Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine commented about Iran during a Senate hearing : “I would encourage them to think wisely about their next moves and to take the opportunity to open the straits of Hormuz “
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- After President Trump rejected Iran’s response to the latest U.S. peace proposal and said the ceasefire is “on life support,” the speaker of Iran’s parliament said the Islamic Republic’s military is ready to “teach a lesson” to any aggressor.
- U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Tuesday that Israel sent anti-missile batteries and personnel to the UAE to help protect the country from Iranian attacks, underlying a growing defense relationship between the two Middle Eastern countries bolstered by the Iran war.
- The cost of the war in Iran has grown to $29 billion, acting Pentagon comptroller Jules Hurst said in testimony Tuesday. Secretary Pete Hegseth said last month it was $25 billion, but U.S. officials familiar with internal assessments suggested at the time the war could already have cost close to $50 billion.
Trump will be “thinking about” red line for ending ceasefire on the plane, he says
The president was asked before leaving for China what his red line will be to end the ceasefire with Iran. The president didn’t have an immediate answer, but said they’ll be thinking about that on the long plane ride to Beijing.
“Well, we’re going to see,” he said. “And we’ll be thinking about it on the flight and we’ll be thinking about it for the next little while. But we’ve beaten their military very soundly, that’s over with.”
“I don’t think” Xi needs to do anything to intervene with Iran, Trump says
Speaking to reporters on the White House South Lawn before leaving for his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China, President Trump told reporters, “I don’t think” Xi needs to do anything to help with Iran.
“I don’t think he does,” Mr. Trump told reporters about Xi. “I don’t think we need any help with Iran.”
Last week, Mr. Trump told Fox News he isn’t overly disappointed about China, but said China “could help a lot more” on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran criticizes U.S.’s alleged “humiliation, threats, and coercive score-settling”
As President Trump threatens a return to military operations against Iran, the country’s leaders expressed dissatisfaction with how the United States has negotiated a peace deal.
“True peace cannot be built with a literature of humiliation, threats, and coercive score-settling,” Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadim, wrote on X. “When the party that has itself played a direct role in war, siege, sanctions, and threats through brute force rejects Iran’s response simply because it is not a capitulation, it becomes clear that the real issue is not peace, but the imposition of political will through threats and pressure.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly rejected Iran’s proposals for a lasting end to conflict, most recently referring to a proposal filed late last week as “Totally Unacceptable.”
Gharibabadim wrote Iran is looking for a deal including a permanent end to the war; compensation for damages; an end to the siege in the Strait of Hormuz; a repeal of sanctions; and respect for Iran’s sovereignty.
He referred to the talks as “the continuation of a policy of coercion dressed in diplomatic language.”
Kuwait summons Iranian ambassador over paramilitary island attack
Kuwait has summoned the Iranian ambassador over the reported Iran-linked attack on Bubuiyan Island on Kuwait’s eastern border.
The country’s ministry of defense reported Tuesday that six people associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had “attempted to enter the country by sea.” The Kuwaiti national news agency said after clashes with local security services, four of the assailants were arrested and two escaped.
Kuwaiti Deputy Foreign Minister Hamad Suleiman Al-Meshaan handed Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Totonji a “formal protest note” over the incident on Tuesday, according to a statement from Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he “reiterated Kuwait’s strong condemnation and denunciation of this hostile act.”
Kuwait, along with its Persian Gulf neighbors, came under repeated Iranian missile and drone attacks starting Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched their joint war with Iran, until the tenuous ceasefire between Washington and Tehran took effect on April 8.
Gen. Caine urges Iran “to think wisely about their next moves”
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois asked Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine how Iran is still capable of stopping ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
“It’s a complex situation out there, with a lot of different small boats that are out there and other capabilities,” Caine told members of a Senate appropriations subcommittee. “Some of this is on the commercial traffickers, some of this is on, again, back to the main problem, and that’s Iran holding the global economy hostage through the straits.”
“I would encourage them to think wisely about their next moves and to take the opportunity to open the straits — they have that choice to make,” he said.
CBS
