Trump has also criticised France for its refusal to help fight the Iran war (Picture: AP)
Donald Trump has launched another rant at the UK for its stance on his war in Iran, saying the US ‘won’t be there to help you anymore’.
The president called on countries that are struggling to obtain jet fuel to ‘build up some delayed courage’ and risk Iranian attacks by sending ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump is under increasing pressure from rising global fuel prices as a direct result of the Iran war, which he launched alongside Israel at the end of February.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, he said: ‘All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.
‘You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.
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‘Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!’
According to the Financial Times, analysts and industry consultants believe British airlines will start to be hit by a jet fuel shortage at the end of April if pressures on the supply chain continue.
It is expected that the last known shipment from the Middle East will arrive in the UK this week.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is holding his second Cobra meeting in two weeks as his government scrambles to handle the impact of the war on the UK’s cost of living.
He has drawn Trump’s ire by taking an increasingly vocal stance against the US, telling a crowd at his local election campaign launch yesterday: ‘This is not our war and we are not going to be dragged into it.’
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NEW YORK — U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 on Tuesday as the Iran war pushed fuel prices to soar worldwide.
According to motor club AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is now $4.02 — over a dollar more than before the war began. The last time U.S. drivers were collectively paying this much at the pump was nearly four years ago, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The price is a national average, meaning drivers in some states have been paying well over $4 a gallon for a while now. Prices vary from state to state due to factors ranging from nearby supply to differing tax rates.
Since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint war against Iran on Feb. 28, the cost of crude oil — the main ingredient in gasoline — has spiked and swung rapidly. That’s because the conflict has caused deep supply chain disruptions and cuts from major oil producers across the Middle East.
Higher gas prices are impacting consumers and businesses as many households continue to face wider cost of living strains. And as drivers pay more to cover necessities like gas, many may be forced to cut their budgets in other places.
More expensive fuel can also push up other spending, from utility bills to the price of many goods consumers buy each day.
In the immediate future, analysts point to groceries, which have to be restocked frequently and could also see price hikes as businesses’ transportation costs pile up.
But hauling other cargo and packages has also been impacted. The United Postal Service, for example, is seeking a temporary 8% added charge on some of its popular products including Priority Mail.
Diesel, the fuel used for many freight and delivery trucks, is now going for an average of $5.45 a gallon, up from about $3.76 a gallon before the war began, per AAA.
If the war drags on, it’s possible that those prices could tick up even higher. Most tanker movement in the key Strait of Hormuz, where roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil typically sails through, remains at a halt. That’s led to cuts from major producers in the region who have no way of getting their crude to market. Meanwhile, Iran, Israel and the U.S. have all struck oil and gas facilities, worsening supply concerns.
In a search for some relief, the International Energy Agency pledged to release 400 million barrels of oil from emergency stockpiles of member nations. That includes the U.S., despite Trump initially downplaying the need for reserve oil.
It’s not yet clear if those efforts will bring relief for consumers. A lot of factors contribute to gas prices.
Refineries buy crude oil in advance, meaning some could be work with more expensive oil for a while, and it will take time for any new supply to trickle down to consumers.
And while steep crude prices are a leading driver behind today’s surge, U.S. gas prices typically tick up a bit at this time of year. More drivers are hitting the road and trying to fuel up while they can, so there’s higher demand. Warming weather also brings a shift to summer blend fuel, which is more expensive to produce than winter blend.
The U.S., which is a net oil exporter, hasn’t seen as stark a shock as other parts of the world that rely more heavily on fuel imports from the Middle East, notably Asia. But that doesn’t mean America is immune to price spikes.
Oil is a globally-traded commodity. And most of what the U.S. produces is light, sweet crude — but refineries on the East and West coasts are primarily designed to process heavier, sour product. As a result, the country also needs imports.
