Iran-US war latest: Trump lashes out at Nato ‘cowards’ as oil prices remain high

Under the plan, the US military would occupy or blockade Iran’s Kharg Island, a crucial transport hub 15 miles from the country’s mainland, which processes 90 per cent of Iran’s crude oil exports, in order to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait, Axios reported.

Oil and gas prices retreated on Friday after Thursday’s painful cost spikes, with Brent crude dropping to 108 dollars a barrel. The surge in prices is a direct result of Tehran’s refusal to allow the world’s oil tankers to pass through the Strait.

The United States is deploying thousands of additional Marines and sailors to the Middle East, three US officials told Reuters on Friday.

No decision had been made to send troops into Iran itself, two of the officials said, but they will build up the capacity for potential future operations in the region.

The deployments of the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, along with its Marine Expeditionary Unit and accompanying warships, come after Reuters reported that President Donald Trump’s administration was considering deploying thousands of U.S. troops to reinforce its operation in the Middle East.

Trump told reporters on Thursday that he was not putting troops “anywhere,” but that if he were to do so, he would not tell journalists.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss future deployments, did not say what the role of the additional troops would be.

One of the officials said the troops were departing the West Coast of the United States about three weeks ahead of schedule. The expeditionary unit has about 2,500 Marines.

The White House referred questions to the Pentagon, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters said,

The additional deployments will add to the 50,000 U.S. troops already in the Middle East and would bring two Marine Expeditionary Units to the region.

The first MEU, which was dispatched from the Indo-Pacific, is expected to arrive in the Middle East next week.

A shipping firm paid Iran $2 million to secure the safe transit of one of its ships through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a report, as Tehran moves towards a “selective” blockade of the waterway.

UK inflation is expected to have been broadly steady last month but experts warn of another “twist” to the cost-of-living story in the months ahead, as war in the Middle East is set to send energy bills soaring.

The rate of Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation has been gradually easing back towards the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target level since last summer.

Some analysts are expecting CPI to have held relatively steady in February, or dipped slightly, from the 3 per cent level recorded in January.

Official figures for last month will be published on Wednesday.

Economists for Deutsche Bank and Pantheon Macroeconomics said they are anticipating CPI to hold steady at 3 per cent in February, with lower fuel and services inflation being offset by higher clothes prices and air fares.

Edward Allenby, senior economist for Oxford Economics, said he thinks CPI inflation fell to 2.8 per cent in February, largely thanks to a predicted fall in petrol prices and slower inflation in the services sector.

Analysts for Barclays said they are expecting the headline rate to dip to 2.9 per cent also partly because of lower pump prices during the month.

But Sanjay Raja, Deutsche Bank’s chief UK economist, said the inflation outlook has “rarely been more uncertain than it is now”.

Foreign policy adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu Ophir Falk has responded to questions about whether the Israeli strikes have been coordinated with the US, saying that the level of cooperation between Trump and Netanyahu is a first in “the history of human conflict”.

He said on CNN News Central: “I can’t speculate on what The New York Times says, and I’m not going to get into that. What I can tell you is that never in the history of human conflict has there been such coordination and cooperation between two great world leaders, prime minister Netanyahu and president Trump.

“They’ve had great cooperation and coordination. On this specific strike, we struck – we hit them alone. We hit them alone. It’s their gravy train. We hit them hard. We were asked not to hit them again. And we’re holding off on that. But it’s important to see that we’re well ahead of our war objectives.

“Our objective is to remove the existential threat posed by this genocidal ayatollah regime. The best way of doing that is to remove the Ayatollah regime. Another way of doing that is to hit their capabilities, to decimate their nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.

“And we’re doing that along with the United States day in, day out, day after day, harder and harder. And we’re going to continue to do that until we get the job done.”

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei released ⁠a message on Friday marking the start of ⁠Persian ​New ⁠Year which he ⁠named the ​year ⁠of a “resistance economy ‌under national unity and national ‌security.”

In the ‌statement, released on his ⁠Telegram channel, Khamenei said that attacks against Turkey and Oman were not ‌carried out by ​Iran or ‌its ⁠allied forces.

The US will deploy three more warships, and roughly 2,500 more Marines to the Middle East, an official has said.

One of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the USS Boxer, along with the Marie Expeditionary Unit aboard, were departing the West Coast of the United States about three weeks ahead of schedule.