Here's the latest
• Pickaxe Mountain: Iran’s army says any US attack on its nuclear facilities would be treated as a further expansion of the regional war, state media reports, after President Donald Trump said the US will be hitting the Pickaxe Mountain underground nuclear site “very soon.”
• Attacks escalate: Jordan’s armed forces say they intercepted and destroyed multiple Iranian attacks today, and the US military said late Tuesday it conducted another night of strikes on what Iranian officials said were cities in the west and south of the country. The conflict has so far cost $37.5 billion, the Pentagon says.
• US-Saudi nuclear deal: Israeli opposition politicians have criticized the prospect of a US-Saudi civilian nuclear deal, after reports the Trump administration has tentatively agreed to allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium without enacting international safeguards to prevent weapons development.
While Netanyahu remains silent, rivals in Israel slam reported US-Saudi nuclear agreement
Even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far remained silent about reports of a US-Saudi civilian nuclear agreement, his political opponents have been sharply critical, treating the deal like a strategic disaster.
Former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, leader of the Israel Beitenu party, wrote on X that a civilian nuclear program for Saudi Arabia “will end with nuclear weapons and lead to a wild arms race across the entire Middle East.”
Democrats party chair Yair Golan, a retired military general, said the agreement creates a “dangerous reality” for Israel, accusing Netanyahu of achieving “the impossible”: “He both lost the chance for normalization with Saudi Arabia and enabled it to gain nuclear capabilities.”
Under the Biden administration, nuclear cooperation between the US and Saudi Arabia was directly linked to the normalization process with Israel, said Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at the INSS.
“The October 7, (2023) attack and war that followed took the prospect of normalization out of the equation as Saudi Arabia has only become more aggressive against Israel,” he told CNN, adding that with the current right-wing Israeli government there are really no political conditions for it.
“For the Saudis, it’s a win-win – they got nuclear without paying anything for it,” Guzansky said.
Guzansky says the agreement carries a dangerous proliferation risk, and may establish a “Saudi model,” which other states in the region will invoke and seek similar terms. He said Israel probably cannot stop the agreement, “but it can try to improve it, through Congress, and there is room for improvement, for example in matters of supervision and inspections.”
Jordan says its air defenses intercepted Iranian attacks
The Iranian military fired six missiles on Jordan today, according to the Jordan Armed Forces, as the regional conflict expands.
Jordan’s air defenses “intercepted and shot down four drones,” the country’s armed forces said in a statement, while two remaining missiles fell in “two remote, uninhabited areas,” it added.
No one was injured or killed as a result, the army said, and the operation did not cause any material damage
Tehran has hiked up attacks on three regional countries — Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain — in recent days, all of which accommodate US bases.
Oil climbs as Iran war rages and a crucial Hormuz bypass is threatened
Oil prices are rising after the United States conducted an 11th consecutive night of strikes on Iranian military targets and Houthi rebels in Yemen threatened to disrupt a crucial escape hatch for Saudi Arabia’s oil exports.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was up 3.7% to $94.40 a barrel shortly before 5 a.m. ET. West Texas Intermediate, or US oil, rose 4% to $87.71 a barrel.
“The latest oil moves come as the strikes between the US and Iran have showed no sign of easing, and there are still no concrete signs of a peace deal either,” Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in a note.
Crude prices have surged some $20 a barrel this month, as fighting between the US and Iran ramps up again. Brent futures prices for delivery six months from now hit a one-month high yesterday, according to Deutsche Bank, as fears of a prolonged supply shock resurface.
Adding to the worries: Iran-backed Houthis have threatened to attack Saudi vessels that attempt to transit the Red Sea, putting at risk what has become a crucial bypass to the Strait of Hormuz for the Kingdom’s oil exports.
Saudi Arabia has diverted roughly 4-5 million barrels of oil per day from the Hormuz to its Yanbu port, according to Helima Croft, head of global strategy at RBC Capital Markets. That amounts to roughly a quarter of what flowed through the strait before the war.
