Middle East

Trump said a planned U.S. strike on Iran has been halted while negotiations continue.

Trump said that the decision to stand down the U.S. military was at the behest of the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Following Bessent’s announcement, a pair of Democratic senators criticized the move as an ‘indefensible gift’ to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The president says that the leaders of several Gulf Arab states asked him not to carry out the strikes.

The law was passed by the Israeli Parliament in March, but has now come into effect after being signed off by the commander of the IDF Central Command.

G7 finance ministers meeting in Paris will discuss public debt and market volatility amid global economic concerns.

The Trump administration is pushing a U.N. resolution condemning Iran’s actions against commercial shipping.

The U.S. military released an update on its blockade of Iranian ports on Monday.

On May 11, Trump told reporters that the ceasefire between the two nations was on ’massive life support.’

The global benchmark for Brent crude rose 1.85 percent on May 18 to $111,29 a barrel—its highest since May 5.

‘There won’t be anything left,’ the president warned in a social media post on Sunday.

The UAE stated that a drone struck the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in the Al Dhafra region.

The temporary sanctions waiver had allowed India to purchase discounted Russian oil without penalty.

The strike, which killed seven, targeted Izz al-Din al-Haddad—the most senior Hamas leader in Gaza.

The ceasefire started on April 16.

The president said that an Iranian official said the U.S. and potentially China has the technology to remove material after 2025 strikes on nuclear facilities.

A senior U.S. admiral told a U.S. Senate committee that Iran’s capabilities to threaten U.S. forces and regional interests had been ’substantially degraded.’

The law enforcement bureau says Monica Witt allegedly put ’sensitive and classified U.S. national defense information and programs’ at risk.

Since the start of the war, crude oil output from OPEC has fallen by more than 30 percent.

Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz for weeks in response to a U.S.-Israeli air and naval campaign that began on Feb. 28.