Escalating geopolitical conflicts have disrupted oil flows and contributed to a surge in gas prices in the past. The U.S. average for regular gasoline climbed to its highest level of more than $5 a gallon in June 2022, nearly four months after the Ukraine war began and world leaders imposed sanctions against Russia, a leading oil producer.
Prices at the pump later fell from that record. Before Tuesday, per AAA data, the national average had stayed below the $4 mark since mid-August of 2022.
Missile strikes on the glamorous Gulf State have been shared widely on social media (Picture: EPA/X)
As many as 70 Britons have been locked up in the United Arab Emirates for filming Iranian attacks on the Middle Eastern country.
British tourists, expats and cabin crew are being held in overcrowded police cells and could face ten years in jail for breaching laws around protecting ‘national security and stability’.
Campaign groups say the legal system is swamped with cases and some are being denied sleep, food and medicine in detention, the Mail on Sunday reports.
They are accusing the UAE of trying to protect their ‘carefully constructed brand’ as a glamorous and safe travel spot.
An Emirates aircraft prepares for landing as a smoke plume rises from an ongoing fire near Dubai International Airport (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Laws in the Gulf State prohibit publishing or sharing material that could disturb public security, and the British embassy has previously warned expats not to take pictures or share images of Iranian missiles.
Those nearby to an Iranian strike are sent a text message in both Arabic and English saying: ‘Photographing or sharing security or critical sites, or reposting unreliable information, may result in legal action and compromise national security and stability.’
Even passively receiving an image is deemed illegal under the strictest laws, which could carry a ten-year jail term or a fine up to £200,00.
Dubai Watch CEO David Haigh is representing eight arrested Britons and says local lawyers have told him 35 Brits have been detained in Dubai, with similar numbers in Abu Dhabi.
His human rights group says that those arrested are facing months in detention before being charged because the system is so overwhelmed.
Others have been released on bail but have had their passport confiscated so they cannot leave.
Campaigners have claimed that some Britons have been made to sign Arabic statements they do not understand.
Missiles have struck hotels and other high-profile locations (Picture: Matthew McGinn / SWNS)
Radha Stirling of the Detained In Dubai group told the Mail on Sunday: ‘British citizens are being held in overcrowded conditions, denied medication, and pressured to sign confessions without legal representation.
‘This is a serious failure of protection. Immediate and robust diplomatic intervention is required to safeguard their welfare and secure their release.
‘These are not criminals, but ordinary tourists, workers and residents who acted without malicious intent.’
Access to British consular staff is understood to be ‘restricted or outright denied’ for those arrested.
The Foreign Office is not automatically alerted all arrests and some are advised not to contact the Embassy because it could prolong their case.
Officials believe just five British detainees are receiving consular help for taking pictures.
One Brit being detained in the UAE is a London-based air steward for budget airline FlyDubai.
It is understood he took a picture of the damage caused when an Iranian drone struck close to Dubai airport on March 7 and sent it to colleagues, asking if the area was safe.
Police later checked his phone and arrested him.
An expat lawyer living in Dubai is also among those arrested under national security laws.
The Palm Jumeirah Fairmont hotel was hit by a Shahed suicide drone launched from Iran (Picture: Chris Eubank Jr/Facebook)
Detained In Dubai also say they are helping a 60-year-old British tourist who was charged with 20 others after footage of Iranian attacks was found on their phones.
He faces two years in jail and a fine as large as $40,000 despite deleting the footage.
It is said that UAE police will demand to look through the phones of people close to the site of a missile attack and arrest anyone caught with photos of the strikes.
Officers reportedly track down and arrest people who receive photos through apps like WhatsApp.
Mr Haigh, who was tortured in a Dubai jail, said: ‘Dubai is a corporation, a gleaming global brand desperate to keep the facade intact.
‘So, once tourists and expats take photos of a missile intercept, or a drone strike, they become the enemy.
‘They are arrested, vanished, threatened, charged, forced to report friends, and face years in jail.’
