Iran War Update 7

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…

• The Pentagon previously announced it was spending $1 billion a day on Trump and Netanyahu’s war. The truth? It’s $3 billion…and that’s just for munitions. On top of that they’ve alarmed everyone by burning through scarce munitions in a matter of days.

• EU Council President Antonio Costa said Russia has emerged as “the only winner” from the Iran War.

• Responding to evidence published around the world that the US bombed a girls school in Iran, Secretary of Defense/War Pete Hegseth said: “No nation takes more precautions to ensure there is never targeting of civilians than the United States of America. Iranians target civilians. We do not.”

• At the same press conference, General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: “We continue to strike the Iranian Navy and their capabilities in order to do things like sustained movements through the Straits of Hormuz.” The Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

• A screeching 180 from the UK’s Far Right Reform leader Nigel Farage who’s gone from Trumpian “Bomb the Islamists” to “We cannot get involved directly in another foreign war” overnight. He’s seen the polling showing the UK public overwhelmingly doesn’t support the war.

• Iran has begun laying a small number of mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Only a few dozen mines have been placed so far, but Iran still has most of its mine-laying boats available and could deploy hundreds if it chooses.

• Trump has refused to help Ukraine in any significant way, but Zelenskyy is the better person. He said: “Ukraine has sent three professional teams to the Middle East that will work in different countries in the region…Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. There, they will assist with security matters and countering drones.”

• Anyone looking for a US plan to end the war will be disappointed. CNBC: “How do you see this war ending?” Trump envoy Steve Witkoff who negotiated with Iran: “I don’t know.”

• Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said: “The claim that Iran was planning on attacking the US or US Forces, whether preventively or preemptively, is a sheer and utter lie. The sole purpose of that lie is to justify Operation Epic Mistake, a misadventure engineered by Israel and paid for by ordinary Americans.”

• The International Energy Agency proposed the largest ever oil release from strategic reserves to counter the economic devastation being created by Trump and Netanyahu’s war.

• A drone hit the major US diplomatic facility in Baghdad, Iraq, as the chaos caused by the war continued to spread.

• Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy said: “I was in a two hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can’t defend this war in public. I obviously can’t disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are.”