Iran’s navy captured one of the U.S. military’s underwater drones at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday (September 8, 2026), Iranian state television reported, saying the unmanned vessel had been “seized as a prize”.

Asked about the report, U.S. Central Command spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins said that an Anduril Dive-LD drone malfunctioned “more than a day ago” while surveying waters in the region and that the U.S. military no longer had possession of it.

Mr. Hawkins said the drone was a defective, older model that “neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment”.

“It was in a commercially available configuration so we aren’t concerned,” Mr. Hawkins said- AP

Germany will, on Monday (September 7, 2026) ask the top United Nations court to toss out a case brought against it by Nicaragua, which has accused Berlin of “facilitating genocide” with its support of Israel.

Lawyers for Germany will kick off four days of hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the court based in The Hague that rules on disputes between countries.

The case dates back to 2024, following the start of Israel’s offensive in Gaza. Nicaragua urged ICJ judges to impose emergency measures to force Berlin to halt all aid to Israel, in particular military equipment.

– AFP

Iran attacked U.S. military bases in Kuwait, despite President Donald Trump threatening further strikes in a fresh flare-up six months into the war.

Mr. Trump said his military was prepared to attack Iran “any time we want” after extensive U.S. bombardment of sites across the country left at least 19 Iranians dead.

Tehran retaliated by hitting U.S. military targets across the West Asia, including in Kuwait, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.

The clashes deepen the ongoing impasse in the war, as Iran maintains a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz oil export route and the U.S. presses its counter-blockade of Iranian ports.

AFP

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned Iran of an economic D-Day, as it prepared to roll out economic sanctions that target Iran’s trade partners. The remarks followed shortly after Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian defended a memorandum of understanding with the United States as the best way out of a stalled war. Iran in turn vowed ‌to shut down all oil exports from the Gulf “if the economic war continues”.

In a post on X, Mr. Bessent wrote, “President Trump has dismantled Iran’s military capabilities, destroyed nearly 100% of its military factories, and buried its nuclear programme. We are now entering the endgame. At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary.”

“The Islamic Republic has subsisted by dressing extortion as security guarantees. It has drawn strength from a calculus that regards Iranian retaliation as certain and American enforcement as negotiable. Under President Trump, that era is over. And those who fear the danger of defying Tehran ought not to discount the cost of testing Washington,” he said.

He further added, “The President has created the conditions to leverage every agency, every authority and action many assumed we would never summon. Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.”

The U.S. Treasury Secretary will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) on Monday (August 24, 2026) amid promises to reveal even more severe measures on a country that has endured near-continuous economic sanctions since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

The statement arrives closely on the heels of U.S. President Donald Trump’s call to impose economic sanctions against Iran. The remarks underscore the Trump administration’s shifting stance of an economic rather than military pressure on Tehran as the war drags toward the six-month mark.

Mr. Trump has warned of economic consequences against any country that provides “any type of lifeline to Iran”, ‌and Mr. Bessent has urged cooperation with Washington by China, which buys more than 80% of Iran’s ​shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler.

The warring nations have not conducted military ​strikes against each other for weeks, but they also have not engaged in meaningful talks to end the six-month-old conflict.

‘U.S. sanctions will fail’

But, Iran has dismissed the threat of ‌new U.S. sanctions as a sign of desperation and said the expected new ​measures would fail to defeat Tehran. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, suggested economic retaliation.

“If the economic war continues, not a single drop of ‌oil will ⁠be exported, neither through the Strait of Hormuz nor from anywhere in the Persian Gulf,” Mr. Rezaei wrote in a social media post. “Iran will regard any country’s participation in or support for America’s economic war against the Iranian people as an act of war.”

In a defying stance, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also termed the measures as “repetitive scenarios”. “The fact that they [U.S. leaders] have moved on from military operations… to bring up the same old plans shows that they are desperate,” he noted.

He urged Washington to speak to Iran respectfully to find “a solution based on justice and honor.” Furthermore, he added, “We have never been afraid. All of their actions—whether blockades or other military moves they have made—have failed, and this new issue of theirs will fail as well.”

