Trump threatens to walk away from Iran war and pull U.S. out of NATO

An airstrike in Iran’s capital, Tehran, on Wednesday morning appears to have struck inside of the former U.S. Embassy compound there.

The embassy has been controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard since the 1979 hostage crisis.

Its all-volunteer Basij force operates the compound, running an anti-American museum inside the embassy and having different operations on its grounds in newer buildings.

Witnesses saw blown-out windows surrounding the massive compound on Tehran’s Taleghani Street. However, there was no missile strike visible around the compound, with witnesses saying they believe the strike happened inside the compound.

The 444-day hostage crisis at the embassy saw American diplomats held until President Ronald Reagan took office from President Jimmy Carter in 1981.

President Trump has told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper he could attempt to terminate American membership in the NATO defense alliance that the U.S. helped create more than seven decades ago as a bulwark against the communist Soviet Union’s expansionist agenda in Europe. 

Mr. Trump has railed against NATO allies since the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran for refusing to join the effort, despite not consulting with them in advance or involving them in any planning for its economic and security fallout.

Asked by The Telegraph’s Washington correspondent if he would consider ending U.S. membership in the alliance after the Iran war, Mr. Trump said: “Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration. I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin knows that too, by the way.”

Mr. Trump has disparaged the alliance for years, but to actually pull the U.S. from it, or even to suspend U.S. membership, he would, by law, have to gain the “advice and consent of the Senate,” with a two-thirds majority vote required to approve the move. 

For NATO allies trying — with less and less help from Washington — to assist Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion, the latest rhetorical blow from Mr. Trump will be cause for yet more concern. 

It will be music to the ears of Russia’s Putin, however, who has framed his invasion of neighboring Ukraine as a bid to stop NATO’s eastward expansion — and who has worked through various means for years to undermine the alliance and sew division among its members. 

A majority of the vessels that have passed through the Strait of Hormuz during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran have ties to the Iranian regime, according to a new analysis from Lloyd’s List Intelligence. That raises questions about President Trump’s assertion last week that Tehran gave him the “present” of allowing eight oil tankers through the key waterway.

Since March 1, a day after the U.S. and Israel launched their joint attacks on Iran, 71% of all ships that have managed to transit the strait are either owned by Iran, coming or going from Iranian ports, or part of the so-called shadow fleet linked to Iranian oil shipments, the maritime data company said Wednesday. 

Even among ships that are compliant with sanctions, such as Greek bulk carrier cargo ships that have transited the strait, most have some ties to Iran. 

Shadow fleet vessels have accounted for 88% of all transits over the last week, an increase from 83% the week before.

Oil fell below $100 per barrel and Asian shares jumped Wednesday over renewed optimism about a de-escalation of the Iran war following Mr. Trump’s suggestion he would likely end U.S. operations within several weeks. 

Brent crude, the international standard, was down 4.7% to $99.05 per barrel early on Wednesday. Benchmark U.S. crude dropped 4% to $97.33 a barrel.

South Korea’s Kospi recovered its losses from earlier this week, surging 8.4% to 5,478.70, while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 5.2% to 53,739.68. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 2.3% to 25,346.42, while the Shanghai Composite index was trading 1.5% higher at 3,948.55.

In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 1.8% to 10,356.41. France’s CAC 40 was 1.3% higher at 7,920.89, and Germany’s DAX climbed 1.6% to 23,052.89.

CBS/AP

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi signaled Tehran’s willingness to keep fighting no matter what President Trump threatens.

Mr. Trump’s April 6 deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping traffic still stands. He has threatened to order strikes on the country’s power plants, and possibly its water desalination facilities, if it does not do so.

“You cannot speak to the people of Iran in the language of threats and deadlines,” Araghchi said.

Asked if he believed the U.S. would launch a ground war in Iran, Araghchi was dismissive.

“I do not think they would dare to do such a thing,” he said. “Very heavy casualties would await them.”

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Kuwait’s civil aviation authority said Wednesday that the Gulf state’s international airport had come under an Iranian drone attack that led to “a large fire” at fuel tanks but no casualties.

Iran has fired missiles and drones at Israel and U.S. allies in the Gulf since the start of the war.
Elsewhere in the Gulf on Wednesday, Bahrain’s interior ministry said a fire broke out at a business facility “as a result of the Iranian aggression.” Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said several drones were “intercepted and destroyed.”

