Trump also said in a post on Truth Social that the U.S. would take action against every vessel in international waters that had paid a toll to Iran, and begin destroying mines that he said the Iranians had dropped in the strait, a choke point for about 20% of global energy supplies that Iran has blocked.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards responded with a statement warning that military vessels approaching the strait will ​be considered a ceasefire breach and dealt with harshly and decisively, underlining the risk of a dangerous escalation.

“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will ​begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said in his Truth Social ⁠post.

“I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe ​passage on the high seas,” Trump added.

“Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!” he added.

Six weeks of fighting has killed thousands, roiled the global economy and sent ​oil prices soaring as Iran prevented traffic through the strait.

MORE NEGOTIATIONS?

In an interview with Fox News after his post about the strait, Trump said that he believed Iran would continue to negotiate and called the weekend discussions “very friendly”.

“I do believe they’re going to come to the table on this, because nobody can be so stupid as to say, ‘We want nuclear weapons,’ and they have no cards,” Trump told Fox News from his golf course ​near Miami, Florida.

Trump also said that NATO allies, whom he has criticised for failing to back the war he launched along with Israel on February 28, wanted to help with the operation ​in the strait.

There was no immediate comment from Washington’s allies.

The weekend talks in Islamabad, which followed the announcement of a ceasefire last Tuesday, were the first direct U.S.-Iranian meeting in more than a decade and the ‌highest-level discussions ⁠since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

“The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement, and I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America,” said Vice President JD Vance, who headed the U.S. delegation.

A U.S. official said Iran had rejected Washington’s call for an end to all uranium enrichment, the dismantling of all major enrichment facilities and the transfer of highly enriched uranium.

The two sides also failed to reach agreement on the U.S. demand that Iran cease funding for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis as well as fully ​open the strait, the official added.

Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker ​Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who led his country’s ⁠delegation along with Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, blamed the U.S. for not winning Tehran’s trust, despite his team offering “forward-looking initiatives”.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, who discussed the talks in a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Tehran wanted “a balanced and fair agreement”.

“If the United States returns to the framework ​of international law, reaching an agreement is not far off,” he told Putin, Iranian state media reported.

ISRAEL CONTINUES BOMBING LEBANON

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news ​agency said “excessive” U.S. demands had ⁠hindered reaching a deal.

Other Iranian media said there was agreement on a number of issues, but the strait and Iran’s nuclear programme were the main sticking points.

Despite the stalemate, three supertankers fully laden with oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, shipping data showed, in what appeared to be the first vessels to exit the Gulf since the ceasefire deal.

Israel has continued bombing Tehran-backed Hezbollah militants in ⁠Lebanon, insisting – ​along with Washington – that that conflict was not part of the Iran-U.S. ceasefire.

Iran says the fighting in Lebanon must ​stop.

The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah rocket launchers overnight into Sunday and black smoke could be seen rising in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut.

And in Israeli villages near the border, air raid sirens sounded, warning of ​incoming rocket fire from Lebanon.

Source: Reuters

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The post Trump vows to blockade Strait of Hormuz after Iran peace talks fail to yield agreement appeared first on Frontpageng.

The U.S. delegation, led ​by Vice President JD Vance and including President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, landed in two U.S. air force planes at an air base in Islamabad on Saturday morning, where ‌they were received by Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.

The Iranian delegation, led by parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, arrived on Friday.

These will be the highest-level U.S.-Iran talks since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the first official face-to-face negotiations between the two sides since 2015, when they reached a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Trump scrapped the nuclear deal in 2018 during his first term in office.

That year, Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who was killed at the start of the war six weeks ago – banned ​further direct talks between U.S. and Iranian officials.

IRAN HAS ‘NO CARDS’, TRUMP SAYS

Qalibaf said on X that Washington had previously agreed to unblock Iranian assets and to a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israeli attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants have ​killed nearly 2,000 people since the start of the fighting in March.

He said talks would not start until those pledges were fulfilled.

Iran’s state broadcaster said the Iranian delegation would meet Pakistani ⁠Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif around noon (0700 GMT) to determine the timing and manner of “possible negotiations”.

Israel and the U.S. have said the Lebanon campaign is not part of the Iran-U.S. ceasefire, while Tehran insists it is.

Qalibaf said separately that Iran was ready to reach ​a deal if Washington offered what he described as a genuine agreement and granted Iran its rights, Iranian state media reported.

The White House did not immediately comment on the Iranian demands, but Trump posted on social media that the only reason the Iranians ​were alive was to negotiate a deal.

“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he said.

