U.S. pauses sanctions on Iranian oil at sea:<\/strong>\u00a0The Trump administration\u00a0said\u00a0Friday it would suspend sanctions for 30 days on Iranian oil already loaded on ships, making roughly 140 million barrels available to buyers worldwide. The license expires April 19.<\/p>\n U.S. ramps up attacks, deploys more troops:\u00a0<\/strong>U.S. officials told the Associated Press on Friday that the USS Boxer and two other amphibious assault ships, along with roughly 2,500 Marines, are bound for the Middle East from San Diego. The news comes just days after the U.S. sent another group of amphibious assault ships carrying Marines to the region. In total, about 5,000 additional troops are now headed to the Middle East. At the same time, U.S. warplanes and attack helicopters are ramping up assaults against Iranian drones and naval vessels in an escalating effort to clear the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n When asked on Thursday if he planned to put boots on the ground in Iran, Trump was cagey. \u201cI\u2019m not putting troops anywhere,\u201d Trump told a reporter. \u201cIf I were, I certainly wouldn\u2019t tell you.\u201d Axios\u00a0reported\u00a0on Friday that the Trump administration is considering plans to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by occupying or blockading Kharg Island, which sits 15 miles offshore and processes 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports.<\/p>\n Tehran threatens enemies, tourist sites:\u00a0<\/strong>In a statement issued on Friday, Iran\u2019s new leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, called for the \u201cinternal and external enemies\u201d of his nation to have their \u201csecurity\u201d taken away. Meanwhile, a top Iranian military spokesman threatened to pursue U.S. and Israeli officials beyond active conflict zones. \u201cFrom now on, based on the information we have about you, even parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations anywhere in the world will no longer be safe for you,\u201d he said. Another military spokesman, Gen. Ali Mohammad Naini, insisted that Iran is still \u201cproducing missiles even during war conditions, which is amazing, and there is no particular problem in stockpiling.\u201d Previously, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that recent attacks had destroyed Iran\u2019s ability to make ballistic missiles. Iranian state television reported that Naini was killed early Friday in an airstrike.<\/p>\n Oil prices soar after strikes on energy sites:<\/strong>\u00a0Iranian state media reported on Wednesday that airstrikes had hit its giant South Pars natural gas field \u2014 as well as nearby oil and petrochemical facilities \u2014 in the southern city of Asaluyeh. International oil prices jumped more than 6% to nearly $110 a barrel following the news. Natural gas prices also shot up. Most of the energy from South Pars is used domestically in Iran. Qatar blamed Israel for the strike.<\/p>\n In response, Iran launched retaliatory strikes on energy sites in Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Qatar\u2019s Ras Laffan terminal, the largest liquefied natural gas facility in the world, was seriously damaged. Oil prices briefly topped $115 a barrel.<\/p>\n On\u00a0social media, Trump said the U.S. and Qatar were not involved in the South Pars strike \u2014 which he also attributed to Israel \u2014 but threatened to \u201cmassively blow up\u201d the gas field if Iran retaliated again.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long term [sic] implications that it will have on the future of Iran,\u201d Trump wrote, \u201cbut if Qatar\u2019s LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n Three Israeli officials briefed on the South Pars strike\u00a0told the New York Times\u00a0that the U.S. was informed before the attack. When asked about the Times report, Trump said on Thursday that he \u201ctold [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu]: \u2018Don\u2019t do that.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re independent,\u201d Trump added. \u201cWe get along great. It\u2019s coordinated.\u201d<\/p>\n Araghchi, Iran\u2019s foreign minister,\u00a0said on social media\u00a0that his country would show \u201cZERO restraint\u201d if its energy infrastructure were struck again.<\/p>\n Pentagon seeks $200 billion to fund Iran war:<\/strong>\u00a0Citing a senior administration official, the Washington Post\u00a0reported on Wednesday that \u201cthe Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund the war in Iran.\u201d Lawmakers opposed to the conflict are likely to oppose the funding request, which accounts for nearly a quarter of America\u2019s annual defense budget. \u201cObviously, it takes money to kill bad guys,\u201d Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a Thursday news conference. \u201cAs far as the $200 billion, I think that number could move.\u201d Shortly after, Trump confirmed that he would be asking for hundreds of billions of dollars to fund the war.