Iran state TV says an Iranian navy helicopter confronted a US destroyer in the Gulf of Oman
The incident was the first direct encounter reported between Iranian and U.S. forces since the 12-day war between Iran and Israel , during which U.S. B-52 bombers targeted Iranian nuclear facilities.
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UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
U.S. sanctions massive Iranian oil shipping network
The Treasury under Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday issued dozens of sanctions targeting a massive Iranian shipping network. Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo July 31 (UPI) -- The United States on Wednesday sanctioned dozens of individuals, entities and vessels accused of being an Iranian oil and petroleum shipping network, as the Trump administration continues with its so-called maximum pressure campaign targeting Tehran. The 50 people and entities and 50 vessels blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury, along with 20 entities and 10 vessels sanctioned by the State Department on Wednesday, represent the largest punitive package against Iran since 2018, when President Donald Trump first imposed mass sanctions against Iran during his first term. In 2018, Trump pulled the United States from a landmark multinational Obama-era accord aimed at preventing Tehran from securing a nuclear weapon, and slapped sanctions on the country as part of his maximum pressure campaign that failed to bring Iran to the negotiating table on a new deal. Instead, Iran escalated its nuclear program to the point that the State Department remarked in 2022 that it would need as little as a week to produce enough weapons-grade highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon. Trump reinstated his maximum pressure campaign on Iran in February and has been targeting its ability to generate revenue since. He also attacked three Iranian nuclear sites last month, amid Israel's war against Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza. The sanctions unveiled Wednesday target the vast shipping network of 49-year-old Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani that the United States accuses of laundering billions in profit from the sales of Iranian and Russian crude oil and other petroleum products to buyers mostly in China. Hossein is the son of Ali Shamkhani, a top political advisor to Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and who was sanctioned by the United States in 2020. "The Shamkhani family's shipping empire highlights how the Iranian regime elites leverage their positions to accrue massive wealth and fund the regime's dangerous behavior," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. "These actions put America first by targeting regime elites that profit while Tehran threatens the safety of the United States." Bessent added on X that with Wednesday's sanctions, the United States has sanctioned more than 500 Iranian and Iran-linked targets this year. The announcement of sanctions comes a day after Iran's foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, threatened to retaliate against any new threats to its nuclear program. "If aggression is repeated, we will not hesitate to react in a more decisive manner and in a way that will be IMPOSSIBLE to cover up," he said on X on Monday. Trump claimed his strikes "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program, while others have questioned the severity of the damage.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump's frayed relationships with Putin and Netanyahu are impeding his foreign agenda
President Donald Trump hasn't found his recent phone calls with war-entangled leaders encouraging. 'Very disappointed,' Trump said of his last conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose war in Ukraine is only escalating, despite Trump's efforts to end it. 'It was sort of disappointing,' Trump said Friday of a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose war in Gaza continues amid a dire humanitarian crisis. With those two conflicts so far unresolved — impeding his chances for a Nobel Peace Prize — Trump is discovering the limitations of his complicated personal ties with Putin and Netanyahu, whose respective wars Trump once insisted he could quickly resolve. And he's clearly grown frustrated he can't seem to solve the crises any better than former President Joe Biden, who he regards as a failure on foreign policy in particular. In Trump's telling, Putin tells him one thing, then does another. The Kremlin leader, whose relationship with Trump has been the subject of fascination for a decade, has gone 'absolutely crazy' in his relentless waves of missile and drone attacks in Ukraine, Trump insists. Netanyahu, meanwhile, has tested Trump's patience with airstrikes in Syria and Gaza, where images of starving children have led to international outcry and new divisions within Trump's own party about how much to support Israel. The two men share a tumultuous history, with their relationship running hot and cold as Trump seeks an end to the war. Trump's challenges in leveraging his relationships extend beyond Russia and Israel. He has found a tough trade negotiator in his friend Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, despite once being Modi's guest of honor at a 125,000-person rally in Gujarat. And his onetime North Korean pen-pal Kim Jong Un is not currently responding to Trump's overtures; though Kim's sister said this week their relationship was 'not bad,' she said Pyongyang would never abandon its nuclear ambitions. Trump has always applied a uniquely personal approach to foreign affairs, handing out his cell phone number and encouraging his counterparts to call or text outside the usual diplomatic channels. That has resulted, often, in improved relationships that many diplomats say can yield real results, including Trump's success in boosting NATO members' defense spending. Yet the approach also has its limits. From Nobel prize to starvation crisis At the start of this month, Netanyahu dramatically presented Trump with a letter over dinner in the White House Blue Room nominating him for the Nobel prize. Trump seemed momentarily speechless. By the end of July, however, Netanyahu's actions in Gaza and Syria — including the bombing of a Catholic Church and the targeting of government buildings — were testing Trump's patience. And this week, Trump openly broke with Netanyahu, who has claimed there was no starvation in Gaza, after seeing images of the crisis on television. 