US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned that Iran will continue to face severe consequences unless it agrees to a deal, saying the country is already enduring significant military and economic setbacks.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ASEAN conference in Manila, Rubio said Iran would continue to “pay a very heavy price” if it refused to reach an agreement.
He claimed Iran’s defence industrial base had been “decimated” and alleged that the country was losing radar systems and missile launchers on a nightly basis.
Rubio also said Iran had suffered billions of dollars in damage and that its economy was under increasing strain.
Accusing Tehran of failing to honour previous agreements, Rubio said, “Every time they make a deal, they either break it or they want to change the deal.”
US deploys B-1 bomber as attacks on Iran intensify: reports
The US military used a B-1 long-range bomber on Tuesday to strike Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Iran, AXIOS reported citing US officials.
Iran Guards destroy US military equipment in Jordan
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the country’s military, said on Thursday that they had attacked and destroyed several American military assets in Jordan.
The targets included a radar for the US THAAD missile defence system, a Patriot system, a C-RAM radar and a helicopter hangar, according to a statement from the Guards aired by state TV.
Iran says it attacked US targets in Kuwait
The Iranian army says that it attacked U.S. targets in Kuwait on Thursday, including the U.S. base of Arifjan and Kuwait’s Doha camp that has hosted American military assets, Reuters reproted
Iran also struck at vital water desalination and energy plants in Kuwait earlier this week and struck U.S. military assets there, in Bahrain and in Jordan.
There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon and the U.S. Central Command, nor from Kuwait, to the Iranian statement.
Chinese supertankers now moving toward Bab el-Mandeb
Two Chinese very large crude carriers carrying 4 million barrels of Saudi Arabian oil are heading toward the Bab el-Mandeb strait to exit the Red Sea on Thursday, shipping data showed.
The Singaporean-flagged VLCC Xin Long Yang, which had made a U-turn and took a pause in the middle of the Red Sea on Tuesday, resumed its journey southward late on Wednesday, LSEG shipping data showed.
The vessel was sailing past the Yemeni coast, the shipping data showed.
The Chinese-flagged VLCC Cosnew Lake was following, the data showed.
Cosco Shipping, which manages both tankers, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Both vessels indicated through their automatic identification system transmitters that there were Chinese crew onboard, the data showed. The vessels loaded crude at Saudi Arabia’s port of Yanbu earlier this week.
