The U.S. military is poised to have in the coming days its most significant naval deployment in and around the Middle East since the U.S. and Israel launched their joint attack on Iran seven weeks ago.
The USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier and associated warships returned to the U.S. military Central Command’s area of operations after a stop in the eastern Mediterranean. The Ford transited the Suez Canal and entered the Red Sea over the weekend, along with two destroyers, the USS Mahan and the USS Winston S. Churchill.
The Ford, at sea since June and recently deployed to the Caribbean amid the operation against Venezuela, has already broken the record for the longest carrier deployment since the Vietnam War. It returned to the Mideast after a fire in a laundry room forced it to dock in Greece for repairs.
The Ford joins the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is operating in the north Arabian Sea. The USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier, meanwhile, is heading around the Cape of Good Hope off southern Africa’s coast and is expected to reach the Middle East sometime near the end of the month, which will make it three U.S. aircraft carriers and their strike groups operating in the region.
Oil prices climbed more than 5% while world shares were mixed Monday as a standoff between Iran and the U.S. prevented tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz. The Persian Gulf waterway was closed again after Iran reversed a decision to reopen the strait and President Trump said a U.S. Navy blockade of Iranian ports would remain in effect.
U.S. benchmark crude gained 5.3% to $87.88 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, was up 5.3% at $95.62 a barrel on Monday.
In share trading, U.S. futures declined, with the contracts for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.7%.
In early European trading, benchmarks declined. Germany’s DAX lost 1.6% and the CAC 40 in Paris shed 1.2% to 8,325.67. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.6% to 10,601.64.
Despite renewed doubts about how soon ships will again transport the vast amounts oil the world gets from the Middle East, share prices were mostly higher in Asia, though they gave up the bigger gains of earlier in the session.
Iran isn’t currently planning to attend talks with the United States, the regime said, after President Trump sent U.S. negotiators to Pakistan to take part in renewed talks on Monday, just days before a ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. expires.
The ongoing U.S. blockade of Iranian ports has been a significant sticking point, an issue further complicated by an American destroyer on Sunday firing on and seizing an Iranian ship that tried to evade it.
Tehran said it would retaliate, with the state-run Tasnim news agency reporting that Iran had sent drones in the direction of U.S. military ships after its vessel was seized.
Iran Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said in a weekly press briefing Monday that, “As of now … we have no plans for the next round of negotiation, and no decision has been made in this regard.”
State broadcaster IRIB on Sunday cited Iranian sources as saying “there are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-U.S. talks.”
The state-run IRNA news agency pointed to the blockade and Washington’s “unreasonable and unrealistic demands,” saying that “in these circumstances, there is no clear prospect of fruitful negotiations.”
“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it,” Mr. Trump warned in a social media post on Sunday, while renewing his threat to order strikes to destroy all of Iran’s power plants and bridges if a deal isn’t reached.
CBS/AFP
Hezbollah said it detonated explosives Sunday afternoon in an attack against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
The group said in a statement Monday that bombs planted by Hezbollah fighters exploded and destroyed four tanks in a convoy of eight tanks that was passing the village of Deir Siryan.
It was the first claim of an attack by Hezbollah since a 10-day ceasefire went into effect at midnight Thursday.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
The Israeli army said Monday that it had determined an image circulating on social media that shows a soldier in south Lebanon hitting a statue of Jesus Christ is authentic and shows an active service member.
The image appears to show an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of a statue of a crucified Jesus that had fallen off a cross.
Arab media reports indicated the statue was in the Christian village of Debl in south Lebanon, near the border with Israel in an area that Israeli forces have occupied for weeks, forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate.
The Debl municipality told AFP the statue was located in the village, but couldn’t confirm whether it had been damaged.
The Israel army said it viewed the incident with “great severity,” adding that the “soldier’s conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops,” in a post on its official X account Monday.
“Following the completion of an initial examination regarding a photograph published earlier today of an IDF soldier harming a Christian symbol, it was determined that the photograph depicts an IDF soldier operating in southern Lebanon,” it said in the post.
The incident is being investigated by the Israeli Northern Command and is currently being “addressed through the chain of command,” the military added.
It said “appropriate measures will be taken against those involved” but didn’t go into further detail.
The Israel army said it’s working with the community to “restore the statue to its place.”
The IDF said it is “operating to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure established by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and has no intention of harming civilian infrastructure, including religious buildings or religious symbols.”
CBS/AP
The Iranian military headquarters said the attack and subsequent boarding of an Iranian vessel by U.S. forces was a violation of the ceasefire and an act of “maritime piracy,” saying that “Iran will respond soon,” according to Iran’s state-run broadcaster.
The United States says it fired on the ship and seized it because it had crossed the blockade line after ignoring multiple warnings.
The response came as Iran has yet to comment on President Trump’s announcement of new talks in Pakistan this week. Iranian state media, without citing anyone beyond unnamed sources, issued brief reports on Sunday suggesting the talks would not happen.
An Iranian cargo ship that attempted to bypass the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and vessels is in U.S. custody, President Trump said Sunday on Truth Social. Mr. Trump said the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Spruance intercepted the Iranian-flagged ship Touska in the Gulf of Oman and gave the 900-foot-long vessel “fair warning” to stop.
“The Iranian crew refused to listen, so our Navy ship stopped them in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room,” the president said. “The TOUSKA is under U.S. Treasury sanctions because of its prior history of illegal activity. We have full custody of the ship and are seeing what’s on board.”
Mr. Trump renewed his warning earlier Sunday that he would order the U.S. military to target civilian infrastructure in Iran, including bridges and power plants, if the regime does not agree to a peace deal.
“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,” Mr. Trump wrote on TruthSocial.
“NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!” Mr. Trump said. “If they don’t take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47 years. IT’S TIME FOR THE IRAN KILLING MACHINE TO END!”