There were more than 240,000 Britons living in the United Arab Emirates before the start of the war with Iran.
The Emirati embassy in London said people had been warned about taking or sharing photos from ‘incident sites’, adding: ‘Disseminating such materials or inaccurate information can incite public panic and create a false impression of the UAE’s actual situation.’
The Foreign Office said: ‘We are supporting a number of British nationals in the UAE who have been detained or arrested.
‘We expect full consular access to British nationals. The British Ambassador regularly speaks to the authorities about access.’
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MORE: Who are the Houthis? Yemen’s rebels joining war against the US in the Middle East
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Yemen’s Houthi rebels have joined the conflict in the Middle East, launching a missile bound for Israel.
It marks the first time the country has involved itself in the war, which began one month ago today after the US and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury.
Strikes have covered the region ever since, with Trump targeting Tehran while Iran launches strikes at US military bases.
Now, a military spokesman for the Houthis said they are prepared to join the war on behalf of Iran after the US and Israel targeted power and nuclear sites.
This is not the first time they have involved themselves in conflict in the region.
Two years ago the breakaway faction repeatedly launched drones and missiles against commercial vessels, claiming to be attacking Israeli ships in support of Palestine.
It accused the West of ‘blatant aggression’ and after airstrikes on Friday hit dozens of targets, vowing to respond with ‘punishment or retaliation’.
Britain has walked a tightrope over Yemen’s civil war for the last decade – keep reading to find out who’s involved and why some fear the situation could escalate into a full-blown war in the region.
Who are the Houthi rebels?
Thousands of people gather at Sabeen Square, under the control of the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, to protest the killing of Iran’s leader Ali Khamenei (Picture:Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Houthi movement is a political and military group that follows a minority strand of Islam called Zaydism, and draws its name from an ancient Arab tribe from northern Yemen called the Houthis.
Following rising instability in the wake of the Arab Spring, they seized control of the Yemeni capital of Sana’a in 2014, sparking one of the deadliest civil wars in recent history – which is still ongoing today.
Yemen’s official government, recognised by most countries including the UK, is backed by a Saudi-led coalition which Britain has supplied with weapons.
Both sides are widely believed to have carried out war crimes and atrocities against civilians, overseeing some of the worst humanitarian conditions in the world.
The Houthis are currently in control over almost all of northern Yemen, although much of the country has been devastated, with a death toll of over 150,000.
The Houthis are locked in one of the deadliest conflicts in recent history (Picture: Reuters)
Have the Houthis been involved in conflict before?
Houthi forces launched dozens of drone and missile strikes on commercial vessels two years ago following the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.
The faction’s goal was ‘prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Arab and Red Seas in support of the oppressed Palestinian people’.
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In reality, though, almost all the targets were international trading ships – some making port in Israel, many simply passing through to other parts of the world.
HMS Diamond and US jets shot down the biggest wave of drone and missile attacks in the Red Sea on container ships (Picture: MOD)
One of the first incidents – when the Houthis hijacked what they claimed was an Israeli cargo ship in November – actually involved a British-owned ship run by a Japanese firm and staffed by crew from all around the world.
More recently, a Houthi spokesperson said any ship destined for Israel is a ‘legitimate target’. The UN’s shipping watchdog has since confirmed that the Houthis are continuing to attack ships with no links to Israel whatsoever.
Who supports the Houthis?
Yemeni men brandish weapons and portraits of leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi (Picture: AFP)
Yemen’s Houthis are backed by Iran, which began increasing its aid to the group in 2014 as the civil war broke out.
Iran’s theocratic government follows the Shia branch of Islam, of which the Houthi’s Zaydist belief system is a strand.
Iran has given the militants training and an array of sophisticated weapons and military technology, with the alleged help of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group.
The West has accused Iran of involvement in the Red Sea attacks two years ago and ordering the Houthis and other Middle Eastern militias to carry out their attacks on Israel, which Iran denies.
