Strikes may set Iran back — but likely won’t end nuclear program, UN watchdog chief warns
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog chief says Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles remain largely in place and its nuclear infrastructure — much of it buried deep underground — cannot be fully eliminated by airstrikes, underscoring the limits of military action.
The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog suggested to reporters Wednesday Iran’s nuclear program is unlikely to be eliminated through military force, warning that ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes cannot fully dismantle Tehran’s capabilities.
Asked directly whether the program could be resolved militarily, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said he did not believe it could.
NEXT MOVE ON IRAN: SEIZE KHARG ISLAND, SECURE URANIUM OR RISK GROUND WAR ESCALATION
“This program is a very vast program,” Grossi said, describing a network of facilities, expertise and infrastructure built throughout decades. “At the end of this … the material will still be there, the enrichment capacities will be there.”
“We will have to go back to some form of negotiation,” he said.
Grossi emphasized he does not offer military advice, framing his comments as a technical assessment of the program’s scope.
The nuclear inspector said the agency’s assessment is that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile remains largely where it was prior to the strikes, with most of the material believed to be at the Isfahan nuclear complex and smaller amounts at Natanz.
“Our assumption is that the material is … where it was,” he said.
That reality underscores a broader challenge: much of Iran’s most sensitive nuclear infrastructure — including storage sites for enriched uranium — is buried deep underground, making it difficult to destroy through airstrikes alone.
While U.S. and Israeli strikes have degraded parts of Iran’s nuclear program, including above-ground facilities and support infrastructure, they have not eliminated the core components of the program.
That assessment aligns with previous reporting on the limits of military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Analysts say highly enriched uranium stored at sites like Isfahan is believed to be kept deep underground in relatively mobile containers, making it difficult to destroy or secure without direct access to the facilities.
UN NUCLEAR CHIEF WARNS STRIKE NEAR IRAN REACTOR RISKS CROSSING ‘REDDEST LINE’
“It’s not even clear the United States knows where all of the uranium is,” Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, previously told Fox News Digital, noting that the mobility of storage containers raises the possibility that some material could be moved or dispersed.
Iran possessed roughly 441 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% as of mid-2025 — enough, if further enriched, to fuel multiple nuclear weapons, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Experts estimate the final step to weapons-grade enrichment could take weeks under ideal conditions, though building a deliverable weapon would require additional time for weaponization and delivery systems.
Grossi also pointed to continued uncertainty surrounding a newly disclosed enrichment facility near Isfahan.
The site is believed to be a newly declared underground enrichment facility where Iran could potentially install centrifuges to produce enriched uranium. Grossi said the International Atomic Energy Agency has not yet inspected the location and does not know whether it is operational, under construction or equipped with nuclear material.
“We know where it is… but we have not been able to go,” he said.
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Grossi said the agency has not been able to access some sites during the conflict and is relying in part on imagery to assess conditions.
The gaps in access highlight the limits of current monitoring. Grossi acknowledged the agency lacks full visibility into some parts of Iran’s program, particularly sites it has not been able to inspect.
UN nuclear chief warns strike near Iran reactor risks crossing ‘reddest line’
The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog warned Wednesday that a projectile strike near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant risked crossing the “reddest line” of nuclear safety, as fighting between the U.S., Israel and Iran intensifies.
A direct hit on an operating nuclear reactor like Bushehr could trigger a severe radiological incident, even as a recent strike caused no apparent damage to the plant’s core systems, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said.
“An accident on an operating nuclear power plant would be something very, very serious,” Grossi told Fox News Digital Wednesday. “This is the reddest line of all that you have in nuclear safety.”
“The possibility of dispersion in the atmosphere of radioactivity is very high if you get to the core of the reactor,” he added.
TRUMP’S MIDDLE EAST ENVOY REVEALS WHAT LED TO BREAKDOWN IN IRAN TALKS BEFORE OPERATION EPIC FURY
A projectile struck part of the Bushehr nuclear power plant complex in recent days, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, marking the closest known impact on an operating reactor since the conflict began. It remains unclear what caused the strike or who was responsible.
Grossi said the impact appears to have hit a smaller structure within the facility’s broader premises — possibly a laboratory or auxiliary building — and did not affect the reactor itself or cause any reported casualties.
