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Iran’s new leader issues new statement, says Strait of Hormuz to remain closed
Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei released a new message Thursday saying that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the war is over.
The message about the Strait of Hormuz — a key route where much of the world’s oil travels through — was read by a news anchor on Iranian state television.
Khamenei also told Gulf neighbors that U.S. military bases need to be removed from their countries. Iran has repeatedly been firing at countries across the Middle East in response to the United States’ Operation Epic Fury.
Mojtaba Khamenei did not appear in person while making the statement.
Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst said Thursday on “America’s Newsroom” that the late ayatollah’s son was injured in one of the opening strikes of Operation Epic Fury, citing an Israeli intelligence official. Yingst added that the official downplayed reports that Mojtaba Khamenei was critically injured.
Fox News’ Thomas Ferraro contributed to this report.
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
16 mins agoWWhite House considers temporary Jones Act waiver to ‘ensure vital energy products’ flow to US ports
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Thursday that, “In the interest of national defense, the White House is considering waiving the Jones Act for a limited period of time to ensure vital energy products and agricultural necessities are flowing freely to U.S. ports.”
“This action has not been finalized,” she added.
Fox News’ Pat Ward contributed to this report.
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
25 mins agoState Dept says 47,000 Americans returned from the Middle East to US, assistance provided to 32,000
A State Department official told Fox News that around 47,000 Americans have now returned to the U.S. since Operation Epic Fury was launched on Feb. 28.
The official said Thursday that the State Department has provided assistance to about 32,000 Americans and has reached out to every individual who has registered interest in support from the State Department.
Approximately four dozen charter flights will be completed by the end of the day on Thursday, the official added.
Fox News’ James Levinson contributed to this report.
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
57 mins agoFire on the USS Gerald R Ford injures 2, aircraft carrier remains ‘fully operational’
The U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet said Thursday that the USS Gerald R. Ford experienced a fire that injured two sailors, but that the carrier remains “fully operational.”
“On March 12, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) experienced a fire that originated in the ship’s main laundry spaces. The cause of the fire was not combat-related and is contained,” the agencies said.
“There is no damage to the ship’s propulsion plant, and the aircraft carrier remains fully operational,” they continued. “Two Sailors are currently receiving medical treatment for non-life-threatening injuries and are in stable condition. Additional information will be provided when available.”
“The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Red Sea in support of Operation Epic Fury,” they also said.
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
1 hour agoTrump says ‘we’ve got our eyes on’ Iranian sleeper cells in US
President Donald Trump hailed the swift prosecution of the military campaign against Iran, but acknowledged there are terrorist “sleeper cells” in the U.S. that have to be watched and dealt with.
Trump said Wednesday that he has been briefed on terror alerts and threats, including reported plans to conduct a drone attack in California, but he warned that any terrorists present in the country now might be the result of former President Joe Biden’s “stupid open border.”
“A lot of people came in through Biden with his stupid open border, but we know where most of them are: We’ve got our eye on all of them, I think,” Trump said.
“They came in through the open-border policies of Sleepy Joe Biden, one of the worst — the worst president in the history of our country — and we’ve got our eyes on all of them,” the president added.
“But the war itself is being prosecuted at a level that nobody has seen before,” Trump continued. “It’s pretty — it’s pretty amazing to watch.”
When asked about a leaked law enforcement bulletin put out about a possible Iranian revenge plot in California where a potential offshore boat might launch a drone swarm, Trump replied, “It’s being investigated, but you have a lot of things happening, and all we can do is take them as they come.”
1 hour agoIsrael hits back after coordinated Iran-Hezbollah missile, drone strikes
Iran proxy Hezbollah fired some 200 missiles and drones into the Jewish state overnight and into Thursday in what Israeli media described as an “integrated Hezbollah and Iran joint attack.”
The attacks prompted fierce retaliatory strikes from the Israeli Defense Forces into Hezbollah strongholds in the Beirut suburbs.
The Israel Defense Forces said, “The IDF is operating with determination against the Hezbollah terrorist organization following its deliberate decision to attack Israel on behalf of the Iranian regime. The IDF will not tolerate any harm to Israeli civilians and will forcibly respond against any threat posed to the State of Israel.”
Calling its new operation “Eaten Straw,” the terror group claimed to have targeted Israeli military sites in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, among other targets.
Matthew Levitt, a leading scholar on Hezbollah from the Washington Institute, told Fox News about Eaten Straw. “The term comes from a Koran verse about destroying one’s enemies to the point that they are destroyed like grains of straw husks. In fact, it is going to lead to a massive Israel response.”
Just days prior to Wednesday’s attacks, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun charged Hezbollah with pushing Lebanon into becoming “a second Gaza.”
