Six weeks of hostilities have pulled Iran and the wider Middle East into patterns of warfare. President Spoljaric met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi, President for the Institute for Political and International Studies Saeed Khatibzadeh and President of the Iranian Red Crescent Society Pir Hossein Kolivand. ICRC has brought additional staff and delivered relief items and medical supplies to help civilians in need.
Since the start of the Iran War, Americans have been paying around $70 more per month for gasoline than before. Poor Americans are feeling the impact of the war on their wallets. Consumer sentiment is poor. This may have consequences for the midterm elections in November.
The Strait of Hormuz tensions are rippling through global markets, sending oil prices above $120 a barrel and driving US petrol prices to a four-year high. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf dismisses the US blockade as ineffective, while the military says its restraint so far has been intended to give diplomacy a chance. Top Iranian football officials left World Cup cohosts Canada before the start of the FIFA Congress because of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ by immigration officials at Toronto airport. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned his US counterpart Donald Trump not to resume attacks on Iran.
The U.S. Treasury Department is ratcheting up sanctions on Iranian oil shipments already at sea and has seized at least two tankers off Asia believed to be carrying Iranian oil. Iran's oil industry has been entangled in the region’s politics since it first struck oil in 1908. Iran has been under sanctions for 47 years.
Axios reports that Donald Trump will receive a briefing on new plans for potential military action in Iran on Thursday from Adm. Bradley Cooper and General Dan Caine. Central Command has drawn up plans for a series of strikes on Iranian targets, with the aim of pressuring Iran to give ground in negotiations. Iran has blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
175 pro-Palestinian activists from more than 20 ships were detained by the Israeli armed forces and are now on their way to Israel. The aid fleet's total of more than 50 boats had set out from Marseille in France, Barcelona in Spain and Syracuse in Italy in recent weeks to bring relief supplies to the Gaza Strip.
The U.S. is pushing for other countries to form an international coalition to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. The vital sea channel remains closed, choking off 20% of the world's supplies of oil and gas. That has sent global energy prices surging and heightened concerns about the risks of an economic downturn. President Donald Trump is scheduled to receive a briefing on Thursday on plans for fresh military strikes on Iran in hopes it will return to negotiations.