Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi urged Bulgaria to reconsider its decision to allow the temporary deployment of US military ​aircraft at the Bezmer air base, Iranian state media ‌reported on Thursday.

During a phone call with his Bulgarian counterpart, Velislava Petrova-Chamova, Araqchi said Sofia’s approval of a US request to station military aircraft at ​the base to support military operations amounted to facilitating aggression ​against Iran, adding the move was unacceptable and contrary ⁠to the traditionally friendly relations between the two countries.

Iran has repeatedly ​warned countries allowing their territory to be used for US military ​operations against it that they could “face consequences”.

Araqchi held a separate phone call with Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, during which he stressed the importance of ​preventing foreign military bases in Cyprus from being used against Iran.

Bulgaria’s parliament ​last week approved the temporary deployment of up to eight US KC-135 tanker ‌aircraft ⁠and up to 250 personnel at Bezmer air base despite Iranian objections. Sofia has said no offensive weapons would be deployed and that the move did not make Bulgaria a party to military ​operations.

Cyprus hosts two ​British sovereign ⁠military bases, including RAF Akrotiri, which was struck by an Iranian drone in early March, a few days ​after Israel and the US initiated strikes on ​Iran.

Britain agreed ⁠early on in the war to a US request to use British bases for defensive strikes against Iranian missiles in storage depots or launchers.

This ⁠arrangement ​was maintained by the new British ​Prime Minister Andy Burnham in July, prompting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to warn Britain against facilitating US ​military operations against Iran.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Thursday claimed it launched ballistic missile strikes on a US airbase in Jordan and another military facility in Kuwait, alleging it destroyed American fighter jets, helicopters and military infrastructure in retaliation for US attacks on Iran’s Qeshm Island.

According to the IRGC, its Aerospace Force fired multiple ballistic missiles at the US-operated Al Azraq Air Base in Jordan, targeting an area used for the parking, maintenance and servicing of F-35 fighter aircraft.

The IRGC claimed the strike destroyed three F-35 fighter jets and severely damaged three others. It also said that several US military officers, technical personnel and aircraft maintenance staff were killed in the attack.

The Iranian military said the operation was carried out in response to US missile strikes earlier on Thursday on Qeshm Island, where Iranian authorities said a residential house was hit, killing three members of the same family — a husband, wife and their two-year-old child. Two other children, aged seven and nine, were reportedly injured and taken to hospital.

In a separate statement carried by Iran’s Fars News Agency, the IRGC claimed it also targeted the US-operated Ali Al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait as part of “Operation Nasr 2”.

According to the report, two drone hangars, an aircraft fuel storage facility and several military helicopters were destroyed during the strike.

The IRGC accused the United States of destabilising the Middle East and vowed to continue attacks until American forces withdraw from the region.

The claims could not be independently verified. Reuters reported that US officials did not immediately comment on the alleged strikes, while there was no immediate official response from Jordan or Kuwait regarding the reported attacks.

Al Azraq Air Base hosts the US Air Force’s 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing and has long served as a key American military facility in the region. Iran had also claimed to have targeted the base earlier this month.

The latest exchange follows a sharp escalation in direct military confrontation between Washington and Tehran, raising fears of further instability across the Middle East.

The US military completed a “heavy wave of strikes” against Iran on Thursday in retaliation against Tehran targeting American bases in Jordan, as fighting intensified in the Middle East war after a nearly week-long pause.

The reignited hostilities have drawn in the Islamic Republic’s proxies, and appear to have dashed hopes of a quick return to negotiations between the foes.

US President Donald Trump had vowed to hit Iran “hard” after Tehran launched missiles at Jordan, its first regional strike in days.

American forces “successfully completed a heavy wave of strikes against Iran”, and struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard targets including military command centres, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said.

Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported hits on several cities in the southwestern Khuzestan province, as well as on Qeshm island in the Gulf.

Areas around the cities of Abadan, Shadegan, Arvandkenar and Ahvaz — all in Khuzestan — were struck, the agency said, citing provincial authorities.

In a sign of the war’s spread, Saudi Arabia and the United States announced strikes on Wednesday on militant bases in Iraq, while US ally Israel accused Iran-backed Hezbollah of a truce violation.

The world’s biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, has reported two days of drone attacks targeting crude facilities that it blames on Iraqi armed groups allied with Tehran.

Jordan’s army said it had intercepted five Iranian missiles, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said it had targeted US bases there.

“As long as the threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran continue… the resistance will continue,” the IRGC said.

On another front, Israel accused Hezbollah of deploying a drone overnight against an Israeli vehicle inside Lebanon, in what the military called “a blatant violation of the ceasefire”.

Israel fought alongside the United States in the first weeks of the war against Iran, while battling Hezbollah in Lebanon, but it has yet to join the latest round of strikes against the Islamic Republic.

‘Dangerous’

In Iraq, the joint US-Saudi air operation followed attacks by what Riyadh called “terrorist militias loyal to Iran” on its oil facilities.

The US military said logistics and weapons sites belonging to an Iran-aligned group were targeted in the strikes.

Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi alliance said the attacks killed at least 20 of its members.

It denounced a “dangerous escalation” against an “official security institution”.

Two Hashed officials said five Iranian advisors were among those killed, and AFP correspondents saw coffins draped with Iranian flags.

The Hashed al-Shaabi alliance, also known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces, was created in 2014 to fight jihadists before its integration into the military.

It includes brigades belonging to Iran-backed groups reputed for acting unilaterally.

Iraq denounced the US-Saudi strikes and said it rejects “all acts of aggression, regardless of the party responsible or the justifications presented”.

The Ministerial Council for National Security said it would “confront any violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, and prevent any source from using Iraqi territory to threaten neighbouring states”.

According to Fox News, however, Trump said the strikes were “coordinated with the Iraqi government”.

The strikes follow growing US pressure on Iraq to disarm pro-Iran groups. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi visited both the US and Iran.

Red Sea

The United States had said the days-long cessation in fighting was aimed at kickstarting a new round of negotiations, including over the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blockaded throughout much of the war.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they had attacked and stopped three tankers in the strait, insisting Iran has “full control” of the waterway that was previously free to transit.

Tehran has insisted it will retain control of the crucial conduit for energy shipments, and has also announced plans to collect fees for passage, which Washington opposes.

Crude oil prices slipped on Thursday after a jump the day before.

The United States also announced new sanctions targeting entities linked to Iran’s Guards that it accused of extorting ships transiting the strait.

The Egyptian government said Thursday that a fire the day before at the port of Damietta was caused by a drone attack, the first to target the country since the outbreak of the Middle East war.

Authorities had reported that two gas ships were damaged by Wednesday’s blaze, which private security monitor UK-based Ambrey said started with a drone attack on a US-owned-and-operated LNG floating storage vessel.

While energy facilities elsewhere in the region have been hit by drones and missiles over the course of the United States and Israel’s war on Iran, Egypt had so far been spared.

The cabinet said that a preliminary investigation into the incident determined “it resulted from a drone”, noting no one had claimed responsibility.

It added that the inquiry was ongoing “to determine the circumstances of the incident and to take the necessary measures to preserve Egypt’s interests and national security”.

The port authority said in a statement that operations were ongoing as normal despite the attack.

Keplr identified the damaged ships as the Energos Winter storage and regasification vessel and the GasLog Salem tanker, saying they had been moved offshore after the incident.

A private security monitor, UK-based Ambrey, reported that the US-owned-and-operated floating storage vessel was hit by at least one unidentified drone, with a second ship catching fire “in connection with the incident”.

