explanation for his sudden exit.
The move amid the US naval blockade of Iranian ports comes after the US army’s top officer, Gen Randy George, and two other senior officers were removed earlier this month during the continuing war with Iran.
Phelan “is departing the administration, effective immediately”, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on X on Wednesday, adding that undersecretary Hung Cao – Phelan’s deputy – would replace him in an acting capacity.
The exit just a day after Phelan addressed a large crowd of sailors and industry professionals at the navy’s annual conference in Washington DC, and spoke with reporters about his agenda – see our full report here.
Donald Trump has overseen a purge of top military personnel since returning to office early last year, including the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Charles “CQ” Brown, whom he fired without explanation in February 2025.
Other senior officers dismissed include the heads of the US navy and coast guard, the general who headed the National Security Agency, the vice-chief of staff of the air force, a navy admiral assigned to Nato and three top military lawyers, reports Agence France-Press.
The chief of staff of the air force also announced his retirement without explanation just two years into a four-year term, while the head of US Southern Command retired a year into his tenure.
Trump hasn’t set Iran deadline to submit peace proposal, says White House
Donald Trump has not set a deadline on Iran submitting a peace proposal, the White House said on Wednesday.
The US president on Tuesday announced he was indefinitely extending a ceasefire with Iran at the request of mediator Pakistan until Tehran responded to the US’s negotiating positions or until talks were concluded “one way or the other”.
Trump also said the US would continue its naval blockade of Iranian ports.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists on Wednesday:
The president has not set a firm deadline to receive an Iranian proposal, unlike some of the reporting I’ve seen today.
Ultimately, the timeline will be dictated by the commander in chief.
Lebanon’s prime minister is reportedly saying Israel is targeting journalists and obstructing relief effort and that that constitutes war crimes.
Nawaf Salam also said Lebanon would spare no effort in pursing those crimes with relevant international bodies.
We’ll have more on his comments soon.
As mentioned earlier, Al Jazeera reported that the employer of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil confirmed she was killed in an Israeli attack earlier on Wednesday.
Interim summary
Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed a journalist after rescuers were blocked from accessing the building where she was buried under rubble because of further Israeli fire, according to several witnesses. Amal Khalil was covering developments near the town of al-Tayri with the photographer Zeinab Faraj when an Israeli strike hit the vehicle in front of them. They ran into a nearby house, which was then also targeted by an Israeli strike, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament and lead negotiator, said that reopening the strait of Hormuz would be “impossible” while the US and Israel committed “flagrant” breaches of the ceasefire, including the US naval blockade, “the hostage-taking of the world’s economy” and “Zionist warmongering”. He added in a post on X that the US and Israel “did not achieve their goals through military aggression, nor will they through bullying”.
Donald Trump is “satisfied” with the naval blockade, and “understands Iran is in a very weak position” – according to the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She highlighted that reports of a three-to-five-day deadline for the extended ceasefire are “not true”. “The cards are in President Trump’s hands right now,” she told the media during a press conference in Washington.
Lebanese state media reported that Israeli strikes killed at least four people in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. Hezbollah launched, according to the report, a drone attack against Israeli forces in the region, which further jeopardizes the US-brokered ceasefire. The National News Agency (NNA) said an Israeli strike hit a car in Tayri, a village in south Lebanon, killing two people inside. An Israeli airstrike in the southern town of Yohmor killed another two people, the NNA and Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old schoolboy, have been killed in the occupied West Bank after Israeli settlers opened fire near a school amid mounting assaults on education in the territory, witnesses and local officials have said. The Palestinian health ministry said Aws al-Naasan, 14, and Jihad Abu Naim, 32, were killed in the attack on the village of al-Mughayyir, in which three others were wounded.
Shah Meer Baloch
Across Islamabad, there is lockdown. The streets of the Pakistani capital have been empty for days, shops have been shuttered and public transport closed down. Officials and office workers have been told to work from home, while labourers have found themselves deprived of work. The only visible figures are those in army and police uniforms lining the roads.
For many, it feels like a return to the pandemic. Yet the cause is not a virus but Islamabad’s status as the venue for US-Iran talks that hold the promise of an end to war in the Middle East, with stringent security measures imposed on the city as it awaits the two delegations.
Yet as uncertainty reigns over whether the negotiations will even take place, anger has been rising. For people, the draconian and seemingly indefinite restrictions have become a source of frustration and economic strife.
Many workers in Islamabad and neighbouring Rawalpindi unable to afford to rent a flat were unceremoniously kicked out of their hostel accommodation on Saturday, after a government order, and tens of thousands had to hurriedly find a place to say.
Day after day, with the promised talks failing to materialise, and the city’s lockdown repeatedly extended, many are questioning how long they will be kept away from their livelihoods.
Read the full story by my colleague Shah Meer Baloch:
Oil prices rose today after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy seized two ships in the strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, US stocks ticked up, a day after Donald Trump extended the US ceasefire with Iran.
