Easing Russian sanctions could open access to about 125 million barrels of crude<\/p>\n
The Trump administration is trying to make up for oil that can\u2019t pass through the Strait of Hormuz because of the Iran war.<\/p>\n
The new Treasury Department exemption applies only to Russian oil already at sea.<\/p>\n
Last week analysts estimated<\/a> there were about 125 million barrels loaded on tankers. To put that in perspective, about 20 million barrels of oil per day usually pass through the strait, according to the International Energy Agency.<\/p>\n Latest reports of live fire in the war<\/p>\n \u2014 Intense airstrikes struck early Friday around Iran\u2019s capital, Tehran, as well as outlying areas. was not immediately clear what had been targeted.<\/p>\n \u2014 Bahrain sounded sirens warning of an incoming Iranian attack.<\/p>\n \u2014 Saudi Arabia\u2019s defense ministry said it downed 28 drones after they entered the kingdom\u2019s airspace.<\/p>\n \u2014 Israel\u2019s military said Iran launched missiles toward Israel.<\/p>\n Military plane that crashed in Iraq had a crew of at least 5, US official says<\/p>\n The refueling plane is part of the operation against Iran and went down in western Iraq, but it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.<\/p>\n A U.S. official who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the developing situation said at least five crew members were aboard.<\/p>\n U.S. Central Command said rescue efforts were underway and a second plane was involved. It also said the crash was not tied to hostile fire or friendly fire.<\/p>\n The KC-135 tankers typically have a crew of three. It was not immediately clear what role the extra crew members were performing aboard the flight.<\/p>\n \u2014 Konstantin Toropin<\/p>\n Trump temporarily eases sanctions on more Russian oil<\/p>\n The U.S. Treasury Department announced Thursday that it was taking steps to further ease sanctions on Russian oil as crude prices surge during the Iran war.<\/p>\n The agency said it was granting a license that authorizes the delivery and sale of some sanctioned Russia crude oil and petroleum products for the next month.<\/p>\n Trump signaled this week that he would take further action to ease restrictions on sanctioned oil to help make for the loss of oil flowing to the market because of the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we have sanctions on some countries,\u201d Trump told reporters Monday. \u201cWe\u2019re going to take those sanctions off until the strait is up.\u201d<\/p>\n The move follows the administration granting temporary permission for India to buy Russian oil.<\/p>\n Trump says he believes Iran\u2019s supreme leader is \u2018damaged\u2019 but alive<\/p>\n The president weighed in on the status of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei after the supreme leader issued his first statement since being appointed.<\/p>\n Asked if he thinks Khamenei is alive, Trump said, \u201cI think he probably is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think he is damaged, but I think he\u2019s probably alive in some form, you know,\u201d Trump said, speaking to the Brian Kilmeade Show on Fox News Radio. The interview was taped Thursday to air Friday morning.<\/p>\n Khamenei has not appeared in public since the start of the war.<\/p>\n Trump bragged about low gas prices. The Iran conflict has him doing an about-face<\/p>\n Since starting a war with Iran caused oil and gasoline prices<\/a> to spike, The president has pivoted from a focus on keeping energy prices low to painting high oil prices as a positive.<\/p>\n The about-face comes as his team has struggled to offer a clear plan for opening up the critical Strait of Hormuz<\/a> so tankers full of oil and natural gas are no longer stranded.<\/p>\n \u201cThe United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,\u201d Trump said Thursday on his social media site.<\/p>\n It was only last month, in his State of the Union address<\/a>, that Trump bragged about gas prices at $2.30 a gallon, a figure that has since soared more than 50% to a national average of $3.60 a gallon, according to AAA.<\/p>\n \u25b6 Read more about Trump and gas prices<\/a><\/p>\n 6 French soldiers wounded in drone attack in Northern Iraq<\/p>\n The soldiers were injured Thursday in the Irbil region of Iraq, the French military said, and were immediately taken to the nearest medical center.<\/p>\n They were engaged in counterterrorism training operations with Iraqi partners at the time, according to the military. No other details were provided.<\/p>\n French troops are in Iraq as part of a multinational counterterrorism mission supporting local forces in their fight against Islamic State militants.<\/p>\n US military refueling plane has gone down in Iraq<\/p>\n Rescue efforts are underway after a U.S. military refueling plane went down in Iraq, U.S. Central Command said Thursday,<\/p>\n The KC-135 aircraft is part of the operation against Iran, but the crash was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire, the military said.<\/p>\n U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said in a statement that two aircraft were involved in the incident. One landed safely, while the other went down in western Iraq.<\/p>\n A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a developing situation, said the other plane involved also was a KC-135 tanker.<\/p>\n \u2014 Ben Finley and Konstantin Toropin<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n This item has been corrected to show that the U.S. Central Command statement doesn\u2019t say the refueling aircraft belongs to the Air Force.