“If that route becomes inoperable, then the oil supply disruption becomes more serious and we start talking again about a ‘no way out’ situation,” Croft said.
– David Goldman contributed reporting.
What is Pickaxe Mountain, Iran’s secretive facility Trump says the US will attack "pretty soon"?
President Donald Trump continues to claim that the US will attack Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain – turning attention to the suspected underground nuclear site where Israel believes Tehran has stored part of its enriched uranium stockpile and advanced enrichment centrifuges.
Here’s what we know about Pickaxe Mountain:
What is it? Pickaxe Mountain is a heavily fortified facility located deep underground in the center of the country, about a mile south of the Natanz uranium-enrichment facility previously bombed by the US and Israel.
Construction on the facility began in 2020; at the time, Iran declared the facility to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency as a future facility to assemble the centrifuges that make nuclear fuel. The facility is believed to not yet be operational, with construction ongoing.
Is there enriched uranium there? Israeli intelligence believes Iran moved part of its enriched uranium stockpile to Pickaxe Mountain after last June’s attacks, an Israeli source familiar with the matter told CNN. Trump on Tuesday, however, seemingly downplayed the Israeli reports, saying: “We don’t have it on record.”
Could it be attacked? Analysts have mixed opinions. While a ground operation would be complex, an Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) report pointed out several possible avenues for attack, including by exploiting ventilation, heating, cooling, deliveries, power supply, and personnel at the site.
Strikes, though, may not have the desired impact because the core part of the facility is likely deeply buried.
Read the full story here.
Iran officials says US strikes hit cities in the west and south of the country
A video geolocated by CNN shows fire and plumes of smoke rising near an airport in Iran’s Behbahan, after state media reported the city had been attacked in a US strike.
The video shows buildings burning near the Behbahan Northwest Airport in the central Khuzestan province.
Iranian media reported strikes on a number of locations in the west and south of the country overnight into Wednesday.
Air defenses were activated in the capital Tehran, though there were no immediate reports of damage and there were airstrikes on Kabudarahang, a city about 150 miles west of the capital, state broadcaster IRIB reported
Tabriz, a city in northwestern Iran, was also struck, and there were also strikes reported in Chavar and Abdanan in the western Ilam province, IRIB said, citing local authorities.
Explosions were also reportedly heard in the cities of Mahshahr and Sirik, near the Strait of Hormuz, and Bushehr, on the Persian Gulf, according to state news agency IRNA. The port cities of Konarak and Chabahar, in the southwest also came under attack, state media reported.
Yasha Saebi contributed reporting.
On Iran, a $37 billion price tag and no answers on how it ends
“We need some hard answers and some straight talk.”
Republican Sen. John Kennedy dispensed with his usual folksy patter to speak bluntly for the nation Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
Kennedy and Americans who want to know how long President Donald Trump’s war will last and at what cost were looking for answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
They didn’t get them.
Instead, most Republicans stood firm in a critical hearing with an administration waging a hugely unpopular war, while Democrats highlighted the gap between its premature victory laps and the current stalemate.
The hearing’s critical takeaway: The administration is asking for a huge windfall in financing for a war it has always struggled to explain, can’t control and for which it lacks metrics of success and a way out.
Read the full story here.
Dignified transfer of US troops set to take place today, administration official says
A dignified transfer of US service members killed in the war with Iran will take place today, according to a Trump administration official.
The official told CNN that four service members will be transferred to Dover Air Force Base.
The Pentagon previously said three US service members were killed over the weekend, including two at a military base in Jordan and one in northern Iraq, and said the US located unidentified remains in Jordan after a service member had been listed as missing in action.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said President Donald Trump was expected to attend a dignified transfer on Tuesday, but she later announced it would be delayed.
Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, among the US service members killed in Iran war
The family of 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan shared memories of the 25-year-old who was killed on July 17 as a result of Iranian strikes on Jordan.