Vance, speaking as he headed to Pakistan, said he expected a positive outcome but added: “If they’re going to try to play us, then they’re going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

Preliminary discussions have been separately held by Pakistani officials with advance teams from both sides, sources in Islamabad said.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said these ​included 70 members from Tehran, including technical specialists in economic, security and political fields as well as media personnel and support staff.

About 100 members of an advance U.S. team were in the city, a Pakistani government source said.

“We’re very positive,” said another ​Pakistani source close to the discussions.

Asked if talks would end on Saturday, the source said: “Too early to say. They have instructions to close a deal or walk away. Hence not in a rush. These talks are not on the clock.”

Islamabad was under an unprecedented lockdown ahead ‌of the talks ⁠with thousands of paramilitary personnel and army troops on the streets.

“We have deployed multi-layer security for this event, which is based on coordination, intelligence and constant monitoring for zero disruption and full control,” Pakistan’s junior interior minister, Talal Chaudhry, told Reuters.

Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the war on Tuesday, which has halted U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran.

But it has not ended Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies, or calmed the parallel war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

FIGHTING CONTINUES IN LEBANON

Israeli and Lebanese officials will hold talks in Washington on Tuesday, both sides said, amid conflicting accounts on what those talks would cover.

Lebanon’s presidency said officials from the two countries had held a phone call on ​Friday and agreed to discuss announcing a ceasefire and setting ​a start date for bilateral talks under U.S. mediation.

⁠But Israel’s embassy in Washington said the talks would constitute the start of “formal peace negotiations” and that Israel had refused to discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Tehran’s agenda at the Islamabad talks also includes demands for major new concessions, including the end of sanctions that crippled its economy for years, and acknowledgment of its authority over the Strait of Hormuz, where it aims to collect ​transit fees and control access in what would amount to a huge shift in regional power.

Iran’s ships were sailing through the strait unimpeded on Friday, while those of other countries ​remained hemmed inside.

Disruption to energy supplies ⁠has fed inflation and slowed the global economy, with an impact expected to last for months even if negotiators succeed in reopening the strait.

The hard line taken by Iran’s leaders ahead of the negotiations followed a defiant message from its new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Thursday.

Khamenei, yet to be seen in public and said to be suffering from severe facial and leg injuries sustained in the attack that killed his father, said Iran would demand compensation for all wartime damage.

“We will certainly not leave unpunished the criminal aggressors who attacked ⁠our country,” he ​said.

Although Trump has declared victory and degraded Iran’s military capabilities, the war has not achieved many of the aims he set out at the start: to ​deprive Iran of the ability to strike its neighbours, dismantle its nuclear programme, and make it easier for its people to overthrow their government.

Iran still possesses missiles and drones capable of hitting its neighbours and a stockpile of more than 400 kg (900 pounds) of uranium enriched near the level needed to make ​a bomb.

Its clerical rulers, who faced a popular uprising just months ago, withstood the war with no sign of organised opposition.

Source: Reuters

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“Even if specific civilian infrastructure were to qualify as a military objective, international humanitarian law would still prohibit attacks against them if they may be expected to cause excessive incidental civilian harm,” Guterres’ spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in New York on Monday.

He added that it was “high time for the parties to stop this conflict, as there is no viable alternative to the peaceful settlement of international disputes.”

The warnings come as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Iran with the destruction of all bridges and power plants if it did not comply with his latest ultimatum.

Speaking at the White House, Trump said the U.S. could carry out “complete demolition” within four hours.

The deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for global oil and gas shipments, expires Tuesday evening (Wednesday 0000 GMT).

Source: dpa/NAN

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The post UN chief warns against attacks on Iran’s civilian infrastructure appeared first on Frontpageng.

Then, the airman’s daring Easter weekend rescue gave the U.S. president the chance to quickly flip the script.

Standing ‌before cameras on Monday, Trump recast the perilous operation as a providential military triumph, leaning in to its cinematic elements to project strength and command of a five-week-old war that remains deeply unpopular with U.S. voters.

“We have incredibly talented people, and if the time comes, we move heaven and earth to bring them home safely,” Trump told reporters at the White ​House. “God was watching us.”

It was the second time in less than a week that the president had scheduled time to directly deliver ​his message on Iran to the public, taking on the role of executive producer and chief publicist of his ⁠presidency in his uniquely Trumpian way.

He has struggled to explain his rationale for the bombing campaign, including during a muddled prime-time address last week.

His profanity-laced tirade ​on social media on Easter Sunday further pushed past the normal bounds of presidential communications and prompted questions from reporters about the 79-year-old president’s mental ​fitness.

The scene in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Monday offered a familiar display of Trump’s political instincts: seizing a high-profile moment to tell the story on his terms and using it as a unifying rallying cry to win support from war-weary Americans.

