A ceasefire to the Iran War entered its 21st day on Tuesday with the potential for renewed direct talks still uncertain, as the U.S. and Iran continued to disagree over opening the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran effectively closed the waterway shortly after the war began in late February.
In a Truth Social post Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump claimed that Iran has “informed us that they are in a ‘State of Collapse’” and that Tehran had requested that the U.S. open the Strait of Hormuz “as they try to figure out their leadership situation.”
Iran has said it will not open the Strait of Hormuz until the naval blockade that the U.S. imposed earlier this month is lifted.
Iran’s Vice President Ismail Saqab Esfahani said this week that any damage to Iran’s oil infrastructure resulting from the U.S. naval blockade would cause Iran to retaliate with “four times the damage” against “the same infrastructure in countries that support the aggressor,” likely referring to the Gulf states Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, and Kuwait.
A senior Iranian official told Drop Site News on Monday that Trump’s characterization of Iran’s leadership as being in disarray is inaccurate.
In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the U.S. cannot “normalize, nor can we tolerate… a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway and how much you have to pay them to use it.”
The price of Brent crude oil rose above $110 on Tuesday for the first time in three weeks. Gas prices continued to rise, with AAA reporting the national average price of gas at $4.18.
NBC News reported over the weekend that the total cost of damage to U.S. assets and bases in the Middle East is much higher than previously disclosed. Repair costs are estimated to exceed more than $5 billion across more than 100 targets in at least seven countries.
The UAE announced on Tuesday that it will leave OPEC, a group of oil-producing countries, with the country’s minister of energy and infrastructure saying that the exit “reflects a policy-driven evolution aligned with long-term market fundamentals.”
Israel issued new evacuation orders in Lebanon on Tuesday, extending orders to 16 new towns north of the “yellow line.”
The Israeli army said two of its soldiers were wounded Tuesday after their forces were targeted by a Hezbollah drone in southern Lebanon, while Lebanon’s Health Ministry said four people were killed by Israeli attacks across the country on Monday.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened mass destruction in Lebanon on Monday, saying “if the Lebanese government continues to shelter under the shadow of the Hezbollah terror organization, fire will burn the cedars of Lebanon.”
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