A tanker and a container ship were struck by unknown projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said in separate notices citing verified sources.
Iran may be behind renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia aimed at raising oil prices ahead of the US elections, President Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, warning that he would remain in office after the vote and remember the attacks.
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he might ask Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to help Saudi Arabia deal with Yemen's Houthis, while leaving open the possibility of US military strikes against the group.
US President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday he will make a decision on Iran soon, adding that “Iran is a failed country. They have no economy. They have 300 percent inflation. They have no money. They're not paying their troops. They're not paying anybody."
MI5 chief Ken McCallum said Iran has increasingly sought to target military sites and other harder targets in Britain, citing RAF Fairford as part of a broader pattern.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his Omani counterpart Badr al-Busaidi discussed developments in Yemen and ways to achieve peace and stability in the region during a phone call, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
Nearly three-quarters of respondents to an Iran International Instagram poll backed continued US pressure on the Islamic Republic, while thousands of comments revealed deep divisions over its economic cost and whether it could bring political change.
More than 35,000 people took part in the online poll, with 71% supporting continued US pressure and 29% opposing it.
US Central Command said Tuesday that US forces assisted Persian Gulf partners in shipping more than 19 million barrels of crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.
“IRGC's navy commander has no navy. American forces and regional partners clearly control the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said in a post on X.
The statement came after the IRGC Navy commander said the strait was under the force’s control and threatened to sink approaching US warships.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan held separate phone calls Tuesday with his Qatari and Kuwaiti counterparts to discuss regional developments and attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on civilian facilities in Saudi Arabia.
The three foreign ministers condemned the attacks and discussed continued coordination and consultation among Persian Gulf countries to strengthen regional security and stability, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a post on X.
The US Treasury Department said Tuesday in a statement it reached an $11.7 million settlement with Bank of America over 475 apparent violations of sanctions programs targeting Iran, Russia, Belarus and several other countries and entities.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said the violations involved payments processed for blocked banks, failures to properly prioritize alerts for customers matching sanctioned individuals, delays in updating sanctions watchlists and errors involving two business accounts linked to blocked persons.
OFAC determined the apparent violations were non-egregious but largely not voluntarily self-disclosed.
The Saudi-led coalition said Tuesday it intercepted and destroyed three Iran-backed Houthi cruise missiles targeting Riyadh.
Coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki said on X that air defense systems also shot down two drones in southern Saudi Arabia.
A tanker and a container ship were struck by unknown projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said in separate notices citing verified sources.
Authorities are investigating both incidents, whose exact times have yet to be confirmed. The notices did not provide details of damage or casualties.
UKMTO advised vessels to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity.
Iran’s seaborne crude exports remained at zero in October after collapsing in the second week of September, according to energy intelligence platform Vortexa.
Exports fell from a 14-day average of 230,000 barrels per day at the start of September to zero and remained there as of Oct. 5.
Vortexa said Iranian crude held in tankers on the water had fallen to 83 million barrels, including 43 million barrels trapped west of the Strait of Hormuz because of the US blockade.
“The blockade is doing what years of sanctions never managed,” said Claire Jungman, Vortexa’s director of maritime risk and intelligence. She added that China’s need for Iranian crude had eased as Russian oil filled the gap.
Iran’s liquefied petroleum gas exports also fell 48% from the previous month to their lowest level since at least January 2023.
Vortexa said Russia now accounted for 80% of what it classifies as “high-risk exports” from Iran, Russia and Venezuela. Combined exports from the three countries fell to 4.73 million barrels per day in September from 6.39 million a year earlier.
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the possibility of a major new military operation against Iran before elections in Israel and the United States, Axios reported Tuesday, citing two US officials, an Israeli official and another source familiar with the matter.
Netanyahu raised concerns about Israeli intelligence indicating Iran was taking steps to rebuild parts of its nuclear program, including concerns that Pickaxe Mountain could be used as a uranium enrichment site, the report said.
“Bibi seems to want to go in again,” one US official told Axios, adding Trump had told Netanyahu to “go ahead and get ready” but had made no commitment on whether or when an operation would take place.
A White House official cited by Axios disputed the report, saying it was “false” that Trump and Netanyahu had discussed resuming the war and reiterating that Trump had said the United States would not attack Iran before the US midterm elections.
Axios said Trump initially appeared inclined toward renewed strikes but later became more hesitant. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and US Central Command leaders were described as the strongest advocates of resuming attacks, while most Trump advisers favored maintaining economic and other pressure for now.
Israel’s military chief Eyal Zamir also discussed with US Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine the possibility of renewed full-scale fighting within three weeks, according to a source briefed on their call. Zamir said fighting in that timeframe could lead to Israel’s Oct. 27 election being postponed because of an expected Iranian missile response, according to the report.
The report said Qatari mediators were meanwhile awaiting Iran’s response to the latest US counterproposal aimed at ending the war and securing nuclear concessions.
A US ground invasion of Iran would result in so many American troops being captured that Washington would be forced to surrender, a senior adviser to the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday.
“If the United States launches a ground attack, so many of its troops will be captured that it will be forced to raise the white flag,” Mohammad Reza Naghdi said.
He said American military commanders had not even considered a ground operation against Iran because they knew they lacked the capacity to carry one out.
“We must recognize our capabilities, adopt an offensive posture and have confidence in our armed forces,” Naghdi said.