BLOG Trump: I don't think I'll need Xi's help on Iran

A second Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker has successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz under a special arrangement involving Iran and Pakistan, underscoring efforts to maintain energy supplies despite risks of regional conflict, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE) reports.

The ship "Mihzem" sailed from the Qatari terminal of Ras Laffan on May 11 and passed through the strategic waterway the next day on its way to Pakistan's Port Qasim, according to shipping data from the London Stock Exchange.

Previously, the tanker "Al Karaitiyat" passed through the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend.

A source familiar with the situation told Reuters that Iran had approved deliveries to Pakistan, which is facing an acute gas shortage and is seeking limited safe passage for liquefied natural gas shipments from Qatar under a government-to-government agreement.

Kuwait's Interior Ministry said on Monday it had arrested four people linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard who tried to infiltrate the Gulf state by sea, state news agency KUNA reported, as reported by Reuters.

Iran condemned the arrest of four people in Kuwait, saying they were on a naval patrol and had entered the Gulf country's territorial waters due to "disturbances in their navigation."

Tehran also rejected Kuwait's claims that Iran was planning "hostile actions" against the Gulf country and demanded that the Iranian embassy in Kuwait be allowed to visit detained Iranian citizens.

One member of the Kuwaiti armed forces was injured in clashes with infiltrators, Kuwait's interior ministry added.

Kuwait summoned the Iranian ambassador and handed him a note of protest over what it described as an infiltration by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on Bubiyan Island, the foreign ministry said.

Bubiyan Island is the largest island in the Kuwaiti coastline and is located in the northwest of the Gulf.

Kuwait condemned the incident as a hostile act and said it reserved the right to defend its sovereignty under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.

US President Donald Trump said he is "100%" confident that Iran will stop enriching uranium and hand over its stockpile to the United States.

In an interview with New York's TalkRadio 77 WABC, Trump said that the Iranians have committed to stopping enriching uranium, Radio Free Europe (RFE) reports.

"They're going to stop and they told me they're going to give us dust," he said.

Trump has repeatedly used the term "nuclear dust" to refer to Iran's enriched uranium. Tehran has not confirmed Trump's claim that it will give up its uranium stockpile.

"We don't have to rush anything. We have a blockade that is denying them money. It's a very simple thing: we can't let them have nuclear weapons, because they would use them," he said.

Trump stated that he would continue to put pressure on Iran until an agreement is reached to end the war and that he would not tire of continuing the war of attrition.

He added that Iran's response to the US proposal for a deal was "extremely weak" and "completely unacceptable".

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he would have a long talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the war in Iran during his upcoming visit to China, but added that he did not think he would need Xi's help, Reuters reported.

"I don't think we need any help with Iran. We will win one way or another, peacefully or otherwise," Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for China.

The leaders of the world's two largest economies will hold their first face-to-face talks in more than six months, seeking to stabilize relations battered by the US-Israeli war with Iran and other disagreements, according to Reuters.

Trump is visiting China at a time when the war in Iran is unresolved and diplomatic negotiations to end it are stalled. Beijing maintains ties with Iran and remains a major consumer of Iranian oil products.

Trump has been pressuring China to use its influence to force Tehran to reach a deal with Washington and end the conflict that began when the US and Israel carried out attacks on Iran in late February.

Trump plans to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday, ahead of talks scheduled for Thursday and Friday. This will be his first visit to China since 2017.

Trump later told reporters: "We have a lot of things to talk about. I wouldn't say Iran is one of them, to be honest, because we have Iran under control."

Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani spoke at a press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Here are some of the key messages so far:

He said the Strait of Hormuz was "used as a weapon in this war" and urged Iran not to use the waterway as a "weapon to pressure or blackmail Gulf countries."

He condemned the continuation of deadly Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, despite alleged ceasefires in both cases.

He expressed his desire to resolve issues with Iran through diplomatic channels.

Iran has expanded its definition of the Strait of Hormuz to a “vast operational zone,” significantly wider than before the war, a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval officer said, in comments likely to anger the United States.

The strait is no longer viewed as a narrow belt around a few islands, but its scope and military significance have been significantly expanded, said Mohammad Akbarzadeh, deputy political director of the IRGC Navy, the state-run Fars news agency reported this morning.

"In the past, the Strait of Hormuz was defined as a limited area around islands such as Hormuz and Hengam, but today that view has changed," Akbarzadeh said.

Iran effectively took control of the key waterway after the US and Israel attacked it on February 28. Weeks of heavy bombing and a US naval blockade imposed last month have not yet weakened its control. It is not accurate to say that the strait is closed, as Iran allowed passage to some ships from friendly countries such as China, India and Pakistan during the war.

Iran says it will reopen the strait only if the US-Israeli war against it ends and the blockade is lifted. Tehran says it has been charging commercial ships to pass through the strait, a claim the US strongly denies.

The Iranian government has announced that internet access in Tehran will be normalized after the war ends.

