Donald Trump says US secretly helped ships move oil through Strait of Hormuz In short: US President Donald Trump says a "secret" military mission has been supporting commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, getting around Iran's blockade and keeping oil prices down. Maritime tracking firms have observed some journeys through the strait during the blockade, but ships' transponders have reportedly been turned off, making tracking efforts difficult. The reported resumption in shipping is well below levels recorded before the war, when more than 100 commercial vessels traversed the strait daily. Donald Trump says the US has secretly helped ships move significant amounts of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, defying an Iranian blockade. The US president said his military had been running a "secret mission" to support tankers and commercial ships through the strait. "This wildly successful effort is because the UNITED STATES of AMERICA CONTROLS the Strait of Hormuz — NOT Iran," Mr Trump wrote on social media. The president initially made the claim during an Oval Office press conference. He revealed few specifics and produced no evidence, but told reporters he could announce the news because Iran had now "figured it out". In his later social media post, he said more than 200 commercial ships had travelled through the strait, carrying more than 100 million barrels of oil. The ABC and US outlets have previously reported on "dark" journeys taken by ships through the strait, though some are understood to have involved coordination with Iran rather than the US Navy. Many vessels had reportedly turned off their transponders to avoid detection, making shipping movements difficult to track and verify. Maritime intelligence company Windward, which monitors shipping via satellite, recently told the ABC it had observed more than 80 commercial ships cross the strait within five weeks. It estimated most, but not all, had negotiated transit with Iran. Other monitors had recorded different figures using different methods. Trade tracking company Kpler said it had recorded 264 ships exiting the Persian Gulf between the start of the ceasefire and early June. On May 31, the New York Times, citing unnamed officials, reported the US military had guided about 70 commercial ships through the strait in recent weeks. Banking giant JPMorgan estimates that more than a million barrels of oil a day may have been passing through the strait, CNN reported earlier this week. In a recent note to clients, JPMorgan said: "Despite the ongoing naval blockade and the steep decline in commercial traffic, surprising volumes of crude and petroleum products still appear to be transiting the Strait." Before Iran's blockade and attacks on ships, more than 100 commercial vessels crossed the strait each day, so the reported resumption in movements is well below pre-war levels. But Mr Trump said the mission had held off higher hikes in oil prices. He said he had found it difficult to keep the operation confidential. "I wanted to say it so badly," he told reporters in the Oval Office. "I didn't want to ruin it, but it was very hard."
Donald Trump says US secretly helped ships move oil through Strait of Hormuz In short: US President Donald Trump says a "secret" military mission has been supporting commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, getting around Iran's blockade and keeping oil prices down. Maritime …
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The Houthis in Yemen have announced a blockade of Saudi Arabian shipping through Red Sea ports, including at the Bab el-Mandeb strait. The group, described as Iran-backed, stated the measure would target the top oil exporter following recent exchanges of fire.
Reports indicate this could add to existing maritime disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz linked to US-Iran confrontations.
A Reuters poll of economists conducted July 7-16 shows that most Gulf Cooperation Council economies are now projected to contract more sharply in the current year than estimated three months earlier, with median forecasts indicating declines of 8.1% for Kuwait and Qatar, 5.
1% for Bahrain, and 0.5% for the UAE. Saudi Arabia and Oman remain the only GCC economies expected to expand. The poll links the revisions to reduced export volumes through the Strait of Hormuz, higher freight costs, and weaker investor sentiment, even as oil prices have risen.
Initial reports indicate that a limited number of vessels transited the waterway during the first full day after the United States implemented a naval blockade of Iran. These observations have not been independently verified.
The head of the UN’s nuclear agency yesterday signaled that Iranian nuclear enrichment sites would be visited by his inspectors, a key component in the interim deal between the US and Iran to reach an end to their war. The comment by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi was the firmest yet from the agency, which is viewed as key in determining the status of Iran’s nuclear stockpile.
Since Israel launched a 12-day war on Iran last year, the IAEA has been blocked by Tehran from visiting enrichment sites where the Islamic republic is believed to store enough highly enriched uranium to potentially build as many as 10 nuclear weapons.
Photo: AP Iran has said that its program is peaceful, although it would be the only country in the world to have uranium enriched up to 60 percent purity without a weapons program. The US and Iran offered contradictory remarks on Tuesday about whether those sites would be inspected.
“I can understand political statements, they are part of the reality, but the fundamental thing I would like to remind you and draw your attention to is that there has been a memorandum of understanding, signed by both presidents,” Grossi told journalists at a news conference at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
The accord “explicitly states that the nuclear activities that are going to be carried out with the regards of the nuclear material facilities will be supervised by the IAEA — in all letters,” he said. “Obviously, to do that, we have to inspect,” Grossi added.
BOOST: By operating the same advanced systems as the US military, Taiwan would be better positioned to share and integrate intelligence with partners, an expert said The first batch of MQ-9B SkyGuardian drones has arrived in Taiwan, and is being assembled and tested by drone manufacturer General Atomics and the military ahead of flight trials as part of the air force’s acquisition to bolster its aerial surveillance capabilities, a source said yesterday.
The air force allocated a budget of NT$21.7 billion (US$687 million) from 2022 to 2029 to procure four MQ-9B uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) manufactured by General Atomics along with associated equipment such as ground control stations. The US has agreed to deliver the four MQ-9Bs to Taiwan in two batches this year and next ‘BRAZEN’: The holiday did not stop China from activities that infringe on Taiwan’s maritime jurisdiction, but the CGA is ready to defend the nation, Kuan Bi-ling said Beijing is intensifying maritime pressure on Taiwan, but the nation will never yield, Ocean Affairs Council Deputy Minister Sung Chen-en (宋承恩) said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has adopted a “shadowing and monitoring” approach to avoid falling into a Chinese trap to escalate tensions and deepen the conflict, Sung said in an interview published yesterday in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
China Coast Guard formations patrolling waters east of Taiwan, as well as official Chinese vessels entering areas around Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) and Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) show Beijing’s attempts to significantly step up Taiwanese firms’ China investments have dwindled to less than 1 percent of their total foreign investments, putting China-based investments on track for a record low this year, Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed.
Taiwan’s investments abroad in the first five months of this year reached US$35.92 billion, Department of Investment Review data showed. Investments outside China totaled US$35.61 billion, up 133.94 percent year-on-year, while investments in China totaled US$310.
3 million, down 32.3 percent and about 0.86 percent of the total, data showed. Major overseas projects included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) US$30 billion capital injection into an overseas subsidiary, VARYING OPINIONS: People with different political affiliations have different views on how bilateral ties with the US, Japan and China would affect Taiwan’s security Two-thirds of Taiwanese view closer US and Japan ties as beneficial to security, a survey by Taiwan’s top military think tank showed.
To gauge the Taiwanese public’s perceptions of how different external relationships affect security, the Institute for National Defense and Security Research commissioned a survey by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center asking respondents whether closer relations with the US, Japan and China would strengthen or weaken Taiwan’s national security.