The former head of the Damietta Port Authority, Major General Ayman Salah, told AFP on Wednesday that the regasification ship was moored next to the LNG tanker in the harbour.

“The regasification process takes place under very high pressure,” he said, explaining that any leak could lead to a fire.

Wednesday’s attack took place as the United States and Iran returned to hostilities following a brief lull in fighting aimed at reviving negotiations.

Iran fired a salvo of missiles at US assets in Jordan, while Washington retaliated with a “heavy wave of strikes” on the Islamic Republic.

Houthis not behind drone strike     

Yemen’s Houthi rebels declared on Thursday that they were not behind a drone strike the day before that hit a US-owned-and-operated gas storage ship in the Egyptian port of Damietta.

According to the Houthi-affiliated news agency Saba, an official in the movement’s foreign affairs office said “rumours claiming Yemen targeted a ship in Damietta Port in the Arab Republic of Egypt are unfounded”.

Iran’s economy has so far avoided collapse despite five months of conflict with the United States, but soaring inflation, deepening poverty and prolonged sanctions are placing increasing pressure on households, according to economists and analysts.

Although the resource-rich country of more than 92 million people remains one of the world’s major oil producers, years of international sanctions have pushed Tehran to diversify its economy by expanding agriculture, manufacturing and services while relying on informal trade networks and domestic production to cushion the impact of external shocks.

Experts say those measures have helped keep the economy functioning despite the ongoing conflict, but at a growing cost to ordinary Iranians, according to a report by Al Jazeera.

Welfare economist Hadi Kahalzadeh said Iran has not reached the point of economic collapse, defining such a scenario as one in which the government is unable to pay public sector workers or provide basic services.

He argued that while the combined impact of war, sanctions and trade restrictions has severely damaged the economy, it has not yet pushed the country into systemic failure.

Instead, the economic burden has largely been transferred to households through soaring inflation and the sharp depreciation of the country’s currency.

Annual inflation has climbed to around 90%, with food prices rising sharply over the past year.

The cost of essential items such as meat, cooking oil and eggs has more than tripled, while imported goods have become increasingly expensive as the rial continues to weaken against the US dollar.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz following the outbreak of the US-Iran conflict has further disrupted supply chains, adding to inflationary pressures.

Economists say the government has sought to soften the impact through cash assistance and subsidies, although the country’s monthly minimum wage remains below $100.

Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said authorities have resumed payments under an electronic food coupon programme, but acknowledged that many participating retailers have yet to receive funds because several major banks remain affected by cyberattacks reported more than a month ago.

She also said recent US air strikes damaged key infrastructure, including bridges, tunnels and parts of Iran’s energy network.

However, she noted that authorities had managed to limit electricity rationing for manufacturers to two days a week instead of the three days initially anticipated.

A report by the Saba Pension Strategies Institute estimated that the share of Iranians living below the poverty line has risen from just over 30% five years ago to about 45% this year, with the trend expected to continue.

Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, a professor specialising in Middle East economics at Germany’s Philipps University Marburg, said corruption remains one of the most serious structural challenges facing Iran’s economy.

He argued that oil revenues have allowed authorities to delay reforms while encouraging dependence on the state, weakening the private sector and discouraging long-term investment.

According to Farzanegan, the prolonged economic crisis has led households to cut spending, businesses to delay investment and skilled professionals to consider emigrating, contributing to the erosion of the country’s middle class.

Iranian officials have also acknowledged significant financial irregularities linked to oil revenues.

Zabihollah Khodaeian, head of Iran’s General Inspection Organisation, said individuals entrusted with repatriating proceeds from sanctioned oil sales had withheld at least $11 billion, including $1.6 billion that he alleged had been misused.

He also said more than 20,000 exporters have yet to return approximately 94 billion euros (about $107 billion) in export earnings as required under Iranian law.

Despite mounting economic challenges, analysts say Iran’s economy continues to function, supported by domestic production, informal trade and oil exports.

However, they warn that without a reduction in geopolitical tensions and renewed diplomacy, sanctions and continued conflict are likely to leave the economy under prolonged strain, even if it avoids outright collapse.

Pakistan on Thursday expressed concern over escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, saying it is working to bring both sides back to the negotiating table under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and restore stability in the region.

Speaking at the weekly media briefing in Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said Islamabad remains actively engaged in diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East and facilitate dialogue between Washington and Tehran.

He said Pakistan is in contact with relevant stakeholders to help normalise the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and promote regional peace.

“The two sides remain engaged in dialogue, and Pakistan is playing its role in efforts to ensure peace in the region,” the spokesperson said.

Andrabi said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had spoken with the Saudi Crown Prince by telephone, while Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had separately held discussions with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

He added that Kuwait’s foreign minister had also recently visited Pakistan as part of ongoing regional consultations.

Rejecting a recent documentary by Germany’s public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) on Pakistan’s nuclear programme, Andrabi said the report contained misinformation and urged the broadcaster to adhere to fundamental journalistic standards.

He said Pakistan has full confidence in the safety and security of its nuclear programme, stressing that its command and control system meets international standards.

The spokesperson also criticised restrictions imposed on Pakistani social media accounts by India, describing the move as a reflection of the Indian government’s intolerance.

Responding to a question about next year’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, Andrabi confirmed that Pakistan will host the meeting of the Council of Heads of State and, as the host country, will extend invitations to all member states.

He also said Saudi Arabia has every right to defend itself, but declined to comment on the Iraqi government’s position regarding recent regional developments.

On Pakistan-India relations, Andrabi confirmed that diplomatic visas are being issued through the two countries’ high commissions, describing the process as an administrative matter.

Addressing questions on Afghanistan, the spokesperson rejected allegations that Pakistani operations had caused civilian casualties, saying Pakistan targets only terrorists and their hideouts.

Andrabi declined to comment on the situation in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province.

He further said Pakistan has not deported any Afghan national carrying valid legal documentation.

The fresh US strikes on Iran on Wednesday have further intensified a five-month-old war that was already expanding beyond its main fronts to embroil additional countries in ‌the region.

“US forces began launching strikes against Iran at 8pm ET today (0000 GMT),” US Central Command said in a statement.

“The strikes are a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on US forces based in the Middle East.”

Earlier on Wednesday, a drone hit a US-owned gas storage tanker at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta, British maritime security firm Ambrey said in an initial assessment, while US and Saudi forces launched strikes against Iran-aligned groups in eastern Iraq and Iran fired missiles at US troops in Jordan.

A statement from Egypt’s petroleum ministry confirmed a fire at the port but made no mention of a drone attack.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible.

The latest strikes in Iraq and Egypt threatened to draw more Middle Eastern countries into ​the conflict, after the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen last week declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia.

The US strikes in Iran on Wednesday followed President Donald Trump’s vow earlier ⁠in the day to retaliate against Iran for firing on US troops.

“So it’s our turn,” Trump told reporters at the White House, promising to “hit them very hard” even as he again said Washington would continue to aim for a ​peace deal with Tehran.

Iran confirmed overnight that it had fired on US bases in Jordan and at ships in the Strait of Hormuz, and also spurned an Omani proposal to jointly manage the strait, a critical global shipping route for oil ​and gas.

The war began in February, when the US and Israel launched a bombing campaign in Iran that Trump said would last only a few weeks.

A temporary ceasefire agreement in June collapsed amid renewed fighting over the strait, which Iran says it now controls.

