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US Central Command: Strait of Hormuz Is Not Closed

Satellite images released Monday show fires burning and vast plumes of black smoke rising from Iran’s main naval headquarters at Bandar Abbas (AFP) 
Satellite images released Monday show fires burning and vast plumes of black smoke rising from Iran’s main naval headquarters at Bandar Abbas (AFP) 
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US Central Command: Strait of Hormuz Is Not Closed

Satellite images released Monday show fires burning and vast plumes of black smoke rising from Iran’s main naval headquarters at Bandar Abbas (AFP) 
Satellite images released Monday show fires burning and vast plumes of black smoke rising from Iran’s main naval headquarters at Bandar Abbas (AFP) 

US Central Command said the Strait of ‌Hormuz, ‌a key ‌shipping ⁠route for the ⁠world's oil supply, is ⁠not ‌closed ‌despite statements ‌by Iranian officials, ‌Fox News reported ‌on Monday.

CENTCOM did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to Reuters.

The strait lies between Oman and Iran and links the Gulf north of it with the Gulf of Oman to the south and the Arabian Sea beyond. About a fifth of the world's total oil consumption passes through the strait.

Jeremy Nixon, CEO of container carrier Ocean Network Express (ONE), said on Monday that container ships account for roughly 100 of the 750 ships ensnared in the Strait of Hormuz ‌backups following US and Israeli attacks on Iran.

“About 10% of the container ship global fleet is caught up in this,” Nixon said at S&P Global Market Intelligence’s TPM26 ⁠container shipping conference in Long Beach.

Maritime insurers ceased covering voyages through the strait between Iran and Oman, which carries around one-fifth of oil consumed globally as well as large quantities of gas, as Iran retaliated against US and Israeli strikes.

The commander of the country's Revolutionary Guards told Iranian state television Monday that any ship that attempted to transit the strait would be set aflame.

“All of ‌that ⁠cargo is going to start backing up” in shipping hubs and key ports in Europe and Asia, Nixon said.

ONE and rival container carriers such as industry leader MSC have stopped booking cargo to the Middle ⁠East, said Nixon, who on July 1 is stepping down as CEO of ONE.

The company is a privately held joint venture established by ⁠Japanese shipping lines Nippon Yusen Kaisha, Mitsui OSK Lines and K Line.

Industry experts also warned that an extended closure of ⁠the Strait of Hormuz would cause oil prices to soar.

“That would create a big energy spike,” Nixon said.

 

 

 

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World

Türkiye Says It’s Engaging with All Sides to End Iran War, Resume Diplomacy

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a press conference in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 15, 2026. (Reuters)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a press conference in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 15, 2026. (Reuters)
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Türkiye Says It’s Engaging with All Sides to End Iran War, Resume Diplomacy

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a press conference in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 15, 2026. (Reuters)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a press conference in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 15, 2026. (Reuters)

Türkiye is engaging with all parties ‌to find a way to end the war in Iran and return to negotiations, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said, adding that Ankara was also in talks with Oman on the matter as the Gulf nation works for the same goal.

The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. The war quickly widened with Tehran striking Gulf states that host US bases and Israel attacking Iranian-backed Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

Türkiye, a NATO member and neighbor of Iran, had for weeks urged Washington and Tehran to reach an agreement during ‌their rounds of negotiations ‌over Iran's nuclear program and missile capabilities, warning ‌that ⁠the region could ⁠not handle any more destabilization.

Fidan told members of Turkish media during a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner on Tuesday that Türkiye was "sensitively carrying out necessary initiatives with all our counterparts" to achieve peace in the region, and added it was critical to preserve the stability of Iran and the region.

"There isn't a single-layered negotiation, there is a multi-layered negotiation," Fidan ⁠said, according to a transcript of his comments shared ‌on Tuesday.

"We have been talking ‌to the Europeans for a few days... If you want peace, let's work ‌together. We are urging them to take action. The Gulf ‌nations are now facing a serious situation," he said.

"We are talking to the Omani (foreign minister). Oman is also still trying to do something there. We are talking to the Americans," he said.

In his strongest yet opposition to the attacks against ‌Iran, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that they were a "clear violation" of international law.

