Interim summary
In case you’re just joining us, here’s a snapshot of the latest developments in the Middle East as the threat of a new front opens up in the US-Iran war. It’s 9.30am in Tehran and 2am in Washington.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia said it attacked two Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea, with a Saudi news agency later confirming one of the vessels was ablaze on Thursday. The strikes came after the Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia – a move that current and former US officials said could significantly widen the US-Iran war and strain the American military.
The US launched its 12th successive night of strikes against Iran, saying military targets were hit to degrade Tehran’s ability to attack commercial vessels.
Iranian state TV said two people were killed and 11 wounded in what a Khuzestan provincial official described as a US missile attack on the Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it attacked US forces in Kuwait’s Al-Adiri camp and Ali Al Salem airbase, while the army said its attacks there included on the Arifjan and Doha camps.
Before the latest US strikes the Islamic republic’s foreign minister warned on social media: “Our defense doctrine is clear: eye for an eye.” Abbas Araghchi also said: “Any aggression against Iran, including our infrastructure, will compel a powerful and decisive response. Those who contribute to such aggression, whatever the kind of support, will also be considered as legitimate targets.”
The US and Saudi Arabia signed a landmark nuclear agreement that could allow the kingdom to enrich uranium in the future. The deal has caused alarm across the Middle East and in Washington. Its full details are yet to be released but, as Patrick Wintour reports, the timing of the announcement is controversial as the US’s war with Iran is being fought in part to prevent Tehran enriching uranium domestically and make it near-impossible for Iran to build a nuclear weapon.
The IRGC said on Thursday it stopped three oil tankers from passing through the strait of Hormuz. It said in a statement quoted by Iranian state media on Thursday that the three oil tankers “provoked” by the US military were trying to pass through a mine-laden route south of the strait “but after one of them exploded and caught fire, the other two quickly turned around and turned back”.
Earlier, Donald Trump warned on Truth Social that from now any time Iran shot at a ship in the Hormuz strait, the US “will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran””.
The IRGC said its navy “emphasises that the strait of Hormuz is under our control”. US Central Command posted on X: “Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz. The international waterway remains open for transit regardless of IRGC threats and attacks.”
Two very large Chinese crude carriers carrying a combined 4m barrels of Saudi Arabian oil are heading towards the Bab el-Mandeb strait to exit the Red Sea, shipping data showed on Thursday – a test of how tightly the Houthis will impose their naval blockade on Saudi Arabia.
Key events
Oil prices near $100 a barrel
Jasper Jolly
Oil prices have jumped by 3.7% this morning as the backlash from the US war in Iran appeared to spread to the Red Sea.
The price of futures for Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, rose by 3% on Thursday to reach as high as $97.45 per barrel, approaching the $100 mark for the first time since May.
Follow our business live blog for more updates:
Iran’s Arab neighbours have reported continued attacks this morning. Here’s a summary by AP:
Jordanian authorities said the country’s military had intercepted three missiles Thursday morning, with a fourth falling in an empty area, while six drones were intercepted Wednesday night.
Bahrain’s interior ministry posted on X that sirens had sounded and urged the public to remain calm and head to a safe area.
Overnight, military officials in Kuwait said on social media that their air defences were “confronting attacks by hostile drones”.
Houthis got ‘snookered’ into war by Iran, says Rubio
Rubio said the Houthis were “smart” to stay out of the Middle East conflict – until the group attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea (see post at 02:05)
“The Houthis largely were smart and stayed out of all this throughout the conflict, but they now apparently have gotten themselves suckered into this, going after Saudi Arabia and their ships,” Rubio said on the sidelines of the Asean summit in Manila.
“I hope they will de-escalate, because I think the Houthis, frankly, got snookered into this thing by the Iranians. And they were smart to stay out of it, and they should stay out of it and they should stop. We’ll see what happens there. Obviously, it’s not a positive development.”
Rubio continued to insist that the US had never claimed regime change was an intended goal of its war against Iran.
“He never said regime change was a goal,” he said of Trump.
The US president has made multiple public statements about regime change in Iran, but they have been inconsistent. In March he claimed the US achieved regime change “because the leaders [in Iran] are all very different than the ones that we started off with”. He has since backtracked from that statement and maintains that the US aims to denuclearise Iran.
