About to Surrender.
Invisible information.
“Most mornings I learn more from News Items than I do from all the traditional papers I read combined.” — Michael Blair, former presiding partner, Debevoise & Plimpton.
1. Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf channel that carries 20 percent of the world’s oil, according to U.S. officials, an effort that could further complicate American efforts to restart shipping there. While the U.S. military said it had destroyed larger Iranian naval vessels that could be used to quickly lay mines in the strait, Iran began using smaller boats for the operation on Thursday, according to a U.S. official briefed on the intelligence. (Source: nytimes.com)
2. Mojtaba Khamenei, the newly appointed supreme leader of Iran, issued a defiant statement yesterday, directing the military to continue blocking a vital oil shipping route and calling for Iran’s neighbors to close U.S. military bases used to attack Iran. The statement, Ayatollah Khamenei’s first since being chosen to succeed his father Ali Khamenei, who was killed during U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Feb. 28, was an early indication of how the new supreme leader would approach the war, as well as how he would rule the country. The crisis has spread far beyond Iran’s borders and threatened regional stability and the world economy. (Source: nytimes.com)
3. 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. While claiming Iran was about to surrender, he also suggested there were no officials left alive in Tehran with the power to make that decision. “Nobody knows who is the leader, so there is no one that can announce surrender,” Trump said, according to two officials briefed on the call. (Source: axios.com)
4. The Trump administration has burned through “years” of critical munitions since the start of the war with Iran, said three people familiar with the matter, fuelling concerns about the rising cost of the conflict and the US’s ability to replenish its stockpiles. The rapid depletion of weaponry included advanced long-range Tomahawk missiles, the people said. It is a “massive expenditure of Tomahawks”, said one person familiar with the US military’s use of munitions. “The navy will be feeling this expenditure for several years.” (Source: ft.com)