<\/p>\n Top U.S. intelligence officials contradict Trump on Iran\u2019s missile threat:\u00a0<\/strong>At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, two top intelligence officials \u2014 Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and John Ratcliffe, the CIA director \u2014 confirmed the intelligence community\u2019s earlier conclusion that Iran was years away from developing missiles capable of hitting the U.S. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. had to attack Iran because it was on the verge of building such missiles, but neither Gabbard nor Ratcliffe would second that assertion. \u201cThe only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president,\u201d Gabbard said during questioning.<\/p>\n Israel kills key Iranian leaders:<\/strong>\u00a0Israel announced on Wednesday that its overnight airstrikes had killed Iranian intelligence chief Esmaeil Khatib. In a statement, the Israeli military said Khatib had overseen espionage and covert operations against Iranians as well as Israeli and American targets around the world. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed the killing on social media, calling it\u00a0\u201ca cowardly assassination.\u201d<\/p>\n Khatib is the third high-level Iranian official killed by Israel this week. On Tuesday, Israeli airstrikes near Tehran killed Ali Larijani, the head of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council and de facto leader of the country after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel also said it had killed Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij, Iran\u2019s powerful plainclothes militia.<\/p>\n In a video statement\u00a0posted on social media, Netanyahu framed the killing of Larijani and Soleimani as a step toward regime change. \u201cWe’re undermining this regime in the hope of giving the Iranian people a chance to oust it,\u201d Netanyahu said. \u201cIt won’t happen all at once, it won’t happen easily. But if we persist in this, we’ll give them the opportunity to take their fate into their own hands.\u201d<\/p>\n But according to\u00a0a New York Times analysis, Larijani \u201chad a reputation for being able to bridge the country\u2019s hard-line military elements and more moderate political factions.\u201d As a result, his death \u201ccould open the way for the military to tighten its grip over the ruling system,\u201d the Times said.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s top counterterrorism official resigns:\u00a0<\/strong>Trump administration official Joe Kent resigned from his post as director of the National Counterterrorism Center on Tuesday because of his opposition to the war, writing in a\u00a0letter\u00a0that Iran \u201cposed no imminent threat to our nation\u201d before the U.S. and Israel launched joint airstrikes on Feb. 28. Citing his own combat experience, Kent wrote that he could not \u201cin good conscience\u201d support \u201csending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives.\u201d Kent claimed that Israel \u201cdeceived\u201d Trump into attacking Iran.<\/p>\n Trump rebuffed by NATO:<\/strong>\u00a0Posting on Tuesday to his Truth Social network, Trump\u00a0wrote\u00a0that \u201cthe United States has been informed by most of our NATO \u2018Allies\u2019 that they don\u2019t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran.\u201d For days, the president has been asking U.S. allies for help in securing the Strait of Hormuz and complaining about their reticence. But unlike previous Republican presidents such as George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, Trump did not assemble an international coalition before starting a war in the Middle East. \u201cWe have had such Military Success, we no longer \u2018need,\u2019 or desire, the NATO Countries\u2019 assistance,\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social. \u201cWE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. and Israel first struck Iran around 9:45 a.m. local time on Feb. 28. Before the attacks, the Trump administration had been negotiating with the Iranian regime over the future of its nuclear program \u2014 while simultaneously ordering the largest buildup of U.S. military forces in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\n The initial wave of U.S.-Israeli airstrikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and about 40 of Iran’s top military and intelligence officials. A missile also struck the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school for girls in Minab, near the Strait of Hormuz. At least 175 people died, according to Iranian officials. Most of them were children.<\/p>\n An ongoing U.S. military investigation has determined that the school was destroyed by an American Tomahawk cruise missile as the \u201cresult of a targeting mistake.\u201d If confirmed, this would make the school strike \u201cone of the most devastating single military errors in recent decades,\u201d\u00a0according to the New York Times. On Friday, Hegseth said that U.S. Central Command had designated a general officer \u201cfrom outside CENTCOM\u201d to further investigate the attack.