WebinarsNew
Deep DiveNew
Explore Business Standard
A bipartisan group of US Senators on Tuesday agreed to fast-track the bill that would allow President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on major purchasers of oil from Russia as well as Iran, a move that would affect countries such as China and India. The provisions of the Russia sanctions bill, originally piloted by the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, will now also extend to restrict funding for Iran's energy and weapons sector. "We are proud to announce an agreement on legislation to stop purchasers of Russian oil and gas from fueling Putin's war machine and to continue restricting the Iranian regime's ability to support terrorism and build its nuclear programme," a group of senators from both the Democratic and Republican parties said here. An earlier version of the bill focused only on Russia. Iran has been added to the legislation on the suggestion made by Trump. The announcement was made by Democratic senators Jeanne Shaheen, Richard Blumenthal, and Republicans Darline
Jordan's air defences intercepted five missiles launched from Iran early Wednesday, the country's military said, hours after the US military said it had knocked down an Iranian missile barrage launched against American forces in the Middle East, shattering a brief pause in fighting. In a statement, the Jordanian military said the missiles had been "intercepted and destroyed." Earlier, US Central Command said they "remain vigilant and at a high state of readiness," and that it worked with Saudi Arabia's forces to strike sites in Iraq that Tehran-backed militias have used to launch attacks in recent days. In announcing the strikes in Iraq, the US warned that further attacks on American troops or Saudi Arabia's energy infrastructure risked additional action. The United States and Iran had experienced a period of calm, during which neither announced attacks for about three days following weeks of escalation over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf waterway and narrow ...
Recent fighting with Iran used up more of the US military's already diminished stockpiles of advanced missile interceptors, potentially putting American troops at more risk if hostilities resume, a new analysis says. Shrunken inventories of Patriot and THAAD interceptors may force the US and its Middle Eastern allies to take more risks to conserve those air defences, according to the analysis from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. For example, it said, American forces may launch fewer missiles against incoming Iranian drones and missiles, raising the chance of one getting through. "That percentage may not go up a lot, but it goes up a little," said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and now senior adviser at CSIS who co-authored Monday's report with research associate Chris H Park. The nation's advanced weapons stockpiles have become a flashpoint in the five-month-long conflict, along with the threat to the lives of American service ...
Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles at American forces in the Middle East on Tuesday, shattering a brief pause in fighting as mediators tried to get both sides back to negotiations and toward a ceasefire, the US military said. All Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted, US Central Command said in a statement, adding that US forces "remain vigilant and at a high state of readiness." The United States and Iran had experienced a period of calm, during which neither announced attacks for days following weeks of escalation over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf waterway and narrow chokepoint through which 20 per cent of the world's oil normally flows. Iran effectively closed the strait when the war began by firing at freighters and tankers off its coast or threatening, too. Following the signing of an interim ceasefire deal in June, a battle for control over the strait has erupted. Iran demanded that ships use a route near its coastline and said it can ...
The US military announced Thursday that it is conducting the 13th night of strikes against Iran as clashes escalate over shipping routes. Earlier Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, potentially widening the Iran war as international oil topped USD 100 a barrel. US Central Command said the latest attacks are designed to "further degrade Iran's ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters" as the Americans push to regain control over the Strait of Hormuz and restore the flow of international shipping. Meanwhile, the Houthis threatened to shut down another key trade route, with the world economy already reeling from Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The threat came as Iran and the US have stepped up attacks as they vie for control of the strait, through which a fifth of the world's oil and gas transited in peacetime, setting off a scramble for alternative routes. President Donald Tru
The US military has confirmed that a third service member is believed to be dead in Friday's attack on a base in Jordan and identified them as Sgt Angel S Rampersad, 28, of New York. The confirmation brings the death toll to 18 US service members killed since the war began. On Monday, the Pentagon identified 1st Lt Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, as the two other soldiers who were killed in Jordan in Friday's attacks. The soldiers were killed by Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks in the first troop deaths from direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war. They were deployed to support a US mission against the Islamic State group, a US Central Command statement said. After the attack, US Central Command announced that two servicemembers were killed and another was missing. The following day, the military command said that troops found unidentified remains and that an examination process to verify the
The US military said it completed the 11th night of strikes on Iran early Wednesday as attacks across the Middle East overshadowed diplomatic efforts in Pakistan to salvage an interim ceasefire deal that has collapsed. US Central Command said targets included aircraft hangars and drone storage sites. The newest barrage came after President Donald Trump telegraphed that strikes would be intensifying. Before the latest strikes, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni visited Pakistan, a key mediator in the conflict seeking to revamp diplomacy. But it was unclear what new arrangement might be reached to end the war, which lately has become a battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway vital to world energy supplies. Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump gave a dim view on possible talks, saying the US had "no interest in meeting." He signalled that US forces could soon target an area of Iran close to one of its main sites for enriching uranium. With negotiatio
The US and Iran are back to bombing every day in a bid to control the Strait of Hormuz. And neither is backing down, showing the limitations of President Donald Trump's reliance on escalating airstrikes to bend Tehran to his will. While the Trump administration says it is open to diplomacy, Iran so far has refused to loosen its grip over the crucial oil shipping corridor in the Persian Gulf. It is raising questions about the strategy for the next phase of the conflict as intensifying attacks have collapsed an interim ceasefire deal, left additional American troops dead and sent U.S. gasoline prices back up - posing new problems for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections. Even with glimmers of hope for talks, the sides could be headed back to all-out war, with Trump warning that "every time Iran kills an American Soldier" going forward, "they will pay for that killing many times over." The renewed escalations reflect "a fundamental misreading of the Iranian psyche and a lack of .
The British military said a tanker came under attack early Tuesday in the Strait of Hormuz off Oman, the latest assault to target shipping in the strategic waterway. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the ship reported over the radio it had been hit by an unknown projectile. Two other ships were attacked in the strait over the last day, with Iran' paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claiming those assaults. A fifth of all oil and natural gas that was traded passed through the Strait of Hormuz in peacetime, but Iran has maintained a chokehold on the waterway since the start of the war on Feb. 28. Recent rounds of attacks between Iran and the United States come as the two countries vie for control of the strait. The United States military said late Monday it was carrying out its 10th consecutive night of strikes on Iran in a push to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The renewed bombings followed the death of another American service member, and came after Iran launched
US airstrikes targeting Iran have killed more than 30 people in "recent days," an Iranian government spokesperson said Wednesday. The comment from Fatemeh Mohajerani came as a Health Ministry spokesperson said more than 260 people had been wounded in overnight strikes in Iran. It wasn't immediately clear what time period Mohajerani was referring to. Iran during the war with the United States and Israel has only sporadically offered full casualty statistics.
The US military early Wednesday reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports over Tehran's attacks on ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, sparking new strikes on nations hosting American forces as an interim deal to end the war further unravelled. Days of retaliatory strikes across the Middle East by Iran - and both nations' attempts to vie for control of the waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas passes during peacetime - threaten to push the region back to all-out war. The US first imposed the blockade in mid-April and then lifted it in mid-June, a day after signing the interim deal that set a 60-day period for negotiations over issues like Iran's nuclear program, but talks have stalled as fighting over the strait has intensified. When US President Donald Trump announced the return of the blockade Monday, he also said he would impose a 20 per cent fee on ships passing through the strait. But he dropped the plan to collect fees hours before resumi