The UN Panel of Experts on Yemen previously found that Iran has ‘failed to take the necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer’ of various ballistic missiles that the Houthis have deployed against all the vessels.
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WASHINGTON – America’s Nato allies need to help open the Strait of Hormuz, but it doesn’t matter if they don’t. The war against Iran is already “won,” but thousands of ground troops are on the way there. If there is a peace deal soon, that’s great, but if there isn’t, that’s great, too.
Nearing a month into his war against Iran, President Donald Trump continues verbally attacking US allies while enriching the purported enemy with billions of dollars in sanctions relief while offering no concrete plan to end the conflict.
“They are begging to make a deal, not me. They are begging to make a deal and anybody that saw what was happening over there would understand why they want to make a deal,” Trump said on Thursday, adding later: “The reason they want to make a deal is they have been just beat to shit.”
During an hour of monologue and a half-hour question-and-answer session with reporters ahead of a Cabinet meeting, Trump yet again offered wildly contradictory claims about a war that has killed 13 US service members, seriously injured hundreds more, left thousands of Iranians dead and has brought spiking gasoline prices and a new round of inflation at home.
As is typically the case with Trump, who is both a prolific liar as well as profoundly ignorant, it was impossible to know how much of what he said about the war was true, how much he believed was true but in reality was not, how much was a deliberate lie and how much reflected an irritation.
Trump was openly peeved, for example, by a Wall Street Journal report published on Wednesday stating that he was eager to wrap up the war and move on.
“I read a story today that I’m desperate to make a deal…. I’m the opposite of desperate. I don’t care. I want to know ― in fact, we have other targets we want to hit before we leave. We’re hitting them on a daily basis,” he said.
Trump stated that the war was over — “We already won” — but then also said that he was still considering seizing Iranian oil and may or may not use the military to confiscate uranium in Iran’s possession.
Deploying troops would almost certainly lead to the death of more Americans, as they would become far easier targets than US planes and ships have been since the war began on February 28. Robert Kagan, a veteran of the Reagan-era State Department and now an analyst at the Brookings Institution, fears that Trump is likely to use the thousands of Marines currently on their way there.
“He definitely is going to use ground troops. They wouldn’t be sending them if they didn’t plan to use them,” Kagan said. “Right now, he’s trying to buy time. Keep markets and oil prices calm. Keep his voters calm. While quietly telling Republicans to get ready to support ground troops. Which they will.”
Trump again complained that Nato allies were not helping him attack Iran and said, falsely, that Nato members have never helped the United States.
“I said 25 years ago that Nato is a paper tiger, but more importantly, that we’ll come to their rescue, but they will never come to ours,” he said.
In reality, the only time the alliance’s mutual defence clause was invoked was after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Trump appears not to understand that the alliance is a defensive one and does not require signatories to assist a member that chooses to launch a war of aggression, as he has.
And Trump continued to claim that whether the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil normally passes, is open to ship traffic does not matter for Americans because the US is a net exporter of oil. “We don’t need the Hormuz Strait. We don’t need it. We don’t need it at all. We don’t ― we have so much oil. Our country is not affected by this,” he said, falsely.
In fact, though, oil is traded on a global market. A reduction in supply anywhere leads to higher costs everywhere, as Americans have already seen with gasoline prices more than $1 a gallon higher than before the war started.
Hours later, Trump wrote in a social media post that he was again postponing his threatened attack on Iran’s energy infrastructure, which, if carried out, would likely constitute a war crime.
“As per Iranian Government request, please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time. Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” he said, again citing so-far nonexistent peace negotiations.
Whether and when a peace agreement will end the war and allow US service members in the region to come home appears as unclear now as it was when Trump’s attacks started. Trump’s “special envoy” to Iran, his friend and fellow real estate developer Steve Witkoff, on Thursday confirmed that he had presented a 15-point peace plan to Pakistani intermediaries — a plan that Iran quickly dismissed as unserious.