In the early days of the war, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had called on the Iranian people to rise up against the regime. Trump also made similar comments but later rejected this notion, reportedly saying: “Why the hell should we tell people to take to the streets when they’ll just get mowed down.”
Rubio was asked by a reporter whether he thought “it would be easier to make a deal with Iran if the United States didn’t wipe out so many layers of their leadership?”
The US secretary of state responded: “The first two layers weren’t necessarily the nicest people on earth … We’ll just keep going down the layers, I guess … The first two layers were not like reformers. These were not like Renaissance men. You know what I mean?”
He later clarified: “Well, some of them are lunatics. Some of them are evil. Some of them are evil lunatics. You can be both.”
It’s not entirely clear what Rubio meant by “first two layers”, but the US and Israel killed the former Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a joint strike on the first day of the current war, on 28 February. My colleague Jason Burke reported more on that attack:
Khamenei was killed along with seven “members of the top Iranian security leadership who had gathered at several locations in Tehran” and about a dozen members of his family and close entourage in near-simultaneous strikes within 60 seconds, military officials in Israel said. Forty other senior Iranian leaders also died in the attack.”
In further comments to the press at the Asean conference, Rubio lambasted Iran for its “stupid lego videos”, although claimed to have “never seen them”.
The Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour wrote more on the AI-generated comedy videos and lego animations of Donald Trump that Iran has been pumping out on social media, which has been dubbed “slopaganda”. Here’s what he says:
Its once vibrant press has been reduced to reproducing army spokespeople statements, or articles culled from the western press saying Trump is suffering a strategic defeat. Some of Iran’s best newspapers have been shut down, and ordinary Iranians still complain about the unwatchable propagandist official TV news channels.
But out of this darkness comes a creativity aimed at the west. Pro-government accounts are posting AI-generated Lego animations that link the Jeffrey Epstein cases to Trump’s war, or using humour and confidence to puncture the west’s failings.
Read Patrick’s article here:
Here’s Rubio’s comments to reporters (after repeating Iran is “begging” for a deal and will pay a “heavy price”):
They’re probably not ready to do a deal yet, but they will be soon because the price they’re paying is very high, despite their tough talk and their flowery language and their stupid Lego videos they put out, I’ve never seen them, but they put these things out on social media. Despite all that bravado they are suffering tremendously and they’re going to suffer more until they come to their senses. They’re not there yet unfortunately.
Rubio: ‘Iran is begging for a deal’
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, has claimed that Iran is “begging” for a deal with Washington, but that ultimately it is not serious about agreeing to one.
As a result, Iran will “continue to pay a price” that will get “higher and higher and higher”, Rubio added, after the US military announced it conducted a 12th night of strikes against the country yesterday.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) conference in Manila, Rubio was asked whether Donald Trump intended to make good his threat of hitting Iranian bridges and power plants, and whether this meant bombing civilian infrastructure.
Rubio responded:
Iran is begging us, OK, both directly and indirectly. Let’s do a deal. Let’s talk. Let’s talk. Iran is begging every day.
The problem with Iran is every time they make a deal, the people that are in charge there, they either break it or they want to change it. So it looks like they’re not ready to make a deal. So they’re going to continue to pay a price, and every night the price gets higher and higher and higher.”
He went further in saying that the price Iran will pay “will continue to get higher every single night until they come to their senses”.
Oil giants see profits double amid Middle East war
French oil and gas company TotalEnergies said net profit doubled in the second quarter as conflict in the Middle East pushed up fuel prices.
In a statement, reported by AFP, TotalEnergies said net profit amounted to $5.4bn (about £4.04bn) in the period from April to June, up from $2.7bn (£2.02bn) in the same period last year.
Yesterday, my colleague Kalyeena Makortoff reported profits at Norway’s state oil company Equinor nearly doubled to $11.5bn (£8.6bn) in the three months to the end of June.
Equinor– which is the UK’s biggest gas supplier – benefited from a decision to increase oil and gas production at the start of the conflict, filling a gap in the market after a near-halt to shipping through the strait of Hormuz caused Gulf oil flows to slump. It also profited from the jump in oil prices, with the price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, reaching $95 a barrel mark for the first time in six weeks as the US and Iran escalate attacks in the Middle East.
The climate campaign group Uplift hit out at Equinor for “raking in billions in profits while millions of people across the UK are struggling with unaffordable energy bills”.