RESCUE DETAILS DOMINATE BRIEFING

He detailed an intricate rescue mission that he conceded was bolstered ​by luck.

Trump administration officials, normally loath to discuss internal deliberations, over the weekend helped reporters write vivid accounts of the stunning operation.

Trump described a ​bleeding officer who evaded capture in Iran for two days, and search-and-rescue teams scaling mountains and trying to lift aircraft out of wet sand before destroying machinery that ‌might otherwise ⁠fall into enemy hands.

“Hundreds of people could have been killed,” Trump told reporters, noting that some military officials advised him against the operation.

“How many men did you send altogether?” Trump asked the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, who was standing nearby.

“I’d love to keep that a secret,” Caine said.

“I’ll keep it a secret, but it was hundreds and hundreds of these people,” Trump said.

Though Trump seemed to revel in the details of the military’s prowess – suggesting at a separate White House event earlier on Monday that the rescue might someday be depicted in a ​movie – he also threatened to jail a journalist at an unnamed news outlet who first reported that one airman ​had been successfully ⁠rescued before the second missing airman was found.

FRUSTRATION WITH ALLIES, DIPLOMACY

Trump continued to express frustration with the speed of diplomacy to end the war, anger at U.S. allies who will not help and exasperation with the blocked Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global energy supplies.

He dismissed a question about his mental ⁠health, saying, “I ​don’t care about critics.”

Asked whether he planned to escalate the war or end it, Trump ​was noncommittal.

“I can’t tell you,” Trump said. “I don’t know.”

As he moved to wrap up the hour-plus news conference, Trump sought to portray victory as an all-but-foregone conclusion.

“We won, OK?” he said. “They ​are militarily defeated.”

Source: Reuters

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But it is the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, thousands of miles from Europe, that has nearly broken ​the 76-year-old bloc and threatens to leave it in its weakest state since its creation, say analysts and diplomats.

Trump, enraged that European countries have declined to send their navies to open up the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping ‌following the start of the air war on Feb 28, has declared he is considering withdrawing from the alliance.

“Wouldn’t you if you were me?” Trump asked Reuters in a Wednesday interview.

In a speech on Wednesday night, Trump criticized U.S. allies but stopped short of condemning NATO, as many experts thought he might.

But combined with other barbs aimed at Europeans in recent weeks, Trump’s comments have provoked unprecedented concern that the U.S. will not come to the aid of European allies should they be attacked, whether or not Washington formally walks away.

The result, say analysts and diplomats, is that the alliance created in the Cold War that has long served as the basic fabric of European ​security is fraying and the mutual defense agreement at its core is no longer taken as a given.

“This is the worst place (NATO) has been since it was founded,” said Max Bergmann, a former State Department official who now leads the Europe, Russia, and ​Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“It’s really hard to think of anything that even comes close.”

That reality is sinking in for Europeans, who have counted on NATO as a ⁠bulwark against an increasingly assertive Russia.

As recently as February, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte had dismissed the idea of Europe defending itself without the U.S. as a “silly thought.” Now, many officials and diplomats consider it the default expectation.

“NATO remains necessary, but we must be capable of thinking of NATO ​without the Americans,” said General Francois Lecointre, who served as France’s armed forces chief from 2017 to 2021.

“Whether it should even continue to be called NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization – is a valid question.”

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said: “President Trump has made his disappointment with NATO and other allies ​clear, and as the President emphasized, ‘the United States will remember.’”

A NATO representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

THIS TIME IT’S DIFFERENT

NATO has been challenged before, not least during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021, when he also considered withdrawing from the alliance.

But while many European officials until recently believed that Trump could be kept on board with pomp and flattery, fewer now hold that belief, according to conversations with dozens of former and current U.S. and European officials.

Trump and his officials have expressed frustration over what they see as NATO’s unwillingness to help the United States in a time of need, including by not directly assisting with the Strait of Hormuz ​and by restricting U.S. use of some airfields and airspace. U.S. officials have declared NATO cannot be a “one-way street”.

European officials counter that they have not received U.S. requests for specific assets for a mission to open the strait and complain that Washington has been inconsistent about whether such ​a mission would operate during or after the war.

“It’s a terrible situation for NATO to be in,” said Jamie Shea, a former senior NATO official who is now a senior fellow at the Friends of Europe think tank.

“It is a blow to the allies who, since Trump returned to the White House, have ‌worked hard to ⁠show that they are willing and able to take more responsibility (for their own defense).”

Trump’s latest comments follow other signs of an increasingly unsteady alliance.

Those include his stepped-up threats in January to wrest Greenland away from Denmark and recent moves by the U.S. that Europeans see as particularly accommodating toward Russia, which NATO defines as its principal security threat.