'I think everybody, unless they're pretty cold-hearted — or worse than that, nuts — there's nothing you can say other than it's terrible when you see the kids,' the president said in Scotland, where he was visiting his golf properties. On the evening before he departed for Scotland, Trump was watching the footage of starving children in Gaza, telling aides he wanted to discuss the horrifying images with Netanyahu and asking what the US could do to help, two White House officials told CNN. 'It had already been on his mind before he left,' one of the officials said, adding Trump was deeply disturbed by the images he saw. Trump has previously been spurred to action by images of human devastation, and seeing the suffering of the children captured in photos helped motivate him to boost US aid efforts, the officials said. First lady Melania Trump was particularly affected by the images, they told CNN, and played a key role in Trump's shifting rhetoric. Trump acknowledged as much when speaking with reporters on Air Force One on his trip back to Washington from Scotland on Tuesday. It's not the first time the first lady has factored into Trump's views of the two intractable conflicts he's so far been unable to end. Trump has also cited his wife when lamenting what he says is Putin's duplicity about the war in Ukraine. 'I go home, I tell the first lady, 'I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation.' And she says, 'Oh really, another city was just hit,'' Trump said this month in the Oval Office. The Trump-Putin connection Trump's exasperation with Putin has been building for months, fueled in part by the US president's inability to leverage what he once believed to be a positive relationship into a successful peace deal. 'We got along very well. And I never, you know, I never really thought this would happen,' Trump said this week. 'I thought we would be able to negotiate something, and maybe that'll still happen. But it's very late down the process. So I'm disappointed.' That frustration boiled over earlier this week, when Trump abruptly announced he would be moving up the deadline he had given Russia earlier this month — initially 50 days — to either make a deal, or face what the president has characterized as strict secondary sanctions and tariffs. On Tuesday, Trump said Putin had 10 days left to negotiate a ceasefire, after previously sniping that there was 'no reason' to wait when he didn't 'see any progress being made.' A White House official said Trump personally decided to ramp up pressure on Putin after the initial 50-day deadline failed to draw the Russian president back to the negotiating table. Trump decided a shortened timeline was a good negotiating tactic, they said. The president's relationship with Putin has drawn intense scrutiny, particularly during Trump's first term when he appeared to side with Putin over US intelligence agencies on the subject of Moscow's meddling in the 2016 election. Trump has suggested a certain kinship with the Russian leader after enduring investigations into the election interference efforts, saying in February Putin had been 'through a hell of a lot with me.' Trump's aides, including his foreign envoy Steve Witkoff, cited the two men's existing connection as a reason for optimism as he was seeking a negotiated settlement this spring. While Trump has insisted he wasn't 'played' by the Russian president, he isn't the first US leader to find that working with Putin is easier said than done. George W. Bush once described gleaning 'a sense of his soul' after looking into Putin's eyes, finding him 'very straightforward and trustworthy' — seven years before Russia invaded Georgia. Barack Obama ordered up a 'reset' with Russia, complete with red prop button presented by his secretary of state to her counterpart, five years before Russia invaded Crimea. Exerting pressure on Netanyahu So, too, have Trump's predecessors discovered that personal ties to Netanyahu only go so far in shaping the longtime Israeli prime minister's approach to the region. Biden had known Netanyahu for four decades when he became president in 2021. By the start of his final year in office, Biden was complaining to advisers and others that the prime minister was ignoring his advice and obstructing efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Last fall, some Biden administration officials even believed Netanyahu was prolonging the Gaza conflict in the hopes Trump would win the election. Trump did lift some restrictions on weapons transfers to Israel when he entered office. But his attempts to pressure Netanyahu and Hamas into a permanent ceasefire have so far fallen short. And a relationship that has seen its ups and downs — including a falling-out over Netanyahu's acceptance of Biden's victory in 2020 that Trump has never fully forgotten — has been tested. Just this summer, Trump heaped praise on Netanyahu, calling for Israeli authorities to drop corruption charges against the prime minister after the US and Israel joined together to strike targets in Iran. 'Bibi and I just went through HELL together,' Trump wrote, echoing his description of the experience he shared with Putin. But it was only a matter of weeks until Trump was on the phone with Netanyahu to demand an explanation for the church bombing in Gaza and the targeting of sites in Damascus, which caught Trump by surprise, according to the White House. This weekend, Trump's ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee denied any rift between the men, saying on Fox News the relationship was 'stronger than it's ever been.' Some of Trump's other counterparts hold out hope he may employ his leverage on Netanyahu to do more to alleviate the humanitarian suffering in Gaza. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose decision to fly to Scotland and meet directly with Trump this weekend was largely due to the unfolding humanitarian crisis, worked to persuade Trump to use his influence to help, including calling on the president to apply pressure on Netanyahu, sources familiar with the discussions said. Trump said Monday he had spoken directly with the Israeli prime minister regarding the issue, adding that he told Netanyahu he may need to approach the war 'in a different way.' White House officials did not divulge the substance of their call, but told CNN the president is dedicated to working with Israel to help solve the famine. Over the weekend, Israel's military said it began 'humanitarian pauses' in densely populated parts of the enclave and opened corridors for UN convoys to make aid deliveries. However, it said fighting would continue elsewhere. While the president's comments condemning the lack of resources being made available to the people of Gaza served as a major break with Netanyahu — who stated over the weekend that there 'is no starvation in Gaza' — one White House official told CNN that the divisions between the two leaders are being 'far overblown' by the media. 'I don't think having POTUS acknowledge that children are clearly starving represents some major break with Bibi,' they said, adding that Trump is still committed to fully supporting Israel in their efforts to end their war with Hamas.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Islamic State and al-Qaida threat is intense in Africa, with growing risks in Syria, UN experts say
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The threat from Islamic State and al-Qaida extremists and their affiliates is most intense in parts of Africa, and risks are growing in Syria, which both groups view as a 'a strategic base for external operations,' U.N. experts said in a new report. Their report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Wednesday said West Africa's al-Qaida-linked Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin group, known as JNIM, and East Africa's al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab have continued to increase the territory under their control. The experts monitoring sanctions against the two groups said 'the organization's pivot towards parts of Africa continued" partly because of Islamic State losses in the Middle East due to counterterrorism pressures. There are also 'increasing concerns about foreign terrorist fighters returning to Central Asia and Afghanistan, aiming to undermine regional security,' they said. The Islamic State also continues to represent 'the most significant threat' to Europe and the Americas, the experts said, often by individuals radicalized via social media and encrypted messaging platforms by its Afghanistan-based Khorasan group. In the United States, the experts said several alleged terrorist attack plots were 'largely motivated by the Gaza and Israel conflict,' or by individuals radicalized by IS, also known as ISIL. They pointed to an American who pledged support to IS and drove into a crowd in New Orleans on Jan. 1, killing 14 people in the deadliest attack by al-Qaida or the Islamic State in the U.S. since 2016. In addition, they said, 'Authorities disrupted attacks, including an ISIL-inspired plot to conduct a mass shooting at a military base in Michigan,' and the IS Khorasan affiliate issued warnings of plots targeting Americans. In Africa's Sahel region, the experts said, JNIM expanded its area of operations, operating 'with relative freedom' in northern Mali and most of Burkina Faso. There was also a resurgence of activity by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, 'particularly along the Niger and Nigeria border, where the group was seeking to entrench itself.' 'JNIM reached a new level of operational capability to conduct complex attacks with drones, improvised explosive devices and large numbers of fighters against well-defended barracks,' the experts said. In East Africa, they said, 'al-Shabab maintained its resilience, intensifying operations in southern and central Somalia' and continuing its ties with Yemen's Houthi rebels. The two groups have reportedly exchanged weapons and the Houthis have trained al-Shabab fighters, they said. Syria, the experts said, remains 'in a volatile and precarious phase,' six months after the ouster of President Bashar Assad, with unnamed countries warning of growing risks posed by both IS and al-Qaida. 'Member states estimated that more than 5,000 foreign terrorist fighters were involved in the military operation in which Damascus was taken on Dec. 8,' the experts' 27-page report said. Syria's new interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa led the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, once an al-Qaida affiliate that later split from it. He has promised that the country will transition to a system that includes Syria's mosaic of religious and ethnic groups under fair elections, but skeptics question whether that will actually happen. The experts expressed concern at the Syrian military's announcement of several senior appointments including 'prominent Syrian armed faction leaders' and six positions for foreigners — three with the rank of brigadier general and three with the rank of colonel. 'The ideological affiliation of many of these individuals was unknown, although several were likely to hold violent extremist views and external ambitions," the report said. As for financing, the experts said the HTS takeover in Syria was considered to pose financial problems for the Islamic State and likely to lead to a decline in its revenues. Salaries for Islamic State fighters were reduced to $50-$70 per month and $35 per family, 'lower than ever, and not paid regularly, suggesting financial difficulties,' said the experts, who did not give previous salaries or family payments. They said both al-Qaida and the Islamic State vary methods to obtain money according to locations and their ability to exploit resources, tax local communities, kidnap for ransom and exploit businesses. While the extremist groups predominantly move money through cash transfers and informal money transfer systems known as hawalas, the experts said the Islamic State has increasingly used female couriers and hawala systems where data is stored in the cloud to avoid detection, and 'safe drop boxes' where money is deposited at exchange offices and can only be retrieved with a password or code.