His family shared that Feehan was “always looking forward to the next big adventure,” having climbed Mount Everest Base Camp and trekked the Camino de Santiago from France through Spain. Feehan was also weeks away from receiving his MBA from Southern Utah University — the school has agreed to award him the degree posthumously.
Feehan will be one of four service members for whom a dignified transfer will take place on Wednesday at Dover Air Base in Delaware.
Trump administration has signed off on civilian nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, NYT and WSJ report
The Trump administration has agreed to sign off on a broad civilian nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported late Tuesday.
CNN reported over the weekend that the White House had tentatively agreed to allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium without enacting international safeguards intended to prevent nuclear weapons development, according to sources familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by CNN. The deal was awaiting President Donald Trump’s signature.
The New York Times, citing unnamed US officials, said the agreement would be announced Wednesday while the Wall Street Journal said Trump had now formally approved the deal.
Any deal to give Saudi Arabia nuclear technology could prove controversial, both domestically and within the wider Middle East region. Israel, widely believed to have undeclared nuclear weapons, has long been wary of Saudi Arabia accessing nuclear technology. Iran, the main regional rival to Saudi Arabia, has a stockpile of near-bomb grade uranium and has vowed to cling to its nuclear program even after months of US bombardment, claiming it’s for civilian purposes.
Uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing are the two main pathways to create the core material necessary to build nuclear weapons. Most countries whose civilian nuclear reactors require enriched uranium don’t produce it domestically — they instead purchase the material from vendors like the US or Russia and receive it in sealed shipments under strict international supervision.
Two sources familiar with the matter told CNN over the weekend the uranium enrichment provision includes stipulations imposed by the US, but details of potential limitations are unclear.
Known as the “123 agreement”, the deal will also not provide the final word on whether Saudi Arabia gets sensitive technology and material.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has previously threatened to build his own nuclear weapons should Iran acquire the bomb.
Trump was “right to take the fight to Iran,” says former Vice President Mike Pence
Former Vice President Mike Pence joins CNN’s “The Situation Room” to discuss the conflict in the Middle East and recent reporting on Iran’s potential nuclear capabilities.
Pence said that while he understands President Donald Trump’s desire to reach a ceasefire, he does not see the Iranians having an interest in a “peaceful solution” or in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
More of his comments below:
Rubio claims Tehran is "not serious about talks" as the US and Iran trade more strikes
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed Tehran is “not serious about talks” as the US and Iran traded an eleventh night of strikes on Tuesday into Wednesday.
It follows US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s testimony before lawmakers as the Trump administration seeks tens of billions of additional dollars to fund the war.
Here are the latest headlines:
- Cost of war: The war with Iran has cost $37.5 billion so far, according to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but the bill is likely much higher, experts told CNN. He and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, testified before Congress to seek additional funding for the war.
- Hormuz concerns: Hours later, Rubio warned of creating a “dangerous precedent” in allowing Iran to control the Strait of Hormuz, which was fully open for free and safe passage before the US and Israel attacked Iran in February.
- Global oil supply: Disruption to another critical waterway is raising the risk of the Middle East’s two key energy chokepoints coming under pressure at the same time, a shipping analytics firm warned. The Iranian-backed Houthis threatened to blockade Saudi-linked shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. It’s already having an impact as two tankers carrying Saudi crude reversed course in the Red Sea after the Houthis declaration.
- Widening conflict: The US military said it completed the 11th consecutive night of strikes against Iran on Tuesday night. Air defenses were activated in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and explosions were reported in several Iranian cities, according to state media. Iran said it launched a counterassault early Wednesday local time, and Kuwait reported its air defenses were engaging hostile drone attacks.
- Trump’s warning: President Donald Trump said Tuesday the US will “pretty soon” hit the area of Pickaxe Mountain — a fortified underground facility believed to be connected to Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran said any attack on its nuclear facilities would be treated as an expansion of the war in the region.