The administration has remained essentially mum amid reports that Moscow has provided targeting data for Iran to attack U.S. assets in the Middle East and has lifted sanctions on Russian oil in a bid to ease global energy prices that have spiked during the war.

At a meeting of G7 foreign ministers near Paris last week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Kaja Kallas, the foreign policy chief of the European Union, had a tense exchange, according to five people familiar with the matter, underlining the increasingly fraught transatlantic relationship.

Kallas asked when U.S. patience ​with Russian President Vladimir Putin would run out over Ukraine peace negotiations, ​prompting Rubio to respond with irritation that the U.S. was ⁠trying to end the war while also providing support to Ukraine, but the EU was welcome to mediate if it wanted to.

NO GOING BACK

Legally, Trump may lack the authority to withdraw from NATO. Under a law passed in 2023, a U.S. president cannot exit the alliance without the consent of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate, a nearly impossible threshold.

But analysts say that, as commander-in-chief, Trump can decide whether the U.S. military will defend ​NATO members. Declining to do so could imperil the alliance without a formal withdrawal.

To be sure, not everyone sees the current crisis as existential. One French diplomat described the president’s rhetoric as a passing ​temper tantrum.

Trump has changed his position on ⁠NATO before.

In 2024, he said on the campaign trail that he would encourage Putin to attack NATO members that do not pay their fair share on defense. By the last annual NATO summit, in June 2025, the alliance was in his good graces, with Trump delivering a speech effusively praising European leaders as people who “love their countries.”

Next week, Rutte, the NATO secretary-general, who has a strong relationship with Trump, is set to visit Washington in an effort to change Trump’s view once again.

Analysts say European nations have good reason to keep the U.S. engaged in NATO despite doubts over whether Trump would come to their defense. ⁠Among other reasons, the ​U.S. military provides a range of capabilities NATO can’t easily replace, such as satellite intelligence.

Even if Trump and the Europeans find a way to stay together in NATO, ​diplomats, analysts and officials say, the transatlantic alliance that has been central to the global order since World War Two may never be the same.

“I do think we’re turning the page of 80 years of working together,” said Julianne Smith, the U.S. ambassador to NATO under Democratic President Joe Biden.

“I don’t think it means the end of the transatlantic relationship, but we’re ​on the cusp of something that’s going to have a different look and feel to it.”

Source: Reuters

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The plight of an Okada rider in Nigeria has brought into sharp focus, the impact of the ongoing war between Israel and the United States of America on one hand, and Iran on another, as well as its effects on global economy. The okada man set out on his daily hustle last week, looking for daily bread, but after working for several hours, he was back to square one, as there was nothing to show for his effort, no thanks to the skyrocketing price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol.

His day, which began with a visit to a fuel station to buy N5,000’s worth, which could only get him only four litres, turned worse, when after working for just a few hours, the fuel got exhausted, and to his shock, he had only made N5,050. In essence, he made a profit of only N50 after over three hours of work. I don’t know how the bewildered man would present this wild goose chase as his reason for returning empty-handed to his wife and kids eagerly awaiting food at home.

The plight of the Okada rider mirrors what many average people across the world are currently facing. The war in the Middle East is having a devastating impact on global economy. The helpless Okada rider in Nigeria was not consulted when Israel and the USA launched their war against Iran. In actual fact, he is several kilometers away from the theater of the conflict, but its impact is telling on him. How is he going to explain to his wife and kids that the world economy is terribly impacted by a war going on over several kilometers away?

In several cities across the globe, the impact of the war is now being felt in various homes and cities. The price of fuel has risen above 30 per cent, and long queues are back at filling stations in some cities while some countries now ration fuel. If the war mongers had given their actions rigorous thought, perhaps, they would not have embarked on it.

As the war approaches its fifth week, global oil shortages is forcing countries to take severe measures to save their reserves as Iran continues to block oil shipments. While Israel and the US continue their bombardment of Iran, Iran is tightening the noose on the world’s economy by disrupting oil supply chains through the Strait of Hormuz. Even if the war comes to an end and a deal is reached today, unwinding the damage it has caused will take months. Even in the United States, gas prices have reached their highest level in years. The change in oil prices isn’t just impacting drivers alone, as Oil is used to power supply chains; from the machines that manufacture a cell phone to the diesel that powers a truck carrying it to a store.

The oil price increases come even as many Americans are already strained by rising housing costs, high grocery bills, and huge electricity statements. A Gallup poll released last week found that a third of Americans now skip meals and forego other needs just to afford their healthcare needs. Many are wondering whether they did the right thing by electing Donald Trump to office last year for another four-year term. His approval ratings have further plummeted since the war began. In the last few weeks, the average cost of gas in the US has jumped about 30% over the last month, with the national average hitting $3.97, the highest since 2023.

