War in the Middle East/Gulf, and beyond
(Barak Ravid – Axios) Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Friday that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is “wounded and likely disfigured”. Why it matters: Hegseth’s claim was the first official statement by the Trump administration about Khamenei’s health since he was named the country’s leader. “Iran’s leadership is in no better shape. Desperate and hiding they have gone underground, cowering. That’s what rats do. We know the new so-called not-so-supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured,” Hegseth told reporters at a briefing. – Hegseth claims Iran’s supreme leader is “wounded and likely disfigured”
(AFP/Al Arabiya) US President Donald Trump said in an interview aired Friday US forces would be carrying out intense strikes against Iranian targets in the coming days, as the war that has cascaded throughout the Mideast region headed into its third week. “We’re going to be hitting them very hard over the next week,” Trump told Fox News Radio. – Trump says US will be hitting Iran hard over ‘next week’
(AFP/Al Arabiya) Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Friday he had not received a response to his offer to negotiate directly with Israel to try to halt its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes. – Lebanese president says no Israeli reply on offer to negotiate in Hezbollah war
(Al Arabiya) US President Donald Trump will bring about a diplomatic conclusion to the war with Iran “in his time,” and Tehran must halt attacks on its neighbors before they can mediate, one of the UAE’s top diplomats said in an interview on Friday. Lana Nusseibeh, a former UAE ambassador to the United Nations who now holds the rank of minister of state in the Gulf country’s foreign ministry, expressed confidence that the war would end in a negotiated settlement. But she said neighbors were shocked that Iran had unleashed attacks on them. – UAE says Iran must halt attacks on neighbors to allow diplomacy
(AFP/Al Arabiya) The Strait of Hormuz is a “tactically complex environment,” top US military officer General Dan Caine said Friday, acknowledging the difficulty in acting on plans to escort traffic safely through the strategic waterway. “It’s a tactically complex environment. Before, I think, we want to take anything through there at scale, we want to make sure that we do the work pursuant to our current military objectives,” Caine said. – Strait of Hormuz ‘tactically complex environment:’ Top US general
(AFP/Al Arabiya) Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Friday said Lebanon will suffer increasing damage to its infrastructure as Israel targets Hezbollah, after the military destroyed a bridge over the southern Litani river. “This is just the beginning and the Lebanese government and the State of Lebanon will pay an increasing price in damage to Lebanese national infrastructure used by Hezbollah terrorists due to terrorist activity and launches at the State of Israel,” Katz said at a meeting with army top brass. – Israel warns Lebanon faces ‘increasing price in damage’ over Hezbollah activity
(Nathan Bomey – Axios) It’s not just oil: The Iran war is threatening to reignite food inflation — the price shock voters feel most directly — at the worst possible time for President Trump and Republicans. The Strait of Hormuz — paralyzed by Iranian threats and potentially mines — carries a third of the world’s fertilizer. For many American farmers, the spring planting season is just weeks away. The American Farm Bureau Federation warned in a letter to Trump this week that “supply chain shocks are expected to drive already record-high input prices even higher.”. Gulf states now menaced by war produce nearly 49% of the world’s urea, a critical solid nitrogen fertilizer, and about 30% of its ammonia, according to AFBF. The U.S. also gets about 97% of its potassium from foreign sources, plus 18% of its nitrogen and 13% of its phosphate. – Iran war raises food shock fears as midterms loom
(Barak Ravid – Axios) President Trump told G7 leaders in a virtual meeting Wednesday that Iran is “about to surrender,” according to three officials from G7 countries briefed on the contents of the call. 24 hours later, Iran’s new supreme leader issued his first public statement vowing to keep fighting. Trump is as confident about the war’s outcome in private as he is in public. But his assessment is colliding with a more complex reality on the ground. The Iranian regime has shown no signs of imminent surrender or collapse — and on Day 14 of the war, is moving to gain more leverage by choking off the Strait of Hormuz. – Scoop: Trump claimed in G7 call that Iran is “about to surrender”
(Diana Nerozzi and Eli Stokols – Politico) Vice President JD Vance was skeptical of the U.S. striking Iran in the leadup to President Donald Trump’s decision to launch the war, two senior Trump officials told POLITICO. Vance, who has long questioned U.S. intervention abroad, has publicly defended Trump’s Iran operation. But White House officials revealed that the vice president made his opposition known in the leadup, pulling the curtain open after months of speculation about Vance being far more tepid about military action than Trump. – Vance was ‘skeptical’ voice in White House on Iran strikes – POLITICO
US
(Maria Curi – Axios) The Trump administration has ambitious deadlines to accelerate scientific discovery, Energy Department undersecretary Darío Gil and Dell CEO Michael Dell told Axios in an interview. Government agencies and companies are mobilizing to use AI for energy, drug discovery and national security, all while promising new jobs. The Genesis Mission, unveiled late last year, is a federal initiative led by the DOE and its national labs to use AI and emerging tech to accelerate scientific discovery. Gil said that includes quantum computers that aren’t error prone by 2028, commercially viable fusion power plants in the 2030s, and a trained workforce of 100,000 scientists and engineers within the next decade. The goal is to double the productivity and impact of science R&D spending, he added. That means building on AI’s success with language and code, and advancing its capabilities in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, engineering and more. – What’s next for the Genesis Mission
(Daniel Lippman – Politico) Leading Washington strategist Juleanna Glover publicly argued for a third-party presidential candidate halfway through Donald Trump’s first term, calling for a “morally lucid” leader akin to abolitionist Abraham Lincoln. At the same time, she was privately trading emails with Jeffrey Epstein — a decade after he went to jail on child prostitution charges — to share possible presidential tickets “outside the partisan lanes.” – How a top DC strategist courted Jeffrey Epstein – POLITICO