‘Death to America’ shouted in Iraq

The joint US-Saudi attacks marked the first time Riyadh has publicly joined strikes alongside Washington.

Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, powerful Iran-backed paramilitary groups incorporated into the Iraqi security forces, said at least 20 members were killed and ​32 wounded in US-Saudi strikes targeting several bases across Iraq.

Iraqi men shouted “Death to America!” as they carried the bodies of slain fighters in body bags.

Washington and Riyadh said they struck Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq in retaliation for drone attacks on Saudi oil targets ‌launched from Iraq.

After ⁠the joint attacks, Saudi Arabia’s defence minister met with US Vice President JD Vance in Washington on Wednesday to urge the Trump administration not to escalate the conflict further by attacking Yemen’s Houthis and carrying out additional strikes against the Iran-aligned militias in Iraq, two sources told Reuters.

One of the sources added that such escalation would open the door to “major unknown risks.”

The White House and Saudi embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US officials have privately cautioned that resuming major combat operations against Iran would carry risk given the negative impact on stocks of munitions.

The Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, estimated this week that the US military has fewer than 1,000 ​Patriot interceptor missiles and fewer than 250 THAAD interceptors — two ​key air defence systems.

Though Iran denies its forces have ⁠directed strikes from Iraqi territory, Iranian newspaper Hamshahri reported that four Iranian Revolutionary Guards advisers had been killed in the strikes on Iraq.

Iraq’s dangerous rift

The strikes on Iraq expose a dangerous rift in that volatile country.

The government is one of the few in the world to balance close military and diplomatic ties with both Tehran and Washington, ​but those divided loyalties are a constant source of tension and frequent domestic unrest.

The office of Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi, who took power just two months ago, urged ​the parties involved to avoid escalation ⁠and said he wanted to keep the country out of regional conflicts.

The Iraqi presidency denounced the strikes on the paramilitaries as “an unacceptable attack and a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”, while also calling for a halt to attacks by armed groups against Iraq’s neighbours.

The deep ties between Iran and Iraq are on display this week as hundreds of thousands of Iranian religious pilgrims head to shrines in Iraq for an annual religious event.

Hours before launching the ⁠attacks on Iraq, ​the US military said its air defences had averted a surprise Iranian attack on US troops in the region.

Jordan’s military said it had shot ​down five Iranian missiles.

US bases in Jordan have lately become primary Iranian targets, where three US service members were killed this month in the worst US losses since March.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had fired several ballistic missiles at US military installations in Jordan, and had struck three ​tankers that were attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz along an unauthorised route.

The United States launched a fresh wave of air strikes against Iran early Thursday, targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) facilities in response to recent attacks on American military bases across the Middle East.

In a statement posted on X, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces struck dozens of IRGC-linked targets, including military command centres, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defence sites, and maritime assets.

“The strikes are a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on US forces based in the Middle East,” CENTCOM said, adding that the operation was intended to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten US personnel, commercial shipping and neighbouring Gulf states.

Iranian media reported that American strikes hit areas near Qeshm Island in the southern province of Hormozgan and around the southwestern city of Abadan after a brief pause in hostilities.

Ahmad Nafisi, deputy governor of Hormozgan province, told the Mehr news agency that “a point near Qeshm was attacked by the American enemy military” at around 4am local time.

Separately, the Fars news agency, citing the deputy governor of Khuzestan province, reported that missile strikes targeted areas around Abadan, describing the United States as the “terrorist enemy of America.”

The latest strikes came a day after US President Donald Trump vowed a forceful military response following an attempted rocket attack on American bases in the region.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump said five rockets had been fired at US positions, but all were intercepted.

He added that Washington believed a separate group, rather than Iran directly, was responsible for the attack and had since apologised.

Despite that, Trump warned that military action would continue.

“We’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them,” Trump told reporters, adding that Iran had asked Washington not to retaliate.

“We’re going to smack them a little bit,” he added.

Two ships used for the processing and storage of gas caught fire in the Egyptian port of Damietta on Wednesday, without causing injuries, according to the oil ministry.

“The situation was handled immediately in accordance with emergency and rapid response plans,” the ministry said, without identifying the cause of the blaze.

“The necessary procedures are being taken to assess the implications of the situation.”

The former head of the Damietta Port Authority, Major General Ayman Salah, told AFP that a “regasification ship” was moored next to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker in the harbour.

“The regasification process takes place under very high pressure,” he said, explaining that any leak could lead to a fire.

The United States on Wednesday announced new sanctions targeting entities linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that it accused of extorting ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The announcement came as President Donald Trump warned the United States would strike Iran “hard” after a missile attack against US bases in Jordan, reigniting the Middle East conflict after a days-long pause.

An “extortion scheme” backed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard “forces commercial vessels to purchase mandatory maritime ‘insurance’ to transit the Strait,” the US Treasury Department said in a statement.

“These entities manufacture risk — including the threat of vessel seizures — and then charge commercial vessels for coverage against dangers created by the regime itself,” a parallel State Department statement said.

The sanctions target the Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company and the HormuzSafe Marine Services Authority, which, according to Washington, are linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Washington also sanctioned eight companies operating ships that it accused of transporting Iranian crude oil and petrochemicals to China and the United Arab Emirates, in violation of other US sanctions.

These ships are “part of Iran’s ‘shadow fleet,’ which the regime relies on to evade sanctions,” the State Department said.

“With its economy in freefall and inflation in the triple digits, the regime is desperate for cash,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was quoted as saying.

After hostilities with Washington resumed on July 7, Iran once again blocked the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial shipping lane for the global energy trade — claiming the right to impose transit fees on ships and allowing passage only along the route hugging its coastline.

The United States, for its part, has imposed a blockade on Iranian ports.

Approximately 20 per cent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war.

The top US commander for the Middle East has warned troops that cellphone videos shared online can ​help Iran target American bases, and sources told Reuters some deployed personnel could soon be ordered to surrender their phones.

Any crackdown on mobile communications would add a new dimension ‌to the conflict for the thousands of US troops in the region, many of whom still rely on phones to periodically message loved ones and assure them they are well.

Admiral Brad Cooper, in a previously unreported letter, said Iran was benefiting from being able to see the success or failure of its strikes in near real-time by searching news reports or online posts by journalists referencing “reactions, photos, and footage from the cellphones of our troops.”

“The direct, unavoidable cost of this open-source intelligence could be measured ​in the lives of American service members and civilian residents in targeted Gulf countries,” Cooper, head of US Central Command, wrote in his July 28 letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

He ​called on troops to “redouble our focus on operational security,” without prescribing specific steps in the memo.

The warning underscored the mounting tensions between real-time news reporting on the ⁠war, often aided by satellite imagery and first-person accounts, and the desire by the US military to restrict any information that could aid Iran as it tries to kill and wound US troops.

In Jordan, which ​has been a frequent target of Iranian strikes, some troops have been told their phones will be confiscated in the coming days, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

A third source said such a move was ​being considered in the region due to operational security concerns but did not present the confiscation as a certainty.

Asked for comment, US Central Command spokesperson Captain Timothy Hawkins said: “The message is a general reminder to our service members on the importance of maintaining operational security. This is one of many opportunities Admiral Cooper has used to convey operational priorities.”

RUNNING FOR SHELTER DURING IRAN ATTACK

In a video posted online this month, a US service member recorded a video as soldiers ran for shelter ​during a deadly Iranian attack on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on July 17.

Cooper appeared to reference the footage in his letter, saying it had been recorded on Meta smart glasses with a built-in ​camera.