<\/p>\n Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon kill 15<\/p>\n One attack on the village of Erkay, in the Sidon district, killed nine people, including five children, Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said, adding that seven others were wounded.<\/p>\n An AP photographer who visited the scene found several buildings flattened and widespread destruction. Rescue workers searched through the rubble.<\/p>\n Two other Israeli strikes on separate towns in southern Lebanon killed six more, the ministry said.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s renewed offensive in Lebanon began March 2 after Hezbollah launched rockets toward northern Israel during the early days of the war triggered by the U.S. and Israel\u2019s attack on Iran.<\/p>\n Pentagon concedes it\u2019s reworking how it wants to handle efforts to minimize civilian casualties<\/p>\n The Defense Department said in a statement that its efforts to reduce civilian harm are \u201ccurrently undergoing a strategic reassessment to inform its future reorganization.\u201d<\/p>\n AP has reported that outdated intelligence likely led to the United States carrying out a missile strike on an elementary school in Iran that killed over 165 people, many of them children.<\/p>\n The Pentagon did not address media reports and critics who said that the military slashed the size of its mission central to civilian protection and that the emphasis on updating intelligence had come to a near halt.<\/p>\n The statement did acknowledge, however, that a \u201creorganization\u201d was being conducted and that functions to reduce civilian casualties have been \u201cstreamlined\u201d directly into the operations of combatant commands.<\/p>\n Iranian diplomat says Tehran is not ruling out closing the Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n \u201cIran has an inherent right to preserve the peace and security in the Strait of Hormuz, and it is our responsibility,\u201d Amir Saeid Iravani, Tehran\u2019s envoy to the U.N., told reporters Thursday.<\/p>\n His comments come a few hours after Iran\u2019s new supreme leader issued his first statement on the war<\/a>, saying that the leverage of closing the strategic waterway should be used in the ongoing war with Israel and the U.S.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s attacks on shipping during the war have effectively closed the strait.<\/p>\n Israeli strikes on checkpoints in Iran aim to weaken state control, monitoring group says<\/p>\n At least 18 instances in which Israel struck checkpoints operated by Iran\u2019s paramilitary Basij forces, mostly in the capital, were documented on Wednesday alone by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, the U.S-based group known as ACLED<\/a>.<\/p>\n ACLED said the strikes may be aimed at stoking unrest among the security forces, who play a key role in suppressing dissent.<\/p>\n Since the start of the war, ACLED said at least 30% of its recorded U.S. and Israeli strikes have targeted Iran\u2019s system of internal control, including police stations and sites used by intelligence and Revolutionary Guard forces involved in domestic security.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s prime minister said Thursday that his country was trying to create the conditions for Iranians to rise up against the government. However, hundreds of thousands of people work for the internal security forces across the country, ACLED said.<\/p>\n Stocks sink worldwide as Iran war rages on<\/p>\n With no clear end in sight, the war with Iran<\/a> sent oil prices back to $100 per barrel on Thursday, and stocks sank worldwide.<\/p>\n The S&P 500 fell 1.5% and resumed its sharp swings <\/a> following a couple days of relative calm<\/a>. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 739 points, or 1.6%, and the Nasdaq composite lost 1.8%.<\/p>\n The center of action was again the oil market, where the price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 9.2% to settle at $100.46. Worries are worsening that the war could block the production of oil <\/a> in the Persian Gulf for a long time and cause a debilitating surge of inflation <\/a> for the global economy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u25b6 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n Damage to historical sites in Iran raises alarm about war\u2019s impact on protected places<\/p>\n At least four of Iran\u2019s nearly 30 historical sites, including palaces and an ancient mosque, have sustained damage from U.S. and Israeli strikes during the war.<\/p>\n The speed and extent of the damage made Iran and Lebanon so concerned that they sent a request this week to the United Nations\u2019 cultural agency, UNESCO, to add more sites to its enhanced protection list.<\/p>\n UNESCO said it shared site coordinates with combatants beforehand to help avoid damage, but warned that modern conflicts increasingly endanger civilians, infrastructure and cultural heritage.<\/p>\n One nonprofit group has pointed to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying last week that America\u2019s approach to the war would not include \u201cstupid rules of engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n \u25b6 Read more<\/a><\/p>\n Israel killed top Iranian nuclear scientists, Netanyahu says<\/p>\n Israeli attacks killed one senior scientist involved in developing nuclear weapons and hit several other Irani scientists, the prime minister said as he took questions Thursday from reporters for the first time since this war began.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n This item has been updated to correct that Netanyahu said Israeli attacks killed a top Iranian nuclear scientist, not multiple scientists.<\/p>\n Iranian ambassador says new supreme leader sustained minor injuries in strike that killed his father<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not a serious injury and he is recovering,\u201d Mir Masoud Hosseinian, Iran\u2019s ambassador to Tunisia, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.