Iran war keeps Strait of Hormuz paralyzed and oil prices over $100

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates said they were working Monday to contain a fire sparked by a drone strike on the Fujairah Oil Industries Zone.

The regional government for Fujairah said there were no reported injuries, but it did not give any information on how much damaged may have been caused by the blaze to the coastal region’s petroleum infrastructure.

Iran’s retaliatory fire has targeted the UAE disproportionately, with some 309 missiles and around 1,600 drones aimed at the Gulf state since the war began. Most of the weapons are intercepted or fall short, but six people have been killed in the UAE so far, and there are rising concerns that at least some Persian Gulf nations are running dangerously low on the interceptors used to bring down Iranian missiles.

Israel’s military said Monday that with the joint U.S. war against Iran in its third week, the assault on the Islamic Republic had destroyed more than 70% of the regime’s missile launchers and “neutralized over 85% of the regime’s defensive and detection capabilities.”

“We have struck more than 100 production and armament targets. We have struck more than 500 command and control targets, which undermine the regime’s ability to manage its attacks. 400 waves of strikes have been carried out all over Iran,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Monday.

“We continue to hold the operational advantage over the Iranian regime, establishing the first 24 hours and kept until now aerial security, suppressing their offensive capabilities in real time in a combination of intelligence advantage, aerial advantage, eye in the sky, and high-level intelligence in real time that is being produced by thousands of Israelis working around the clock,” he said. 

Shoshani said Israel was “focused on maximum accomplishments in a minimal time frame and ready to operate for as long as needed,” claiming it had “identified a decline in morale and even refusals to carry out orders” among Iranian forces. 

He said there had also been “significant blows to the Iranian missile production industry, effectively eliminating their ability to manufacture missiles.”

The United Arab Emirates’ air defense systems were intercepting Iranian missiles and drones on Monday, the Gulf nation’s defense ministry said.

“UAE air defenses are currently responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran,” the UAE Ministry of Defense posted on social media.

Earlier, Dubai authorities said a “drone-related incident” had sparked a fire near the airport and flights had been temporarily suspended. 

A “drone-related incident” sparked a fuel tank fire near Dubai airport on Monday and disrupted travel as Iran maintained its Gulf attacks, though authorities said flights were gradually resuming.

“Flights to and from DXB are gradually resuming to selected destinations, following the temporary suspension implemented as a precautionary measure,” Dubai Airports said in a statement on social media.

The latest incident near what’s usually the world’s busiest airport for international travel affected a fuel tank, the Dubai media office said, later adding that authorities had contained a fire that broke out and reporting no injuries.

Two witnesses told AFP they saw a thick plume of black smoke rising from the direction of the airport at around 10:00 local Dubai time, hours after the incident.

A witness at Dubai airport told AFP that passengers awaiting their flights had been evacuated to a lower floor after the attack for several hours.

Later, the UAE’s Defense Ministry said its forces were working to intercept another round of Iranian missiles and drones.

Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted a wave of 35 Iranian drones launched at its eastern region, home to major oil installations.

Israel’s military said early Monday that Iran launched missiles toward Israel as well.

A Palestinian civilian was killed on the outskirts of the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, when a missile hit their car on Monday, authorities said, as Iran pressed on with strikes on Gulf nations following U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.

“Authorities in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi responded to an incident in the Al Bahia area involving a missile strike on a civilian vehicle, which resulted in the death of one Palestinian national,” the Abu Dhabi Media Office said in a statement.

Israeli troops have “begun limited and targeted ground operations against key Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon,” the Israel Defense Forces said on social media Monday.

The IDF said the move is “aimed at enhancing the forward defense area” and is “part of broader defensive efforts to establish and strengthen a forward defensive posture, which includes the dismantling of terrorist infrastructure and the elimination of terrorists operating in the area, to create an additional layer of security for residents of northern Israel.”

Texas GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw said sending U.S. troops to the Middle East should not be taken as a “boots on the ground deployment, especially with only 5,000 troops.”

The Pentagon plans to send up to 5,000 additional sailors and Marines to the Middle East as the conflict with Iran escalates, CBS News learned last week.

Crenshaw, who served as a Navy SEAL, said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday that these troops could be deployed for various operations that might be needed, including evacuating American citizens out of Gulf allied countries. 

“The rules of engagement will be very clear and in place and in writing for our troops,” he said.

Read more here.

President Trump is suggesting he may delay his much-anticipated visit to China at the end of the month as he seeks to ramp up the pressure on Beijing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and calm oil prices that have soared during the Iran war.

In an interview Sunday with the Financial Times, Mr. Trump said China’s reliance on oil from the Middle East means it ought to help with a new coalition he’s trying to put together to get oil tanker traffic moving through the strait after Iran’s threats have throttled global flows of oil. Mr. Trump said “we’d like to know” before the trip whether Beijing will help. “We may delay,” he said in the interview.

The uncertainty underscores just how much the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran have reshaped global politics in the past two weeks. Calling off the face-to-face visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping could have its own major economic consequences: Relations between Washington and Beijing have been fraught as both sides have threatened the other with steep tariffs over the past year.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, told a press conference Monday that China and the U.S. “are maintaining communication regarding President Trump’s visit to China,” but he didn’t address Mr. Trump’s pressure on NATO allies and China to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to French news agency AFP.

CBS/AFP

President Trump told reporters Sunday night that he has been in touch with “about seven” countries about assisting in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but would not say which ones. 

Mr. Trump insisted, “It’s something that we don’t need. And these countries do need.”

Mr. Trump said oil prices are “going to come tumbling down as soon as it’s over, and it’s going to be over pretty quickly,” but did not provide a timeline.

“They’re decimated. But, I think that we’ve done damage to them, right now, if we left right now, it would take them 10 years and more to rebuild. But I’m still not declaring it over,” Mr. Trump said.