US President Donald Trump says Washington is going to “beat the ------- ----” out of Iran in response to Tehran’s overnight attacks on US assets in the region.
“We’ll be hitting them hard. They’re going to get a beating,” Trump tells Fox News in a phone interview.
Trump calls the Iran strike targeting US forces in Jordan a “surprise attack” in which troops had just minutes to shoot down incoming missiles.
Commenting on the US-Saudi strikes against pro-Iranian militia groups in Iraq, Trump says they were coordinated with the Iraqi government. He calls the pro-Iranian militia groups a “cancer on the world.”
Despite the apparent escalation with Iran, Trump says he’s going to allow his negotiators to continue holding talks with Iran.
Asked about his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump reiterates that it went very well, adding that the Israeli premier “understands now,” without elaborating as to what he meant.
The military confirms an unmanned engineering vehicle was struck overnight by a Hezbollah explosive drone in the Ali Taher Ridge area of southern Lebanon, in the IDF’s buffer zone.
The attack on the armored bulldozer, the first since the start of the framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon in late June, caused no injuries, according to the army.
“This is a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon by the Hezbollah terror organization,” the IDF says.
Israel is currently deliberating a response to the violation of the ceasefire, according to security officials.
Israel says Hezbollah has a massive underground complex under the Ali Taher Ridge, near Nabatieh, and the IDF estimates that dozens of operatives are holed up in the area.
However, because of the ceasefire agreement, the IDF is prevented from capturing the underground passages beneath the ridge.
The army says forces “continue to operate in the ridge area and will not allow terrorists in the area to advance or carry out terror attacks against IDF troops.”
Guided by Iran, Houthis may start charging for passage through Red Sea strait
Yemen’s Houthi group is considering imposing fees on commercial ships sailing through the southern Red Sea, a week after declaring a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, regional sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The Iran-aligned Houthis on July 20 declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia, opening a new front against the US and its allies in the Iran war and expanding attacks on tankers carrying global energy and other supplies to waters beyond the Gulf.
The Houthis were looking into imposing fees on most traffic through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb gateway, which links the southern Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, the sources say. No timeframe was given at this stage for implementation, they added.
The Houthis’ media office did not respond to a request for comment.
Houthi officials traveled to Iran in July for the funeral ceremony of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, where Iranian counterparts discussed with them the issue of imposing fees on Bab el-Mandeb transits, two regional officials briefed by Tehran tell Reuters.
The objectives of such a move would be to normalize the practice of imposing fees on international waterways and increase pressure on the United States, the sources say. Chinese ships would be exempted from such fees and the Houthis were supportive of the arrangement, they add.
Houthi officials who returned by plane from Tehran were accompanied by Iranian advisers who were on the ground to guide them on setting up a potential authority that will regulate fees through the Bab el-Mandeb, an Arab official in the region says.
“The Houthis will try to gain access over the Red Sea and they will try to charge ships if they do,” Afrah al-Zouba, foreign minister-designate with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, tells Reuters.
Such a move would face strong opposition from Gulf and European countries, although overstretched international naval forces are currently unable to provide sufficient protection for merchant shipping and there is little political appetite to change that, two Western
Israel won’t agree to more southern Lebanon withdrawals in Rome talks — report
Israel has told mediators that it will not agree to additional withdrawals from territory in southern Lebanon in Rome talks scheduled for next week, Channel 12 reports.
Israel’s focus in Rome will be on maintaining the freedom to re-enter areas it handed over to the Lebanese army last week, should it need to deal with Hezbollah threats, according to the report. Israel won’t agree to withdraw from any more territory without that agreement on freedom of action.
Last month’s deal called for the Lebanese military to deploy in areas in southern Lebanon where the Hezbollah terror group had a military presence and influence, paving the way for Israel to withdraw from its declared security zone in the south, dependent on Hezbollah disarmament.
Until Hezbollah is disarmed, Israel also won’t agree to any future withdrawals at all south of the so-called “yellow line” it established marking the Israeli buffer zone in southern Lebanon, according to the report.
“The additional areas will not be on our side, in the defense lines that we have stabilized,” says an Israeli official. “If the current pilot is successful and additional pilot areas are decided upon later, they will be beyond the yellow line. We will not allow further withdrawals of the area on our side. Until Hezbollah is disarmed in Lebanon –- that is what was agreed upon.”
Technical teams from each side will meet from August 4 to August 6 and focus on advancing the implementation of the framework agreement for an eventual peace deal between Israel and Lebanon.
IDF says it destroyed Hezbollah command tunnel near UNIFIL post
China in talks with Houthis to let its tankers through Red Sea strait
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