Israel-Iran Crisis LIVE: US Speculates Israel Could Attack Iran In Coming Days, Pulls Out Diplomats From Middle East
Israel-Iran Crisis LIVE Updates: Amid the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, Israel is fully ready to launch an operation into Iran, US officials informed. The US intelligence has reported that Israel is preparing for a potential strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
As the speculations of a war-like situation in the Middle East are doing rounds, Iran posted a cryptic message on social media platform X, saying: 'We are ready'. The post has added to mounting concerns over a possible escalation between the two nations.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that US personnel were being moved out of the Middle East because 'it could be a dangerous place'. 'They are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place.' Earlier in the day, tension escalated between the US and Iran after Trump stated that the United States won't allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
30 minutes ago
- Time of India
Trump's 'peacemaker' pledge takes big hit as Israel strikes Iran
President Trump's promises of global peace face significant setbacks as Israel attacks Iranian targets, escalating regional tensions and defying Trump's diplomatic efforts. The strikes, a rebuke to Trump's envoy's negotiations, raise concerns about a broader conflict and the future of U.S.-Iran relations. With conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine unresolved, Trump's peacemaking aspirations are in jeopardy. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads "SPIRAL OF ESCALATION" On the campaign trail, U.S. President Donald Trump promised to end the world's hottest conflicts and usher in global peace, but nearly five months in, with Israel attacking Iran and bloodshed in Gaza and Ukraine unabated, those hopes are in shambles.U.S. ally Israel struck dozens of Iranian targets in a dramatic and multi-faceted attack on Thursday that analysts say threatens to eventually spiral into an all-out regional strikes appear to be a snub to Trump, who had repeatedly pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Iran, though the president himself had threatened to bomb the Gulf nation if nuclear talks failed."Trumpian diplomacy is one of the first casualties of these attacks," said Brett Bruen, a former foreign policy adviser to Democratic President Barack Obama."He has struggled to even get close to a ceasefire (in Gaza), let alone peace in any major conflict. Iran was looking the most promising - and Netanyahu just spoiled it."The White House, the Israeli embassy in Washington and Iran's U.N. mission did not immediately respond to requests for strikes are also a rebuke of Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy and close aide, who has been working intensively with Iranian negotiators towards a diplomatic solution to curb its nuclear had sought unsuccessfully to persuade Netanyahu to remain patient while U.S.-Iran negotiations proceeded. Those talks have been Trump allies privately acknowledge that his diplomatic efforts had been faltering even before Israel's second term in office started with what seemed like a foreign policy win. Shortly before Trump's inauguration, Witkoff worked with aides to then-President Joe Biden to secure a long-sought ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas that accord fell apart in U.S. has also made little discernible progress toward a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, whose conflict Trump vowed to end before even taking his administration has taken no visible steps toward expanding the Abraham Accords, a landmark pact brokered in Trump's first term to forge diplomatic ties between Israel and several Arab Trump has struggled to seal peace accords, foreign policy divisions have opened inside his own administration. Dozens of officials, from the National Security Council to the Pentagon to the State Department, have been jettisoned amid the before Israel's attack, several administration officials had begun to privately question if Witkoff, who lacks diplomatic experience but has emerged as Trump's top negotiator, had overstayed his Israel's attacks unfolded on Thursday, some prominent Democrats expressed frustration that Trump had scrapped during his first term a deal between the United States, Iran and European allies forged during the Obama and Republicans had condemned that deal, saying it would not have kept a nuclear bomb out of Tehran's hands. Democrats fault Trump for not yet coming up with a credible alternative."This is a disaster of Trump and Netanyahu's own making, and now the region risks spiraling toward a new, deadly conflict," Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said in a post on Thursday's strikes will trigger a regional conflict remains unclear. Even so, analysts said, Tehran could see U.S. assets in the region as legitimate example, Tehran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen could resume their bombing campaign against ships transiting the Red unclear is Israel's ability to permanently impede Iran's nuclear doubt in particular the ability of Israel to destroy Iran's Fordow enrichment plant, which is buried deep underground. While Israel could probably do extensive damage, experts say a more lasting blow would require U.S. military assistance, which U.S. officials said was not question mark is just how effectively Tehran can respond. Israel has indicated that it has targeted several Iranian leaders in the bombing campaign, which is expected to continue in coming these factors will decide if the blow to Trump's aspirations to be seen as a global peacemaker will be a terminal one, or merely a setback."If Israel is to be taken at its word that tonight's strikes were the first round in an all-out Israeli campaign against Iran's nuclear and missile programs, Iran's regime is now knee-deep within a potentially existential, life-or-death moment," said Charles Lister, head of the Syria Initiative at the Middle East Institute."That paints tonight's strikes in a whole new, unprecedented light and makes the risk of a major spiral of escalation far more real than what we've seen play out before."