<\/p>\n Over the last two-plus weeks, the U.S. and Israel have continued to hit Iranian targets \u2014 naval sites, missile infrastructure, nuclear facilities \u2014 with missiles, drones and fighter jets.\u00a0According to CENTCOM, the goal is to dismantle \u201cIran\u2019s defense industrial base\u201d in order to \u201cprevent threats to the region into the future.\u201d Hegseth said on March 13 that more than 15,000 Iranian targets have been struck so far \u2014 including more than a hundred warships.<\/p>\n The latest major operation occurred on March 13 when the U.S. bombed more than 90 missile storage sites and mine facilities on Kharg Island.\u00a0Trump said\u00a0U.S. forces “totally obliterated every MILITARY target” but left the island’s oil infrastructure intact. He threatened to reverse that decision if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping.<\/p>\n About 50,000 U.S. troops have been deployed to the region, along with the world\u2019s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford. Another 5,000 Marines are now reportedly heading to the Middle East.<\/p>\n Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have occurred intermittently since 1982, and the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023 led to another round of fighting. A ceasefire had been in place since November 2024, but Hezbollah launched several rockets into northern Israel after the U.S. and Israel struck Iran on Feb. 28. Israel has been conducting retaliatory strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon ever since.<\/p>\n On Monday, Israel\u2019s defense minister said that its forces had launched a \u201cground maneuver\u201d in southern Lebanon, adding to fears that a broader invasion may be coming.<\/p>\n Within hours of the initial U.S.-Israeli strikes, Iran had launched its own barrage of ballistic missiles and Shahed drones at targets in Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Kurdistan and the United Arab Emirates. Iran also reported striking U.S. military bases in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE.<\/p>\n Over the weeks that have followed, Tehran has continued to launch attacks on regional targets, though many have been intercepted. One Iranian drone strike on a U.S. base in Kuwait killed six U.S. reserve soldiers and seriously injured dozens of others; the U.S. Embassy there shuttered after a separate attack. Several Israeli civilians have been killed by Iranian missiles. NATO defense systems have intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iranian territory as it entered Turkish airspace; the United Kingdom\u2019s Ministry of Defense confirmed that its forces intercepted an Iranian drone headed toward Iraq.<\/p>\n In recent days, U.S. officials have claimed that the rate at which Iran is launching missiles and drones has fallen dramatically \u2014 by 80% to 90% \u2014 since the start of the war.<\/p>\n On March 8, Iran\u2019s Assembly of Experts \u2014 an elected body of 88 senior clerics tasked with naming Khamenei\u2019s successor \u2014 chose the slain ayatollah\u2019s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, to take over as supreme leader. Mojtaba Khamenei is known for his close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; his selection signals that the \u201cmuch more hard-line Revolutionary Guard side of the regime \u2026 is now in charge,\u201d Vali Nasr, an expert on Iran and Shiite Islam at Johns Hopkins University,\u00a0told the Times.<\/p>\n In his first statement on the war, Mojtaba Khamenei vowed that Tehran would keep the Strait of Hormuz closed while continuing to retaliate for U.S.-Israeli attacks. In his second, issued Monday, Khamenei said he would retain all the officials appointed by his father. Khamenei was reportedly injured in the first wave of strikes.<\/p>\n In Iran, at least 1,444 people have been killed and 18,551 injured since the start of the war, according to the Iranian Health Ministry. In Lebanon, officials said that more than 1,000 people have been killed; at least 2,400 others have been wounded. In Israel, at least 15 people have been killed, according to authorities. The Pentagon has said that 13 American service members have died so far; six were killed when a refueling plane crashed in Iraq. About 230 Americans have been wounded.<\/p>\n On Monday, Lebanon said that more than 1 million of its residents have been displaced in the latest outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced in Iran as well.<\/p>\n The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the globe. One-fifth of the world\u2019s oil flows through it. Iran has been threatening to attack ships there, and the country\u2019s new leader has vowed to maintain the blockade. U.S. officials say Iran has also been\u00a0booby-trapping the strait with mines.