Iran-US war latest: Tehran to respond to Trump’s peace plan as Rubio criticises Nato allies

Sporadic clashes continued on ​Friday ⁠between Iranian forces and U.S. vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The U.S. military said it struck two Iran-linked vessels attempting to enter an Iranian port, with a U.S. fighter jet hitting their smokestacks and forcing them to turn back.

Tehran has ⁠largely blocked non-Iranian shipping through the strait since the ‌war began with U.S.-Israeli airstrikes across Iran on 28 February. Before the war, one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passed through the narrow waterway. The U.S. imposed a blockade on Iranian vessels last month.

The UAE said its air defences engaged with two ballistic missiles and three drones from Iran on Friday, with three people sustaining moderate injuries. Iran has repeatedly targeted the UAE and other Gulf states that host U.S. military bases.

In what the UAE called a major escalation, Iran stepped up attacks this week in response to Trump’s announcement of “Project Freedom” to escort ships in the strait, which he paused after 48 hours.

Trump said on Thursday the ceasefire, announced on 7 April, was still holding despite the flare-ups, while Iran accused the U.S. of breaching it.

“Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the U.S. opts for a reckless military adventure,” foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said on Friday.

Analysts have warned the consequences could push the world towards a global recession if disruption to the flow of oil continues in the Strait of Hormuz, despite Donald Trump insisting a deal to end the conflict is within reach.

But as consumers bear the brunt of higher energy costs and rising inflation, a handful of outliers are celebrating record profits from surging oil prices, renewed defence spending and frenzied trading patterns.

The Independent‘s James C. Reynolds has reviewed some of the main beneficiaries of the conflict in the Middle East:

The US and Iran appeared no closer to finding an end to their war on Saturday morning, after a day in which the two sides traded fire in the Gulf despite a tenuous ceasefire.

The Trump administration said it expected a response from Tehran to a US peace proposal on Friday evening, though none has been announced.

Speaking in Rome on Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US was expecting a response the same day, although an Iranian foreign ministry ⁠spokesperson said Tehran was still weighing its response.

Sporadic clashes continued on ​Friday ⁠between Iranian forces and US vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported. The Tasnim news agency later cited an Iranian military source saying the situation had calmed but warning more clashes were possible.

Arizona U.S. senator and former naval officer Mark Kelly didn’t mince words on Friday when he talked with constituents about the Iran war.

“What I’ve seen so far has been a s*** show,” the Democrat said at an event with veterans.

He accused the U.S. of offering shifting rationales for the conflict and delaying reaching a resolution because the president has few clear paths to a clean victory.

“So this has been a moving target,” Kelly said. “Now it seems the strategic goal is to open the Strait of Hormuz, which was open in February, and what I think the president is trying to figure out is how does he save face? How does he extract himself?”

“We’ve spent $25 billion dollars at least on this and depleted our magazines of critical munitions to a level that, if I told you the numbers that were shot, you would be shocked.”

The US has premised its Iran strategy on the idea that an ongoing naval blockade will fatally disrupt the country’s oil production and larger economy.

It could be months before that’s the case, according to some analysts.

Iran can use its domestic capacities to find, refine, and consume oil, forestalling the full impacts of the US blockade.

Plus, Gregory Brew of the Eurasia Group recently told NBC News, Tehran has past experience scaling back oil production in responses to sanctions, so the wartime hit to Iran’s energy market isn’t totally novel.

“I don’t think it’s going to do tremendous damage to their infrastructure,” Brew said. “They know how to do this. They’ve done it before.”

Gas prices in the U.S. continue to circle record highs amid the ongoing Iran war.

On Friday, the national average price for a gallon of gas was about $4.55, according to AAA.

That’s down about a cent from yesterday’s average, but still well above last week’s average ($4.39), as well as last month’s ($4.16).

Overall, gas prices are as high as they have been in decades, with only the Ukraine war-era 2022 spike in prices topping current levels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

China is paying close attention to the ongoing U.S.-Iran war, and defense experts warn that the prolonged conflicted is revealing flaws in U.S. defense efforts, putting President Donald Trump on the back foot ahead of his meeting next week in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“The Chinese would be well within their right to say, ‘What do you have left to build deterrence with?’” a former defense official told Politico. “In order for a grand bargain to work, you would have to have the muscle to put behind it. You can’t bluff on this question.”

“Without clear policy, strategy, we’re suffering at the operational level of warfare,” another defense official told the outlet. “The question that they have to answer is whether that’s unique to the current [administration] or a broader issue in American warfare.”

Here’s more on the upcoming summit, courtesy of Arpan Rai.

The U.S. on Friday announced a bevy of sanctions aimed at impacting the Iranian weapons supply.

The sanctions target 10 individuals and companies located across the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe, the Treasury Department said.

Those sanctioned “are enabling efforts by Iran’s military to secure weapons, as well as raw materials with applications in Iran’s Shahed‑series unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and ballistic missile program,” Treasury wrote.

“While the surviving IRGC leaders are trapped like rats in a sinking ship, the Treasury Department is unrelenting in our Economic Fury campaign,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Under President Trump’s decisive leadership, we will continue to act to Keep America Safe and target foreign individuals and companies providing Iran’s military with weapons for use against U.S. forces.”

A crew member on an oil tanker struck in the early stages of the Iran war is sharing his experience.

“There were immense shock waves and a fireball,” an anonymous sailor told The Guardian of his time on the MKD Vyom.

The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker was hit on March 1, though it’s unclear by which party in the conflict.

“The engine room had been destroyed,” the mariner added. “There were metal pipes, insulation covers, tanks, torn apart. A 2cm-thick solid fire door, glass windows – bang, all gone.”

“I thought: ‘I’m alive. I have to get out of here.’”

The attack killed on crew member, Dixit Solanki , 32, an oiler from Mumbai, India.