“I don’t think a deal is coming,” said John Bolton, one of Trump’s first-term national security advisers and a longtime proponent of military intervention in Iran who has nonetheless criticised Trump for lacking a coherent plan. “Not clear if there will even be a meeting.”
And in the absence of a quick negotiated end to the war, said one former national security council staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity, there are likely only two options.
“Trump either folds and tries to declare victory, basically another ‘total obliteration,’ or he escalates,” the staffer said. “The latter is ripe with danger for our forces, and the former may not work if Iran isn’t ready to pull back from the fight.”
Pro-Iranian hackers have leaked hundreds documents relating to FBI head Kash Patel (Picture: Shutterstock)
A pro-Iranian group has published personal emails and pictures of the head of the FBI after hacking into his accounts.
Hundreds of documents, pictures and a CV of Kash Patel have been shared by the Handala Hack Team, which has links to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence.
The group wrote: ‘Kash Patel, the current head of the FBI, who once saw his name displayed with pride on the agency’s headquarters, will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims.
‘The so-called ‘impenetrable’ systems of the FBI were brought to their knees within hours by our team.’
Many of the hacked records shared were from more than a decade ago.
Leaked photos included one of Mr Patel smoking a cigar in his mouth and another of the FBI boss standing next to a vintage sports car.
Handala, which presents as a pro-Palestinian hacking group, is thought to be one of several fronts used by the Iranian regime to conduct cyber attacks.
Earlier this month the same group claimed to have hacked into Stryker, a Michigan-based medical services provider and had deleted a large number of its files.
Mr Patel (middle) with attorney general Pam Bondi and defence secretary Pete Hegseth (Picture: AP)
More than 300 emails send and received by Mr Patel from a Gmail account were shared, dating from 2010 to 2019.
It comes amid a rise in cyber-related operations from Iran-backed organisations.
On Thursday Handala claimed to have targeted employees working in the Middle East for defence firm Lockheed Martin.
The company said it was aware of the reports and had put systems in place ‘to mitigate cyber threats to our business’.
The FBI confirmed that the details taken were ‘historical in nature’ and that no governmental information had been disclosed.
It said in a statement: ‘The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel‘s personal email information, and we have taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks associated with this activity.
‘The information in question is historical in nature and involves no government information.’
Gil Messing, chief of staff at Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point, said the leaking of Mr Patel’s personal details was designed to make US officials feel ‘vulnerable’.
Iranian groups were ‘firing whatever they have’, he said.
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Trump said the talks with Tehran, which is yet to respond to the announcement, are going ‘very well’ (Picture: AP)
Donald Trump has said the US military will halt attacking Iran’s energy infrastructure for another ten days.
The US president made his announcement in a post on Truth Social, saying that he will pause the destruction of Iran’s energy plants until next month following a request from Tehran.
Trump wrote: ‘As per Iranian Government request, please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time.
‘Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media and others, they are going very well.’
The move comes ahead of the one-month mark since the US and Israel started the war in Iran by launching airstrikes in Tehran on February 28.
Iran has not yet publicly responded to Trump’s latest announcement.
But Tehran has offered a response to the US president’s earlier 15-point peace plan.
Tasnim, a news agency with links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that Iran’s conditions include ending ‘aggression and assassination,’ ensuring that the war will not happen again and compensation.
As for the issue of the blockaded Strait of Hormuz causing turmoil to global oil trade, Iran insisted that its sovereignty over the passage is its legal right.
Trump’s latest announcement saw oil prices dip slightly, with Brent crude benchmark reducing by 1.2% to $106.76 per barrel of oil.
Meanwhile, Trump has continued to lash out at US allies despite the tense situation and unhappiness among NATO countries over America’s action in Iran.
The POTUS insulted the UK’s flagship aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, comparing them to ‘toys.’
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Two people are dead and three more wounded after a missile attack in Abu Dhabi.
