Latest news with #IranIsraelTruce
Reuters
9 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Rupee ends a tad lower, month-end importer dollar bids weigh
MUMBAI, June 25 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee closed slightly weaker on Wednesday, weighed down by month-end importer dollar demand, while gains in local equities and a revival in risk appetite after a fragile truce between Iran and Israel cushioned the pressure. The rupee closed at 86.0775 against the U.S. dollar, down 0.1% from its close of 85.9750 in the previous session. The currency touched a peak of 85.8075 earlier in the day but reversed course on the back of corporate dollar demand, traders said. Slight weakness in the offshore Chinese yuan was also a dampener for the rupee, a trader at a private bank said. Risk sentiment remained upbeat with most Asian stocks logging gains after the truce between Iran and Israel appeared to hold. The Iran-Israel ceasefire is going well, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday. Each side claimed victory on Tuesday after 12 days of war, which the U.S. joined with airstrikes in support of Israel to take out Iran's uranium enrichment facilities. The dollar index was up 0.1% at 98.1 while Asian currencies were trading mixed. Brent crude oil futures rose about 1% to $67.8 per barrel. "We believe that the negative impact of the reduced geopolitical risk on the dollar has largely played out," ING Bank said in a note. The dollar could see some stabilisation at these levels but risks remain tilted to the downside, the bank added. Meanwhile, dollar-rupee forward premiums ticked up on the back of the Indian central bank's announcement of a measure to withdraw excess banking system liquidity that lifted near forwards, with the impact spilling over to far tenors as well. The 1-year dollar rupee implied yield rose 7 bps to 1.96%.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Turkey breathes easier as Iran-Israel truce eases fallout risk
As the fragile Iran-Israel truce took hold, there was no letup in Turkey's diplomatic efforts Wednesday to prevent any return to a conflict fraught with risk for Ankara's domestic and regional policies. Hours after US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met him for talks on the sidelines of a NATO summit for their third conversation in 10 days. Erdogan's "intensive diplomatic efforts" to curb the conflict also involved calls with Russia's Vladimir Putin, Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian and top Middle Eastern leaders. "Turkey has been trying very hard to de-escalate the situation, but it's not seen as a credible mediator, neither by Iran nor by Israel," Gonul Tol of the Washington-based Middle East Institute told AFP. Turkey's ties with Israel have been shattered by the Gaza war and Iranians see Ankara as complicit "because it hosts this strategic radar", she said of a NATO early-warning system at Kurecik base in eastern Turkey that can detect Iranian missile launches. Turkey has categorically denied radar data was used to help Israel but its presence has rattled Iran -- with several Iranian military officials warning it could be "the first target" in case of a wider war, she said. Even so, Erdogan reportedly sought to set up US-Iran talks in Istanbul last week, which only failed because Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- in hiding due to assassination threats -- couldn't be reached to approve it, the Axios news site said. Unsettled by the long arm of Israel's reach, Erdogan upped Turkey's deterrence, ordering the defence industry to increase production of medium and long-range missiles. warning Ankara was "making preparations for every kind of scenario". "Concerns about a possible Turkish-Israeli confrontation in the short term seem exaggerated... (but) both would be wise to reduce tensions," said Gallia Lindenstrauss, senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). - Fears of Iran in chaos - For Turkey, the big fear would be seeing neighbouring Iran plunged into chaos as happened in Iraq and Syria, said Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute of Near East Policy. "Ankara absolutely does not want to see Iran descending into chaos, decentralisation or civil war which could create cross-border threats or fresh refugee flows," he told AFP. In Iraq and Syria, destabilisation had created a power vacuum that was used by the Islamic State (IS) group and Kurdish PKK militants "to launch attacks into Turkey", fuelling Ankara's efforts to support both nations' recentralisation, he said. But "the biggest risk" would be another flow of refugees: "If Iran collapses, there's only one country the Iranians will flee to in large numbers: Turkey," he said. On Friday, Erdogan warned Germany's Friedrich Merz the conflict "could harm the region and Europe in terms of migration" although there was no sign of any influx at the Turkish border last week. - Risk to Turkey's PKK move? - Turmoil in Iran could also harm Ankara's efforts to draw a line under its decades-long conflict with the PKK, which last month said it would disarm, Tol said. Although most PKK-linked groups embraced the call to disarm, its Iranian affiliate, the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), did not, with Ankara concerned any unrest could embolden recalcitrant Kurdish separatists. "The worry is that this chaos may strengthen the PJAK. There are PKK fractions who are not happy with (founder Abdullah) Ocalan's call who could think: why disarm now when there's so much chaos we can capitalise on," she told AFP. A more immediate concern for Turkey was the economic implications of the conflict, she said, with its crisis-hit economy already "struggling" with rising energy prices while fighting hard to bring down inflation. "But if Iran closed down (the Strait of) Hormuz, that would mean a bigger jump in energy prices and that's something Turkey is deeply worried about," she said. Oil prices spiked during the 11-day conflict as concerns grew that Iran might disrupt supplies passing through Hormuz, peaking on Monday after US warplanes hit Iran. With the ceasefire taking hold, Turkey was breathing easier Wednesday -- although the Iran-Israel crisis remained high on the agenda at the NATO summit. hmw/giv
Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Times
Could Trump win a Nobel peace prize? How he brokered ceasefire
Is the Nobel peace prize back on? That's the accolade President Trump craves and his role in bringing Iran and Israel towards a truce was bringing fresh calls, at least from Republicans, for recognition from the Oslo committee on Monday night. Trump ordered a high-stakes bombing raid on Iran 's uranium enrichment facilities, hitting the nuclear ambition that four predecessors failed to stop, then, in an audacious display of brinkmanship, apparently helped to engineer a truce deal between Iran and Israel. Although Israel accused Iran of breaching the truce with a missile attack within hours of that message and threatened further reprisals against its arch-enemy, it is possible that hostilities between the two sides may yet die down. Trump was not the only player in a drama that would have been hard to script. But it would not have happened without him. An indispensable role was also played by the Emir of Qatar, even as his tiny Gulf state came under attack from Iran. In one version of the story being briefed by a diplomat on Monday night, Trump persuaded Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to agree to a ceasefire formula to end the strikes between his country and Iran that Netanyahu started nearly two weeks ago. First, though, Netanyahu wanted to see proof of intent in the form of 12 hours of ceasefire from Tehran. Trump is said to have asked the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, to present the plan to the Iranians. This came moments after Tehran fired a symbolic 14 rockets at Al Udeid, the large US air base in Qatar. Iran — at least in the statements it has made — appeared to have accepted. The world is waiting to see if both sides follow through. • Trump's boldness in seizing the initiative for a deal after he ordered a remarkable 37 hours of non-stop B2 bombing raids initially appeared to have won round one key constituency: the doubters in the anti-war wing of his party who had opened up cracks in his coalition. They were furious at the prospect of embroiling the US in another Middle East war. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia congresswoman who became the Maga movement's leading voice of dissent over his strikes on Iran, reposted Trump's ceasefire post approvingly last night. 'Thank you, President Trump, for pursuing peace!' she wrote. These were high stakes moves that may yet unravel. But for now Trump can head to the Nato summit in the Hague on Tuesday having met his election promise to act as a peacemaker, not a warmonger. Now, where's President Putin's phone number?