“Video captured from a service member’s Meta glasses was posted on Instagram showing where and how the individual had evacuated to a bunker during an Iranian missile and drone attack,” Cooper wrote.

Iran would normally have a tough time determining ‌the success or ⁠failure of its strikes, were it not for such accounts, Cooper said, thanks to the US military’s electronic jamming or other tactics used in war zones.

“Iran knows the weapons were fired; however, their forces do not know if they missed by 50 meters, hit an empty tarmac, or successfully struck a crowded facility,” he wrote.

“Detailed lists, descriptions, and analyses of what was hit, openly published by news outlets, are essentially performing Iran’s Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) for them, free of charge,” Cooper said.

Some 18 US troops have died in the conflict with Iran that started on February 28, and more than 600 have been wounded in the fighting, casualties that have ​deepened Americans’ concerns about a war that just one ​in three Americans support.

Democratic lawmakers have called for ⁠more information about the war, including details about damage to US infrastructure on bases including radar towers, barracks and aircraft hangars. They have also called for the release of a US military investigation into a likely US strike on a girls’ school in Iran, first reported by Reuters, on the opening day of the war on February ​28.

CELL PHONES BEING TAKEN?

Rules surrounding cell phone use for deployed troops can vary widely across the military, officials say. Many troops have to lock them ​away and cell phones can ⁠be banned on particularly sensitive missions by special operations forces, for example.

But the possible seizure of phones has stoked anxiety among some family members, already on edge in recent months as they read Iranian claims of deadly strikes on bases throughout the Middle East, two of the sources said.

US officials have cautioned for years that certain applications on mobile devices, like fitness applications, can be exploited by adversaries to aid adversary targeting because of location data.

Reuters reported in ⁠May that commercially available ​location data harvested from smartphones or other devices has been used to target or surveil US forces.

At the same time, the ​Pentagon has sought to carefully control the release of information due to what it says are operational security concerns, often declining to comment on Iran’s attack claims or detail individual incidents that led to injuries of US troops.

Cooper said details on strikes can help ​Iran mount follow-up attacks.

“Detailed public disclosures can become an immediate green light for Iranian forces to launch a secondary, much more devastating wave of attacks,” he said.

US-Saudi strikes on Iraq killed at least 20 militants, including several Iranians, on Wednesday, according to the Hashed al-Shaabi, an armed Iraqi alliance that includes pro-Iran groups.

The United States and Saudi Arabia said they had struck Iran-backed armed militants in Iraq in response to attacks on US forces and Saudi oil facilities.

Washington and Tehran are Iraq’s main allies, but their enmity has long turned the country into a proxy battleground and left successive governments struggling to maintain a delicate balance between the foes.

The Hashed al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), said that at least 20 fighters “were martyred and another 32 wounded according to a preliminary toll”.

Two Hashed officials told AFP that five Iranian advisors were among those killed in a strike in the central province of Diyala.

AFP correspondents saw coffins wrapped in Iranian flags during a funeral organised by the Hashed al-Shaabi in Baghdad for those killed.

The Hashed alliance was created in 2014 to fight jihadists before it was formally integrated into the Iraqi armed forces.

It now includes brigades belonging to Iran-backed groups reputed for acting unilaterally.

US President Donald Trump said the strikes were coordinated with the Iraqi government, according to Fox News.

They follow growing US pressure on Baghdad to disarm pro-Iran armed groups, which have frequently targeted US facilities in the country and have long called for the withdrawal of US troops.

Iraq’s new Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who came to power this year with Washington’s blessing, vowed to ensure those groups would hand over their weapons, but has faced pushback from some powerful factions.

Earlier this month, Zaidi visited both the United States and Iran.

‘Inevitable response’

The strikes came after Riyadh said its forces had intercepted drones targeting oil facilities, blaming the Iran-backed groups in Iraq.

The most active pro-Iran armed groups are united under an alliance known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has acted in support of Tehran during the Middle East war, claiming hundreds of attacks against US bases in Iraq and across the region.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said, “our response to the American enemy is inevitable, and may target its tools in Saudi Arabia”.

But the group added that it would only retaliate after the Arbaeen day of pilgrimage, which falls on Tuesday.

The Arbaeen marks one of the most significant events in the Shia Muslim calendar, during which pilgrims, many from Iran, flock to Iraq to visit the holy shrines.

The pro-Iran groups denied attacking Saudi Arabia, and they haven’t claimed any attacks since the US-Iran war resumed earlier this month.

Violation

Iraq denounced the US-Saudi strikes and said it rejects “all acts of aggression, regardless of the party responsible or the justifications presented.”

The Ministerial Council for National Security said it would “confront any violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, and prevent any source from using Iraqi territory to threaten neighbouring states”.

It reaffirmed its commitment to ensure the state’s monopoly over weapons.

Zaidi’s government has given those groups that Washington designates as terrorist organisations until September 30 to disarm.

Oil-rich Iraq has been trying to move past decades of war and unrest, but it remains vulnerable to regional and internal flare-ups.

President Donald Trump vowed to hit back hard at Iran after it attacked US bases in Jordan on Wednesday, as the Middle East war reignited and once again drew in the Islamic republic’s proxies.

The warning came after a short lull in the fighting that had spurred hopes of a return to negotiations appeared to draw to an end, sending oil prices jumping five per cent over fears of disruptions to global supplies.

On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia and the United States announced strikes on militant bases in Iraq, while US ally Israel accused Iran-backed Hezbollah of a truce violation.

For two days, the world’s biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia has reported drone attacks targeting crude facilities that it blamed on Iraqi armed groups allied with Tehran.

Iran meanwhile launched missiles at US ally Jordan, with state media later reporting an American attack near the Islamic republic’s border with Iraq.

“We’ll be hitting them hard. They’re going to get a beating,” Fox News’s correspondent quoted Trump as saying, adding that the US president used swear words to emphasise his point: “We are going to beat the ‘effing s’ out of them.”

‘War by other means’

A Saudi security analyst and researcher, Hesham Alghannam, told AFP: “Tehran is now using its proxy network to sustain leverage while the diplomatic track absorbs international attention.

“The proxy war is the continuation of the direct war by other means, and it is being run with considerable strategic coherence.”

Iranian state television, meanwhile, reported a US strike in its territory.

“A few minutes ago, an area in the Piranshahr border area was attacked by American enemy airstrikes,” it said, after the Fars news agency quoted an official in West Azerbaijan province as saying a missile hit an uninhabited area, leaving no casualties.

Earlier, Jordan’s army said it had intercepted five Iranian missiles, with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards saying they had targeted US bases there.

“As long as the threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran continue… the resistance will continue,” they added.

On another front, US ally Israel accused Hezbollah of firing a drone at an Israeli vehicle inside Lebanese territory, in what it called a violation of their truce.

“Overnight, Hezbollah launched an explosive drone toward an IDF engineering vehicle in the area of Ali al-Taher Ridge within the Security Zone,” the military said in a statement, calling the incident “a blatant violation of the ceasefire”.

Israel fought alongside the US in the first weeks of war against Iran, while battling Hezbollah in Lebanon, but it has yet to join the latest round of strikes against the Islamic republic.

‘Dangerous’

In Iraq, a joint US-Saudi air operation followed attacks by what Riyadh called “terrorist militias loyal to Iran” on its oil facilities.

The US military said logistics and weapons sites belonging to an Iran-aligned group were targeted in the strikes.

According to Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi alliance, the attacks killed at least 20 of its members across seven provinces, including Baghdad.