The victims were were killed by debris from a falling intercepted missile, the United Arab Emirates media office said.
Iranian attacks injured five people in the central Israeli city of Kafr Qasim and the West Bank.
The casualties pile more pressure on Donald Trump to find an end to the conflict in the Middle East, after the US President claimed the Iranian regime were too scared to admit they were negotiating with him.
Speaking during the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) annual fundraising dinner in Washington DC last night, Trump said Iranian officials were ‘afraid to say it because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people’.
He added that the the US are ‘decimating Iran’ and that the Mullahs are also ‘afraid they’ll be killed by us’.
Iran was lashed with heavy strikes overnight, with missile attacks reported in the city of Isfahan, which is home to a major Iranian air base.
The US has sent a 15-point plan to end the war to Iran, which reportedly include demands for a rollback of Iran’s nuclear programme and shipping access through the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran dismissed the plan and called the American demands ‘excessive’ and ‘not positive’.
Iranian state media has said the country has its own five-point proposal for negotiations.
Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has become a point of tension during the conflict (Picture: Giuseppe CACACE / AFP via Getty Images)
The regime’s defiance irked US President, who threatened to ‘unleash hell’ if Iran does not accept defeat.
It comes as more than 10,000 military targets in Iran have been struck since the war began last month, according to US Central Command.
Trump will also dispatch more than 1,000 extra troops from an airborne assault unit to the Middle East.
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As President Donald Trump’s war against Iran approaches its four-week mark, two Republicans who could seek to succeed him in the White House have grown curiously quiet about it: Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Two voices who in a normal administration would be key messengers on the president’s most consequential foreign policy decision have faded from view in recent weeks. Instead, the most frequent public advocate for the war appears to be Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has made multiple appearances on television.
“Beats the hell out of me,” said David Axelrod, the Democratic consultant who helped Barack Obama win the White House twice. “Vance is easily understood. This is antithetical to his brand. Bessent is necessarily out there because while the war is a national security issue, its ramifications are very much economic. Rubio is bewildering because he was so visible at the beginning.”
Trump attempted a coup to remain in power despite losing reelection in 2020 and has hinted that he would try to stay in office past 2028 notwithstanding the two-term limit in the Constitution.
But if the 2028 elections do take place on schedule, any Republican running, and especially those serving in his administration like Vance and Rubio, may have to overcome a deeply unpopular president and be forced to explain their public support for what is already an unpopular war that is projected to increase inflation and has thus far raised gasoline prices by more than a dollar per gallon.
Further complicating Vance’s and Rubio’s public posture on the Iran war is the significant segment of Trump’s voters who cast ballots for him based on his promise of ending foreign wars who may feel betrayed by Trump’s repeated use of military force.
Rubio, meanwhile, as the son of Cuban immigrants in South Florida, has long been a proponent of US intervention in Latin America to oppose socialist rulers.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, talks with Vice President JD Vance prior to the arrival of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on Nov. 18, 2025, in Washington.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott, in what has become a standard Trump administration tactic, personally attacked HuffPost’s reporter and said: “A ridiculous question debunked by a basic internet search. To be clear for those in the back, let me say once again, Secretary Rubio fully supports the president’s policies, which are making the world a safer place.”
Vance has stated that whatever advice he gave Trump prior to the start of the war in a classified setting would remain between him and Trump.
“Partially because I don’t want to go to prison, and partially because I think it’s important for the president of the United States to be able to talk to those advisers without those advisers running their mouth to the American media,” he told reporters during a March 13 visit to North Carolina.
At least one hawkish Republican thinks Vance ― who in earlier iterations of his political persona was a vociferous opponent of American adventurism in the Middle East ― is unwilling to make the case for the war.
“Vance is against the policy but can’t say so,” said John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Trump in his first term and a longtime advocate of regime change in Iran. “Rubio is worried that it is distracting from Venezuela and Cuba.”
