Bulgaria, among Iran’s biggest trading partners in Eastern Europe, is among the European countries Iran considered striking if President Trump escalated the war, The Financial Times reported last week. That’s due to both its south-eastern location on the continent and two U.S. Air Force KC-135 refueling planes using one of its bases to support Operation Epic Fury. After Bulgarian officials announced the departure of those planes over the weekend, Iran on Monday issued its latest warning to NATO members that allow their territory to be a jumping off point for American or Israeli military action against the regime, saying it “has the right to target the point of origin and source of any act of aggression against” it. Iran has made similar threats to the United Kingdom, with a drone striking a British airbase in Cyprus in March. That same month, Iran fired two ballistic missiles at the remote U.K.-U.S. base in the Indian Ocean known as Diego Garcia. And Turkey in March said NATO’s air defenses had intercepted several ballistic missiles launched from Iran. While Iran clearly wants to maintain the perception that it’s willing and capable of striking Europe, analysts aren’t convinced it really wants to invite NATO more fully into the fight. “I don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze in terms of antagonizing NATO. . . . I don’t think that attacking European targets gets them anything extra than attacking [Gulf] targets doesn’t get them,” said Alan Eyre, a former head of the Iran office at the U.S. Consulate in Dubai, now with the Middle East Institute. David Cattler, a senior fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis, likewise said that an Iranian strike on a NATO ally would be a major escalation but a bad strategic trade for Tehran, as “that would probably transform Europeans who largely have sought distance from the Iran war into active participants against” the regime. He said the more immediate issue is Iranian coercion. “The reality is Tehran doesn’t need to fire a missile at Bulgaria to achieve an effect. Threatening the countries that provide the bases, logistic support, access to the United States is itself an attempt to raise the price of supporting Washington in an attempt to weaken allied cohesion,” Cattle told The Hill. Insiders can read the full report at thehill.com.
Bulgaria, among Iran’s biggest trading partners in Eastern Europe, is among the European countries Iran considered striking if President Trump escalated the war, The Financial Times reported last week. That’s due to both its south-eastern location on the continent and two U.S. Ai…
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António Guterres, UN Secretary-General "I condemn today's military escalation in the Middle East. The use of force by the United States & Israel against Iran, and the subsequent retaliation by Iran across the region, undermine international peace & security.
" Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO) "I am deeply concerned about the current situation in the ...
Washington Institute fellows assess how Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iraq's Hashd, and other Iranian proxies and allies are responding to the war, as well as how the Trump administration and partner governments might counter the risk of terrorist attacks given Tehran's long track record of foreign plots.
Cryptocurrency traders are pricing in higher odds that the U.S.-Iran ceasefire will hold through October, even as lead mediator Qatar works to restart diplomacy between the two sides. ‘Return to the Path of Negotiations’ Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani is set to visit Tehran on Thursday to discuss the ongoing mediation efforts and other regional issues, Reuters reported.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on X that the Middle Eastern country is undertaking efforts “to encourage a return to the path of negotiations” between the U.S. and Iran. The spokesperson said Qatar’s priority is “to restore normal navigation” in the Strait of Hormuz, ensure global energy and food security and maintain the safety of supply chains.
No Diplomatic Breakthrough in Sight The U.S. has accused Tehran of violating the memorandum of understanding by attacking commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Washington also reimposed the naval blockade against Iranian ports. Although the fighting has ceased for nearly a month, the U.
S. has turned to economic sanctions to pressure Iran. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a new campaign earlier this week targeting the financial networks, companies and countries that help Iran generate revenue and bypass sanctions. Iran has termed the sanctions as “systemic bullying” accusing the U.
S. of “annihilating” international law. Polymarket Bets on Ceasefire Meanwhile, the betting crowd on Polygon (CRYPTO: POL)-based Polymarket currently assigns a 90% chance of the ceasefire continuing through Sept. 15, up from 48% a month ago. Similarly, the odds that the ceasefire holds through Sept.