Even diesel, which fuels many of the trucks that transport goods across the nation, has increased further by about 50%, or about $1.69 more than it did a year ago. Higher diesel costs could soon affect transportation costs and, in turn, the cost of groceries, as roughly 85% of agricultural goods are transported by trucks.

In Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, developing economies are bearing the brunt of surging energy costs prompted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on oil and gas facilities across the Gulf region.

From Pakistan, to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, through to Jordan, Egypt, and Ethiopia, policymakers are facing the double jeopardy of being both heavily dependent on imported energy, and having limited financial firepower to absorb the shock of spiking prices. In Pakistan, which imports about 80 per cent of its energy from the Gulf and has lurched between economic crises for years, authorities have scrambled to roll out measures to conserve fuel.

Facing the depletion of the country’s petrol and diesel reserves within weeks, officials have closed schools, introduced a four-day working week for government offices, ordered half of the country’s public sector employees to work from home, and slashed fuel allowances for official businesses. Pakistani Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said last week that he had decided against a proposed hike in petrol and diesel prices before the Eid Al-Fitr celebration, saying that the government would “bear the burden” of rising costs. Sharif’s announcement came after the government had earlier this month approved a 55 rupee ($0.20) rise in the price of a litre (0.26 gallons) of petrol or diesel. While government subsidies have helped to cushion the blow for the public, there are fears that petroleum prices will surge and bring economic activities to a halt if the war drags on.

That explains why Trump is desperate to end the war. He doesn’t have much time. The political, economic, and geopolitical stress of the war is building every day. The moment is approaching when he will face the conundrum that has led predecessors astray from Vietnam to Iraq: whether to intensify a senseless war in a quest for a way out. And Trump desperately wants a way out. But the Iranian are not ready. They have insisted that they did not start the war, they would want to have a say on when and how it would end. Iran has lost much of its leadership and military leaders, but the people are resilient and are not yet ready to give the so-called superpowers the satisfaction of ending the war on only their own terms.

Trump has proposed a 15-points plan to end the war with the conditions that Iran gives up its plans to having a nuclear weapon, hand over its enriched uranium stockpiles, end regional proxy groups, and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz amongst other demands. This is a clear indication that the war has slipped beyond Trump’s control. The Strait, which was open to all tanker traffic when the conflict began has now become a key US demand in negotiations. Trump kept insisting that the Iranians are talking to them and want peace, but Iranian leaders have denied entering into any negotiations with the US and have also come up with their own five-points demand.

Having ran to most of his allies in Europe and many, if not all, turning their backs on him – indicating an indirect signal to him to end the war he started, Trump finds himself alone and forlorn.

Tehran is demanding a complete halt to all forms of aggression and assassinations of their leaders now and in the future. It wants concrete undertakings to ensure the war doesn’t resume, and the payment of war reparations, an end to Israel’s assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as the right to exercise sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz. This would give the Islamic Republic a stranglehold on 20 per cent of the world’s oil supplies and the global economy. Iran has shown in the past that it is willing to talk about its nuclear programme, and has made it severally clear that it is not interested in having a nuclear weapon. In fact, it made a deal with the former US President Barack Obama to freeze the programme, which Trump tore into shreds when he came on board as President for his second term.

For this war to end, payments of huge sums of money may be required as compensation that might enable the shattered Islamic Republic to rebuild its military capacity. With the USA desperately seeking an end to the war, it may be forced to pay. Iran knows that it can’t win a conventional battle with the USA, but it is seeking to impose as much pain on the US through the strangulation of the world economy and Trump have no option but to retreat.

Having ran to most of his allies in Europe and many, if not all, turning their backs on him – indicating an indirect signal to him to end the war he started, Trump finds himself alone and forlorn.

In the next few months, the impact of the war on food supply will become manifest. This is because a third of global urea trade, which is a solid nitrogen fertiliser needed on most farms, passes through the Middle East region, with about 20 per cent of imported fertiliser to the US coming specifically from Qatar. Nitrogen fertiliser is critical to grow corn, which is cultivated by about 500,000 farmers in the US, according to the National Corn Growers Association. The war’s impact on farmers has caught the attention of the White House, which has promised that the US economy wouldn’t be disrupted “very much at all” by supply issues.

The conflict has also disrupted the global helium supply after Iranian attacks in Qatar, the second-largest producer of helium after the United States. The country was forced to halt production at its Ras Laffan industrial complex, which supplies about 20 per cent of the world’s liquefied natural gas. Helium is a key import that is used in aerospace, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and in making semiconductor chips that are used to power AI. Needless to say, America and some of its companies are in deep shit. (Do kindly pardon my French!)