Fidan warned ⁠against the ⁠conflict engulfing the whole region and affecting energy supplies. He added that the closure of the Hormuz Strait, where one-fifth of global oil trade skirts Iran's coast, could "push the United States to obtain a quick result".

He said Iran was trying to "create costs" for the US and its partners by attacking Gulf states and energy infrastructure, but added that he didn't believe Tehran could obtain the desired result that way.

"By bombing these places, Iran will say they should pressure the United States and end the war, but that doesn't seem like it will happen. I don't know how much Iran has left," he said, adding that Tehran could instead "bother" Israel with missile strikes.

World

Iran Warns European Countries Against Joining War

A view of a damaged building around Ferdowsi Square after an airstrike in central Tehran, Iran, 03 March 2026. (EPA)
A view of a damaged building around Ferdowsi Square after an airstrike in central Tehran, Iran, 03 March 2026. (EPA)
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Iran Warns European Countries Against Joining War

A view of a damaged building around Ferdowsi Square after an airstrike in central Tehran, Iran, 03 March 2026. (EPA)
A view of a damaged building around Ferdowsi Square after an airstrike in central Tehran, Iran, 03 March 2026. (EPA)

Iran warned European countries on Tuesday against joining its conflict with Israel and the United States, after Germany, Britain and France said they could take "defensive action" to destroy Iran's missile-launching capabilities.

"It would be an act of war. Any such act against Iran would be regarded as complicity with the aggressors. It would be regarded as an act of war against Iran," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at a press briefing when asked about the statement.

World

Iranian Red Crescent Society Says at Least 787 People in Iran Killed in US-Israeli Airstrikes

Plumes of smoke rise following reported explosions in Tehran early on March 3, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Plumes of smoke rise following reported explosions in Tehran early on March 3, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iranian Red Crescent Society Says at Least 787 People in Iran Killed in US-Israeli Airstrikes

Plumes of smoke rise following reported explosions in Tehran early on March 3, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Plumes of smoke rise following reported explosions in Tehran early on March 3, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Airstrikes by the United States and Israel have killed at least 787 people in Iran since the start of the war, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said Tuesday.

It offered the toll in a message on X.

Iran struck the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital with a drone early Tuesday as it kept hitting targets around the region, while the United States and Israel pounded Iran with airstrikes in what US President Donald Trump suggested was just the start of a relentless campaign that could last more than a month.

The attack from two drones on the US Embassy in Riyadh caused a “limited fire” and minor damage, according to Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry, and the embassy urged Americans to avoid the compound. It followed an attack on the US Embassy in Kuwait, which announced Tuesday it had been closed until further notice. The US State Department also ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and family in Kuwait, as well as Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates as a precaution.

Across Iran’s capital, explosions rang out throughout the night into the early morning, with witnesses describing hearing aircraft overhead. It was not immediately clear what had been hit. And in Lebanon, Israel launched more strikes on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia group. Explosions could be heard and smoke seen in a southern suburb of Beirut. Israel also said its soldiers are “operating in southern Lebanon.” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the Lebanese army was evacuating some of its positions along the border.

The conflict could have far-reaching consequences

The expansion of Iranian retaliation across the Gulf and the intensity of the Israeli and American attacks, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the lack of any apparent exit plan portend a possibly prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences.

Iran has hit many countries deemed safe havens in the Mideast in retaliation for the US and Israeli strikes. Recent targets include two Amazon data centers in the UAE and a drone impact near another in Bahrain that caused damage, the company said Tuesday. Iran has also hit energy facilities in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and attacked several ships in the of Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Arabian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes, sending global oil and natural gas prices soaring.

“The Strait of Hormuz is closed," declared Iranian Brig. Gen. Ebrahim Jabbari, an adviser to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, threatening to set fire to any ships attempting to transit. “Don’t come to this region.”

US citizens urged to leave

The US State Department urged US citizens to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries due to safety risks, as have many other countries, though with much of the airspace closed many remain stranded.

Trump said operations are likely to last four to five weeks but that he was prepared “to go far longer than that.” He later added that the US had a “virtually unlimited supply” of munitions and pre-positioned “high grade weaponry.”

“Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies,” he wrote on social media.