Iran War Update 10

Events from the last 24 hours

The US-Israeli attack on Iran is fast-moving and it’s not easy to stay on top of the volume of interconnected events. Here’s what happened in the last 24 hours…

• Things continue to go from bad to worse for Trump. He’s been left on his own to deal with his massive miscalculation after all allies refused to risk their own citizens’ lives in keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and oil flowing. Trump is panicking as gas prices soar across the US — and there’s not much he can do about it. He launched a furious rant on Truth Social at what he called “allies” — in scare quotes — adding “We do not need the help of anyone!”

• US diesel prices have now risen by 34% since the war began, gas prices by 27%.

• The Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent resigned over US involvement in the Iran War. He’s a core MAGA stalwart. It’s a big blow for Trump.

• Later the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released her first statement on the Iran War, and a coded one, which stressed that it was Trump’s decision alone to make the strike. In other words: this is all on you, Mr President.

• Europe continues to insist it will have nothing to do with the war. The Vice President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas said: “The main concern of the European countries is that we were not consulted before starting this war… the feeling is that this is not Europe’s war… If the US is not putting their ships to keep the navigation routes open, then the question for our member states is the same… We are allies with America, but we don’t really understand their moves recently… It is absolutely time to bring the Iran War to an end. The problem with wars is that they are easier to start than to stop, and they always get out of hand.”

• In the UK 70% oppose joining Trump and Netanyahu’s war compared to just 17% who support it, according to new YouGov polling for Sky News.

• In January, Trump and Secretary of Defense/War Pete Hegseth decommissioned every US mine sweeper which could have been used to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. Retired US Ambassador Ken Fairfax said: “Evidently they could never imagine a scenario in which the US needed minesweepers. In Trump’s America, we are governed by idiots.”

• Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett said US consumers — that’s everyone — were the least of the administration’s concerns: “If the war were to be extended, it wouldn’t really disrupt the US economy very much at all. It would hurt consumers, and we’d have to think about what we’d have to do about that, but that’s really the last of our concerns right now, because we are very confident that this thing is going ahead of schedule.”

• Israel assassinated one of the most senior figures in the Iranian regime, security chief Ali Larijani.

• An Iranian missile strike killed two in Ramat Gan south of Tel Aviv and Tel Aviv Savidor Central train station was hit by an Iranian cluster missile.

• The USS Gerald R Ford is heading to Crete for repairs after a massive fire on board last week. The administration blamed it on a fire in the laundry. Impossible to know if this is true as there are no journalists embedded among US forces for the first time.

• CENTCOM, the US military command in the Middle East, said: “Hours ago, US forces successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles in these sites posed a risk to international shipping in the strait.”