<\/p>\n Iranian officials have released little information about Khamenei’s<\/a> condition, although an Israeli intelligence assessment suggests he was wounded in the war\u2019s opening strikes. He did not appear on television Thursday when his first statement as supreme leader was read by a news anchor.<\/p>\n Hosseinian also denounced the countries hosting U.S. bases in the Gulf and said they had exposed themselves to the conflict.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will decide how this war ends,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Netanyahu: \u2018We are creating the optimal conditions for the fall of the regime\u2019<\/p>\n At a news conference Thursday night, the Israeli prime minister denounced Iran\u2019s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, as a \u201cpuppet of the Revolutionary Guards\u201d who cannot appear in public.<\/p>\n And he addressed the Iranian people, saying the moment for a \u201cnew path of freedom\u201d was approaching and Israel stands with them.<\/p>\n \u201cBut at the end of the day, it depends on you. It is in your hands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Netanyahu says the U.S.-Israeli strikes against the country are an effort to give Iranians \u201cthe space needed to go out to the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel and the U.S. have given conflicting answers about what exactly the war\u2019s objectives are and what the endgame is.<\/p>\n As Netanyahu was speaking, Israel\u2019s military said it had detected a new barrage of missiles launched from Iran toward Israel.<\/p>\n No significant injuries to US personnel after attack on base in Iraq, official says<\/p>\n An attack on a base in northern Iraq resulted in no significant injuries to American personnel, a U.S. defense official said Thursday.<\/p>\n The official, who wasn\u2019t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the U.S. personnel are still on duty after Wednesday\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n British military officials said earlier Thursday that several U.S. personnel were injured in drone strikes at a base in Irbil that houses both British and American troops.<\/p>\n The U.K. and U.S. military officials did not specify if the wounded were American troops.<\/p>\n \u2014 Ben Finley<\/p>\n The islands off Iran\u2019s southern coast are key to its economy and security<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s parliament speaker warned on Thursday<\/a> that attacks on the Persian Gulf islands on Iran\u2019s southern maritime frontier would provoke a new level of retaliation, underscoring how central they are to the country\u2019s economy and security.<\/p>\n In a social media post, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Iran \u201cwill abandon all restraint\u201d if the islands come under attack and said Trump will be responsible for \u201cthe blood of American soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n Kharg Island, Qeshm Island, and the tiny islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunb carry outsized importance because of their oil facilities and strategic location. \u201cA direct strike would immediately halt the bulk of Iran\u2019s crude exports, likely triggering severe retaliation,\u201d JPMorgan said in an investment note this week.<\/p>\n \u25b6 Read more<\/a><\/p>\n Top US military commander in Europe says air defenses moved because of Iran war<\/p>\n Gen. Alexus Grynkewich told lawmakers on a Senate committee that the precious weapons systems have been moved from Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean to protect NATO allies. He also said \u201cwe do have a robust set of air defenses in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n The general was pressed on the issue by Sen. Angus King, and independent from Maine, who cited Ukraine\u2019s need for such weapons systems to defend against Russia.<\/p>\n Democratic lawmakers have argued<\/a> Trump is waging a \u201cwar of choice\u201d as munitions for missile defense systems diminish. The Trump administration has repeatedly said American forces have all the weapons they need.<\/p>\n US general tells lawmakers military has \u2018robust standards\u2019 for reducing civilian harm<\/p>\n A top Pentagon official addressed concerns Thursday that outdated intelligence<\/a> likely led to a deadly American missile strike on an Iranian school<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gen. Alexus Grynkewich spoke at a Senate committee hearing on European operations. But Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., pressed the head of European Command on the strike and on staffing cuts at a Pentagon office that focuses on reducing civilian casualties.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have robust standards that we go through, and look to see and update the imagery, and update our understanding of the target and refresh the intelligence on a recurring basis to determine the chances of civilian harm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Israeli strike kills two academics at Lebanese university<\/p>\n The Israeli strike that hit in the vicinity of Lebanon\u2019s only public university killed the director of the faculty of sciences Hussein Bazzi and professor Mortada Srour.