A tanker was hit off Qatar’s coast, the British military’s maritime security agency said. The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said “the vessel was struck by two projectiles” 17 nautical miles north of Ras Laffan, a major natural gas facility.

One caused a fire, which was extinguished, and another “remains unexploded within the vessel’s engine room,” UKMTO said, adding that all crew members were reported as safe. It also said there was “no environmental impact” and that authorities were investigating the incident.

On Tuesday, state-run Kuwaiti news agency KUNA said an Iranian attack sparked a fire on a Kuwaiti oil tanker at Dubai Port but didn’t cause any injuries.

The oil-rich Gulf nation has borne the brunt of Iran’s attacks in response to the U.S.-Israeli strikes that sparked the war. Tehran has threatened to target vital infrastructure across the Gulf, including energy sites. 

CBS/AFP

The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen said Wednesday they fired a barrage of ballistic missiles toward Israel.

Air raid sirens went off in southern Israel in the early morning, from Beersheba to the Mediterranean coast following the launch. There were no immediate reports of impacts.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, said in a prerecorded statement that they fired at “sensitive targets” in southern Israel.

The attack is the third since the Houthis joined the war on Friday when they fired their first missile towards Israel since the U.S. and Israel launched massive airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28.

Their entry has raised concerns that they could resume attacks on vessels in the Red Sea further disrupting the global shipping industry and sending oil prices much higher. Iran has threatened to extend its attacks in the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, via its proxy powers, if the U.S. tries to seize its Kharg Island.

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Iran has the “necessary will” to end the war launched by the U.S. and Israel, but only if certain conditions are met, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday, according to Iran’s state media.

While Pezeshkian’s remarks in a phone call with a top European Union official may have helped ease investors’ minds on Tuesday, the caveats he suggested — including a guarantee of no future aggression against the Islamic Republic — combined with demands by the Trump administration for concessions Tehran has already dismissed as unreasonable, likely mean a negotiated solution is still a distant possibility.

Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard, meanwhile, issued a new threat on Tuesday to expand attacks on U.S. businesses across the Middle East in retaliation for ongoing U.S.-Israeli strikes.

The Israeli military said it carried out strikes on Wednesday on Tehran, where Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported blasts in several areas.

A brief military statement said Israeli forces had “completed a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure sites of the Iranian terror regime in Tehran.”

Israel’s emergency medical service said an 11-year-old girl was in serious condition after a missile attack that the military blamed on Iran and police said caused damage at several sites.

The military said it had “identified missiles launched from Iran towards the territory of the State of Israel” for the first time in about 20 hours, with air raid sirens activated across central Israel. Another warning of incoming missile fire came less than an hour later, prompting alerts across large parts of northern and central Israel, according to the military’s Home Front Command.

The Magen David Adom emergency medical service said an 11-year-old girl was seriously wounded by shrapnel in central Israel in the first launch. Spokesman Zaki Heller told Israeli TV at least 12 others were also wounded, including a 13-year-old boy and 33-year-old woman in moderate condition, all at the same impact site.

Police reported damage at several sites in central Israel and shared an image of what appears to be missile debris on a road.

Israeli media said cluster munitions, which explode mid-air and scatter bomblets across a wide area, were used in the attack.

Iran and Israel have previously accused each other of using cluster bombs. 

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Tuesday that it would start targeting 18 U.S. technology and finance companies in the Middle East. The IRGC had issued a similar threat in early March, warning that the country’s “legitimate targets are gradually expanding.”

In its Tuesday post on the Telegram messaging app, the IRGC accused 18 U.S.-based companies of acting as “spies” for the U.S. government, helping it to carry out strikes. 

The IRGC said the U.S. had “ignored our repeated warnings about the need to stop terrorist operations, and today, a number of Iranian citizens were martyred in your and your Israeli allies’ terrorist attacks; Since the main element in designing and tracking terror targets are American ICT and AI companies, in response to this terrorist operation, from now on the main institutions effective in terrorist operations will be our legitimate targets.”

The post warned “employees of these institutions to leave their workplaces immediately to save their lives. Residents around these terrorist companies in all countries in the region should also leave their places within a radius of one kilometer and go to a safe place.”

Most of the companies named are major tech firms, including Microsoft, Apple, Google, Meta, IBM and Cisco, but financial giant J.P. Morgan and Elon Musk’s Tesla were also named, along with defense contractor Boeing and microchip maker Nvidia.