"The government's approach is equal access to all infrastructure, including the internet. We recognize internet access as a civil right, and this is precisely the president's position. We do not recognize discrimination and injustice and oppose them. The pro-internet policy aims to provide businesses with access to quality internet, and after the return to normal conditions, God willing, this situation will also return to normal," said Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani.

Estimates put the direct daily cost of the internet shutdown in Iran at around $30 million to $40 million in lost sales, while the indirect damage is around twice that. Internet monitoring group NetBlocks said today was the 74th day of the internet shutdown in Iran, making it one of the longest nationwide internet shutdowns ever recorded, the Guardian reports.

High-ranking government officials receive “white” SIM cards that allow them access to the global internet, while the vast majority of the population is completely cut off.

Under pressure to mitigate the economic damage caused by the blockade, the government has begun to provide less restricted internet access to a small number of professions, businesses, and regime-friendly journalists.

Israel has sent Iron Dome anti-missile batteries and personnel to operate them to the United Arab Emirates to defend the country during a war with Iran, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said at an event in Tel Aviv, The Guardian reports.

"I would like to express my gratitude to the United Arab Emirates, the first member of the Abraham Accords," Huckabee said at a conference in Tel Aviv. "Just look at the benefits. Israel just sent them Iron Dome batteries and personnel to help operate them."

The UAE, which formally established relations with Israel in 2020 under the Abraham Accords and hosts key US military facilities, was among the Gulf countries targeted by Iran in counterattacks after Tehran attacked the US and Israel in late February.

Donald Trump has said that one of his main goals in launching a war against Iran was to ensure that Tehran does not develop nuclear weapons.

Iran - which insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes - has yet to hand over more than 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, a small technical step from the 90 percent level required for weapons.

Now, as it looks like the US could start a war again, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Ebrahim Rezai, has warned that Iran could enrich uranium to 90 percent purity if the country is attacked again.

"One of Iran's options in the event of a new attack could be 90 percent enrichment. We will consider this in parliament," Rezai wrote on X.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported this morning that six people were killed and seven injured after an Israeli attack on a house in Kfar Dunin last night.

Following that report, the NNA announced that Israeli forces had detonated several houses in a neighborhood in the town of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, the Guardian reports.

The Israeli army has ordered residents of towns and villages in southern Lebanon to immediately evacuate "to a distance of at least 1.000 meters, to open areas," ahead of an attack on those locations.

The towns and villages hit include Arzun, Tayr Deba, al-Bazuriyeh and al-Hawsh, according to a post on social media by IDF Arabic-language spokesman Avichai Adrai. He claimed the strikes were being launched because Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, was violating a US-brokered ceasefire agreement that Israel signed with the Lebanese state in mid-April.

International law experts say Israeli warnings are inconsistent, often too broad and without a clear timeframe. Sometimes there is no warning at all before airstrikes. More than a million people have already been displaced by Israel's renewed war in Lebanon, which began when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel on March 2 following a US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran in late February.

The latest report from the Lebanese Ministry of Health says that at least 2.869 people, including many women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since March 2.

A ceasefire that was supposed to allow peace talks between Washington and Tehran came into effect in April.

As the Guardian reports, it has been largely respected, despite exchanges of fire and reports of attacks in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which is now under a dual blockade by the US and Iran.

This means that only a small number of ships pass through this waterway.

The US presented a peace proposal a week ago which, as my colleague Julian Borger reports here, reportedly consisted of a one-page, 14-point memorandum of understanding that would reopen the strait while establishing a framework for further talks on Iran's highly contentious nuclear program.

Iran sent the United States a counteroffer on Sunday, which Donald Trump flatly rejected, describing it as "completely unacceptable." Tehran's proposal reportedly included demands that the United States lift sanctions, end the naval blockade and call for an immediate end to the war, with guarantees against any new attack on the country. It also called on Israel to end the war in Lebanon.

US President Donald Trump has said that the ceasefire with Iran is "on the cards".

Speaking about the ceasefire in effect since April 7, Trump said: "I would call it the weakest right now, after reading the garbage that they sent us - I didn't even read it all the way through."

"I would say a ceasefire is on massive life support, like when a doctor comes in and says, 'Sir, your loved one has about a one percent chance of surviving,'" Trump said.

Shortly after Trump's comments, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf, who was the chief negotiator in the talks, wrote on Twitter that his country's armed forces were "ready to provide a deserved response to any aggression."

Trump is reportedly considering continuing major military strikes because he is frustrated by the stalled negotiations and the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz to countries "hostile" to Iran, which has caused a spike in global energy prices, including in the US, where fuel and fertilizer costs have skyrocketed.

Sources told CNN that the US president is growing impatient with divisions within the Iranian leadership, which are making it difficult for Washington to force Tehran to make concessions in nuclear talks. Trump is unlikely to make a decision before he travels to China later this week for a diplomatic visit and a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the sources said.