We’re wrapping our live coverage of the Middle East crisis for today. Here are Sunday’s top developments:
Israel has rebuffed Donald Trump’s Gaza plan. The country said it would not leave Gaza unless Hamas was “genuinely” disarmed. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that they were discussing their concerns with the US. “They have ideas; some of them are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand our ground on these matters,” Netanyahu said.
Donald Trump said he’s “low keying it” with Iran as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. Trump’s comments to Axios came after Iran said it would not agree to a deal until the US met its demands, which included never speaking insulting the country. “We are only semi-negotiating with them,” Trump also told Axios.
Although Donald Trump has rebuffed claims that the US is running low on weapons crucial to its war on Iran, a leaked memo indicates that his military leadership is concerned by falling stockpiles. Per the Washington Post, deputy US defense secretary Steve Feinberg on Wednesday told defense industry leaders that they must “drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s war on Iran continues to draw prominent criticism in the US. New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Trump’s complaints about rising costs clash with his policies that has made daily life more expensive. “Donald Trump may be saying that oil companies are making too much money, but what Donald Trump is doing is starting a reckless war in Iran, having closed door meetings with oil companies before his election, saying, you know, you give me money, you give me campaign contributions, and I will do whatever you want,” Ocasio-Cortez said on ABC.
Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, has selected a former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to represent him on the nation’s supreme security council, CNN reported.
Mohsen Rezaei, whom CNN described as a “senior Iranian military adviser”, will replace Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr in this position, per CNN.
Khamenei described Rezaei as a leader of the “Sacred Defense” which, CNN notes, is Iran’s way of referring to the 1988 Iran-Iraq war.
In the official decree about Rezaei’s appointment, Khamenei expressed thanks to Zolghadr for his work.
As CNN points out, it’s not known whether Rezaei’s appointment will affect Iran’s demands of the US to reopen the strait of Hormuz.
An Israeli tank has invaded the town of Hadatha, southern Lebanon, with troops accused of setting buildings on fire, according to the Lebanese state-owned National News Agency.
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, recently met with supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since assuming the post early in the Middle East war, Khamenei’s office said on Sunday.
“Dr Masoud Pezeshkian met Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and spoke with him at the start of his third year in the presidency,” the supreme leader’s office said in a statement, without indicating the date of the meeting.
Pezeshkian, who took office in July 2024, said in early May that he met with Khamenei, also without specifying the date, but the supreme leader’s office did not issue any statements at the time.
The president had said on Wednesday that communication with Khamenei was “very difficult at the moment”, and speculation has swirled about the supreme leader’s health after he was reportedly wounded in strikes that killed his father.
Khamenei’s office said the two “discussed in detail the country’s issues and problems”, including the “current military situation and future prospects”.
Donald Trump on Sunday suggested that he’s going to let economic pressures prompt Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz rather than launch another military action.
“We are low keying it,” Trump told Axios. Trump’s comments came hours after Iran said that it wouldn’t reopen the crucial waterway unless the US met its demands – which included never insulting or threatening the country, per Axios.
“We are only semi-negotiating with them,” Trump also told the news website. “We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”
Trump, who said Iran “is in very bad shape”, claimed that Americans are feeling less financial pressures from the war because oil prices are down.
“It will work out. It always works out. It’s like a chess game,” Trump also reportedly said.
Donald Trump has rejected claims that the US is running low on munitions in its war with Iran – but a new report indicates that his military leadership is pushing defense companies to ramp up weapons production.
According to the Washington Post, the deputy US defense secretary Steve Feinberg on Wednesday told defense industry heads that they must “drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities.”
Feinberg’s written directive to defense industry leaders said they had to present a plan within 21 days on how to increase production. Feinberg’s instruction was in a memo obtained by the Washington Post.
“Years-long development cycles are not acceptable,” Feinberg reportedly wrote. “We must dramatically accelerate our program schedules and expand our production capacity now.”
The Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, confirmed that this memo is “real” and “will inform the fiscal year 2028 budget submitted to Congress for funding, and it is entirely consistent with our ongoing push to rebuild the defense industrial base”, per the newspaper.
Syria and Russia have made a deal about the Kremlin’s military presence in the Middle Eastern nation, according to reports.
Russia has had a military presence in Syria since the Soviet era, but its standing there came into question after rebels ousted Bashar al-Assad some two years ago, according to the New York Times.
Russia’s military presence featured two air bases as well as one naval port on the Mediterranean Sea. These bases and port were Russia’s “only supply and stopover hub in the eastern Mediterranean for planes and ships traveling to and from Africa,” the Times notes.
Syria’s foreign ministry said Sunday they forged an agreement that “outlines a reorganized Russia’s presence on the Syrian coast, at the Hmeimim Air Base outside the city of Latakia and at the Tartus naval port”.
The Syrian government has asked Russia to send back al-Assad. After al-Assad fled Syria, Russia gave him asylum.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York progressive representative, discussed the Iran war’s impact on affordability during an interview airing Sunday, saying Trump’s complaints about rising costs don’t match his policies that make consumer goods more expensive.
Ocasio-Cortez was asked on ABC’s This Week about her reaction to Trump’s comments that oil companies are “making too much money … based on a shortage” due to his war on Iran.
“I think that every day people, every day Americans, we can see the very large gap between what Trump, Donald Trump says and what Donald Trump does,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Donald Trump may be saying that oil companies are making too much money, but what Donald Trump is doing is starting a reckless war in Iran, having closed door meetings with oil companies before his election, saying, you know, you give me money, you give me campaign contributions, and I will do whatever you want.”
“What he is doing is jacking up the price, not just at the pump, but at everything that you buy that requires the transportation of goods,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Donald Trump’s former defense secretary Mark Esper slammed Iran’s list of demands for reopening the strait of Hormuz, calling them “ridiculous” and saying they “should be rejected out of hand”.
These include “demands such as the withdrawal of all US forces from the region, reimbursement for the costs of the war, the fact that we would end our blockade, we would end sanctions”, Espter said on ABC News’ This Week. “So it’s gone beyond the pale.”
Esper’s comments on ABC come as Iran maintains a stranglehold on the important waterway. For Esper, Iran’s demands show “that they believe that they have the upper hand, they believe they are winning, and they are already.
“That’s what we’re up against right now.”
Iran has effectively instituted a blockage in the strait since the US-Israel war started in February and wants to charge tolls to ships that want to travel through. Iran has attacked vessels that it claims tried to get around this blockade.
Source: Guardian - World News
