France to deploy almost dozen warships, mulls Hormuz mission, Macron says
France is deploying about a dozen naval vessels, including its aircraft ‌carrier strike group, to the Mediterranean, Red Sea and potentially the Strait of Hormuz as part of defensive support to allies threatened by the conflict in the Middle East, Reuters reported.
Speaking in Cyprus before visiting the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, which arrived this weekend in the eastern Mediterranean, President Emmanuel Macron sought to reassure his Cypriot counterpart after drones were intercepted heading towards the island last week.
"When Cyprus is attacked, then Europe is attacked," Macron said after meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Paphos, according to Reuters.
Trump says war could be over soon, as Iran rallies behind new hardline leader
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday predicted the war in the Middle East could be over soon, even as Iran's hardliners staged a show of loyalty to new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei in a sign that it was not prepared to back down any time soon, Reuters reported.
The conflicting signals sent markets on a rollercoaster, with oil prices surging and stock markets nosediving before swinging in the other direction after Trump's comments and reports of a possible ease in sanctions on Russian energy.
Khamenei, 56, a Shi'ite cleric with a power base among the security forces and their vast business empire, has been declared unacceptable by Trump, who has demanded Iran's unconditional surrender, according to Reuters.
Iran bets on endurance, energy disruption to outlast US, Israel
Iran is wagering it can outlast the United States and Israel--not militarily, but by grinding the war into a brutal contest of endurance. Its strategy is stark: Unleash drones and missiles, cut vital energy routes and jolt global markets hard enough to force Washington to blink first, Reuters reported.
Despite the shock of the U.S.–Israeli strikes and the loss of key figures, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)--long the ultimate guardian of the Islamic Republic -- is firmly ‌in control, directing the battlefield, executing pre-planned contingencies and dictating strategy and targets in the war.
The IRGC also played the decisive role in elevating Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening U.S.–Israeli strikes, according to Reuters.
US missile hit military base near Iran school, video analysis shows
A US Tomahawk missile hit a military base near a primary school in southern Iran where Iranian authorities said 168 people, including around 110 children, were killed, expert video analysis shows, BBC reported.
A video published yesterday by Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency, which BBC Verify has confirmed as authentic, shows a missile moments before it struck an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) base next to the Shajareh Tayebeh primary school in Minab.
BBC Verify has previously established through satellite imagery, verified videos and expert analysis that the area near the school was hit by a series of strikes, according to BBC.
