Iran-US war latest: JD Vance claims China will help economically isolate Tehran and says conflict ‘not a war’

More than six months after President Donald Trump announced the start of a war against Iran that has claimed the lives of 18 service members, injured at last 750 more, and cost between $71 billion and $118 billion, Vice President JD Vance now says the war is not a war at all.

The Bab el-Mandeb strait, the waterway between Yemen and the horn of Africa, has seen the highest number of vessels transiting since 24 August.

A total of 31 commodity vessels crossed that waterway on Wednesday, above the 10-day average of 25 vessels, Kpler data showed.

On Tuesday, 17 vessels transited the waterway, the data showed.

As we reported earlier, six commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, down from 11 a day earlier and well below the 10-day average of about 13, the Kpler data showed according to Reuters news agency.

Russia has been helping Iran to develop supersonic cruise missiles in secret for years, including through the US-Iran war, according to a report.

Moscow has enlisted some of its most experienced specialists to help Iran to develop a new class of missile capable of threatening US aircraft carriers and warships stationed in the Middle East, according to an investigation by the Financial Times.

The programme’s central objective was to help Iran to develop a special ‘ramjet’ propulsion system that would allow its cruise missiles to fly at several times the speed of sound, the report said.

Fabian Hinz, an expert on Iranian missiles, framed the programme as a major transfer of sensitive technology from Moscow that Tehran had been after for decades and would require authorisation “from the very top”.

Senior foreign reporter James Reynolds writes:

As we reported earlier, oil prices slipped Thursday after recent gains, with Brent crude trading near $95 a barrel, while Asian shares advanced.

U.S. futures edged higher.

Renewed fighting between the U.S. and Iran pushed oil prices sharply higher earlier in the week. U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he doesn’t expect the U.S. bombing campaign to last “much longer.”

Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.4% to $95.26 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude shed 0.1% to $90.84 a barrel.

Read the full report here:

King Charles and Queen Camilla will host Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq at Windsor Castle for a state visit next month, Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday.

The visit, scheduled for 20 to 22 October, will come against the backdrop of escalating tensions in the Middle East as the Iran war rages on.

Donald Trump has also threatened to bomb Oman – which has been in talks with Iran aimed at restoring commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz – if it “gets in the way”.

So far this year, the British royals have hosted state visits by Trump in April and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu in March.

Three Iranian Army pilots were killed in US strikes conducted on Tuesday night, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday.

We’ll bring you more on the update as we get it.

Multiple US embassies in the Middle East issued a security alert to American citizens in the region on Wednesday.

The security environment “remains complex with the potential for unforeseen escalation”, the embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, said.

The US embassy in Riyadh advised Americans to prepare for possible flight cancellations, airspace closures and travel disruptions.

A similar alert was issued by the US mission in the UAE.

The warnings came after Donald Trump threatened to strike Iran “at a much harder and higher level” and leave “very little left” of the country if it retaliated. Iran launched retaliatory attacks overnight.

The USS Abraham Lincoln has docked after nearly nine months at sea, allowing sailors to finally hit the town in Pattaya, known as Thailand’s “Sin City.”

These roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines have been on the aircraft carrier since it left its home port of San Diego on November 21. While the ship briefly docked in Guam and Oman, American service members have spent virtually all of their time on the ship, reportedly facing food shortages and mental health challenges as their deployment dragged out amid the ongoing Iran war.

A trip to Pattaya will be a much-needed reprieve for sailors, where they can enjoy the seaside resort’s beaches and nightlife.

“He’s so excited to get on land, he’s never been outside of the United States before. He wants to eat pizza or McDonald’s. I’m so happy for him,” the mother of one of the sailors on the USS Lincoln told MS NOW.

Pattaya has been rebranded as a more family-friendly destination in recent years following a history of sex tourism. The USS Lincoln’s commanding officer warned service members against engaging in prostitution, a person familiar with the matter told MS NOW.

Prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand, but the law is rarely enforced. Paying for sex is also a punishable offense in the U.S. armed forces.

During the Vietnam War, American service members flocked to Pattaya, once a quiet fishing village, “and it turned into a raunchy seaside playground,” Elizabeth Becker wrote in “Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism,” according to the Associated Press.

Iran’s currency has dropped to a record low of more than 2.2 million rials per U.S. dollar, two websites tracking the free market rate showed on Wednesday, amid renewed military strikes.

The rial has dropped about 10 per cent in the past week. The troubled currency has lost about half of its value in a year of tightening U.S. sanctions and U.S. and Israeli attacks that began in February.