Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Swipe for next article
It comes as oil prices hit $72.24 a barrel, lower than the day before Iran war began
Removed from bookmarks
I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has dismissed concerns raised by the UAE over an Iranian toll on the Strait of Hormuz as “semantics”.
“You can call it a toll, you can call it a fee, at the end of the day it’s all semantics,” Rubio said during a visit to Bahrain, where he is meeting the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
The UAE’s presidential adviser Anwar Gargash had previously warned that “geopolitical facts” cannot be imposed on Arab Gulf states as a result of “treacherous aggression against them”.
He said this would “sow seeds of discord and conflict for the future”, adding that this “is precisely what applies to the Strait of Hormuz”.
Washington has sought to reassure the region that no country, including Iran, will be allowed to charge tolls for shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that Tehran had told the US that no tolls were being sought from ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.
Oil prices dropped to pre war levels ($72.24 per barrel) on Thursday after Trump threatened abandon talks with Iran if it tries to impose tolls on shipping through the strait.
Iran and India discussed strengthening energy cooperation and trade during a meeting between their oil ministers on the sidelines of a BRICS energy ministers’ gathering in India, the Iranian oil ministry’s news outlet Shana reported on Thursday.
Last week, Iran and the US signed an interim deal, after which Washington issued a temporary license for the export of Iranian energy products.
India has historically been an important buyer of Iranian crude, but suspended imports in 2019 following the re-imposition of US sanctions on the export of Iranian oil.
Donald Trump has said that Iran has agreed to indefinite nuclear inspections on its facilities accusing “fake news” media of distributing false rebuttals.
“Iran has fully and completely agreed to highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future (Infinity!!!),” he wrote in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday.
“This will insure ‘Nuclear Honesty’. If they did not agree to this, there would be no further negotiations!”
Iran has denied that it will allow inspectors into its nuclear sites despite US vice president JD Vance also insisting that Tehran had agreed to the visits.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Tuesday that Tehran had agreed “no new commitments” on inspections, adding that Iran would continue its current obligations as a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and under its safeguards agreement with the IAEA.
Some 57 ships carrying an estimated 1,100 sailors have passed through the Strait of Hormuz since June 23 under a United Nations evacuation plan launched this week, data from the UNs shipping agency showed on Thursday.
These are the first numbers to be released by the UN’s International Maritime Organization for the initiative, which will enable hundreds of ships with 11,000 sailors to leave the strait.
According to current IMO data, 12 ships sailed through during the morning of June 25, 32 during June 24 and 13 during June 23.
We’ve heard from Bahrain’s foreign minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, who on Thursday welcomed Oman’s announcement of a corridor for the safe passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.
Al Zayani made the remarks as he chaired a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting during U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to the country.
Israel has withdrawn from some of the southern Lebanese territory it has occupied in its war with Hezbollah, a US State Department official said on Thursday.
Lebanon’s armed forces should now step in, the official added.
There was no immediate comment from Israel. A senior Lebanese security official said they were unaware of any withdrawal of Israeli troops from Israel’s so-called “buffer zone” in southern Lebanon.
The State Department official did not say how much territory Israel withdrew from or where exactly the pullback occurred. Israel and Lebanon have been holding US-brokered talks in Washington aimed in part at halting fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.
“Israel has already taken a concrete step by pulling back from a part of its buffer zone. This is a significant demonstration of good faith toward Lebanon’s legitimate government,” the official said.
“The (Lebanese Armed Forces) should now move in and verifiably clear out terrorist weapons and infrastructure. This model will be repeated across South Lebanon, enabling the safe return of displaced families, reconstruction of the south, and the restoration of full Lebanese sovereignty,” the official added.
We’ve heard from US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who during a trip to Bahrain has dismissed concerns raised by the UAE over an Iranian toll on the Strait of Hormuz as “semantics”.
“You can call it a toll, you can call it a fee, at the end of the day it’s all semantics,” Rubio said during a visit to Bahrain, where he is meeting the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
The UAE’s presidential adviser Anwar Gargash had previously warned that “geopolitical facts” cannot be imposed on Arab Gulf states as a result of “treacherous aggression against them”.
He said this would “sow seeds of discord and conflict for the future”, adding that this “is precisely what applies to the Strait of Hormuz”.
Washington has sought to reassure the region that no country, including Iran, will be allowed to charge tolls for shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
As we earlier reported, Trump is said to have engaged in a shouting match with Republican senator Bill Cassidy during a behind-closed-doors meeting with several of the GOPs senior members.
The lunchtime exchange shows how the war has weighed on the president ahead of November elections that will determine control of Congress.
Trump’s approval rating are at its lowest since he returned to office last year, with just one in four Americans believing the war was worth its costs, a poll by Reuters/Ipsos showed.
The exchange came a day after the Senate voted to direct Trump to end the war in a separate vote on a resolution passed by the House of Representatives this month. Cassidy was one of four Republicans to back it, along with opposition Democrats.
Trump did not mention the exchange with Cassidy, who was unseated by a Trump-backed challenger in a primary election this year. Later, he criticized the Senate.
“Iran sees that, they go, ‘What’s that all about?’. Now you know, it’s meaningless, right?” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Several hours later, the administration asked Congress for $70 billion to cover the cost of the war, adding to the U.S. military budget of $867 billion.
Donald Trump engaged in a shouting match with Republican senator Bill Cassidy during a behind-closed-doors meeting with several of the GOPs senior memners.
This is according to other Republicans in the room, who said Cassidy demanded the administration explain the framework deal Trump signed last week, that gives Iran financial incentives but falls short of the goals he laid out at the war’s beginning.
“The American people need to know more than we are being told,” Cassidy afterwards told reporters. “It does not appear, although I don’t know for sure, that the course of this is going the way that we were told.”
Later, in what appeared to be an effort to please the president, the Senate’s Republican leaders scheduled a late-night vote to block a resolution calling for an end to hostilities with Iran.
The Senate voted by 50 to 47, largely along party lines, to block a war powers resolution that had advanced on a procedural vote in May.
“This vote puts Iran on notice,” Trump said on social media after Wednesday’s late-night vote, although it does not affect the earlier vote.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Leave a Reply