Iran war, Pasdaran: "Two oil tankers on fire after hitting a mine in Hormuz"
Two oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz area "caught fire after hitting a naval mine": this is what the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Navy stated, according to local media. The Pasdaran claim that the two boats were advancing "with their radar and tracking systems turned off", attempting to "clandestinely cross an unauthorized route". Flames on one of the two ships, a "supertanker", lit up the southern coasts of the Strait of Hormuz overnight, according to Tasnim.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has targeted a US early warning radar in Bahrain. It is the first claim of an attack against American military targets in a Gulf country since early September. The attack was reportedly in retaliation following an air raid on a telecommunications tower in southern Iran's Sirik county, Hormozgan province.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) urged Iran to take "gradual measures" to allow inspectors to return to the Islamic Republic's main nuclear facilities, stressing that such access is "critical". Tehran replies: "It's useless to talk about monitoring as long as we are at risk of attack."
The alarm came from the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen who spoke at the WinWin Brussels Summit dedicated to startups. The Hormuz blockade made Europe spend 127 billion more on energy costs.
According to CNN, the US army is preparing new attack plans in Iran which include the potential use of the Gbu-43/b Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), better known as the "mother of all bombs". The use, aimed at energy infrastructures and military sites, depends on the possible order of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, for the resumption of military operations before or after the mid-term elections, set for November 3rd.
Oil exports from the Persian Gulf have surpassed pre-conflict levels, through a makeshift shipping system operating under US protection. This mechanism is allowing oil tankers to continue transiting the Strait of Hormuz despite Iran's attacks. Oil flows in the Middle East averaged more than 24 million barrels a day in the week ending Oct. 18, surpassing prewar levels of 23.3 million, according to data from ship-tracking firm Kpler. About 14 million barrels per day passed through Hormuz, or 82% of pre-war levels.
The Iranian attack on a US radar installation in Bahrain was the first attempt to strike a military facility in a Gulf state in more than two months. This is what CNN underlines. The attack, claimed by the Pasdaran as retaliation for a previous US raid, was repelled without material damage, according to the US Central Command.
Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot called for respect for the country's Arab minority, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other right-wing figures sought to delegitimize parliamentarians from this community by linking them to Hamas. “Israel's Arab citizens are an integral part of Israeli history,” Eisenkot wrote on
Yemeni government forces say the Houthis launched a ballistic missile attack on Aden this evening, in a "terrorist act against civilians". It was previously reported that an explosion was heard in the southern Yemeni city, home to Yemen's internationally recognized government. The latest attack threatens the safety of residents and represents a dangerous escalation, Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili, spokesman for Yemen's government forces, said in a statement.
Lebanese soldiers have seized a large quantity of weapons and ammunition from a warehouse in Beirut's southern neighborhoods considered a Hezbollah stronghold. One person was arrested in the raid in the Msharafieh neighborhood during what was described as a targeted security operation.
The French Foreign Ministry spokesman said more pressure needed to be put on Yemen's Houthis to force them to end attacks in the region, including in neighboring Saudi Arabia. “Our position is that it is necessary to increase pressure on the Houthis to put an end to their unacceptable attacks and provocations, in particular against Saudi territory, but not only,” Pascal Confavreux said at a press conference in Paris.
''To hell with the Iranian leadership'', Tehran ''is moving like a cornered animal, in a dangerous way''. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared this after moving to a US military base and abandoning his residence after receiving death threats. “Why should I be afraid when our brave military personnel in the Gulf, President Trump, are constantly receiving death threats?,” Bessent said in an interview with CNBC. ''Iran will eventually want to reach an agreement,'' he underlined, recalling that it would have been ''a better agreement'' if they had accepted it ''before the lessons''.
''To the Revolutionary Guards I want to say that if you love your country, congratulations, you cannot leave. You can no longer go to London to visit your relatives. You can no longer go to Paris to visit your girlfriends, and you can no longer go to Geneva to visit your money. And this is one of the reasons why they want to kill me,'' he said. ''Now we will put Iran under even more pressure,'' he guaranteed.
Yashar Party leader Gadi Eisenkot accuses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of fueling racism against Arabs in the aftermath of the October 27 elections and promises to "exhaust every possibility" to form what he calls an "emergency government." Eisenkot adds that he is "not worried" about the alleged threat of resignation made by one of his party's deputies, Elyasaf Peretz, if Yashar were to form a coalition with Arab parliamentarians.
After the elections, Eisenkot was tasked with forming a new government, but his coalition only has 48 seats, insufficient to reach a majority of 61 deputies in the Knesset. The Arab parties, also opposed to Netanyahu, have a total of 19 seats. However, a significant part of Eisenkot's camp opposes the formation of a coalition that depends on their support.
Eisenkot, 'The Times of Israel' reports, says he will not make public what Netanyahu told him during a security briefing held on Thursday. He stresses, however, that "both the security situation and the internal situation require careful supervision of the government's work during this delicate transition period. For me, Israel's security comes before any other consideration: it must never be exploited for political gain," Eisenkot stresses. The leader says his camp is using its "parliamentary majority" to take control of Knesset committees and push forward legislative measures aimed at establishing a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 attack and canceling the judicial reform promoted by the Netanyahu government. Eisenkot does not specify whether, in the calculation of the parliamentary majority, he is also including the two Arab-led parties: Ra'am, with eight seats, and the Joint List, with eleven. Without their support, his party has 48 seats, compared to 46 for Netanyahu's bloc.
The Israeli army has struck and killed over 10 alleged members of terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip over the last week, including some who allegedly participated in the attack on 7 October 2023. This is what Tsahal reports in a post on Telegram in which he underlines that this week an arms production plant in the Gaza Strip was bombed.
According to the Israeli army, among the militiamen killed in this week's attacks were Muhammad Atta Zaki Qishawi, identified by the IDF as a member of Hamas' elite Nukhba unit, who took part in the incursion.