<\/p>\n As a result, global oil prices have shot up to more than $100 a barrel for the first time in years. The average price of gas in the U.S. is approaching $4 a gallon, up 80 cents from a month ago. Food and other goods that need to travel from one place to another\u00a0could soon become more expensive as well.<\/p>\n Trump has tried to address the issue in various ways: lifting sanctions on some Russian oil to increase supply; striking Iran\u2019s 30 mine-laying ships; and calling on U.S. allies to send warships to escort merchant vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory \u2014 because it is their territory,\u201d Trump said on Sunday. \u201cYou could make the case that maybe we shouldn\u2019t even be there at all, because we don\u2019t need it. We have a lot of oil.\u201d<\/p>\n But top officials from Japan, Italy, Australia and Germany rebuffed Trump on Monday, saying their countries would not participate in efforts to reopen the strait.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not our war,\u201d said Germany\u2019s defense minister. \u201cWe did not start it.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump initially said the war would last four or five weeks. Since then, he vacillated between\u00a0claiming\u00a0that the war was \u201cover\u201d in \u201cthe first hour\u201d \u2014 and \u201cwe won\u201d\u00a0\u2014 to insisting that the U.S. could continue attacking Iran \u201cfor as long as it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n The president and those around him have also provided many different explanations for why the U.S. chose to attack Iran now: to ward off an imminent Iranian threat; to preempt Iranian retaliation against U.S. assets after an expected Israeli attack on Iran; to destroy Iran’s missile and military capabilities; to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon; to achieve regime change by bringing the Iranian opposition to power.<\/p>\n It is unclear which of these goals the U.S. would have to achieve before declaring \u201cvictory.\u201d Trump has said that he must \u201cbe involved in the appointment\u201d of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei\u2019s successor, dismissing Khamenei\u2019s son as an \u201cunacceptable\u201d pick.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,\u201d he added. But Trump has also admitted that he doesn\u2019t know who could succeed the slain Khamenei because so many key Iranian figures have already been killed.<\/p>\n On Saturday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said attacks against Iran would “increase significantly” in the coming week.<\/p>\n During its first two weeks, the Iran war cost the U.S. an estimated $12 billion in direct military expenditures.\u00a0Multiple polls\u00a0have shown that most Americans oppose the initial U.S. strikes on Iran and believe the war is making America less safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now entering its fourth week, the Iran war has engulfed the Middle East, killed more than 2,300 people<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,7,48,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran","category-news","category-us","category-wars"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2852,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850\/revisions\/2852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ali](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/IegU8MTWq7FJaMIeqGXzjw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/user-uploaded\/gettyimages-2237679728.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Joe](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/xVcznZkrbEbNx2fEmBDdaQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/user-uploaded\/gettyimages-2250666956.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"President](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/tTrkg5sxB3QSqQ44RIxbRg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/user-uploaded\/gettyimages-2266544073.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThree weeks of strikes on Iran<\/h2>\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/DjhDcxP6C1Ktgye1OpVWNA--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/user-uploaded\/ap26060008811601.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Iran's](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/uPpUdmFd3pPX6CmLDrzjkA--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTYzNjtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/user-uploaded\/ap26071398679727.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nIsrael fights Hezbollah in Lebanon<\/h2>\n
Iran retaliates<\/h2>\n
![\"Iran's](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/8Xqr4dZ_4utWtH094f_I1g--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/user-uploaded\/gettyimages-2265014473.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe human toll<\/h2>\n
Oil prices skyrocket<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/UO67xW6letdwwkQdxEl9WQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/user-uploaded\/gettyimages-2226239770.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe endgame?<\/h2>\n