Brent crude futures are above $100 a barrel, with the international benchmark up 12% so far this week and on track for its second-biggest weekly rise of the war.
The S&P 500 added 1.05% to finish. Nasdaq rose 1.64% today.
Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil killed after Israeli attack – reports
Al Jazeera is reporting that the employer of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil confirmed she was killed in an Israeli attack earlier in the day.
Reuters also reports that Khalil’s body was found under the rubble left by the strike, citing a Lebanese military official.
Khalil and freelance photographer Zeinab Faraj were covering developments near the town of al-Tayri when an Israeli strike hit the vehicle in front of them.
Lebanese rescuers were able to retrieve Faraj, who had suffered a head wound, according to Elsy Moufarrej, who runs the Union of Journalists in Lebanon.
US forces have so far directed 29 vessels to turn around or return to port as part of the blockade against Iran, according to the latest update by the US Central Command.
Amid reports that ships were getting through the blockade, Centcom denied the breach in a post on X.
“Over past 24 hours, media reports have alleged that several commercial ships evaded the blockade, citing M/V Hero II, M/V Hedy, and M/V Dorena as examples. These reports are inaccurate,” Centcom wrote on Wednesday.
Centcom said two tankers – Hero II and Hedy – are anchored in Iran after US forces intercepted them earlier this week. Another tanker “has been under the escort of a US Navy destroyer in the Indian Ocean after previously attempting to violate the blockade.”
Trump ‘satisfied’ with naval blockade, White House says
Donald Trump is “satisfied” with the naval blockade, and “understands Iran is in a very weak position” – according to the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
She highlights that reports of a three-to-five-day deadline for the extended ceasefire are “not true”. “The cards are in President Trump’s hands right now,” she told the media during a press conference in Washington.
When asked how long the war will continue for, she said that is up to the president, who will “do so when he feels it’s in the best interests of the United States and the American people”.
She also told reporters that the US is inflicting serious economic pain on Iran. “We are completely strangling their economy through this blockade, they’re losing $500m a day. Kharg Island is completely full, they can’t move oil in and out. They can’t even pay their own people as a result of this economic leverage that President Trump has inflicted over them,” said Leavitt.
The US embassy in Beirut has urged citizens to leave Lebanon amid ongoing, escalating security concerns.
According to Al Jazeera, the embassy has renewed a security alert, urging US citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial flight options were still available.
In a statement, it said the security situation “remains complex and can change quickly”.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in an interview with Fox News that Iran must agree to turn over its enriched uranium to the United States as part of negotiations to end the war.
Leavitt is now taking questions from the press outside the White House.
Speaking about Iran’s seizure of two container ships, she said that Donald Trump does not consider their capture to be a ceasefire violation because the vessels are not American or Israeli.
“No, because these were not US ships, these were not Israeli ships. These were two international vessels,” she said.
The ships identified as the Epaminondas and MSC Francesca were transferred to Iran’s coast, with the IRGC warning that “disrupting order and safety in the strait of Hormuz is considered a red line”.
Lebanese state media reported that Israeli strikes killed at least four people in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. Hezbollah launched, according to the report, a drone attack against Israeli forces in the region, which further jeopardizes the US-brokered ceasefire.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said an Israeli strike hit a car in Tayri, a village in south Lebanon, killing two people inside.
An Israeli airstrike in the southern town of Yohmor killed another two people, the NNA and Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Iran’s president said the country has “welcomed dialogue and agreement” but criticized truce breaches and the US blockade, calling them the “main obstacles to genuine negotiations”.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has welcomed dialogue and agreement and continues to do so,” Masoud Pezeshkian said in a post on X. “Breach of commitments, blockade and threats are main obstacles to genuine negotiations. World sees your endless hypocritical rhetoric and contradiction between claims and actions.”
Israeli settlers attacked a school in the occupied West Bank, killing two people, including a teenage student, AFP reports.
Aws Hamdi al-Naasan, 14, and Jihad Marzouq Abu Naim, 32, were killed by gunfire on Tuesday in the village of Al-Mughayyir.
“The students were taking their monthly exams. Suddenly, we were shocked to see settlers advancing towards the school and attacking it,” principal Bassam Abu Assaf told AFP, as mourners gathered at the funeral.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) posted a plea calling for international pressure on the Israeli army to allow the rescue of journalist Amal Khalil.
RSF said on Wednesday that Khalil, a reporter for Al-Akhbar, is trapped near the southern Lebanese village of al-Tiri following an Israeli airstrike that struck near her vehicle.
“Her life is in danger right now! Continued Israeli airstrikes are preventing rescuers from reaching her,” reads the post from RSF.
Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, called on the Lebanese Red Cross to work on the rescue of Khalil, along with another journalist, Zeinab Faraj, who was with her.
