Iran-US war latest: UK sends destroyer back to Middle East while Trump awaits Tehran’s response to peace plan

Donald Trump is heading to China for a highly-anticipated bilateral summit with Xi Jinping, a year after entering a tariff war with Beijing. Experts believe this is Washington’s attempt to smooth ties with its trade nemesis.

President Trump will be in Beijing from 14-15 May, where both sides are expected to discuss Chinese export controls of rare earths, an agricultural products deal for partial tariff relief, the US-Israel war on Iran, and efforts to bring stability to their relations.

The Independent’s Arpan Rai reports:

Two oil tankers were hit by the US Navy after they attempted the violate America’s Strait of Hormuz blockade on Friday.

US Central Command (CENTCO) released footage showing strikes on the empty tankers M/T Sea Star III and M/T Sevda as they attempted to sail into an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman.

US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet from USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) disabled both vessels after firing into their smokestacks.

A Royal Navy warship is making its war to the Middle East ahead of a possible international mission to safeguard shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Ministry of Defence said the type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon is being deployed from the Eastern Mediterranean and will “pre-position” in the region.

The proposed UK and French-led mission would take place once hostilities between Iran and US-Israeli forces end.

It would involve a coalition of nations willing to ensure freedom of navigation in the strait, a vital route for global oil and gas supplies along with other goods including fertiliser.

A spokesman said: “We can confirm that HMS Dragon will deploy to the Middle East to pre-position ahead of any future multinational mission to protect international shipping when conditions allow them to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

“The pre-positioning of HMS Dragon is part of prudent planning that will ensure that the UK is ready, as part of a multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and France, to secure the strait, when conditions allow.”

The decision to move HMS Dragon from the eastern Mediterranean, where it had been defending British bases on Cyprus, will allow the destroyer to contribute immediately should the defensive mission in the strait be launched.

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.”

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:

Donald Trump’s team said it expected a response from Tehran to a US peace proposal on Friday evening, though none has yet 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, risking an already shaky ceasefire

“Lasers: Bing, Bing, GONE!!!” read one post, featuring an image of an American battleship taking down a plane marked with an Iranian flag using a laser beam.

It is not yet clear whether Trump’s war with Iran will mark a permanent turning point in U.S. relations with the world, Reuters reports.

But most analysts believe his erratic conduct since returning to office, essentially upending the rules-based global order, will further erode U.S. alliances, especially with NATO continuing to feel his ⁠ire for largely resisting his wartime demands.

The president’s recklessness with respect to Iran is resulting in some dramatic shifts, said Brett Bruen, a former adviser in the Obama administration who now heads the Situation Room strategic consultancy.

Tensions are especially high between Trump and the Europeans since he joined Israel in striking Iran on 28 February. Iran’s retaliatory closure of the Strait of Hormuz unleashed an unprecedented global energy shock that has made European countries some of the biggest economic losers from a war they never asked for.

The rift widened when Trump announced this week he was withdrawing 5,000 of the 36,400 troops the U.S. has stationed in Germany after Chancellor Friedrich Merz angered him by saying publicly that the Iranians were humiliating the U.S. The Pentagon then scrapped a planned deployment of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Germany.

Trump – who has long questioned whether the U.S. should remain in the NATO alliance it helped create after World War Two – said he was also considering reducing U.S. forces in Italy and Spain, whose leaders have been at odds with him over the war.

Read Jon Sopel’s analysis of the latest developments in a disastrous war for the US President, including the short-lived Project Freedom:

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Pope Leo at the Vatican on Thursday amid heightened tensions with Donald Trump over the Iran war.

President Trump has criticised the first American pope in public feud, calling him ‘”weak on crime”. The spat came after Pope Leo’s criticism of the Iran war.

Answering questions after the Vatican visit, Rubio stated that the president acts in the best interest of the U.S. and “will always speak clearly about how he feels about the U.S. and U.S. policy.”

He added: “I think we can do that and continue to also have a very productive and fruitful and important relationship with the church, because it plays an important role in the world as well.”

Bahrain’s interior ministry said on Saturday it had ⁠arrested 41 people it claims are linked to Iran’s Revolutionary ⁠Guards (IRGC), ​the state ⁠news agency reported.

The ministry said “security authorities uncovered a group linked” to Iran’s IRGC, adding that investigations by the public prosecutor had also involved cases related to sympathy with Iranian attacks.

Iran has repeatedly fired at targets in Bahrain and other Gulf Arab states where the U.S. has military ‌bases after ​the U.S. ‌and Israel launched ⁠a war against ⁠Iran on 28 February.