It denounced a “dangerous escalation” against an “official security institution”.

The Hashed al-Shaabi alliance, also known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces, was created in 2014 to fight jihadists before it was formally integrated into the armed forces.

It includes brigades belonging to Iran-backed groups reputed for acting unilaterally.

The Iraqi presidency, without naming the US and Saudi Arabia, denounced the strikes on the Hashed al-Shaabi as “an unacceptable attack and a blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”.

According to Fox News, however, Trump said the strikes were “coordinated with the Iraqi government”.

The strikes follow growing US pressure on Iraq to disarm pro-Iran groups there. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi visited both the United States and Iran.

Red Sea

The US had said the days-long cessation in fighting was aimed at kickstarting a new round of negotiations, including over the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blockaded throughout much of the Middle East war.

The Revolutionary Guards said that they had attacked and stopped three tankers in the strait, insisting Iran has “full control” of the waterway, which was open and free to transit before the war.

Tehran has insisted it will retain control of the crucial conduit for energy shipments going forward, and has also announced plans to collect fees for passage – a stance Washington vehemently opposes.

The Hormuz closure has only lent greater significance to the Red Sea, the only other maritime route for oil shipments from global heavyweight Saudi Arabia.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels, another Iran proxy, have so far insisted their blockade applies only to Saudi ports and vessels in the sea, but they have previously demonstrated an ability to make passage through the waterway an unacceptable risk, with their campaign against shipping during the Gaza war.

A minister in Yemen’s internationally recognised government accused the Houthis of working under Iranian guidance to establish a system to impose fees for ships transiting the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait at its southern tip.

The latest developments came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel visited Washington to meet with Trump as the pair seek to patch over public disagreements on the war.

Both sides described the meeting as positive, with Netanyahu saying it touched on “our common goal: ensuring that Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons”.

A minister in Yemen’s internationally recognised government on Wednesday accused Houthi rebels of working under Iranian guidance to establish a system to impose fees for ships transiting the Red Sea and the Bab El Mandab Strait.

The narrow maritime artery has been a critical waterway for delivering vast quantities of Saudi crude to the international market, after energy exports were largely choked off by fighting in the Strait of Hormuz.

Information minister Moammar Al Eryani described “the move as a dangerous escalation aimed at transforming one of the world’s most strategic maritime corridors into a permanent source of funding for the militia’s military and terrorist activities”.

Eryani said the assessment was provided by recently obtained “confirmed intelligence” indicating that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were helping manage the effort.

“The intelligence indicates that IRGC experts and advisers are directly involved in designing the technical and administrative framework of the project,” the minister added in comments exclusive to AFP.

He added that this would include “the establishment of a dedicated entity responsible for collecting payments from shipping companies and commercial vessels”.

Anxieties are growing across the Gulf that the Houthis are hoping to copy Iran’s playbook in the Strait of Hormuz by monetising access to the Bab El Mandab Strait — a move likely to send world energy markets into further disarray.

Last week, the Houthis announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and have since claimed attacks targeting Saudi tankers and oil infrastructure.

The blockade has threatened Saudi Arabia’s ability to export millions of barrels of crude a day, cutting off the kingdom’s only other maritime route following Iran’s parallel blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States and Saudi Arabia carried out coordinated air strikes on Iran-backed militia in Iraq early Wednesday, saying the operation was a response to drone attacks on US forces and Saudi energy infrastructure.

Later, in a statement, Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) reported casualties and damage at several of its headquarters.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said American and Saudi fighter jets conducted “precision strikes” on multiple logistics and weapons sites used by Iran-aligned groups in eastern Iraq after more than 30 drone attacks over the past 72 hours targeting US positions and Saudi petroleum facilities.

“The IRGC and its terrorist proxies must cease these attacks to avoid further US military response,” CENTCOM said, blaming Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) for directing the attacks.

Saudi Arabia confirmed it had joined the operation, saying the strikes were launched after air defences intercepted drones fired from Iraq at the kingdom’s oil facilities on Monday and Tuesday.

Saudi Defence Ministry spokesman Turki Al Maliki said the operation was carried out in coordination with the United States under Article 51 of the UN Charter, which recognises the inherent right of self-defence.

He said the strikes targeted militia groups inside Iraq that were linked to the attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure, adding that Riyadh did not seek escalation but would respond to any aggression against the kingdom.

The PMF said several of its headquarters across Iraq were struck in the early-morning raids, killing a number of personnel, wounding others and causing damage to buildings and other property.

Describing the attacks as a serious escalation and a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, the PMF said the strikes targeted official Iraqi security institutions.

It added that authorities were assessing the full extent of casualties and damage but did not disclose the locations of the affected sites or announce any retaliatory action.

The latest strikes came amid rapidly escalating regional tensions.

Hours earlier, the US accused Iran of launching multiple ballistic missiles at American military installations in the Middle East, describing the attack as a surprise assault.

CENTCOM said all incoming missiles were intercepted and that US forces remained on high alert.

The IRGC later claimed responsibility for firing ballistic missiles at a US air base and a US Central Command facility in Jordan, describing the attack as retaliation for recent US military operations against Iranian interests.

Iran also claimed that three oil tankers had been struck and halted after allegedly ignoring warnings in the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping remains severely disrupted.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement said it had targeted two Saudi vessels as part of its campaign against the kingdom’s maritime interests.

According to CENTCOM, Iran-backed militias carried out more than 600 attacks on US personnel and facilities in Iraq between February and April this year.

The renewed military exchanges mark Iran’s first direct attack on a US base since President Donald Trump paused offensive operations last week to allow space for diplomacy, raising fears that the conflict could widen despite ongoing efforts to prevent a broader regional war.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said on Tuesday they targeted a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles for violating a blockade on the kingdom’s ports announced by the group.

“The targeting of the Saudi vessel came after it ignored warnings,” a Houthi military spokesman said, identifying the ship as the NCC Ghazal and adding it had been “forced to turn back”.

The website MarineTraffic, owned by maritime tracking firm Kpler, listed the Ghazal as a Saudi-flagged tanker whose last known location was the port of Yanbu, the terminus of an important oil pipeline on the kingdom’s Red Sea coast.

Last week, the Iran-backed Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and have since claimed attacks targeting Saudi tankers and oil infrastructure.

The blockade has threatened Saudi Arabia’s ability to get its supplies to the world following Iran’s parallel blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the kingdom’s only other maritime route.

Riyadh last week struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the threats to Red Sea shipping.

A Saudi-led military coalition had fought against the Houthis in support of Yemen’s internationally recognised government after war broke out in the country in 2015.

The latest flare-up marks the first time in years that Saudi Arabia and the rebels have traded blows, threatening a 2022 truce in the previous conflict that has held despite expiring.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House Tuesday for his first in-person talks with President Donald Trump since the Iran war began, as the leaders sought to patch over public disagreements on the conflict.

The meeting — which took place behind closed doors — was expected to be dominated by the war, which began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February but has seen a recent pause in the fighting as Washington says it wants to give negotiations a chance.

Israel has not taken part in the latest round of hostilities between the United States and Iran, which flared earlier this month as an April ceasefire collapsed.

The talks — which the White House described as “positive and productive” — lasted for about an hour and a half.

The meeting is the eighth between the leaders since Trump’s return to office in early 2025 and comes ahead of key electoral tests later this year for both Netanyahu and the US president: national elections in Israel and midterm polls in the United States.