He noted that nuclear power plants are large compounds that include administrative buildings and support infrastructure beyond the reactor itself, increasing the likelihood that a strike could hit the site without directly damaging the core.
AMERICA STRIKES IRAN AGAIN — HAS WASHINGTON PLANNED FOR WHAT COMES NEXT?
Grossi said the agency has not conducted an on-site inspection, noting that “independent” verification would require being physically present, but said available imagery suggests the damage is not significant.
But he stressed the risks would be far more severe if the reactor were struck.
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Unlike other nuclear facilities, an operating reactor contains a live core undergoing nuclear fission, meaning a direct strike could release large amounts of radioactive material into the environment.
Grossi said there is broad international understanding that nuclear power plants should not be targeted during conflict, even as recent strikes have come dangerously close to sensitive nuclear infrastructure.
Iran blamed the United States and Israel for the strike, though the claim has not been independently verified.
U.S. officials have not confirmed involvement, and Israel’s military said it was not aware of any such strike.
Trey Yingst visits site of Iranian cluster missile attack that killed 2 Israelis
Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst visited the site of an Iranian strike near Tel Aviv that killed at least two civilians and damaged homes. There, he spoke to a neighbor who shared his account of the attack.
Israeli resident Chen Amir told Yingst he heard a loud “boom” that caused a light fixture and glasses in his house to shake. He said he eventually opened his door and saw smoke from the explosion.
Yingst reported from the impact site after the overnight Iranian strike, showing a destroyed apartment in the aftermath of what he described as a cluster munition attack.
Yingst also met an Israeli military official at the scene who said the “cluster bombs” disperse smaller explosives across a wide area, making itdifficult for Israel’s advanced air defense systems to intercept them.
FIERY AFTERMATH OF IRAN MISSILE STRIKE NEAR TEL AVIV CAUGHT ON VIDEO AFTER 2 KILLED
IDF International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Iran had been firing cluster bombs “since day one of the war” and alleged the weapons were being directed toward civilian population centers.
NATO HEAVYWEIGHTS BALK AT HORMUZ MISSION AS TRUMP WARNS ALLIANCE AT RISK
“We know this also from intelligence, but also from the type of munitions. The Iranians are purposely targeting civilians, firing these cluster bombs towards the centers of mass populations. These cluster bombs break into dozens of rockets [that] disperse over miles in the center of a large city… causing this damage to civilian houses,” Shoshani said.
New reports signal a fresh wave of strikes against the Iranian regime targeting oil infrastructure, Yingst said.
His account comes as Iran launches retaliatory strikes amid Operation Epic Fury, a U.S. military campaign aiming to eliminate Iran’s offensive and nuclear capabilities.
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The cluster bombs presented a unique challenge for Israeli defenses, Yingst said.
“The threat that we’re facing now, in terms of the population on the ground, when you see this incoming fire — it’s not the precision missiles and the large barrages of dozens of missiles at a time. It’s the cluster munition.”
McConnell claims Joe Kent’s resignation letter contained ‘virulent anti-Semitism’
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky asserted in a post on X that Joe Kent’s resignation letter was tainted by “virulent anti-Semitism.”
Kent posted the resignation letter on Tuesday, announcing that he was stepping down from the role of National Counterterrorism Center director.
“Joe Kent testified before the Senate one year ago that Iran and its terror proxies threatened U.S. servicemembers in the Middle East. He said it would be an honor to return to the fight against terrorism, and he pledged to lead with integrity and accountability,” McConnell declared in the post on X.
“The virulent anti-Semitism of his resignation letter makes it clear that Mr. Kent is incapable of upholding these pledges, and those who mistake its baseless and incendiary conspiracies for brave truth-telling are only fooling themselves. Isolationists and anti-Semites have no place in either party, and certainly do not deserve places of trust in our government,” the senator added.
TRUMP RESURFACES OLD TWEET FROM INTEL OFFICIAL WHO RESIGNED
Kent explained in the resignation letter that he was leaving the job due to his opposition to the Iran war.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent wrote in the message directed toward President Donald Trump.
WHITE HOUSE, AFTER TOP COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL QUITS, SAYS TRUMP HAD ‘STRONG’ EVIDENCE IRAN WOULD ATTACK US
“Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again,” he warned.
“As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives,” Kent declared in his resignation letter.