Increases in oil prices has also resulted in higher airfare and shipping costs. Already, the price of jet fuel has doubled since the start of the war, according to the International Air Transport Association, while United Airlines has announced it would have to cut flights due to the surging cost of fuel.

Back home in Nigeria, the steady increase in the price of fuel has had a devastating impact on the purchasing power of most Nigerians, as food inflation, which has been on the downward trend in the last few months, have picked up again. When the war started, a litre of fuel cost N780. Now, the price ranges between N1,300 and N1,400 depending on the location. Consequently, labour leaders are calling on the Federal Government to urgently work out relief plans for workers to cushion the effects of the harsh realities on public servants.

The Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has belled the cat by approving N10,000 additional transport allowance for workers in the state. Aliko Dangote has also already canvassed the need for workers to work from home in order to reduce the impact of the cost of transportation on workers. Nigeria is several kilometres away from the war zone but still bearing the brunt, no thanks to a war monger who acted first before applying his critical thinking cap on the global consequences of war.

Nevertheless, President Tinubu should come up with measures that would bring succour to the people from the hardship brought upon by the war, and from a long history of economic turbulence in the country. He was elected to solve our collective problems as Nigerians and it is expected that he and his economic team would come up with solutions, and fast too.

See you next week.

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The post Donald Trump’s war, Iran, and the world economy appeared first on Frontpageng.

Washington has dispatched thousands of Marines to the Middle East in the month-old war.

The ‌first of two contingents arrived on Friday on an amphibious assault ship, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that U.S. officials said the Pentagon was preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, possibly involving raids by Special Operations and conventional infantry troops. Whether President Donald Trump would approve plans for deploying ground troops remained uncertain, the Post reported.

Reuters has reported the Pentagon was considering military operations that could include deploying ground troops in Iran.

LEBANESE JOURNALISTS, RESCUE WORKERS HIT

The war, launched on February 28 ​with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands and hitting the world economy with the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday ​the U.S. could achieve its aims without ground troops but that it was deploying some to the region so Trump would have “maximum” flexibility to adjust strategy.

The Pentagon was ⁠also expected to deploy thousands of soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, which hosts talks from Sunday with the Turkish and Saudi foreign ​ministers on ways to ease regional tensions.

Israel carried out a wave of attacks on Tehran on Saturday, targeting what Israel’s military said was Iranian government infrastructure.

It also hit targets in Lebanon, resuming its war against Iran-backed Hezbollah, killing three ​Lebanese journalists in a strike on a media vehicle, Lebanon’s Al Manar TV reported, as well as a Lebanese soldier.

A follow‑up strike on the rescue workers sent to assist them also caused fatalities.

Israel’s military said it had targeted one of the journalists, accusing him of being part of a Hezbollah intelligence unit and saying he had reported on locations of Israeli soldiers.

Iran kept up attacks on Israel and several Gulf states after hitting an air base in Saudi Arabia on Friday and wounding 12 U.S. military ​personnel, two of them seriously, in one of the most serious breaches of U.S. air defences so far.

Air defences shot down a drone near the residence of the leader of the Iraqi Kurdish ruling party, Masoud Barzani, ​in Erbil, security sources told Reuters early on Sunday.

Security sources said on Saturday that another drone attack had targeted the home of the president of Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

Israel, which regularly faced missile attacks from the Houthis before the war, ‌confirmed a missile ⁠had been fired at it from Yemen.

There were no reports of casualties or damage.

HOUTHI STRIKES MAY MEAN NEW THREAT TO SHIPPING

The attack pointed to a potential new threat to global shipping, already hit by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, previously a conduit for about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

The group carried out a second strike on Israel, said Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree, vowing more strikes to come.

The Houthis have shown an ability to strike targets far beyond Yemen and disrupt shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, as they did in support of Hamas in the Gaza war.

With U.S. midterm elections due in November, ​the increasingly unpopular war has weighed on Trump’s Republican Party.

He ​has appeared eager to end it soon, while also ⁠threatening escalation.

Demonstrators took to city streets across the U.S. on Saturday in anti-Trump rallies described by organizers as a call to action against the war on Iran.

Trump has threatened to hit Iranian power stations and other energy infrastructure if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz.

But he extended a deadline he had imposed for this ​week, giving Iran another 10 days to respond.

Iranian threats to attack ships in the strait have kept most oil tankers from attempting the waterway.

Iran has ​agreed to let an additional ⁠20 Pakistani-flagged vessels pass through the strait, with two ships permitted to transit daily, said Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.

Israel has targeted Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

The head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, which has evacuated staff from the Bushehr nuclear power plant on the Gulf coast, said the attacks threatened nuclear safety.