Like many Trump critics, Bolton is under investigation by Trump’s Justice Department, which Trump is openly using as a political weapon.
On top of the political considerations are the practical ones of trying to defend the policy of a president liable to change his mind about it at any time. Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security adviser, explained to reporters early on that Trump attacked when he did because Israel had told him it was going to attack, which would have led to Iranian reprisals against the US.
He backtracked on the explanation the very next day after Trump contradicted him.
Matt Wolking, a Republican political consultant and a former Rubio aide, said there is little point in Rubio or Vance in making declarations about policy when Trump is constantly making them himself.
“With Trump so accessible, it’s just not that necessary,” he said. “This is one of those areas where a Trump administration official is more at risk of getting ahead of the president than offering significant value to the public debate. I think Vance and Rubio have been doing enough.”
On that point, even Democrat Axelrod agreed. “Maybe as this gets more complicated and Trump becomes more frustrated, he is calling on the spokesperson he trusts the most: himself.”
Donald Trump will hit Iran ‘harder than they have ever been hit before’ unless Tehran accepts it has been ‘defeated militarily’, the White House has warned.
The president’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Trump ‘does not bluff and he is prepared to unleash hell’, adding: ‘Iran should not miscalculate again.’
Earlier, Iran dismissed an American 15-point plan to end the war and launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf Arab countries.
Iran’s English-language state television broadcaster quoted an anonymous official as saying Tehran will end the conflict ‘when it decides to do so and when its own conditions are met’.
Talks with Iran were still underway, Leavitt said.
‘Talks continue. They are productive, as the President said on Monday, and they continue to be,’ she told reporters.
But she added: ‘If Iran fails to accept the reality of the current moment, if they fail to understand that they have been defeated militarily, and will continue to be, President Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before.’
A M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) conducting live-fire missions during ‘Operation Epic Fury’ (Picture: US Army/AFP via Getty)
Smoke rises from what the US Central Command (CENTCOM) says is a strike on Iranian targets (Picture: Centcom/Reuters)
Leavitt declined to identify which Iranian or Iranians the administration is negotiating with.
The press secretary also declined to comment on a 15-point ceasefire plan put forward by the United States that was rejected by Iran.
She cautioned the White House press pack about ‘reporting about speculative points or speculative plans from anonymous sources’.
‘The White House never confirmed that full plan,’ Leavitt said, adding that ‘there are elements of truth to it, but some of the stories I read were not entirely factual’.
Publicly, Iranian officials poured withering scorn on the prospect of any negotiations with the Trump administration.
But an apparent delay in providing a formal response to Pakistan, which delivered a 15-point proposal on behalf of Washington, appeared to signal that at least some figures in Tehran may be considering it.
US sailors taxiing an F/A-18F Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 41, on the flight deck aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (Picture: DVIDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Global equity markets regained some ground while oil prices dipped on Wednesday after reports that Washington had sent the proposal to Iran, with investors hoping for an end to a war that has disrupted global energy supplies and risks fuelling inflation.
The Pentagon is meanwhile planning to send thousands of airborne troops to the Gulf to give Trump more options to order a ground assault, sources have told Reuters.
They would add to two contingents of Marines already on their way. The first Marine unit, aboard a huge amphibious assault ship, could arrive around the end of the month.
Iran could open a new front at the mouth of the Red Sea if attacks are carried out on its territory, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency cited an unnamed military source as saying on Wednesday.
The source said that Iran has the capability to pose a ‘credible threat’ in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which lies between Yemen and Djibouti.
Iran’s parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said his country would attack an unnamed neighbouring country if it cooperated with efforts by ‘the enemies’ to occupy one of its islands.
Since the start of what the US calls ‘Operation Epic Fury’, Iran has attacked countries that host US bases and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday warned that the ‘world is staring down the barrel of a wider war’ in the region.
‘It is time to stop climbing the escalation ladder – and start climbing the diplomatic ladder,’ he said at the UN headquarters in New York.
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