DNI TULSI GABBARD SAYS TRUMP ACTED BECAUSE HE CONCLUDED THE IRANIAN REGIME ‘POSED AN IMMINENT THREAT’
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McConnell, who has served in the U.S. Senate since early 1985, is not seeking another term this year.
Belgium deploys military to guard Jewish sites after Iran-linked group claims Europe attacks
Belgium is ramping up security for its Jewish community after a recent synagogue attack heightened fears across Europe, as a newly emerged terrorist group with suspected ties to Iran has claimed responsibility for a series of strikes on Jewish targets across the continent.
Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya, translated as “The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right,” said it carried out multiple attacks recently, including the March 9 explosion at a synagogue in Liège, Belgium, according to a Fox News Digital report. The group also claimed responsibility for an arson attack on a synagogue in Rotterdam, Belgium, and an explosive attack on a Jewish school in Amsterdam.
A fourth incident at a Jewish site in Greece has been linked to the group by several sources, though details about that attack remain limited.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said March 15 that “a jihadi group tied to an Iranian proxy” was behind the attacks, adding that “the IRGC continues to sponsor and export terror across the globe,” referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
NYC BOOSTS PATROLS AMID ‘HEIGHTENED THREAT ENVIRONMENT,’ AFTER GUNMAN RAMS TRUCK INTO MICHIGAN SYNAGOGUE
Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin described the blast outside a synagogue in the eastern city of Liège as a “despicable antisemitic act” that directly targeted the country’s Jewish community.
Prime Minister Bart De Wever responded on X Monday morning, writing, “Antisemitism is an attack on our values and our society, and we must combat it unequivocally. We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community in Liège and throughout the country.”
Joe Truzman, senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of its Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital that the war in Iran has likely “compelled the group, for whoever is behind this, to start launching these attacks.”
Truzman said he “suspect(s) this organization is being directed” and that there is “an entity behind it.”
In response to the attack in Liège, Belgian officials announced increased protection measures.
“To protect our Jewish community, we are deploying military personnel to support security on our streets. The safety of every citizen must be guaranteed,” Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken wrote on X Monday. “Antisemitism and hatred against Jews will never be tolerated. We will stand firm against it, always.”
CANADA’S CARNEY UNDER PRESSURE TO ACT AFTER SYNAGOGUES SHOT AT IN LATEST ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS
The move drew praise from U.S. officials.
“Last week, I urged Belgian officials to adequately protect Jewish communities—thank you, Defense Minister Francken and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prévot, for stepping up with increased security measures,” Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism at the State Department, wrote, adding that he looks forward to working with Belgian counterparts “to safeguard the Jewish community.”
Undersecretary of State Sarah B. Rogers also welcomed the decision, calling it a rare example of action rather than rhetoric.
“We hear a lot of talk about combating antisemitism and other forms of hatred — but it’s satisfying to see practical action, like this, to guard the public square against brute terrorist violence targeting Jews and others,” Rogers wrote on X. “Liberty in the tweets, order in the streets.”
Belgium long has maintained heightened security around Jewish institutions following past attacks, including the 2014 shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels that killed four people — one of the deadliest antisemitic attacks in the country’s modern history.
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Still, Jewish organizations warn the current moment reflects a renewed and dangerous escalation.
“This criminal act against a Jewish house of worship is deeply alarming and part of a broader and troubling rise in antisemitic incidents and violent extremism across Europe,” the World Jewish Congress said in a March 10 statement.
DNI Tulsi Gabbard says Trump acted because he concluded the Iranian regime ‘posed an imminent threat’
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday issued a post on X in which she noted that President Donald Trump targeted Iran based on his conclusion that the regime “posed an imminent threat.”
She issued the post in the wake of Joe Kent’s resignation from his role as National Counterterrorism Center director over his opposition to the Iran war that Trump launched more than two weeks ago in conjunction with Israel.
“Donald Trump was overwhelmingly elected by the American people to be our President and Commander in Chief. As our Commander in Chief, he is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat, and whether or not to take action he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops, the American people and our country,” Gabbard noted in her post.
WHITE HOUSE, AFTER TOP COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL QUITS, SAYS TRUMP HAD ‘STRONG’ EVIDENCE IRAN WOULD ATTACK US
“The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is responsible for helping coordinate and integrate all intelligence to provide the President and Commander in Chief with the best information available to inform his decisions,” she added.