“We will discuss all the issues on the agenda, first and foremost Iran. Naturally, our goal is to safeguard our security and also to expand the circle of peace around us,” Netanyahu said before departing from Israel.

Upon arriving in Washington, Netanyahu attended a private memorial dinner on Monday evening in honor of the late senator Lindsey Graham, his office said.

He was also scheduled to attend the memorial service for Graham later Tuesday.

Relations between Trump and Netanyahu reached a low point in April during negotiations on the ceasefire with Iran, with Trump unleashing profanity-laced tirades against his Israeli ally.

Trump later described Netanyahu in an interview as a “very difficult guy.”

Netanyahu downplayed the exchanges as “tactical disagreements,” saying they were aligned on the goals of the war.

On Tuesday, the leaders were expected to discuss the implementation of a US-sponsored framework deal signed by Israel and Lebanon last month, whose application on the ground has been challenging.

The talks were also expected to touch on Gaza, as diplomatic efforts to kickstart the devastated Palestinian territory’s reconstruction are at a standstill.

Nearly three years after the war between Israel and Hamas broke out, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire, and Israel continues to regularly target people the military says are militants.

‘No break’ in ties

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Tuesday that Netanyahu’s visit comes at a “critical time for the Middle East,” with Iran continuing “to choose terrorism over negotiations” and blocking the key Strait of Hormuz waterway.

Yonatan Freeman, an international relations expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said the primary aim of the visit is to dispel reports of a cooling in ties between the allies.

“I think that the main issue… is to show the world, to show Iran, and also even Lebanon and others… that there is no break or any kind of major disagreement between the United States and Israel,” he told AFP.

“There’s more in agreement between the two leaders than disagreement.”

For Freeman, any differences between Trump and Netanyahu concern the means — timeline, intensity, immediate objectives of operations — rather than the ends of the war.

He also suggested that Trump would mainly seek to focus on his two regional priorities, namely Iran and the expansion of the Abraham Accords, rather than on Gaza, which he sees as less of a priority.

The Abraham Accords are a series of US-brokered normalisation agreements signed during Trump’s first term, under which Israel established formal diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain for the first time, followed by Morocco.

But other observers believe that the talks could address the possible easing of Israel’s military presence in the region, such as in Lebanon, Syria or Gaza.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said there have been good talks with Iran even as he ​reiterated his threats to target Pickaxe Mountain as well as ‌bridges and power plants if a deal is not made with Tehran.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump said he wanted to avoid targeting Iran’s bridges and power ​plants if possible.

“It’s a very, very delicate balance. So ​I think we have a very strong position right ⁠now. They know I’m going to do that if ​they don’t make a deal,” Trump told the “Fox and Friends” program. “We ​cannot have them break deals anymore.”

“We have had some very good talks,” Trump said of Iran.

Trump is due to meet with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin ​Netanyahu at the White House later on Tuesday after the ​two countries launched strikes against Iran in February.

Trump was asked about reports ‌that ⁠Netanyahu plans to talk to him about work happening at a site linked to Iran’s nuclear programme known as Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Tehran’s ​main nuclear sites.

“I ​don’t need ⁠Bibi to tell me that. Bibi’s telling me that because he wants me to stay involved,” ​the Republican president said, referring to Netanyahu.

“I know ​exactly ⁠what’s going on at Pickaxe. It’s not a big problem. We took out their nuclear sites, and we’ll have to take ⁠out Pickaxe ​if we don’t make a deal. ​We don’t make a deal, we’ll take it out very easily,” Trump said.

Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, ​a Gulf source and a Western diplomat told Reuters on Tuesday.

The plan could serve as a basis to end the disruption to trade through the strait caused by the ‌US-Israeli war on Iran.

President Donald Trump, who abruptly called off a two-week US bombing campaign over the weekend in his latest strategic U-turn, said there were “good talks” underway with Iran but threatened to restart strikes unless negotiations deliver. Iran denies seeking to resume talks with the United States.

Washington launched its renewed bombing campaign earlier this month to break Iran’s grip on the strait, through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the ​war.

Iran effectively shut the strait to ships other than its own after the United States and Israel attacked on February 28. A deal last month between the United States and ​Iran partially reopened it, but the agreement collapsed in early July after Iran fired on ships using a channel it does not approve.

Iran has said ⁠it wants to manage the strait alongside Oman, which controls the opposite shore, and charge service fees to ships that use it. Washington wants to return to the status quo prior to the war, ​when ships were able to pass freely with no payments, and says charging mandatory fees would be illegal.

Under the Omani proposal, Iran would not exercise sole control and fees would be voluntary, the Gulf source ​and Western diplomat briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The system would be analogous to one in place on Asia’s Strait of Malacca, where Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore ask ships to pay voluntary contributions to fund navigation, environmental protection and search-and-rescue operations.

The Western diplomat compared it to a voluntary carbon tax for flights, where anyone buying a plane ticket can choose to tick a box if they want to pay to offset their emissions.

The Gulf source said that ​as of Monday evening there had been no formal response from Iran to the proposal. Omani officials met Iranians in Tehran over the weekend.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi discussed the Strait of Hormuz with ​his Omani and Saudi counterparts on Monday and stressed the need for regional cooperation, an Iranian Foreign Ministry statement said.

TRUMP WARNS OF MORE STRIKES

Trump called off his latest campaign of air strikes after receiving advice from military ‌commanders that ⁠the strategy had run its course. The 13 nights of renewed US bombing killed scores in Iran and destroyed bridges and tunnels across the south as well as military targets.

Iran had responded with attacks on US bases in neighbouring countries that killed four service members, and strikes on civil infrastructure in Gulf states that it said were in response to US strikes on civilian targets.

Iran has said it would hold fire as long as Washington does. But drone attacks were reported in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and northern Iran on Monday, and Jordan reported another drone being downed on Tuesday.

Speaking on Monday, Trump expressed optimism ​for a deal to end the five-month conflict, ​while warning that US strikes would resume ⁠if negotiations failed to deliver.

“I think there’s a good chance that something could happen, and if it does, good; if it doesn’t, we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”

Iran says it has not sought any new negotiations with the United States, which it accuses of violating ​the agreement reached last month on a framework for talks to end the war.

The US president is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ​Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday. ⁠Although Israel was involved in the initial bombing campaign, it has not been part of subsequent peace talks, and recent relations between the two leaders have been strained.

Trump has had to rein in the Israeli leader from attacking targets in Lebanon to try to weaken Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, complicating peace talks with Tehran.

The end of the US bombing campaign over the weekend sent oil prices tumbling by around 8% on Monday, and the ⁠fall continued on ​Tuesday. Brent crude futures were down more than 2.5% at around $86 a barrel by mid-morning on Tuesday.

Washington and Tehran reached ​an agreement in June on a framework for talks meant to take place by the end of August to resolve major issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme.

But they have disputed the meaning of the memorandum’s language about the strait, with Washington insisting it ​requires Tehran to allow free travel, while Iran says it grants it the authority to supervise transit.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz on Tuesday said that American warplanes used Israeli bases during their attacks on Iran, reiterating that his country was prepared to retaliate if targeted.

Fighting between the US and Iran has been paused since Friday after 13 nights of US strikes on the Islamic Republic, after an April ceasefire collapsed.

Israel has not taken part in the latest round of hostilities in the war that began in late February with a wave of US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

“The fact is that, at the moment — and this could change within an hour — the Iranians are firing at everything in the region except one country: the State of Israel,” Katz told Israel’s right-wing Channel 14.