An Israeli security expert from the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, Sarit Zehavi, told Fox News Digital, that “I think that Hezbollah is trying to scare Israel from launching further operations and I truly hope that we will not be afraid, and our government will do what it has to do.”
Posted by Benjamin Weinthal
1 hour agoIsrael suspends prayer at Jerusalem holy sites after Iranian missile falls nearby
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that prayer at “all holy sites” in Jerusalem has been suspended due to an Iranian missile barrage.
“The Iranian regime is firing missiles at Jerusalem, Israel’s capital,” it wrote on X. “One of them struck a few hundred meters from the Old City, the Western Wall, Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.”
“Protecting lives & worshippers’ safety comes first. That is why prayer at all holy sites has been temporarily suspended,” the foreign ministry added.
It posted a video showing smoke rising at one of the sites.
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
2 hours agoGulf leaders ‘furious, outraged’ over Iranian attacks, US Ambassador to UN says
U.S. Ambassador to U.N. Michael Waltz told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on Thursday that leaders of Gulf states are “furious” and “outraged’ over Iran’s repeated attacks against them in recent days.
“The Iranian strategy of sowing chaos, shooting in all directions, hitting its Gulf neighbors, even hitting countries as far away as Turkey and Azerbaijan, is absolutely backfiring,” Waltz said.
“Here’s why it’s so significant. Number one, many of these countries have taken kind of a neutral position over the years when it comes to Iran,” Waltz explained.
“Qatar, for example, shares a massive gas field, the Pars gas field, with Iran, that stretches across the straits there. UAE has a massive free trade zone of Iranian goods. Oman was just mediating and providing the kind of neutral actor for us during the negotiations that Iran never approached in good faith,” Waltz said.
“They are all now standing strong. They are all uniformly, I got to tell you, and talking to them on a personal level, furious, outraged. And the fact that Iran is hitting hotels, resorts, ports, their shipping, you know, all of those, their airports, all of those civilian infrastructure has them squarely aligned with the United States,” he said.
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
2 hours agoSirens sound in Tel Aviv as Iran appears to launch missile barrage
Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reported sirens sounding in Tel Aviv on Thursday as the Iranian regime appeared to launch a fresh barrage of missiles against Israel.
“Over the past 24 hours, we’ve actually seen joint attacks by the Iranian regime and Hezbollah. They appear to be coordinating when they can to launch a number of missiles and rockets at the same time at Israeli cities,” Yingst said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”
“We know, according to US Central Command and the Israeli Air Force, they are going after these launching positions. One official here told me they are hunting the ballistic missile launchers, and that’s part of the reason that we have seen oftentimes hours go by without sirens sounding here in Tel Aviv,” he added.
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
2 hours agoTrump asserts US ‘largest oil producer in the world,’ but blocking Iran nuclear weapons top priority
President Donald Trump said Thursday that his priority is preventing the “evil” Iranian regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon despite concerns over oil prices.
“The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“BUT, of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stopping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World. I won’t ever let that happen!” he added.
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
3 hours agoQatar intercepts missile attack as Iran continues fire on its neighbors
Qatar’s Ministry of Defense announced Thursday that its armed forces “intercepted” a missile attack that targeted the country.
The development comes after Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also reported being targeted by attacks on Thursday involving missiles and drones.
U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper had said Wednesday that “Iranian forces continue to deliberately target innocent civilians in Gulf countries while hiding behind their own people as they launch attacks from highly populated cities in Iran.”
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
3 hours agoNancy Mace says she ‘jumped in to assist’ as Americans airlifted from war zone amid Iran conflict
While House Republicans gathered in South Florida to map out their strategy ahead of November’s midterm elections, one GOP lawmaker said she “jumped in to assist” with evacuation efforts overseas amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital that she traveled to the Middle East on Sunday after she learned a South Carolina family was trapped in the wake of the conflict.
“When your people are stranded in a war zone, the only answer worthy of the office, worthy of our state, worthy of our country, is to get them out,” Mace, who is running to be South Carolina’s next governor, said in a statement.
After the family made it safely back to South Carolina, Mace said she stayed in the region and partnered with Grey Bull Rescue, a Tampa-based crisis response group led by military veterans, to evacuate more Americans. Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens have scrambled to leave the Middle East following widespread flight cancellations and airspace closures due to Iranian counterstrikes.
Mace said she worked with the State Department to charter a flight for the stranded Americans while the private nonprofit supplied logistics for the rescue mission. On Wednesday night, Mace and dozens of American families on the flight landed in Greece.
Mace said 155 Americans — including 11 infants — were evacuated from Israel as part of Grey Bull Rescue’s 808th mission. The group says it has rescued 591 Americans from the region since the outbreak of the conflict.
3 hours agoStrategic Petroleum Reserve will be tapped ‘next week’ to ease gas prices, energy secretary says
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright told Fox News anchor and White House correspondent Aishah Hasnie that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will be tapped “next week” to ease strain on gas prices.