Time of India
30 minutes ago
- Time of India
An overview of Iran's energy industry and infrastructure
Israel launched strikes on Iran targeting nuclear and military sites. Iran's oil facilities reportedly sustained no damage. Iran produces about 3% of global oil. Sanctions have impacted Iran's oil exports, which peaked in the 1970s. China is a major buyer of Iranian oil, despite sanctions. Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members might compensate for any supply drop. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads SANCTIONS AND OPEC Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads WHO IS THE MAIN BUYER OF IRANIAN OIL? PRODUCTION AND INFRASTRUCTURE Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Israel carried out strikes on Iran on Friday, targeting its nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders at the start of what it warned would be a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said refining facilities and oil storage did not sustain any damage in the the third largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, extracts about 3.3 million barrels of oil per day (bpd), or around 3% of global are some facts on the country's energy industry, exports and the impact of previous Western oil production was at its peak in the 1970s with record output of 6 million bpd in 1974, according to OPEC data. That amounted to over 10% of world output at the 1979, the United States imposed the first wave of sanctions on Tehran and since then the country has been the target of several waves of U.S. and European Union United States tightened sanctions in 2018 after Trump exited a nuclear accord during his first presidential term. Iran's oil exports fell to nearly zero during some rose steadily under Trump's successor President Joe Biden's administration with analysts saying sanctions were less rigorously enforced and Iran had succeeded in evading is exempt from OPEC+ output crude exports have risen to a multi-year high of 1.8 million bpd in recent months, the highest since 2018, driven by strong Chinese says it does not recognise sanctions against its trade partners. The main buyers of Iranian oil are Chinese private refiners, some of whom have recently been placed on the U.S. Treasury sanctions list. There is little evidence, however, that this has impacted flows from Iran to China has for years evaded sanctions through ship-to-ship transfers and hiding ships' satellite consultancy says Iran refines about 2.6 million bpd of crude and condensate and exports 2.6 million bpd of crude oil, condensate and refined country also produces 34 billion cubic feet of gas per day, according to FGE, accounting for 7% of global production. All gas is consumed hydrocarbon production facilities are primarily concentrated in the southwest, in the Khuzestan province for oil and in the Bushehr provinces for gas and condensate from the giant South Pars exports 90% of its crude via Kharg say Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members could compensate for the drop of Iranian supply by using their spare capacity to pump more. Though with a number of producers in the group currently in the process of raising output targets, their spare capacity is becoming more strained.
Time of India
30 minutes ago
- Time of India
Will Trump show restraint in the middle east?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has bombed Iran in what may lead to yet another war in the Middle East, and the challenge for President Donald Trump will be to protect American troops in the region and to stay out of this mess. Netanyahu justified his latest military campaign by saying that Iran was a "clear and present danger." And it's true that Iran was enriching uranium to worrisome levels. It's believed to be just weeks from having enough fissile material to make several bombs (although creating bombs and a way to deliver them would take much longer). But a key reason for Iran's increasingly dangerous course was the past colossal misjudgments by Netanyahu and Trump in their dealings with Iran. With strong backing from Netanyahu, Trump in 2018 pulled out of the nuclear agreement that President Barack Obama had reached that largely contained Iran's nuclear program. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Hiep Thanh: Unsold Furniture Liquidation 2024 (Prices May Surprise You) Unsold Furniture | Search Ads Learn More Undo Trump apparently expected Iran to come crawling back and make concessions. Instead, Iran accelerated its enrichment of uranium. One former Israeli security official has described the decision to cancel the deal in 2018 as a "disaster," and another has said it was a "historic mistake." Netanyahu's bellicosity didn't work then, and it seems unlikely to work now. The bombing might have been intended to undercut Trump's recent diplomatic efforts to restore something close to the original nuclear deal with Iran. Live Events We'll see what the results of the bombing are, but there have always been doubts that the Iranian nuclear site Fordow could be destroyed, at least without American bunker-buster bombs, because it is deep underground. (It was unclear as of late Thursday whether it had been targeted.) Israel has also reportedly bombed housing where Iranian nuclear scientists live, and that may be more effective; military experts have said for years that Iran would have a harder time replacing its nuclear scientists than its centrifuges. Attacks like this may simply accelerate Iran's drive for nuclear weapons, because there will be more arguments by its leaders that this shows that the country needs a nuclear deterrent. More broadly, the Iranian regime has seemed on my reporting trips to Iran to be deeply unpopular. Ordinary Iranian workers, farmers and others constantly complained to me about corruption, hypocrisy and economic mismanagement -- but Iranians are also patriots, and foreign bombing may lead people to rally around the flag. In the coming hours or days, Iran is likely to respond militarily against Israel; an open question is whether or to what extent it will also target American troops in Iraq, Bahrain or elsewhere in the Middle East. The risk is that we see a cycle of escalation leading to a regional war that no one wants. American troops and embassies will be at risk, and the best way Trump can protect them is to stay out of this fight and try to resurrect a nuclear deal. Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, warned that Netanyahu had undertaken "a reckless escalation that risks igniting regional violence," and that seems right to me. To his credit, Trump has seemed wary of getting into foreign wars, and let's hope he shows restraint this time instead of wading into a fight with Iran.
