Iran…Trump…War/Conflict…Midday…8/20/2026…Trump vs Iran’s Economy?…Somali Piracy….Will The Carrier Head Home?

Well?

Missiles and Bomb ain’t breaking Iran’s spirit of hold on the Strait of Hormuz….

So we have Trump and the UAE working on trying to force things thru hurting Iran’s Economy….

There have been a few US attacks recently….

Trump has to be careful NOT to antagonise China which has ships involved in this…

Again?

There ARE ships moving thru the Strait by various routes….

We also see that the Somali’s are back to boarding ships by force,,,,

The Middle East?

IS the Middle East….

Oh?

And the Israeli Prime Minister IS continuing to do ‘his won thing’ which means NOT listening to the American President….

I DID list in my last post that the Pentagon IS drawing up plans to cut back the US military assets deployed in the Gulf if the President goes ahead and begins to withdraw as most expect him to do eventually ….

The Guardian….

Donald Trump has announced a new campaign to isolate Iran’s economy, threatening “tremendous economic consequences” on any country that helps or does business with Tehran, a move that could set up a fresh confrontation with China if implemented.

“Today, I am announcing the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Any country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face tremendous economic consequences.”

His announcement however contained no detail on what actions would be taken or which countries could be affected, and comes as the war nears its six-month mark, with the president facing pressure over the cost of the conflict as the US midterm elections approach.

Last month the US president paused attacks on Iran, after a fortnight of nightly strikes that had failed to bring officials in Tehran back to the negotiating table and reports that the war has run down US stockpiles of key munitions. Pentagon advisers reportedly told Trump last month that the US had nearly exhausted its list of targets in Iran and the military campaign had reached the limits of its effectiveness.

The White House has signalled in recent weeks a shift in strategy to tightening pressure on Iran economically. US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said last week the US would begin ramping up efforts to isolating Iran economically.

The US treasury has for months been carrying out an effort, called Operation Economic Fury, aiming to cut off Iran’s funding with targeted sanctions, while a naval blockade in the strait of Hormuz has sought to block Iranian ports from exporting oil vital to keeping the country’s economy afloat.

Iran’s economy already faces a punishing array of US and western sanctions that have ground down the economy over years and curtailed its ability to sell oil. But experts say the country’s leaders have learned to adapt to the measures, including by exporting oil through a sophisticated network of shadow tankers.

In his announcement on Wednesday, Trump listed several activities that he said needed to stop immediately, including “oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies”.

The wording of the president’s announcement suggested that he could be threatening secondary sanctions on countries that buy Iranian oil, but experts say such a move could lead to direct confrontation with China – Iran’s biggest trading partner – at a time when the US is trying to establish a new trading relationship with Beijing…..

…

ISW….Iran Update, August 19, 2026

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is intensifying economic pressure on Iran to discourage Iranian efforts to control or disrupt navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. The UAE announced on August 18 that it would halt all trade and financial transactions with Iran. The announcement comes after the UAE accused Iran of launching missiles from Iranian territory toward the UAE on August 18.
The UAE has previously supported US efforts to undermine Iranian control of the strait, which suggests that the UAE’s decision is part of a broader effort to raise the costs of Iran’s attempts to control or disrupt maritime traffic.
The UAE’s decision will further weaken Iran’s already deteriorating economy by restricting both its access to essential imports and its ability to repatriate export revenues and circumvent sanctions. Roughly one-third of Iran’s imports have come from the UAE, and the largest proportion of Iranian imports in the last five years come from the UAE have made the UAE.
Iran will likely respond to the UAE’s decision with greater military and economic pressure against the UAE rather than abandon its efforts to secure greater control over the Strait of Hormuz. ISW-CTP previously also assessed that Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander Major Ahmad Vahidi’s faction — whom ISW-CTP continues to assess is driving regime decision-making — may be willing to accept some economic costs and the risk of renewed war if doing so enables them to achieve their core objectives, including Iranian control over the strait.
Increasing Emirati alignment with the United States will also drive longer-term hostility between the UAE and Iran. It is not clear the extent to which the Iranian regime decisionmakers have internalized the ramifications of long-term hostility with the UAE, given the economic relationship between the two states.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al Zaydi is under pressure from both the United States and Iranian-backed Iraqi actors over Iraqi militia disarmament but appears to be responding primarily to militia pressure at this time. Zaydi reportedly planned to increase security measures and deploy a special Iraqi Counter Terrorism unit near Jurf al Sakhar, south of Baghdad, to monitor the movement of people and vehicles, and would not lead to a raid or a military incursion into the militia’s key site.
Iran has also dispatched senior Iranian officials, including Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, to Baghdad in recent days to discourage conflict between the Iraqi federal government and the militias. These officials are also discouraging disarmament….