- Killed in action: The US Defense Department has identified a US soldier whom it believes was killed in Jordan as Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad. The soldier was previously listed as missing by US Central Command.
Rubio warns of creating "dangerous precedent" in allowing Iran to control Strait of Hormuz
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran is “not serious about talks” during his opening remarks at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Wednesday in Manila, Philippines.
Rubio said that “the problem we’re having right now (with Iran) is that they’re not serious about talks. If they’re serious, we’re serious. If they’re not, then we will do what is necessary to protect our interest and also the interests of our allies.”
The “fundamental principle of freedom of navigation” is at stake, Rubio said.
“If that is threatened, then I think the global economy is threatened, and the rules which have underpinned 150 years of international trade and commerce are also threatened,” he said.
An estimated $37.5 billion for Iran war and testy exchanges. Here's what happened on the Hill
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine testified before a key Senate panel for the first time since the US-Iran conflict re-escalated this month.
They were seeking tens of billions of additional dollars to fund the war.
Here’s what to know:
- On funding: Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee that the war has cost the United States $37.5 billion – but the bill is likely much higher, experts previously told CNN. Some of the cost accounts for expenses, such as meals for troops, through the end of the fiscal year, he said.
- Strait strategy: He testified that a US military effort to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz continued “covertly” after it was announced in May, and that it had helped guide up to 500 million barrels of oil through the strategic waterway with the US retaining control despite Iranian attacks.
- Russia and China’s involvement: Hegseth said that China and Russia are “at different levels” enabling some of Iran’s activity. “[T]here are many ways that we deter that … and the depth and extent of it ought to remain classified,” he said.
- Iranian nuclear targets: When questioned about the US military’s ability to strike the suspected Iranian nuclear facility beneath Pickaxe Mountain, Hegseth demurred and said that “a lot of our capabilities are classified.” US President Donald Trump said today that the US will be hitting the target “pretty soon.”
- Human toll: Chairman Caine told lawmakers he would provide Trump with the “appropriate options and risks that he can choose from” when it comes to how to proceed with the war and said the human toll is always a factor.
- A testy response: In a testy back and forth, Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters sharply criticized Hegseth’s leadership, calling him a failure and raised concerns about the administration’s war strategy.
- Questioned on justification: In another tense exchange, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand pressed Hegseth on the justification for the war. The New York lawmaker accused Hegseth of misleading the public about destroying Iran’s missile launch capabilities, and Hegseth accused the senator of “trying to make campaign commercials.”
Senators react to the Trump administration's request for additional funding for Iran war
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday about the Trump administration’s request for additional defense funding.
Here’s what some senators had to say about the testimony:
- Republican Sen. John Kennedy told reporters that Congress and the American public need “some straighter answers” from the Pentagon. “We need to come up with a way to explain to the American people why we went in and how we’re going to get out, and in doing so, how we’re going to undermine Iran’s ability to get a nuclear weapon,” he said.
- Sen. Dick Durbin — the No. 2 Senate Democrat — was among Democrats who said Hegseth and Caine did not justify the cost of the war. “They can’t explain how this money is going to be spent,” he said.
- Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said he was “not at all” surprised by the $37.5 billion figure that Hegseth said the Iran war has cost. “In fact, I suspect it’s higher,” he told CNN. “There’s been a lot of damage to critical military facilities, a lot of loss of very expensive, high-end radar systems and aircraft, and so forth, and a lot of expensive munitions fired so far.”
- Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen accused the administration of changing its rationale for the conflict over the last few months, and insisted it had fallen short of each of these possible goals. “The bottom line here is this administration doesn’t know what it’s doing. This is why they keep changing their rationale week to week,” he said.
- GOP Sen. John Hoeven, meanwhile, said of the billions spent on the war, “Look, this is something we have to do.” He told CNN, “At the end of the day, you know, Iran having a nuclear weapon is an existential threat.”