Pezeshkian said Iran would “retaliate strongly if our infrastructure or economic centers are targeted”.

Iranian attacks were reported in multiple areas across the Gulf, including Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates ⁠and Oman.

An Iranian ​airstrike hit the Israeli village of Eshtaol, near Jerusalem.

Seven people were hospitalised, Israel’s ambulance service said.

In Iran, media said at least five people were killed in a U.S.-Israeli attack on a residential unit in the northwestern city of Zanjan, and in Tehran, the Iran University of Science and Technology was ​struck.

Source: Reuters

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The post Yemen’s Houthis enter Iran war with attacks on Israel, while US Marines arrive in region appeared first on Frontpageng.

The four-week war has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands of people and hitting the global economy with soaring energy prices, fuelling global inflation fears.

The United ‌States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28 during talks with Tehran about its nuclear programme that had not yet yielded a deal.

On Thursday, Trump threatened during a cabinet meeting at the White House to increase pressure on Iran if it did not make a deal.

He later posted on social media that he would pause threatened attacks on Iranian energy plants for 10 days until April 6 at 8 p.m. Eastern daylight time (0000 GMT on April 7).

“Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News ​Media, and others, they are going very well,” he added in his Truth Social post.

Iran has said it is not engaged in talks with Washington and Trump has not identified who the U.S. is negotiating with ​in Iran, with many high-ranking officials killed in the war.

On March 23, Trump announced a halt to all threatened strikes against power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period, ⁠but has now extended it to 10 days.

Trump told Fox News’ “The Five” programme that the Iranians had asked for a seven-day pause on strikes on energy plants.

There was no immediate reaction from Tehran, but the Wall Street Journal cited peace ​talk mediators as saying Iran did not ask for a 10-day pause on such strikes.

Iran has said it would return strikes on energy facilities in the Gulf region if Trump follows through with his threat.

Iran has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, ​which carries about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas, spiking energy prices and roiling financial markets.

The prospect of tit-for-tat strikes on civilian infrastructure could further rattle global markets and threaten the livelihoods of millions of civilians in the region who rely on electricity to power their cities and supply fresh water.

IRAN SAYS STRIKES HIT RESIDENTIAL AREAS

Iranian media reported strikes on residential areas in Tehran, Qom, Urumia in the early hours of Friday morning.

Three residential homes in the Pardisan area of Qom, south of Tehran, were struck, killing at least six ​people.

In Tehran, rescue workers from the Red Crescent pulled a survivor from the rubble of a residential building that was hit by airstrikes.

A housing complex in the northwestern city of Urmia was struck by a direct missile attack, ​killing and injuring several civilians and destroying at least four residential units.

Emergency responders were dispatched to the scene as rescue operations continue.

Israeli military said on Friday it struck ballistic missile production sites and air defence systems across Iran overnight, including targets in Tehran ‌and western regions, ⁠in operations that the Israeli military says it is aimed at degrading Iran’s missile capabilities and reducing threats to Israel.

The war has massively disrupted shipping, sending crude oil prices up around 40%, seen liquefied natural gas prices spike, and prices for nitrogen-based fertilizers, critical to food production, rise around 50%.

Stock markets, having fallen sharply in the U.S. and Europe on Thursday, followed suit in Asia on Friday as investors worried about the conflict dragging on.

“Many see the Iranian regime as holding the upper hand and doubt that there are indeed productive negotiations with the U.S. in process,” said ITC Markets senior FX analyst Sean Callow.

An Iranian official told Reuters that a 15-point U.S. proposal, conveyed to Tehran by Pakistan, was reviewed in ​detail on Wednesday by senior Iranian officials and the representative ​of Iran’s supreme leader, who felt it served only ⁠U.S. and Israeli interests.

However, diplomacy had not ended, the official said.

The proposal included demands ranging from dismantling Iran’s nuclear programme to curbing its missiles and effectively handing over control of the Strait of Hormuz, according to sources and reports.

DRONE SPEEDBOATS

Despite Trump’s upbeat assessment, Iran continued to retaliate against U.S. and Israeli strikes by hitting Israel and U.S. bases.

It also ​struck Gulf states and effectively blocked Middle East fuel exports via the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas.

The United Arab Emirates ​has told the U.S. and ⁠other Western allies it would participate in a multinational maritime taskforce to reopen the strait, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Several U.S. allies have said they have no immediate plans to send ships to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, rebuffing a Trump request for military support to keep the vital waterway open.

Trump suggested on Thursday that Iran let 10 oil tankers transit the strait as a goodwill gesture in negotiations, including some Pakistan-flagged vessels.

The Pentagon was looking at sending up to 10,000 ⁠additional ground troops ​to the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing officials at the department.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request ​for comment from Reuters.

