Iran-U.S. Updates: Trump claims control of Strait of Hormuz, demands compensation from Iran as stalemate deepens

An Israeli attack on southern Lebanon wounded two people on Tuesday and damaged an ambulance, the Lebanese health ministry said, condemning the "continued targeting" of rescuers.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the strike targeted a vehicle in the southern city of Nabatieh, with the health ministry reporting two wounded.

The ministry said the Israeli military struck again when rescuers from the Risala Scouts Association, linked to the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement, came to the scene, damaging the ambulance.

"The ministry reiterates its condemnation of the enemy's continued targeting of rescue teams, which constitutes an unacceptable violation of international humanitarian law and all international norms," the health ministry said.

Lebanon's civil defence meanwhile said that its personnel were targeted by an Israeli drone strike while they were trying to extinguish a bushfire, also in the Nabatieh area.

No one was wounded, but the incident forced them to leave.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran.

Israel responded with heavy air strikes and a ground invasion that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,300 people.

While violence has significantly decreased since the signing of a U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding in June and a framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel days later, Beirut still reports intermittent Israeli strikes and demolitions.

The Israel-Lebanon deal involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region.

Hezbollah rejects the deal and refuses to disarm. It has called negotiations with Israel "appeasement."

CBS/AFP

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels renewed their attacks Tuesday on government-controlled areas in Yemen as ongoing violence threatened to reignite the country's civil war and raised fears over new threats to shipping lanes.

Yemen's military said the rebels targeted both the port city of Mokha on the Red Sea coast and the central province of Marib with missiles and drones, but did not provide further details.

The Houthis struck Marib and the eastern province of Hadramout last week, killing dozens of government troops and civilians. They hit Mokha with missiles and drones over the weekend and killed at least seven people, including three troops, according to the Yemeni military.

Mokha is a main port under Yemen's internationally recognized government and has been renovated to handle shipping to avoid the Houthi-held port of Hodeida.

The strikes came as part of a recent escalation by the Houthis against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the internationally recognized Yemeni government, and the kingdom's shipping in the Red Sea.

With the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down by Iran, there has been a renewed focus on the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait at Yemen's southern tip, which is an alternate route for Saudi Arabia to ship its oil to open oceans.

The Houthi attacks could reignite Yemen's civil war after a four-year hiatus following a 2022 truce, and open a new front in the Middle East war.

CBS/AP

Oil prices extended a strong rally Tuesday as hopes for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz faded, fanning fresh inflation fears and ramping up bets on at least one U.S. interest rate hike this year.

Crude has surged more than 10% over the past week, with the United States and Iran appearing no closer to a deal on the crucial waterway despite upbeat comments from the White House earlier in the month.

In the latest blow to a possible ceasefire, President Trump said Monday he would seek compensation from Iran for damage caused by the conflict as part of any peace negotiations, citing attacks and killings stretching back decades allegedly backed or perpetrated by Tehran.

On Monday, both main crude contracts jumped around 5%. They rose more than 2% on Tuesday, with Brent edging back toward $90 a barrel.

"In the absence of any positive headlines on negotiations to reopen the strait, pressure on oil prices has been upward," wrote Jason Wong at Bank of New Zealand.

And Stephen Innes, global strategist at Quintex Intel, said: "In effect, both sides are trying to weaponize the oil barrel without firing another shot. Washington is trying to choke Iran's ability to get its crude out while Tehran is squeezing the artery through which everybody else's crude gets through.

"It is quite the game of chicken."

The prospect of oil prices remaining elevated for the time being has revived concerns over inflation and boosted the chances of interest rate increases in the U.S.

CBS/AFP

Shortly before Air Force One took off from Turkey at the end of last month's NATO summit, President Trump secretly slipped away from the presidential jet and was whisked to another plane with the help of an airport catering truck, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the matter.

The ruse was employed because the U.S. had learned of a threat from Iran and its allied proxies. U.S. intelligence had detected a credible plot to fire a missile at the plane Mr. Trump was on as he left the Turkish capital of Ankara, CBS News reported exclusively.

The president had expressed awareness of the risks posed by the U.S.-Iran war, calling himself Iran's "number one target" during the NATO summit.

Read more here.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for the price of oil, was unchanged at $87.72 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude also was flat at $82.13 a barrel, after surging 5% on Monday.

The price swung between $72 and $102 last month as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach an agreement that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Middle East again to deliver crude worldwide.

After Iran made compensation for war damage one of its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump responded with his own demand for compensation Monday.

"I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts," Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

The president said the families of the 17 U.S. sailors killed in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen as well as "thousands of others killed in combat" should be included.

He also said Iran should pay "the families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent protesters that Iran has killed over the last 50 years, not to mention the 52,000 that have been killed in the last five months."

Mr. Trump said he's instructed his representatives "to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations."

President Trump told reporters Monday the U.S. controls the Strait of Hormuz, calling the U.S. naval blockade on Iran a "steel wall."

"The only one that has control of the Strait of Hormuz right now is the United States Navy. We have a blockade that's been infallible," Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

The president said some ships are transiting through the narrow waterway through which around 20% of the world's oil supply passed before the war began on Feb. 28. 

Iran has previously mirrored those claims, insisting it controls the waterway and occasionally attacking ships that attempt the crossing. Mr. Trump added that Iran "can make trouble, but they're broke."