…

NY Times….

Somali pirates hijacked a suspected Iranian shadow fleet tanker off the coast of Yemen on Thursday, amid what experts say is the biggest surge in piracy in the region in more than a decade.

The oil tanker, the SIBU 1, flies an Eritrean flag. But it is likely part of Iran’s shadow fleet of ships exporting oil around the world, according to TankerTrackers.com, a company that monitors global oil shipping. The tanker has routinely ferried fuel to an oil terminal in the Yemeni port of Ras Isa that is controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, the company added.

SIBU 1 was the second ship hijacked by Somali pirates in a span of four days, according to officials in Somalia. Days earlier, a Cameroon-flagged cargo vessel carrying weapons was seized off the coast of the semiautonomous Somali region of Puntland, said Abshir Hashi Ali, the director general of the ministry of ports in the neighboring Galmadug State.

Years after a global naval campaign largely curbed the scourge of piracy, experts worry that the conflict in Iran — along with other factors, like regional rivalries and economic difficulties for local fishermen — is setting the stage for a comeback….

…

In May, Somali pirates hijacked an oil tanker off the coast of Yemen, the Togo-flagged Eureka, and directed it through the Yemeni part of the Gulf of Aden toward Somalia’s coast.

The Houthis and Somali pirates have cultivated an alliance over the years, with the militia at times providing technology and military backup. Analysts say the war in Iran and the resulting disruptions to oil shipping could give them more reason to work together as the high price of fuel presents an opportunity to profit.

But experts say there are also longer-term reasons for the current rise in piracy, like increased competition from Chinese and Spanish trawlers that has made fishing less lucrative in coastal communities, and the decline in maritime policing that armed gangs have taken advantage of…..

…

The Guardian….

The USS George Washington aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, where it is expected to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln from its record deployment amid concerns about poor living conditions and morale.

US Central Command announced on Thursday that the Washington arrived in the area on Wednesday, and posted an image of sailors working on the flight deck as the ship transited the Arabian Sea. No date has yet been announced for the Lincoln to return to the US.

In an interview this week, the wife of a sailor onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln told the Guardian that she has been getting brief glimpses over the past few months of what life is like on the aircraft carrier, mostly through text messages. And that as the deployment has stretched on, and on, she has noticed a change in her husband’s messages….

…

Her account comes as recent reports have rung alarm bells about conditions onboard the Lincoln, which has spent more than 250days at sea supporting US operations against Iran without a significant port visit or date to return home for the 5,000 sailors aboard.

Reports from families of crew members published in the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes military newspapers described food and water shortages, disrupted mail services, plumbing problems, low morale and worsening mental health, prompting Democratic lawmakers to demand answers from the Pentagon.

“I just don’t really think they’re treating them like people. I think they’re treating them like a uniform, like a pawn on a chessboard,” the wife said in a telephone interview…..

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Iran…Trump…War/Conflict…Midday…8/20/2026…Trump vs Iran’s Economy?…Somali Piracy….Will The Carrier Head Home?

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