You can read Kalyeena’s report here:
Some images on the newswires from Lebanon, where the health ministry says 4,328 people have been killed and 12,232 wounded in Israeli attacks since 2 March:
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said it targeted a US base in Jordan, claiming to have destroyed a number of military equipment including air defence systems, an aircraft hangar and fuel tanks.
The IRGC’s statement, published by Iranian state media this morning, did not name the US base.
Interim summary
In case you’re just joining us, here’s a snapshot of the latest developments in the Middle East as the threat of a new front opens up in the US-Iran war. It’s 9.30am in Tehran and 2am in Washington.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia said it attacked two Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea, with a Saudi news agency later confirming one of the vessels was ablaze on Thursday. The strikes came after the Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia – a move that current and former US officials said could significantly widen the US-Iran war and strain the American military.
The US launched its 12th successive night of strikes against Iran, saying military targets were hit to degrade Tehran’s ability to attack commercial vessels.
Iranian state TV said two people were killed and 11 wounded in what a Khuzestan provincial official described as a US missile attack on the Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it attacked US forces in Kuwait’s Al-Adiri camp and Ali Al Salem airbase, while the army said its attacks there included on the Arifjan and Doha camps.
Before the latest US strikes the Islamic republic’s foreign minister warned on social media: “Our defense doctrine is clear: eye for an eye.” Abbas Araghchi also said: “Any aggression against Iran, including our infrastructure, will compel a powerful and decisive response. Those who contribute to such aggression, whatever the kind of support, will also be considered as legitimate targets.”
The US and Saudi Arabia signed a landmark nuclear agreement that could allow the kingdom to enrich uranium in the future. The deal has caused alarm across the Middle East and in Washington. Its full details are yet to be released but, as Patrick Wintour reports, the timing of the announcement is controversial as the US’s war with Iran is being fought in part to prevent Tehran enriching uranium domestically and make it near-impossible for Iran to build a nuclear weapon.
The IRGC said on Thursday it stopped three oil tankers from passing through the strait of Hormuz. It said in a statement quoted by Iranian state media on Thursday that the three oil tankers “provoked” by the US military were trying to pass through a mine-laden route south of the strait “but after one of them exploded and caught fire, the other two quickly turned around and turned back”.
Earlier, Donald Trump warned on Truth Social that from now any time Iran shot at a ship in the Hormuz strait, the US “will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran””.
The IRGC said its navy “emphasises that the strait of Hormuz is under our control”. US Central Command posted on X: “Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz. The international waterway remains open for transit regardless of IRGC threats and attacks.”
Two very large Chinese crude carriers carrying a combined 4m barrels of Saudi Arabian oil are heading towards the Bab el-Mandeb strait to exit the Red Sea, shipping data showed on Thursday – a test of how tightly the Houthis will impose their naval blockade on Saudi Arabia.
Asean summit to call for open straits amid Iran war
Foreign ministers from fuel-stressed south-east Asia will call for freedom of navigation in international straits when they wrap a week of meetings largely overshadowed by the US-Iran war, according to a draft communique seen by Agence France-Presse.
It reports that the draft statement expected to emerge from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) gathering in Manila will also repeat calls for self-restraint in a Middle East conflict that has carried economic ripple effects throughout the region.
Visiting US secretary of state Marco Rubio this week warned Asean envoys that Iranian control of the strait of Hormuz would set a “dangerous precedent”, saying: “There is a fundamental principle about freedom of navigation that is threatened.”
The draft communique inserts previously unused language targeting “freedom of navigation in and overflight above straits” while separately calling for “unimpeded” passage through the Hormuz strait.
Tehran’s closure of the crucial energy waterway after US-Israeli attacks has left many in the region scrambling to deal with energy shortages and price spikes, with the import-dependent Philippines declaring a national emergency in March.
But while the communique alludes to energy cooperation among Asean states, no progress on previously announced initiatives like a regional energy grid or fuel-sharing scheme has been revealed
US attacks against Iran on Thursday lasted five hours and struck at Iranian military targets including maritime capabilities, missile and drone storage facilities and air defence assets, according to the US military.
Iranian media reports said the US twice on Thursday attacked a military target in Bushehr, near the country’s only operating commercial nuclear power reactor, marking three strikes there in two days.
