WASHINGTON, D.C.:\/CAIRO: Even as the forces of the United States and Iran exchanged fire in the Middle East on May 8, a U.S. intelligence analysis concluded Tehran could withstand a naval blockade for at least four months.<\/p>\n
A U.S. official said a CIA report found that Iran would not feel strong economic pressure from a U.S. blockade of its ports for about four more months. This suggests the U.S. does not have much leverage over Iran as both sides try to end a war that is unpopular with American voters.<\/p>\n
The report was first shared by The Washington Post.<\/p>\n
However, a senior intelligence official denied the claims, calling them false and saying the blockade is already causing serious damage by cutting trade, reducing income, and pushing the economy toward collapse.<\/p>\n
In recent days, fighting has increased in and around the Strait of Hormuz, even though a ceasefire began a month ago. The United Arab Emirates was attacked again on May 8.<\/p>\n
The U.S. is waiting for Iran’s response to a proposal to officially end the war first and discuss more difficult issues, like Iran’s nuclear program, later. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said they expected a reply soon. Iran said it was still deciding and had not responded by late afternoon in Washington.<\/p>\n
There were also some clashes between Iranian forces and U.S. ships in the Strait of Hormuz, though reports later said things had calmed down, with a warning that fighting could start again.<\/p>\n
The U.S. military said it hit two ships linked to Iran that were trying to enter an Iranian port, forcing them to turn back.<\/p>\n
Since the war began with U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on February 28, Iran has mostly blocked foreign ships from using the strait. The U.S. also started blocking Iranian ships last month.<\/p>\n
Oil prices rose, with Brent crude above US$101 per barrel, though they were still lower than earlier in the week.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump said the ceasefire was still holding despite the recent tensions in the strait, which normally carries about 20 percent of the world’s oil.<\/p>\n
The conflict has also spread beyond the Strait. The UAE said it intercepted two missiles and three drones from Iran, and three people were moderately injured.<\/p>\n
During the war, Iran has often targeted the UAE and other Middle East countries that host U.S. military bases. The UAE called the latest attacks a major escalation, linking them to Trump’s plan, “Project Freedom,” to protect ships in the strait, which was paused after two days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C.:\/CAIRO: Even as the forces of the United States and Iran exchanged fire in the Middle East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[36883,36882,36881,36880,8968,38,36879,34,58,184,6756,69,36878,782,36877,1705],"class_list":{"0":"post-106706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tehran","8":"tag-breaking-oil-gas-news","9":"tag-breaking-shipping-news","10":"tag-breaking-u-s-military-news","11":"tag-cairo-news","12":"tag-d-c-news","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-egypt-news","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-iran-news","17":"tag-israel-news","18":"tag-middle-east-news","19":"tag-tehran","20":"tag-u-a-e-news","21":"tag-u-s-news","22":"tag-united-states-news","23":"tag-washington"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116550638171411832","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}