Iran war live updates: Trump says US may escort tankers through Strait of Hormuz; IDF launches strikes on Iran | US-Israel war on Iran

The US navy could begin escorting oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz if necessary, president Donald Trump said on Tuesday, in one of the administration’s most aggressive steps yet to attempt to contain soaring energy prices sparked by the US-Israel war with Iran.

As the escalating conflict in the Middle East has raised risks to shipping through key waterways, Trump said that he had ordered the US international Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to provide political risk insurance and financial guarantees for maritime trade in the Gulf.

Global crude prices have spiked since Israeli and US forces began striking Iran over the weekend, leading to fighting that has interrupted Middle East oil tanker shipments.

Ship owners and analysts were uncertain that military escorts and insurance backstopping by the DFC would be enough to stop rising prices, however. The DFC, launched in 2019, is a government agency that partners with private investors to support projects in developing countries.

Trump has made lower fuel costs for Americans central to his economic messaging, and the move signals a willingness to use financial and military tools to prevent disruptions to global crude supplies.

“No matter what, the United States will ensure the free flow of energy to the world,” Trump said in a social media post.

Share

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

Global oil and gas prices have spiked as the US-Israeli war on Iran has halted energy exports from the Middle East, with Tehran attacking ships and energy facilities, closing navigation in the Gulf and forcing production stoppages from Qatar to Iraq.

The benchmark Brent crude oil contract settled up $3.66, or up 4.7%, at $81.40 a barrel, its highest settlement since January 2025. European gas prices soared as much as 40% before paring gains, adding to a 40% surge on Monday.

Sugar, fertiliser and soy prices have all risen too. The conflict risks triggering a spike in inflation that could choke off economic recovery in Europe and Asia if the war is prolonged in a region that accounts for just under a third of global oil production and almost a fifth of natural gas.

Share

Israel says it has launched a ‘broad wave’ of strikes on Iran.

In a post on X, the IDF confirmed the offensive, saying a wave of “extensive strikes” had now begun targeting launch sites, defense systems, and additional Iranian infrastructure.

Share

The US navy could begin escorting oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz if necessary, president Donald Trump said on Tuesday, in one of the administration’s most aggressive steps yet to attempt to contain soaring energy prices sparked by the US-Israel war with Iran.

As the escalating conflict in the Middle East has raised risks to shipping through key waterways, Trump said that he had ordered the US international Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to provide political risk insurance and financial guarantees for maritime trade in the Gulf.

Global crude prices have spiked since Israeli and US forces began striking Iran over the weekend, leading to fighting that has interrupted Middle East oil tanker shipments.

Ship owners and analysts were uncertain that military escorts and insurance backstopping by the DFC would be enough to stop rising prices, however. The DFC, launched in 2019, is a government agency that partners with private investors to support projects in developing countries.

Trump has made lower fuel costs for Americans central to his economic messaging, and the move signals a willingness to use financial and military tools to prevent disruptions to global crude supplies.

“No matter what, the United States will ensure the free flow of energy to the world,” Trump said in a social media post.

Share

Syria’s defense ministry said it reinforced its border with Lebanon which included rocket units and thousands of troops, sources told Reuters, as conflict spreads in the region including between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Syrian defense ministry said in a statement the army has reinforced its deployment along the Syrian borders with Lebanon and Iraq as part of efforts to “protect and control the borders amid the escalating regional conflict”.

The deployed units belong to the border guard and reconnaissance battalions tasked with monitoring border activities and combating smuggling, the ministry added.

Sources said the move was aimed at preventing arms and drugs smuggling as well blocking Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah or other militants from infiltrating Syria.

Share

Donald Trump said his biggest fear in the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran would be regime change that brought in leadership “as bad as the previous person”, writes Deborah Cole in Berlin and Sam Jones in Madrid.

At an Oval Office news conference with the visiting German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, the US president was asked by a reporter about the “worst-case scenario” of the risky operation that led to the assassination on Saturday of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“I don’t know if there’s a worst case,” Trump said, expressing confidence about superior US-Israeli force.

“We have them very much beaten militarily, from the military standpoint. They’re still lobbing some missiles,” he said. “They won’t even be able to do that because we’re hitting all of their carriers. We’re hitting all of their missile stock … and we’re knocking out a lot.”

However Trump admitted that hopes Iran would soon turn a page with a less repressive government could easily be dashed.

“I guess the worst case would be we do this and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person, right? That could happen. We don’t want that to happen. It would probably be the worst,” he said.

“You go through this and then in five years, you realise you put somebody in who was no better. So we’d like to see somebody in there that’s going to bring it back for the people.”

Share

Kuwait said two of its army personnel were killed on Monday as a result of Iran’s attacks against the country.

It said it relayed a letter to the secretary general of the UN and the security council president.

Share

Updated at 17.42 EST

Qatar’s security agencies said they have arrested two cells of operatives associated with the Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the country, the state-run Qatar News Agency reports.

Share

Shah Meer Baloch

The opposition leader in the senate of Pakistan, Raja Nasir Abbas, demanded in parliament that the government of Pakistan withdraws from the Gaza Peace Board after the US-Israel strikes in Iran, resulting in massive pro-Iran protests across the country.

Protesters stormed the US consulate in Pakistan that resulted in the killing of more than 30 pro-Iran protesters.

Senator Abbas, referring to US president Donald Trump, said in parliament:

double quotation markThe person came to power in the US and he is creating instability across the world through the use of force. Pakistan should leave the Gaza Peace Board.

The opposition alliance, which includes former PM Imran Khan’s party, soon after the Israeli-US attack on Iran criticized the government for joining the board of peace without taking the parliament and public on board. The opposition alliance said the decision to join the Gaza Peace Board was taken in the ‘closed doors’ without the consultation and any debate.

Pakistan has been facing severe backlash on joining Trump’s constituted board of peace. The country’s former ambassador to the UN and the US, Maliha Lodhi, said on X:

double quotation markTime for Pakistan to leave the Board of Peace which it should not have joined in the first place, set up and headed by a man who has launched attacks against 7 countries and whose admin is complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Last month, Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif attended the inaugural meeting of the Gaza board and hailed Trump as “man of peace”.

Share

Rafael Grossi has said that there is no evidence that Iran is building a nuclear bomb but noted that Tehran’s refusal to grant International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors full access to facilities is “cause for serious concern”.

The IAEA director general wrote on social media:

double quotation markI have been very clear and consistent in my reports on Iran’s nuclear programme: while there has been no evidence of Iran building a nuclear bomb, its large stockpile of near-weapons grade enriched uranium and refusal to grant my inspectors full access are cause for serious concern.

For these reasons my previous reports indicate that unless and until Iran assists the IAEA in resolving the outstanding safeguards issues, the agency will not be in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful.

Share

Qatar’s defense ministry has said that Iran launched two missiles towards its territory, with one targeting US-run Al Udeid air base with no reported human loss.

Share