State TV reported two people were killed and 11 wounded in what a Khuzestan provincial official described as a US missile attack on the Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq.
There’s more in our latest full report:
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is reportedly saying it had attacked US forces in Kuwait’s Al-Adiri camp and Ali Al Salem airbase.
Iranian state media is meanwhile quoting the army as saying it has attacked US bases in Kuwait including the Arifjan and Doha camps.
The reports come as Iran has continued to strike out at regional countries hosting US forces amid the ongoing American strikes against Iran.
More now on Iranian-aligned Houthis attacking two Saudi oil tankers earlier today. The Houthis identified the two vessels as the Encelia and the Layla.
Saudi state news agency SPA cited an official source as saying the Encelia was struck, causing a fire at the bow. The attack on the Layla remained unconfirmed.
A maritime security source said the Encelia had transmitted a distress call, reporting it had been struck by a missile near the Saudi port of Jizan in the Red Sea late on Wednesday.
Millions of barrels a day of Saudi oil have been heading to the kingdom’s Red Sea port of Yanbu to avoid the strait of Hormuz.
In announcing their attack on the two tankers, Yemen’s Houthis claimed they had forced about 10 ships to retreat and return.
Five tankers changed course in the Red Sea on Wednesday, with two signalling the Suez canal as their new destination after the Houthis warned ships to avoid Saudi ports, ship-tracking data showed.
Investors appear to be growing increasingly nervous that the renewed strikes between US and Iranian forces could reignite inflation, with oil prices creep higher.
Brent crude futures were up by more than 1.3% to $95.31 a barrel on Thursday, after the US said it had launched a new round of strikes on Iran and the Iranian-aligned Houthis claimed military strikes on two Saudi oil tankers.
Brent crude on Wednesday jumped more than 3% and broke back above $95 for the first time in weeks.
“What is different from the start of the conflict five months ago is inventories. Lower inventories mean shortages of oil and gas are more likely the longer the conflict continues, exacerbating the negative economic impact of high energy prices which favours the USD,” the head of international economics and foreign exchange at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Joseph Capurso, said in a note.
Two Chinese supertankers with Saudi oil head for Red Sea exit
Two very large Chinese crude carriers carrying a combined 4m barrels of Saudi Arabian oil are heading towards the Bab el-Mandeb strait to exit the Red Sea, shipping data shows, even as at least one Saudi vessel came under attack in the region.
The ships’ attempt to transit the strait will clearly test how tightly the Houthis will impose the naval blockade on Saudi Arabia they announced on Monday. The group said they attacked two Saudi tankers with drones and missiles earlier on Thursday.
The Singaporean-flagged VLCC Xin Long Yang, which made a U-turn and took a pause in the middle of the Red Sea on Tuesday, resumed its journey southward late on Wednesday, LSEG shipping data cited by Reuters showed.
The vessel was sailing past the Yemeni coast and heading to the port of Qinzhou in southern China, the shipping data showed.
The Chinese-flagged VLCC Cosnew Lake was following and it was signalling it would discharge its cargo at the port of Huizhou in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, the data showed.
Both vessels indicated through their automatic identification system transmitters that there were Chinese crew onboard, the data showed.
Explained: the US-Saudi nuclear deal and why it’s causing concern
The landmark nuclear agreement between the US and Saudi Arabia would use American technology and expertise to establish a civilian nuclear program in the Gulf country – a move that has caused alarm across the Middle East and through the corridors of power in Washington.
Much of the deal remains unclear, but concerns centre on whether Saudi Arabia would have the capability to enrich uranium domestically and what that means for nuclear proliferation, with critics saying it could set off a regional arms race.
In this explainer Jonathan Yerushalmy looks into the deal and the anxiety around it, why it is so contentious and whether it can be blocked.
US says latest attacks against Iran completed
The US military says it has completed its 12th consecutive night of strikes against Iran.
Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement posted on X:
U.S. forces struck Iranian military targets including maritime capabilities, missile and drone storage facilities, coastal surveillance sites, and air defense assets. The strikes further degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels.
Centcom also said US forces had targeted dozens of Iranian military sites on land this month, and had “redirected nine commercial vessels and disabled one to prevent ships from entering or departing Iranian ports” amid the resumed US naval blockade.
The post said 50,000 US service members were operating across the Middle East.
