Today, while the conflict between the U.S. and Iran has reached its 141st day, U.S. forces on Saturday night conducted their third round of strikes this week on Iran, this time in retaliation for an Iranian attack on a Cyprus-flagged container ship in the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon said. Iran responded with counterattacks on the U.S.’s Gulf allies.
An Iranian delegation traveled to Oman earlier Saturday to continue negotiations via mediators, despite a dramatic exchange of fire with the U.S. that derailed the truce agreed to under the mid-June memorandum of understanding signed by President Trump and his Iranian counterpart.
Meanwhile, President Trump on Friday threatened to “decimate and destroy” Iran if the regime made an attempt on his life, adding that “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran” should it carry out an assassination attempt. In a statement Saturday, Iran’s supreme leader vowed revenge for his father’s death.
Early on Sunday, the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center reported that the crew on board the ship abandoned the vessel and boarded a lifeboat before being rescued.
The ship sustained damage near the coast of Oman, the UKMTO reported, on a route which Iran has previously warned against using.
Undoubtedly, it is still not confirmed whether this incident is related to Iran’s claims that it had struck two vessels in the Strait of Hormuz overnight.
However, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it struck a command and control center and drone hangars at a U.S. military base in Jordan, state media reported.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported early Sunday that the IRGC “struck key military infrastructure and facilities at Jordan’s Prince Hassan Air Base, demolishing the base’s command and control center and the MQ9 drone hangars with several ballistic missiles.”
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards announced they had hit a second vessel in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, state media reported, after claiming they had closed the key waterway and trading strikes with the United States.
“A second vessel accused of violating regulations in the Strait of Hormuz has been struck,” the Guards said in a statement carried by state television IRIB, adding they had also attacked a US base in Qatar.
While The U.S. military has concluded its latest round of strikes on Iran, U.S. Central Command announced late Saturday night. It marked the third round of strikes this week targeting Tehran’s regime.
According to CENTCOM, 140 targets were struck Saturday, including missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, ammunition storage facilities, communication networks and coastal surveillance locations.
CENTCOM used naval vessels, fighter aircraft, drones and naval vessels to conduct the operation, it said.
In total, over the three sets of strikes, more than 300 sites were targeted, CENTCOM said.
While on Saturday, talks between Iran and Oman have wrapped, but a readout from Iran shows little was decided as the two sides meet over how to manage the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi met in Muscat, the capital of Oman, in the wake of Iran targeting commercial ships in the strait earlier this week. Those strikes garnered significant retribution from the U.S. and President Trump calling the memorandum of understanding dead.
Both sides on Saturday expressed a desire to return to the conditions of that memorandum of understanding, but there appeared to be no clarity on U.S. and Iranian disagreements over the wording of Article 5 of the MOU.
“Araqchi and Al-Busaid also exchanged views on appropriate mechanisms for the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, in accordance with Article 5 of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding,” the readout said.
The U.S. and Iran have read that article differently, though. The wording of Article 5 states, “the Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels, with no charge for 60 days only, from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman, and vice versa.”
Iran believes the wording of the article means ships should only follow its route hugging the Iranian coast, but the U.S. has offered a separate route through the strait along the Omani coast.
That discrepancy has caused Iran to target ships on the southern route with missiles and drones.
Iran has also said it believes it should be able to charge a fee for transit of the strait after 60 days, which the U.S. has said it will not allow.
Though, a U.S. military delegation has met with Lebanon’s army in Beirut to discuss the implementation of Israel’s withdrawal from one of the “pilot zones” in occupied territory, a Lebanese military official told AFP on Saturday.
Under a framework agreement reached on June 26, Israel will gradually withdraw from areas of southern Lebanon where it has sent troops as part of its military campaign against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shia movement that has long battled Israel.
As part of the agreement, the long-disempowered Lebanese military will take full control of two small areas dubbed pilot zones.
“The American military delegation arrived and began meetings with the Lebanese army command to discuss the mechanisms for implementing the first pilot zone from which the Israelis will withdraw, allowing the Lebanese army to deploy,” the official said, requesting anonymity.
Even as discussions between a U.S. delegation and Lebanon continue over Israel moving out of so-called “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military killed several alleged Hezbollah members in a strike on Saturday.
Israel said it observed “several Hezbollah terrorists transferring anti-tank missiles within the Security Zone in southern Lebanon” from a vehicle to a building. The Israel Defense Forces then said it saw additional Hezbollah members transferring more weapons into the building.
On evaluating the movements of the futures since the beginning of this month on the daily chart, I observed that, last week’s closing on the daily chart, signalling advent of panic selling, soon the futures breaks the key support at $4,030, before piercing the next significant support at $3,939 during this week, where a breakdown will confirm the precarious stagflation fear due to Re-Escalation of this conflict between the US and Iran, which has already surged worries of the global central banks.
Disclaimer: Readers are advised to take any position in gold futures at their own risk, as this analysis is based solely on observations.