<\/p>\n The campus is in Hadath, on the outskirts of Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs, which Israel had warned last week should be evacuated. It was not clear whether the campus was directly targeted, but smoke could be seen rising near the building\u2019s courtyard in the aftermath. Israel had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the bombing, which he said targeted the campus, as a crime and a \u201cviolation of international laws and norms that prohibit attacks on educational institutions and civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n Cyber threats rise as Iran-linked hackers eye US targets<\/p>\n Pro-Iranian hackers targeting sites in the Middle East are starting to stretch into the United States, raising risks that American defense contractors, power stations and water plants could be swept into the Iran war\u2019s digital chaos.<\/p>\n Hackers supporting Iran claimed responsibility for a significant cyberattack Wednesday against U.S. medical device company Stryker. They\u2019ve also tried to penetrate cameras in Middle Eastern countries to improve Iran\u2019s missile targeting, and hit data centers in the region, industrial facilities in Israel, a school in Saudi Arabia and an airport in Kuwait.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething is going to happen because the gloves are off,\u201d said Kevin Mandia, founder of the cybersecurity companies Mandiant and Armadin.<\/p>\n \u25b6 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n Iran\u2019s supreme leader vows in his first public statement to keep open a \u2018file of revenge\u2019<\/p>\n Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first statement on the war<\/a> Thursday \u2014 read by a state television news anchor \u2014 vowing to avenge not just the killings of his father and other leaders by the U.S. and Israel, but that of every Iranian who has died in this war.<\/p>\n \u201cI assure everyone that we will not refrain from avenging the blood of your martyrs,\u201d his statement said. \u201cThe retaliation we have in mind is not limited only to the martyrdom of the great leader of the Revolution; rather, every member of the nation who is martyred by the enemy constitutes a separate case in the file of revenge.\u201d<\/p>\n \u25b6 Read more of Khamenei\u2019s comments<\/a><\/p>\n Infrastructure that supplies the world with oil and gas is at risk<\/p>\n The Iran war threatens some of the world\u2019s most critical oil and gas infrastructure \u2014 the pipelines, refineries, and shipping terminals that keep energy flowing from the Persian Gulf region to the global economy.<\/p>\n Strikes by Iranian drones<\/a> and missiles have disrupted some operations, while the risk of Iranian strikes has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, the conduit for some 20% of the world\u2019s oil and liquefied natural gas. Oil fields in the region have cut back output as storage fills up.<\/p>\n All that is raising the cost<\/a> of everything that needs fuel made from crude: flying, cooking, heating homes, running factories, transporting goods, and farming.<\/p>\n \u25b6 Read about the key infrastructure at risk<\/a>.<\/p>\n Israel says it\u2019s launching more airstrikes on Beirut<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s military said Thursday night it had begun another wave of strikes on Lebanon\u2019s capital, saying it was targeting Hezbollah sites.<\/p>\n It came after Israeli strikes earlier Thursday hit a building in a busy residential and commercial district in central Beirut, close to the prime minister\u2019s office, the U.N. building and foreign embassies.<\/p>\n US continues to destroy Iran\u2019s minelaying capacity as crucial waterway remains closed<\/p>\n The U.S. military said Thursday that American forces have now struck more than 6,000 targets since the operation against Iran began Feb. 28, including 30-plus minelaying vessels. It’s aiming to prevent Iranian threats from closing oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n The war in Iran<\/a> has ground tanker traffic through the chokepoint to a halt and oil prices have been swinging sharply<\/a>. The Islamic Republic vowed to prevent “even a single liter’<\/a> of oil from reaching its enemies and their allies.<\/p>\n White House considers waiving Jones Act requirements during Iran war<\/p>\n The 1920s law is often blamed for making gas more expensive. It requires goods shipped between U.S. ports to be moved on U.S.-flagged vessels, and is designed to protect the American shipbuilding sector.<\/p>\n White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that temporarily waiving the requirement could \u201censure vital energy products and agricultural necessities are flowing freely to U.S. ports.\u201d The action has not been finalized, she said.<\/p>\n UN chief renews call for end to war, return to negotiations<\/p>\n U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the U.S.-Israeli military strikes, followed by Iran\u2019s retaliatory attacks, have caused \u201cimmense suffering\u201d and pushed the region to a breaking point.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd as always, the most vulnerable are being hurt first and worst,\u201d Guterres said. \u201cDe-escalation and dialogue are the only way out.\u201d<\/p>\n He made the comments in the Turkish capital where he received the country\u2019s peace prize on behalf of global U.N. staff.<\/p>\n The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Easing Russian sanctions could open access to about 125 million barrels of crude The Trump administration is trying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[201766,45,49,48,1376,3412,5897,1258,208802,3241,9891,172000,208803],"class_list":["post-532851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ali-khamenei","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-donald-trump","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-mojtaba-khamenei","tag-oil","tag-oil-prices","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-supreme-leader"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}