“After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion,” Gabbard wrote.
TRUMP BIDS GOODBYE TO INTEL OFFICIAL WHO RESIGNED OVER IRAN: ‘GOOD THING THAT HE’S OUT’
Kent publicly shared his resignation letter on Tuesday, asserting that Iran did not pose an imminent threat to the U.S.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent wrote.
“Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” he asserted in the resignation letter.
TOP COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL RESIGNS IN PROTEST OF US WAR AGAINST IRAN
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Trump pushed back on Tuesday, saying that “it’s a good thing that he’s out because he said that Iran was not a threat. Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was. The question is whether or not they wanted to do something about it.”
Trump resurfaces old tweet from intel official who resigned
In the wake of Joe Kent’s resignation from the position of National Counterterrorism Center director over his opposition to the Iran war, President Donald Trump highlighted a years-old tweet in which Kent had urged the president to “wipe Iran’s ballistic capability out.”
In the January 2020 post on X, Kent tagged the president and wrote, “We should not sit and wait for the next attack, wipe Iran’s ballistic capability out and get our troops out of Iraq – they are only targets now. No US WIA/KIA is a tribute to the professionalism of our military and intel professionals not Iranian restraint.”
Kent made the post in January 2020 after a U.S. strike earlier that month killed Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.
TOP COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL RESIGNS IN PROTEST OF US WAR AGAINST IRAN
In the resignation letter that he posted to X on Tuesday, Kent asserted that Iran did not pose an imminent threat to the U.S.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent wrote.
IRANIAN INTELLIGENCE MINISTER KILLED IN PRECISION AIRSTRIKE, WHILE US MILITARY TARGETS MISSILE SITES
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard issued a post on X in which she noted that the president targeted Iran due to his view that the regime represented “an imminent threat.”
“The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is responsible for helping coordinate and integrate all intelligence to provide the President and Commander in Chief with the best information available to inform his decisions,” Gabbard said in the post.
TRUMP BIDS GOODBYE TO INTEL OFFICIAL WHO RESIGNED OVER IRAN: ‘GOOD THING THAT HE’S OUT’
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“After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion,” she noted.
Winning the battles, losing the war? America must define the endgame in Iran
The Pentagon’s briefings on Operation Epic Fury leave no room for debate: the U.S.-Israeli air campaign has hammered Iran. War Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed more than 15,000 targets were struck. Tehran’s air defenses are in ruins. Its navy is wrecked. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine reported Iran’s ballistic missile launches against Israel and Gulf partners are down 90% since the first day of the war. By every battlefield measure, this campaign has delivered a punishing blow to the regime.
But wars are not won on target lists. They are won when military force produces a durable political outcome. More than two weeks into this campaign, that outcome remains undefined. That is the problem.
Consider the economic fallout. The Strait of Hormuz — the choke point through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil supply moves — is effectively closed. Tanker traffic has stopped. Oil has blown past $100 a barrel, with Brent crude touching $119 before Iran’s new supreme leader doubled down on keeping the strait shut. The International Energy Agency called it the largest oil supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. That is not a rounding error. That is inflation, economic drag and political pressure on every Western government involved.
TRUMP SUDDENLY SEEMS ANXIOUS TO END THE WAR AS AMERICAN CASUALTIES MOUNT AND IRAN FINDS WAYS TO HIT BACK
The military cost is just as serious. Tomahawks, Patriots, long-range strike missiles — the precision weapons that define American warfighting — are being burned at extraordinary rates. The Pentagon told Congress this week that the first six days of Operation Epic Fury cost more than $11.3 billion, and that figure does not include pre-deployment costs or munitions replacement. Defense analysts and current officials warn the Iran campaign is drawing down the precise weapons stockpiles the United States would need to deter China in the Pacific — and that depleted inventories will take years to replace. Every Tomahawk fired over Tehran is one less available for the Taiwan Strait.
The human cost is real and irreversible. At least seven American service members were killed in combat operations before Thursday. Then all six crew members of a KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft were confirmed dead after the tanker went down over western Iraq while supporting combat strikes. Secretary Hegseth acknowledged the loss, saying “war is hell, war is chaos” and calling the airmen “American heroes, all of them.” They are also sons and daughters of American families — a fact that demands an honest accounting of what we are asking them to achieve.