30 rose to 83%, while the chance it lasts through Oct. 30 climbed to 75% Image via Shutterstock/ Below the Sky © 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.
Iran and Oman are still working on the details of an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz, a senior Iranian source said on Wednesday, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the two countries had agreed how to share the waterway and its revenues. The elite force’s spokesperson, echoing Tehran’s official stance, also said the strait would not open unless the United States met Tehran’s conditions under an interim ceasefire agreement that was struck in June before unravelling.
Those conditions include an end to the US blockade on Iranian ports, compensation and removal of sanctions. Iran and Oman have held on-and-off talks for weeks about controlling traffic through the strait, which handled one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments before the war began in February.
Most shipping has since been shut down, driving global energy prices higher, as Tehran and Washington have tried to assert control over the channel, imposing separate blockades. “An agreement with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz has not been finalised,” the senior Iranian source said, adding that the talks were continuing on the details of an accord.
A spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Iran and Oman had reached an agreement on their shares of the territory and revenues. “The Strait of Hormuz belongs to Iran and the country of Oman. We have been in negotiations with Oman for about a month, and we have reached results that are acceptable to both sides,” Hossein Mohebbi said in comments published by Iranian state media.
“In these negotiations, agreements have been reached regarding the share of each country in the waters of the Strait and the share of Iran and Oman in its revenues,” he added. It was not immediately clear at what stage of the negotiations the agreements had been reached.
Iran had said earlier this month that a deal on the strait was close. Following talks on Tuesday between Iran and Oman, Omani foreign minister Badr Albusaidi said he was “hopeful we will soon announce a temporary corridor for the Strait of Hormuz and practical arrangements to restore safe navigation”.
US president Donald Trump has warned Oman against co-operating with Iran, telling Fox News on August 17: “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them.” The IRGC accused the US of seeking to obstruct Iran’s negotiations with Oman and said this had caused an agreement to be delayed.
“If the United States stops obstructing and returns to the agreement, we can open the Strait of Hormuz within the framework of the agreement reached. If the United States does not accept our conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened under any circumstances,” Mr Mohebbi said.
Though active hostilities between the US and Iran have largely subsided in recent weeks, diplomatic efforts to reach a peace deal have stalled, and continuing attacks on ships mean passage through the Strait of Hormuz remains perilous. Iran announced a blacklist on Sunday of 45 ships in an apparent effort to stop ship-to-ship transfers used by Gulf energy producers to evade the Iranian blockade.
Some companies plan to stop using vessels added to the blacklist, sources said. In an effort to tighten pressure on Iran’s economy, the US has threatened to punish countries that continue to do business with Iran, but said it would not impose penalties immediately.
The sanctions did not feature Chinese financial institutions suspected of facilitating oil exports from Iran that the US blockade has cut. Iran denounced the US effort to isolate its economy as an act of “gross lawlessness”, expressing confidence that many countries would not join the pressure campaign.
Oil prices fell for a third day, dropping more than 1.5pc, following signs of renewed efforts to seek a mediated end to the war that began on February 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iran. Secretary of state Marco Rubio told allies that the US did not expect to launch new strikes against Iran for now, and would instead focus on other means of pressure, Axios reported on Tuesday.
US public approval of the war has fallen to its lowest level since the conflict’s early days, and Mr Trump’s popularity is likewise at a record low ahead of congressional elections in November, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. Thousands of people have died in the conflict, most of them in Iran and Lebanon, while the U.
S. and Israel have degraded much of Iran’s conventional military capacity. The exact state of its nuclear programme, which the US and Israel aim to dismantle, remains unknown. Iranian army spokesman brigadier general Mohammad Akrami-Nia said new equipment had been delivered to combat units and fighting against two technologically advanced militaries had provided Iran’s forces with significant battlefield experience, according to comments carried on Wednesday by Iran’s Mehr News.