“They know that American aircraft are taking off from here to carry out strikes,” he added.

“This does not mean we know what will happen tomorrow; it means we know what our response will be. I announced it, the Prime Minister announced it, and we made it absolutely clear: if Israel comes under fire, we will strike back with full force,” Katz said.

US President Donald Trump on Monday voiced optimism at the prospects for a negotiated peace deal with Iran, as the two sides held their fire for a third consecutive day.

The first 18 months of President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House have seen a series of policy-driven economic shocks, highlighted by the immigration crackdown and higher tariffs that he promised during his 2024 campaign, and an unanticipated war with Iran that has boosted the price of oil and ​threatened global supply chains.

While the US economy overall has withstood the policy changes and Middle East war better than many economists expected, Trump’s vow to lower prices, boost factory jobs, and improve life for the middle class has yet to materialise, with the ‌midterm elections a little more than three months away.

Resilient, yes, but the economy has also stalled in many of the areas where Trump said that mass deportations of undocumented people and higher import taxes would trigger a boom, with the US-Israeli war against Iran intensifying some key risks.

Jobs

The broadest measure of employment comes from the Bureau of Labour Statistics’ household survey.

Changes in population statistics in early 2026 mean BLS’s published data is not strictly comparable from year to year, showing a sharp drop in employment and the number of people looking for jobs in January largely due to the new controls.

But the agency does use the new population ​estimates for an experimental series that looks back five years to create a consistent data set beginning in April 2020.

That data also shows declines in both the labour force and number of people working since Trump’s return to office, a logical development given ​the efforts to limit immigration and increase deportations.

Coupled with an ageing native population, fewer people are available to fill jobs.

Who’s hiring

Trump said his policies would lead to a US manufacturing revival, with ⁠jobs to follow.

There has been an investment boom — in artificial intelligence data centres whose impact on output and jobs remains to be seen.

The AI investment has pushed construction employment higher.

But payroll reports show fewer manufacturing jobs than at the end of former President Joe Biden’s administration. Biden left the ​presidency in January 2025.

Some of Trump’s priorities are reflected in the jobs data, such as the drop in the number of government workers.

But it’s hard to reshape what an economy of 342 million people demands.

It’s a society that likes restaurants and bars. And it’s one that is getting ​older and in need of more healthcare services.

Changes in hiring reflect that dynamic.

Prices

Inflation was a major campaign theme in 2024, with anger over the COVID-19 pandemic price shock still fresh even as price pressures eased while the Federal Reserve raised interest rates.

But Trump’s promise to lower prices was never realistic.

Historically, US prices on a broad basis only fall during dire economic times.

Lowering inflation is possible, but any improvement under Trump has been modest.

The most closely watched price indexes show progress stalling, with inflation still above the Fed’s 2% target, and policymakers concerned about the risks of it moving higher.

Import tariffs added to the price hikes to ​some degree; oil’s surge to around $100 a barrel, about 50% more than where it traded before the war in the Middle East began in late February, added to the pressure; and now the demands from the AI buildout are doing the same.

Economists expect relative price shifts. ​In any given period, certain goods will increase relative to others.

But when the increases are big and broad enough, and different items keep rotating through the price-increase cycle, the result is more generalised inflation.

Some Fed officials see that scenario as an imminent risk.

Incomes

Setting aside debate about whether a “K”-shaped income ‌distribution, in which the wealthy ⁠and highest earners prosper while lower- and middle-income households fare less well, is fair or sustainable, consumer spending has held up throughout the various Trump-era shocks.

But it’s unclear how long that trend can continue given that the broadest measure of household spending power — disposable personal income adjusted for inflation — has stalled out and even declined recently.

Disposable personal income is what’s left over after taxes and covers wages as well as things like payments from the Social Security pension program — in effect, the money left in a person’s pocket to pay for housing, food and other goods and services.

Affordability

Trump has veered from promising to make life more affordable to dismissing that objective as unimportant, calling recently enacted congressional legislation aimed at improving home affordability “a big yawn” and refusing to sign it.

Housing is a difficult issue. Presidents have held out homeownership as ​a touchstone of individual wealth and success for Americans, but lawmakers have ​curbed credit standards when markets got frothy and caused a ⁠global financial crisis.

After years of ultra-low interest rates, the pandemic added further fuel to the US housing market — driving up home prices — and then Fed rate hikes meant to curb inflation made affordability worse by pushing mortgage rates to new highs.

Mortgage rates remain elevated, as do home insurance premiums that are linked to higher home values and other relevant costs.

The federal government can do only so much about housing supply. ​

Extending tax credits or similar policies can help, but the sector remains under the control of local governments and their patchwork of land-use and zoning rules.

The bottom line, however, is that homeownership continues to command ​an outsized share of household income.

The stock market

Trump has long been fixated on the performance of the US stock market, with the president touting major indexes’ recent record highs as evidence of his policy successes.

The fact is, though, stocks tend to rise over time regardless of who is president, and most modern US leaders have seen record equity prices during their terms.

The market’s performance since January 2025 ranks right in the middle of the pack when measured against presidents going back to Ronald Reagan.

The S&P 500 index has gained roughly 25% during Trump’s second term versus a median gain of about 24% over the first ⁠18 months of ​presidential terms dating back to 1981.

That performance still measures up well against the overall compound annual growth rate of 9.5% for stocks in that period.

AI bond boom

The AI sector has been a major driver of the market gains since Trump returned to the White House.

But AI — currently the single largest driver of the business investment boom supporting GDP growth — is moving more than just the stock market.

Year-to-date corporate bond issuance of $1.52 trillion through the end of June — a big chunk of it to ​finance the AI buildout — is on a record pace, surpassing the post-pandemic boom in 2020.

Strong issuance combined with tight spreads and robust demand points to a resilient economy and solid corporate balance sheets.

Iran has called for closer regional cooperation to restore stability in the Strait of Hormuz, accusing the United States of fuelling tensions in the strategic waterway.

According to Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB, Araghchi made the remarks during separate telephone conversations with Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Monday.

The discussions focused on bilateral ties and the latest regional developments, with Araghchi stressing the need for coordinated diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions and safeguard regional stability.

He said countries in the region should strengthen cooperation to “eliminate the state of instability in the Strait of Hormuz resulting from the aggressive actions of the United States.”

The remarks come as a fragile calm has largely held since Friday after Washington and Tehran suspended military operations following 13 days of escalating hostilities that began on July 11.

During the fighting, the United States carried out air strikes inside Iran, while Tehran responded by targeting what it described as US military facilities and equipment in several Arab countries.

The escalation unfolded despite a memorandum of understanding signed by Washington and Tehran in June, which called for an end to hostilities and negotiations on a broader agreement aimed at ending the conflict that began with Israeli and US military action on February 28.

US President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire void on July 8 after attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, which Washington blamed on Tehran.

The United States has since demanded that Iran halt attacks on commercial shipping and ensure freedom of navigation through the strategic waterway.

Tehran, however, maintains that vessel traffic in waters adjacent to its coastline should operate under a mechanism supervised by Iran, reflecting continuing differences between the two sides over security in one of the world’s most important energy transit routes.

Just one in three Americans support the war on Iran, the lowest reading in a Reuters/Ipsos poll since the five-month-old conflict’s early days, with ​most respondents saying that President Donald Trump has failed to explain his goals.

The poll, conducted on Friday through Sunday, also showed the Republican president’s approval rating ticking higher to ‌37%, up three points from last month when his rating tied the lowest of his presidency.