Despite the pounding, the Iranian regime has not collapsed. Tehran installed Mojtaba Khamenei — the slain supreme leader’s son, described by analysts as a hardliner with deep IRGC ties — as the new ruler within days of the war starting. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps backed him immediately, and he has already vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and promised to attack every U.S. base in the region. This is not a regime on the verge of surrender.
The IRGC and Iran’s ruling clerics do not view this war purely as a geopolitical contest. They see it as a religious fight — a defense of the Islamic Republic against what they describe as an American-Zionist assault. Regimes that fight in God’s name are not easily coerced by bomb tonnage. That is not an excuse for weakness. It is a reality that must shape strategy.
EX-NAVY SEAL WARNS WITHDRAWING FROM IRAN NOW WOULD HAND ‘VICTORY’ TO REGIME
History drives the point home. Conventional airpower has never toppled a determined government by itself. Not in World War II. Not in Korea, Vietnam, Kosovo, Iraq or Afghanistan. Air campaigns degrade capability and shape battlefields. They do not deliver political collapse — not without a ground force or an internal revolt. Neither is coming.
That raises the central strategic question: what exactly is the United States trying to achieve? President Donald Trump set clear objectives — deny Iran nuclear weapons and destroy its ability to threaten its neighbors with missiles and drones. After almost three weeks of strikes, those goals are within reach. But Trump has also suggested he wants to approve Iran’s next leader and questioned whether the Islamic Republic itself should survive. That is not counterproliferation. That is regime change — and regime change requires far more than an air campaign.
The question now is not whether America can keep striking Iran. Of course it can. The question is whether more strikes move the country toward a defined end state — or simply run up the cost of a war with no finish line.
Three steps point the way out.
First, complete the remaining military objectives: suppress residual missile launch capability, clear Iranian mines threatening the Strait of Hormuz, and finish the nuclear infrastructure work. Get the job done, then stop.
Second, define publicly what “done” looks like. The administration has been deliberately vague on the campaign’s end point. That ambiguity may serve short-term messaging, but it rattles markets, unnerves allies and leaves the American public in the dark about what this war is for.
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Third, shift from large-scale strikes to sustained pressure: maritime security operations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, aggressive sanctions enforcement, interception of Iranian weapons transfers and a credible deterrent posture against renewed aggression. Keep the boot on Tehran’s throat without an open-ended air campaign.
In plain terms: finish the military mission, then stop widening the war.
The United States and Israel have won the opening rounds of this fight. The danger now is the pattern that played out in Iraq and Afghanistan — early military success followed by years of costly, inconclusive war that erodes the original victory. America has the firepower to keep striking Iran indefinitely. What it needs is the strategic discipline to stop when the mission is accomplished.
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The men and women executing this campaign deserve more than tactical wins. They deserve a strategy as disciplined as their service.
And so does the country.
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US bunker-buster bombs hammer Iranian anti-ship missile sites near Strait of Hormuz
U.S. forces hammered Iran’s anti-ship missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz with 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on Tuesday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said.
The strikes near the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil choke point, come as Iran’s stranglehold over the vital waterway has grown concerns over the regime’s threats to oil tankers.
“Hours ago, U.S. forces successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM posted Tuesday evening on X.
Deep GBU- 72 penetrator weapons, often referred to as bunker busters, are designed to cut through hardened or underground targets before detonating. The munition was first tested by the Air Force in 2021.
TRUMP SAYS MOST NATO ALLIES ‘DON’T WANT TO GET INVOLVED’ IN IRAN OPERATION, BUT US ‘NEVER’ NEEDED THEIR HELP
“The Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles in these sites posed a risk to international shipping in the strait,” the command said.
Most shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway for global oil and gas transport that supplies roughly one-fifth of the world’s crude oil, has been halted since early March, after the war started. About 20 vessels have been attacked in the area.
Oil prices have jumped more than 40% to above $100 per barrel since the Iran war began, and Iran has threatened it won’t allow “even a single liter of oil” destined for the U.S., Israel and their allies to pass through.