The U.S. announced on Wednesday that Washington, along with the International Energy Agency (IEA), will soon release a historic volume of oil from its emergency reserves.
The United States will add another 172 million barrels from its own Strategic Petroleum Reserve starting next week, according to Wright.
Fox News Digital’s Bonny Chu contributed to this report.
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
4 hours agoIsrael takes out Iranian commander who had close ties with Lebanon’s Hezbollah
The Israel Defense Forces announced Thursday that it has killed Abu Dharr Mohammadi, an Iranian commander who was “a central figure coordinating between Hezbollah and the Iranian terror regime.”
The IDF said Mohammadi was “the operations commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s (IRGC) missile unit within Hezbollah in Beirut,” and, “played a key role in rehabilitating Hezbollah’s missile program following Operation Northern Arrows” that Israel launched against the terrorist group in late 2024.
The announcement of the death comes after the IDF said it carried out a large-scale wave of strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut on Wednesday.
“During the strikes, the IDF eliminated dozens of Hezbollah terrorists while they were preparing launches toward Israel and dismantled dozens of launchers ready to fire. The IDF will not tolerate any harm to the residents of the State of Israel,” the IDF said.
“70 terror targets were struck including terrorist infrastructure, weapons storage facilities, central headquarters, key terrorists, and an IRGC Air Force HQ in Beirut,” it added early Thursday.
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
4 hours agoAmerican ‘lethality and precision’ is ‘eliminating’ Iran’s ability to target US forces, CENTCOM says
U.S. Central Command said Thursday that it is “eliminating Iran’s ability to threaten American forces and regional partners through lethality and precision.”
CENTCOM posted a video on X depicting strikes on Iranian missile infrastructure.
“Of course, forces executing Operation Epic Fury aren’t just defending against Iranian threats. We are methodically dismantling them by hitting Iranian missiles and drones as we also strike their defense industrial base,” CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said Wednesday.
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
4 hours agoIDF hits additional Iranian nuclear weapon development compound amid wide scale wave of strikes
The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday it has started launching a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting Iranian terror regime infrastructure across the country.
Following that announcement, the IDF said, “As part of the waves of strikes completed in the past days in Tehran, the Israeli Air Force, acting on precise IDF intelligence, struck an additional Iranian nuclear program site.”
“The ‘Taleghan’ compound was utilized by the regime to advance critical capabilities for developing nuclear weapons,” according to the IDF. “In recent years, the compound was utilized to develop advanced explosives and to conduct sensitive experiments as part of the ‘AMAD’ project, the covert nuclear weapon development program in the 2000s.”
“During Operation Rising Lion, the IDF has operated systematically against knowledge centers and infrastructure related to the Iranian nuclear weapon program in order to eliminate the emerging existential threat to the State of Israel. Despite the significant damage inflicted on the program, the Iranian regime has continued efforts to advance and develop capabilities required for the development of a nuclear weapon,” it also said.
Fox News’ Yonat Friling contributed to this report.
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
5 hours agoNew CENTCOM video shows US forces strike Iranian planes as regime ‘losing air capability day by day’
Iran’s regime is “losing air capability day by day” following repeated strikes by American forces, U.S. Central Command said late Wednesday.
“U.S. forces aren’t just defending against Iranian threats, we are methodically dismantling them,” CENTCOM wrote on X.It shared a video showing U.S. military strikes hitting planes parked in Iran, causing fireballs and sending debris flying into the air.
Operation Epic Fury, which was launched on Feb. 28 and resulted in the death of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, entered a thirteenth day Thursday.
Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond
5 hours agoContainer ship struck by projectile 40 miles off Dubai, British military says
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said a container ship was struck by an “unknown projectile” 35 nautical miles northwest of Dubai and Jebel Ali.
“UKMTO has received a report of an incident 35NM north of Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates,” the UKMTO said on Thursday. “The Master has reported the container ship was struck by unknown projectile causing a small fire onboard.”
All crew members were reported as safe. There has been no reported environmental damage.
The incident remains under investigation.
5 hours agoBahrain says fuel tanks near international airport struck by Iran, set ablaze
Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior said Iran struck its fuel tanks located near Bahrain International Airport, which started a fire.
The Iranian attack hit fuel tanks at a facility in the Muharraq Governorate, the ministry said on X.
Those in the area were urged to remain in their homes and close windows and ventilation openings as a precautionary measure against possible exposure to smoke, as fire officials worked to put out the blaze.
Authorities also shut down roads in the area and directed drivers to take alternative routes.
Bahrain’s Civil Aviation Affairs said it relocated several Gulf Air aircraft and cargo planes to alternative airports, including sites in Saudi Arabia, in response to the threat.
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