Support for U.S. sanctions an ‘act of war’, says Iran

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, on Sunday (August 23, 2026) warned Tehran will see any country’s support for new U.S. economic measures against the Islamic Republic as an “act of war”, while Iran’s President defended the MoU with the U.S.

“If (Trump) wants to do something, we will retaliate in a seismic manner,” he had told the state broadcaster in an interview that aired late on Saturday (August 22, 2026). He said Iran would target other oil-shipping routes from the Persian Gulf — alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz.

His remarks came even though Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said the memorandum of understanding signed in mid-June was the best way to move beyond a situation of “neither war nor peace”, adding that Tehran can’t attract investment nearly six months after the war began.

“There is not a single provision in this agreement that amounts to capitulation,” Mr. Pezeshkian said in a speech published by state-run IRNA. “The supreme leader sets the policies, and we will follow that path.”

The interim deal opened a 60-day period for talks aimed at ending the war and reaching an accord on Iran’s nuclear programme. That period ended last week with no signs of compromise or extension.

(With inputs from agencies)

Published – August 24, 2026 02:57 pm IST

August 21, 2026 07:36

Oil prices hit three-week high on U.S. threats to end war

The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday (August 18, 2026) accused Iran of firing two ballistic missiles at its territory, marking the first time the Defence Ministry detected a barrage aimed at the country in months.

“UAE air defences detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran toward the country, with the first falling outside the country’s territorial waters, while the second fell within the territorial waters,” said a statement posted by the Defence Ministry on X.

But Iran denied launching missiles towards the United Arab Emirates.

Read more here

The U.S. military yesterday said it had used ⁠missiles to disable the steering ‌gear of a Panama-flagged cargo ‌ship which ‌ignored ⁠repeated warnings ⁠to stop violating a naval blockade on Iranian ‌ports.

A U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two ‌Hellfire missiles into the Vela Nova’s engine ⁠room, the Central Command ‌added.

“As of Aug. 11, CENTCOM has redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting ‌to run the blockade, disabled 3 non-compliant vessels, ⁠and boarded 2,” ⁠it said in ‌a statement.

– Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday that he would seek conflict compensation from Iran as part of any peace negotiations, citing attacks and killings stretching back decades allegedly backed or perpetrated by Tehran.

Negotiations on ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz have stalled, and his new demands risk putting a quick agreement further out of reach.

Mr. Trump’s announcement was a direct response to Iran’s insistence that U.S. payment of war reparations is a pre-condition to any resolution of the ongoing hostilities.

“I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran,” he said, noting that his demand included not only damages arising from the current war, but also Iranian attacks on US targets going back more than two decades as well as payments to the families of Iranian protestors killed by authorities over the past 50 years.

– AFP

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters that negotiations with Oman about “new maritime routes” on the Strait of Hormuz were in the final stages but “this, however, does not mean that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.” That step requires conditions that “have been conveyed through intermediaries.” 

The Supreme National Security Council on Saturday said the strait will not reopen until the U.S. “corrects its behavior.” It demanded that the U.S. never threaten Iran again, a permanent end to the war with Iran and its armed allies, a lifting of the naval blockade of Iranian ports and a withdrawal of the US military from the area. The U.S. also must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.

The United States did not comment on the demands. Mr. Trump yesterday asserted to Axios that “we are only semi-negotiating” with Iran and letting economic pressures take their toll.

Mr. Araghchi said an “exchange of messages through intermediaries” continues with the U.S., but that doesn’t constitute negotiations, which he said can’t resume until violations of the interim deal end and the U.S. “has remedied” provisions it violated.

– AP

The UAE accused Iran of targeting a tanker belonging to its state-owned oil company in the Strait of Hormuz, even as both Iran and Oman suggested talks on administering the vital waterway were progressing.

Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait and wants to charge users for passage, repeatedly attacking ships it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route.

The U.S. vehemently opposes any Iranian tolls in the strait, though a June deal struck by the warring parties does allow Tehran to hammer out arrangements for the “future administration” of Hormuz in conjunction with fellow coastal state Oman.

Continued attacks in the strait, which was free to transit before the war, led to the collapse of an April ceasefire, and mediators have since urged both sides to return to the terms of the June memorandum.

-AFP