Trump has offered shifting objectives for the conflict, such as aiding Iranians to topple their leaders, taking out Iran’s ballistic-missile capabilities and preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

The poll found that 69% of Americans — including four in 10 Republicans — think Trump has not “clearly explained the goals of US military involvement in Iran.”

White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said Trump will not make decisions based on “fluid opinion ​polls” and reiterated the president’s resolve to prevent Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon.

“What matters most to the American people is having a commander in chief who takes ​bold action to keep them safe,” Wales said.

Approval of the conflict has been below 40% since the US and Israel launched strikes ⁠on February 28 — a stark contrast to the opening months of other recent conflicts.

While each had different context, the Iraq War from 2003 to 2011 had the support of about 70% ​of Americans in its early months.

During the early days of the Afghanistan War, which lasted from 2001 to 2021, about 90% of the country backed the war, according to polling by Gallup.

‘No idea’ why US at war

Public disapproval of the war is weighing on Trump and his Republican Party ahead of the November midterm elections when the president’s allies will defend slim majorities in the US Congress.

“It’s not clear why we started a war with them. I have no idea,” said Alex Womack, a retired turbine repair specialist from Stockbridge, Georgia, who became a Republican in part because he liked how Republican President George H.W. Bush handled the Gulf War in ​1991.

Womack, who served in the US Marine Corps during that conflict, said his support for Trump has ebbed because of the war.

“I don’t think he’s doing very well, personally,” he said.

To ​date, 18 American soldiers have died in the conflict while thousands have died in Iran and in Lebanon, where fighters have battled Israeli forces.

The war has pushed gasoline prices sharply higher, a blow to the finances ‌of many Americans. ⁠

Gasoline prices are averaging just over $4 a gallon nationwide, up from about $3 a gallon just before the war started on February 28.

“This puts pressure on the party in a myriad of ways, all of them bad,” said Alex Conant, a Republican political strategist and a White House spokesman during the presidency of George W. Bush.

“The White House officials have been saying since January that they need to win economic arguments. It’s hard to win the economic arguments when you’re clearly focused on foreign policy.”

Independent registered voters in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll said they were favouring the Democratic congressional candidate ​over the Republican by 36% to 20%.

Independent voters ​also favoured Democrats over Republicans on economic ⁠policy, the poll found.

Trump vowed to stay out of wars

In campaigning for the 2024 presidential election, Trump said he would keep the US out of enduring conflicts.

He initially estimated the Iran war would last four to five weeks.

He has bristled over comparisons to other wars, including the ​Vietnam War, which lasted two decades and claimed the lives of more than 58,000 US soldiers.

Rhyan Anderson, an independent from Fairburn, Georgia, ​who voted for Trump in ⁠2024, said he thinks Trump should focus on domestic problems rather than on helping Israel or other allies.

“My biggest thing is just focus on the people who are actually in the country,” said Anderson, who works two jobs in security and data collection and said he voted for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.

“I know we have allies and things like that, but there’s a lot of people here ⁠that really ​need help.”

Since mid-March, the Reuters/Ipsos survey has asked respondents whether they support or oppose military strikes on Iran. ​At that time, 37% said they supported the war.

That compared to 27% approval on the day the war began, when the Reuters/Ipsos survey also gave respondents the option to choose unsure, which 29% did.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos survey, which was ​conducted online and nationwide, gathered responses from 1,246 US adults and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points in either direction.

Saudi Arabia has warned that it reserves the right to respond after accusing Iran-backed militias of launching drone attacks from Iraqi territory against its oil infrastructure.

The kingdom’s Ministry of Defence said its air defences intercepted and destroyed several drones targeting oil facilities in the Eastern Province and the capital, Riyadh, before they reached their intended targets.

Military spokesman Maj-Gen Turki Al Malki described the attempted strikes as “terrorist” attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure and said Riyadh would respond “at the appropriate time and place.”

No casualties or damage were reported, and Saudi authorities did not disclose the number of drones intercepted.

The attacks drew an immediate response from Baghdad, where Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi ordered an investigation into the launches.

Iraqi military spokesman Sabah Al Numan said authorities were examining available evidence and would pursue legal action against anyone found responsible.

Separately, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement claimed responsibility for drone attacks targeting facilities linked to Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline, which carries crude from the kingdom’s eastern oil fields to the Red Sea port of Yanbu.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said the strikes were carried out in retaliation for what he described as Saudi drone incursions into Yemeni airspace.

In Jordan, the armed forces said the Royal Jordanian Air Force intercepted and destroyed two drones targeting the kingdom.

A military source told the state-run Petra news agency that no casualties or material damage were reported.

President Donald Trump said on Monday the United States was having “good ‌talks” with Iran, and there was a chance of a deal over their conflict, but he warned that US strikes would resume if the negotiations failed to deliver.

Despite Trump’s optimism, Tehran appeared to quickly test the pause in the US military campaign, with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq reporting drone attacks on Monday.

Washington abruptly suspended a two-week campaign of air strikes on Iran on Saturday in Trump’s latest strategic U-turn in the five-month-old conflict.

“We’re having good talks,” he said. “I think there’s a good chance that something could happen, ​and if it does, good, if it doesn’t, we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”

At a campaign rally in Michigan later on Monday, Trump said of Iran: “You can’t bribe ​them. You’ve got to beat them, and we’ll beat the hell out of them. But we’ll see how it turns out. Right now, there are very friendly negotiations ⁠going on.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Monday that messages were still being passed between the sides through mediators and Iran had not forsaken diplomacy, but reports that it requested negotiations were “fabricated.”

“This is not in ​our DNA,” he said.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Sunday that Iran would halt its own attacks as long as Trump’s self-imposed ceasefire continued.

Iran’s central military command later on Monday accused the US of threatening vessels and oil tankers ​in its territorial waters and of “attempting to implement an illegal maritime blockade”, which it said “constitutes an escalation of the conflict in the region.”

Saudi Arabia said it shot down drones aimed at petroleum targets, including in Riyadh.

It said they had been launched from Iraq by Iran-backed armed groups, and it reserved the right to respond.

Separately, Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen said they had targeted the East-West Pipeline carrying oil to Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea port of Yanbu in retaliation for Saudi drone incursions.

Tehran also said ​it remained in control of the contested Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway for global energy supplies, which Trump has demanded vessels be able to pass through freely.

Oil prices tumble

Public disapproval of the war has been weighing on Trump ​and his Republican Party ahead of November midterm elections in which they have to defend slim congressional majorities.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted over the weekend showed Trump’s approval rating ticking higher to 37%, up three points from last month when it tied ‌the lowest of ⁠his presidency.

However, just one in three Americans support the Iran war, the lowest Reuters/Ipsos reading since the conflict’s early days, with most saying Trump has failed to explain his goals.

The end of the US campaign after 13 successive nights of intensifying bombing and Trump’s remarks on talks sent oil prices tumbling.

US crude CLc1 fell 8.21% to $81.98 a barrel, and Brent LCOc1 fell to $87.77 per barrel, down 9.31% on the day.

Trump’s decision to suspend U.S. attacks reflected advice from his military that the bombing had reached the limits of what it could achieve, according to a US official and several US media reports.

The US official told Reuters military commanders had advised the president they were running out of targets ​and that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ​General Dan Caine, had expressed concern over the ⁠depletion of air munitions.

Trump dismissed suggestions that the US faced munitions shortages, saying the military was rapidly rebuilding inventories depleted by shipments to Ukraine. He said he would like more of “the more sophisticated stuff.”