Iran claimed new drone strikes Friday against U.S. military facilities in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait, as explosions were heard near a military base hosting U.S. forces in northern Iraq and video showed dramatic drone interceptions.
The attacks came hours after the U.S. military said it completed a 13th consecutive night of strikes on Iran aimed at halting attacks on ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz , which the Trump administration insists is open despite few ships risking passage. The pace at which the U.S.
is using some of its most advanced missile interceptors and other weapons in the Middle East is unsustainable and has become a point of tension within the Trump administration , U.S. military and intelligence officials told CBS News Thursday. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to a trickle on Thursday, but the number of commercial vessels passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait increased, according to data from intelligence firm Kpler.
Only six ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday after 15 passed through a day earlier, according to the data. Five used the northern route designated by Iran, as opposed to the U.S.-sanctioned route to the south, Kpler said. Traffic was better in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is the southern exit to the Red Sea that passes by Yemen.
The Iran-backed Houthi militia based in Yemen targeted two Saudi-flagged ships in the strait late Wednesday into Thursday after threatening to shut down traffic. Forty-nine vessels traveled through the Bab el-Mandeb on Thursday, according to Kpler, just below the number of ships that previously traveled through the waterway on an average day. Only 29 transited the strait on Tuesday after the Houthis threatened to target ships, Kpler said.
"Several ships that had previously reversed course in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea completed their crossings, while others remain on hold following earlier U turns," Kpler said on X . "The data points to a cautious but selective return to transit activity as operators continue to assess security conditions." On Friday, the Houthis said they were only targeting Saudi vessels. https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-hormuz-middle-east/#post-update-d827e836 link copied The cost of Brent crude, the international benchmark price for oil, fell back under $100 on Friday after a rough rise throughout the week.
The cost dipped about 4% as of 2 p.m. ET to about $96. The cost had reached $101 on Thursday, its highest level since May.
Costs were still up about 8% this week. The continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to Iranian threats on shipping vessels combined with the Iran-backed Houthis targeting two Saudi-flagged oil tankers in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, at the southern end of the Red Sea, had caused further panic in the industry. But the Houthis have not targeted any ships since the initial two, possibly bringing some calm back to investors.
Prices had fallen from well over $100 into the $70 range after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a memorandum of understanding in June and reopened the Strait of Hormuz. Americans are currently paying $4.11 per gallon of regular on average nationwide, according to AAA, up from $3.16 at this time a year ago.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-hormuz-middle-east/#post-update-f1b67b36 link copied Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Trump in Washington next week, according to the prime minister's office. Netanyahu will leave for Washington, D.C., on Monday and meet with the president at the White House on Tuesday, his office said. The prime minister will also attend the funeral for Sen.
Lindsey Graham, who he described as "a friend of Israel." Graham often served as a conduit on behalf of the U.S. to the Israeli government and wider Middle East. Netanyahu last visited the U.S.
in February. He met with Mr. Trump at the White House on that visit as well, just days before launching the initial strikes on Iran.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-hormuz-middle-east/#post-update-e1a7d1de link copied The U.S. has issued new sanctions against Babak Zanjani, an infamous Iranian billionaire who is now allegedly helping Iran avoid previous sanctions and fund the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. "Today's action targets four individuals and nine entities tied to Zanjani's operations," Tommy Pigott, a spokesperson for the U.S.
State Department, said in a press release. "Zanjani's re-emergence as a regime-linked financier — despite previously receiving a death sentence in Iran for embezzlement — demonstrates the lengths to which Iranian state-affiliated elites will go to preserve access to the international financial system so that they can enrich themselves, even as they mismanage the Iranian economy." Zanjani was sentenced to death for allegedly embezzling millions from the National Iranian Oil Company, but that sentence was commuted in 2024 and he emerged as a major backer of the regime last year, according to the U.S. Treasury Department .
"The Iranian regime continues to pay a steep economic price for its reckless behavior, with the rial plunging to another record low and inflation up massively," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. "Under President Trump's leadership, Treasury will continue cutting off economic access for corrupt Iranian regime elites, along with their financiers and facilitators." The sanctions target Zanjani's Dot One conglomerate, which the U.S. says is involved in everything from telecommunications and transportation to airlines and digital assets, like cryptocurrency.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-hormuz-middle-east/#post-update-ccf093aa link copied The European Union has announced sanctions on five Iranian judges, as well as a leading cyber group figure, for human rights offenses. "While the world's attention is on the war in the Middle East, we can't lose sight of Iran's repression against its own people," the EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said in a post Friday on X . In a statement , the European Council said it was including five judges "of Iran regional Revolutionary courts who have presided over trials targeting religious minorities and political dissidents ...
on the basis of vaguely defined national security and religious charges." "They have imposed death sentences and long prison sentences, flogging, fines or supplementary punishments on political dissidents and human rights activists," the bulletin added. The council said it was also targeting an Iranian hacker and computer engineer called Nima Salehi, "the founder and a leading figure within the 'Ashiyane' cyber group," which "cooperates closely with the EU-listed Cyber Police (FATA) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and is responsible for intensive cyber-attacks on both domestic opponents and reformists and foreign institutions, thereby assisting the regime's crackdown against the opposition." https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-hormuz-middle-east/#post-update-5090af3a link copied President Trump said Friday that he does not believe Russia or China are providing weapons to Iran. In a post on Truth Social , Mr.
Trump said that while he was in Beijing in May, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he would not "under any circumstances" provide weapons to Iran, including arms from Chinese companies. "Considering our relationship, I take him at his word and, besides, l am doing him very big favors, also," the president wrote. Mr.
Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin also said he would not sell weapons to Iran. "He understands that I do not sell Weapons to Ukraine, but to NATO Countries. They pay full price, and how those Weapons are distributed, I have no idea," the president said.
"Therefore, two major Countries that people speak of often in terms of Iran are, in my opinion, not participating," Mr. Trump wrote,...