TRUMP WARNS NATO OF ‘VERY BAD’ FUTURE IF ALLIES DON’T HELP SECURE STRAIT OF HORMUZ
At least 89 ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz between March 1 and 15 — including 16 oil tankers, The Associated Press reported, citing Lloyd’s List Intelligence. The number of vessel passages per day was down from roughly 100 to 135 before the war, it said, with more than one-fifth of the 89 vessels believed to be Iran-affiliated and others being Chinese- and Greece-affiliated ships.
As crude prices spiked above $100 a barrel, President Donald Trump pressured allies and trade partners to send warships and reopen the strait, hoping to bring oil prices lower. No allies, however, have yet to commit.
“I think NATO’s making a very foolish mistake,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday when a reporter asked about getting America’s allies to assist the U.S. in escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. “And I’ve long said that, you know, I wonder whether or not NATO would ever be there for us.”
Trump added: “So this was a great test because we don’t need them, but they should have been there.”
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The U.S. on Friday bombed military sites on Kharg Island off the Iranian coast, which is key for Iran’s oil network and exports, but Trump said he had left its oil infrastructure alone for now.
Fiery aftermath of Iran missile strike near Tel Aviv caught on video after 2 killed
Video footage captured the fiery aftermath of a ballistic missile strike that hit Ramat Gan, a neighborhood east of Tel Aviv, overnight Tuesday, killing at least two people, according to Israeli officials.
The footage shows a car engulfed in flames, with wreckage scattered across the street as emergency responders assess the scene and ambulance sirens sound in the background.
The missile was launched by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which said it targeted central Israel to avenge the killing of Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and one of the country’s most powerful figures.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it launched Khorramshahr-4 and Qadr multiple-warhead missiles, which it claims have an increased chance of evading missile defense systems and can overwhelm radar tracking.
ISRAEL HITS BACK AFTER COORDINATED IRAN-HEZBOLLAH MISSILE, DRONE STRIKES, URGES BEIRUT TO REIN IN TERRORISTS
Israel said the two victims killed in the overnight strike were a couple in their 70s.
The attack is part of a rapidly escalating tit-for-tat conflict that began Feb. 28 following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, which have since killed multiple senior Iranian officials. Those include Larijani and Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij militia, who was killed Tuesday.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also said Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib was killed in an overnight strike, though Iran has not confirmed his death.
Iran has responded with a widening campaign of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, U.S.-linked positions and energy infrastructure across the Persian Gulf, including strikes reported in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain.
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The broader conflict has raised fears of a regional war and potential disruptions to global energy supplies, as Iran has also threatened shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — a critical transit route for the world’s oil.
Iranian wrestler who saw ayatollah abuse athletes defends American women speaking out against trans inclusion
Former Iranian wrestling champion Sardar Pashaei witnessed female athletes from his country face lashings simply for being seen without a hijab.
Now, he is also witnessing mistreatment of female athletes in America in a different way.
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Pashaei objects to the alleged silencing and retaliation against American female athletes who have spoken up for the protection of women’s sports from biological male trans athletes.
“For me, it’s not really acceptable if I hear that people will be silenced when they think that something is unfair to them,” Pashaei told Fox News Digital.
“I’m against silencing athletes. If they have a concern, if they think that something is not fair for them, because as an athlete, you know, you have to have a lot of discipline, spend a lot of energy to get to that level, and then you know, this is your dream to become a world champion or an Olympic champion. So for all of athletes, it should be an equal opportunity and also atmosphere that everybody can speak and also share any concern that they have.”
NEW OLYMPICS CHIEF CALLS FOR ‘PROTECTING’ WOMEN’S CATEGORY AMID GLOBAL TRANS ATHLETE WAVE
Pashaei, who won the 1998 World Youth Wrestling Championship, has also urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to exercise vigilance in protecting the women’s category.
“I think the International Olympic Committee should pay attention to this and also based on the scientific norm, try to create an equal field opportunity for everybody to compete,” he said.
“And everybody should compete in the sport in the field in the level that they are supposed to be in. And I know this is becoming complicated but I think every athlete in the world, they want to have a fair game to compete.”
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A recent poll by the Center Square Voters’ Voice found 68% of registered voters support the Supreme Court upholding state bans on trans athletes in women’s sports. The poll had 2,659 respondents, including 952 Republicans, 934 Democrats, and 773 Independents.
In the poll, 88% of Republican voters supported upholding state bans on transgender women competing in women’s sports whereas 49% of Democrat voters said the same.