Some media reports that Trump has told staff he COULD accept Iran controlling the Strait of Hormuz IF ships can freely pass thru?
He says there HAS Been regime change, but?
That simply is NOT True…
Trump is still making threats and Iran is ignoring them…
He seems to be listening to his Defense Sec. Hegseth’s attack numbers….
But all this IS chewing on Trump’s taste for the War and it’s chewing on HIM (Not Hegseth) ….
This while Iran is STILL launching missiles at Middle East countries and Israel….
Iran is formalizing getting PAID for safe passage thru the Strait which has had Chinese ships sail thru….
A Kuwaiti oil tanker was attacked by Dubai…
Israel keep moving at it’s new goal to occupy more of Lebanon….
Some Kurds military are said to have crossed into Western Iran….
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A Kuwaiti oil tanker laden with oil erupted in flames after it was attacked early Tuesday while anchored off the coast of Dubai, the Kuwaiti authorities said. The attack, which the Kuwaitis blamed on Iran, came a day after President Trump injected new uncertainty into global energy markets by threatening again to begin obliterating Iranian targets if Tehran’s new leaders did not agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The Kuwaiti Petroleum Corporation said that the tanker, called Al-Salmi, had been fully loaded with crude oil when struck in what it called an Iranian attack. The vessel’s hull sustained damage, the company said, adding that the damage could potentially lead to an oil spill in surrounding waters.
No injuries were reported among the tanker’s 24 crew members, the media office of Dubai’s government said. It added that the Dubai authorities were responding to an episode involving a drone and a Kuwaiti oil tanker that caught fire in Emirati waters. Maritime firefighting teams had been working to bring the fire under control and later said it had been extinguished.
Iran did not immediately respond to reports of the attack.
The maritime intelligence company Tanker Trackers said that, according to its tracking information, two million barrels of crude were on board the vessel — about 1.2 million from Saudi Arabia and about 800,000 from Kuwait.
The attack came as Mr. Trump has sought to pressure Iran to yield to his demands and end its chokehold over the strait, a vital shipping route for oil and natural gas, by alternating threats of destruction with unverified claims of diplomatic breakthroughs. Iran has denied holding substantive talks with the United States, and has rejected the Trump administration’s conditions as unreasonable.
The mixed messages led to another nervous day for energy markets: The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, briefly rose to $116 a barrel on Monday before falling back.
The war, now in its fifth week and rattling much of the Middle East, continued to rage. In Israel, the military said it had destroyed more than 100 high-rise buildings in the Beirut area, claiming they were being used as command structures by Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia. And NATO said its air defenses had shot down a ballistic missile that had entered Turkish airspace, the fourth such interception since the start of the war.
As Mr. Trump strains to find an end to a conflict he originally mused would last four to five weeks, he has alternately narrowed his aims — arguing on Sunday that “regime change” in Iran had already been achieved — and raised the prospect of escalation, ordering thousands more U.S. troops to the Middle East, including Marines and Special Operations Forces.
His latest threats came in a social media post on Monday morning in which he claimed there had been “great progress” in talks with Tehran but warned that if the negotiations failed to produce an agreement he would order the bombardment of Iranian power plants, oil production infrastructure and, potentially, desalination plants.
Experts have noted that attacking power and water plants can be considered a war crime.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
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Toll vote: A parliamentary committee in Iran approved a plan to impose tolls on ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz, the semiofficial news agency Fars reported on Monday. The plan, which would also ban transit by American and Israeli ships, requires further approval by the full Parliament. The strait is considered an international waterway, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said tolls would be illegal.
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University threat: Iranian officials have condemned U.S. military attacks on universities across the country and warned of possible retaliation against U.S. universities in the region. Read more ›
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Lebanon: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered Israeli forces to increase the territory they control in southern Lebanon, adding to fears among many Lebanese of a long-term military occupation of the area. Lebanon’s president has denounced Israel’s campaign there against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia.
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Peacekeepers killed: Two United Nations peacekeepers were killed in southern Lebanon on Monday when their convoy was “struck by an explosion of undetermined origin,” according to a U.N. report seen by The New York Times. A day earlier, an Indonesian peacekeeper was killed in a separate attack amid clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.
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Casualties: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,574 civilians had been killed, including 236 children, in Iran since the war began a month ago. Lebanon’s health ministry said, more than 1,230 Lebanese had been killed as of Sunday, with more than 3,543 others wounded, since the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began. In Iran’s attacks across the Middle East, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, 17 have been killed as of Friday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded…
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Trump tells aides he’s willing to end war without reopening Hormuz strait – report
Donald Trump has told aides he is willing to end the US military campaign against Iran even if the strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, administration officials are saying, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Such a move would likely extend Tehran’s firm grip on the waterway and leave a complex operation to reopen it for a later date, the report says.
It continues:
In recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks. He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade.
If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said.
There are also military options the president could decide on, but they are not his immediate priority, they said.
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ISW….Iran Update Special Report, March 30, 2026
- US President Donald Trump told the Financial Times on March 30 that the combined force has struck 13,000 targets since the start of the war on February 28. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated on March 30 that it struck 170 targets over the past day.
- The IDF stated on March 30 that it has destroyed more than 80 percent of Iran’s air defense systems. The IDF continued to expand its air dominance over Iran by striking an air defense site in Mazandaran Province in northern Iran.
- The combined force continued to target defense industrial sites in Iran. Strikes on defense industrial sites have likely degraded Iran’s ability to produce missiles and drones. An Israeli military correspondent reported that the IDF has struck around 40 defense industrial sites in the past two days.
- White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on March 30 that the United States has destroyed 150 Iranian vessels, including 92 percent of Iran’s “largest vessels,” since the war began.
- The Turkish Defense Ministry announced on March 30 that NATO air defense systems intercepted an Iranian ballistic missile that had entered Turkish airspace for the fourth time since the start of the war.
- Anti-regime media and a Kurdistan Democratic Party-affiliated journalist reported that Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) fighters have deployed to western Iran.
- Iran targeted a water desalination plant in Kuwait on March 29 and killed one worker as part of its ongoing drone and missile attack campaign against the Gulf countries.
- Hezbollah claimed that it conducted 65 attacks targeting Israeli forces and communities in northern Israel and southern Lebanon between 2:00 PM ET on March 29 and 2:00 PM ET on March 30. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that Hezbollah has launched 5,000 missiles, rockets, and drones from Lebanon targeting Israel since March 2.
- The IDF said on March 29 that it intercepted two Houthi drones near Eilat, southern Israel, marking the third time that the Houthis have attacked Israel since entering the conflict on March 28.
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Financial Times: “The White House has raised the prospect that President Donald Trump could ask Gulf states to help pay to cover the costs of the US and Israel’s war with Iran.”
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