The United States had deployed uncrewed drone speedboats for patrols, opens new tab as part of its operations against Iran, the Pentagon told Reuters, the first time Washington had confirmed using such vessels in an active conflict.

Source: Reuters

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The post Trump extends deadline for striking Iran’s energy plants into April appeared first on Frontpageng.

The missiles triggered air raid sirens in parts of Israel, including Tel Aviv where blasts from interceptions were heard.

In one attack, homes in northern ‌Israel were damaged by falling debris following an interception.

U.S. and Iran had held “very good and productive” conversations about a “complete and total resolution of hostilities in the Middle East”.

As a result, he said, he was postponing for five days a plan to hit Iran’s energy grid.

His announcement sent share prices higher and oil prices sharply lower to below $100 a barrel, a sudden reversal to a market swoon caused by his weekend ​threats and Iran’s vows to respond.

Those gains were in jeopardy on Tuesday, however, after Iran’s powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf – who an Israeli official and two other sources familiar with the matter ​said was the interlocutor in the talks on the Iranian side – said no negotiations had taken place.

“No negotiations have been held with the U.S., and fake news ⁠is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,” he wrote on X.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, IRGC, said they were launching fresh attacks on ​U.S. targets, and described Trump’s words as “psychological operations” that were “worn out” and had no impact on Tehran’s fight.

Global markets rallied in relief overnight Monday after Trump added five days to his Saturday ultimatum for Iran to ​reopen the Strait of Hormuz – a conduit for about 20 per cent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas – within 48 hours.

But on Tuesday, those gains were under threat as markets weighed the conflicting messages from Tehran and Washington.

U.S. Treasury yields pushed higher, and the dollar regained lost ground as the world continues to grapple with an energy shock triggered by Iran’s threat to shipping in the Strait.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 4.2 per cent to 104.21 dollars a barrel, reversing some of their 10 per cent slide ​from Monday, while U.S. crude CLc1 rose 4.3 per cent to 91.93 dollars per barrel.

“The underlying situation is still incredibly fragile or flammable,” said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore.

Trump told reporters his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, ​and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who had been negotiating with Iran before the war, had held discussions with a top Iranian official into the evening on Sunday and would continue on Monday.

“We have had very, very strong talks. We’ll see ‌where they lead. ⁠We have major points of agreement, I would say, almost all points of agreement,” he said on Monday.

A European official said that while there had been no direct negotiations between the two nations, Egypt, Pakistan, and Gulf states were relaying messages.

A Pakistani official and a second source told Reuters that direct talks on ending the war could be held in Islamabad as soon as this week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement that he spoke with Trump on Monday and that Israel would press on with attacks in Lebanon and Iran.

But Netanyahu said Trump believed there was a possibility of “leveraging the mighty achievements obtained by the ​IDF (Israel Defence Forces) and the U.S. military, to realise the goals of the war in ⁠a deal – a deal that will preserve our vital interests.”

Although there was no immediate confirmation that talks had taken place as described by Trump, Iran’s foreign ministry described initiatives to reduce tensions.

It said Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had reviewed developments related to the Strait of Hormuz with his Omani counterpart and agreed to continue ​consultations between the two countries.

The Pakistani official said U.S. Vice President JD Vance, as well as Witkoff and Kushner, were expected to meet Iranian officials ​in Islamabad this week, following ⁠a call between Trump and Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir.

The White House confirmed Trump’s call with Munir.

The Pakistani prime minister’s office and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Iranian media reported that Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif discussed the impact of the war on regional and global security.

Iran has effectively closed the key Strait of Hormuz since the United States and Israel launched their war on the ⁠country on February ​28.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in the war.

Iran had responded to Trump’s threats to strike its power plants by ​saying it would hammer the infrastructure of U.S. allies in the Middle East, raising the prospect that an extreme disruption to global energy supplies could last longer than previously expected.

Source: Reuters/NAN

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The post Iran sends waves of missiles into Israel, dismisses Trump’s talk of negotiations appeared first on Frontpageng.

He wrote on Truth Social on Monday, delaying a previous ultimatum.

Trump had threatened on Saturday to attack Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened within 48 hours.

In response, Tehran threatened to completely block the passage and vowed to retaliate against energy facilities and desalination plants in Gulf countries with ties to the U.S., if its energy infrastructure were to come under attack.

“The United States of America, and the country of Iran, have had, over the last two days, very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.’’

These conversations “will continue throughout the week,” he added.

The Strait of Hormuz has become a flashpoint in the current U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

Tehran has repeatedly attacked vessels in the waterway, effectively closing off a key shipping route for global oil and gas supplies.

Source: dpa/NAN

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