Iran war pushes US gas prices above $4 a liter as Iranian jet crashes into tanker from Dubai

Italy has refused permission for US military aircraft to touch down at the Sigonella air base in Sicily as they head to the Middle East recently as part of the fight against Iran, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera and Reuters news agency said, citing unidentified sources.

According to Corriere, one of the broadsheets widely circulated in Italy, “several American bombers” were denied permission to stay in the area since the US military failed to seek prior authorization or consult with Italian military leaders, as required by the access agreements that govern the use of military integration in the country.

The US Navy operates Air Station Sigonella as part of a larger Italian base on site.

Italy’s centre-left opposition parties have urged the right-wing government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni for weeks to follow the example of Spain and prohibit all US use of bases in Italy for offensive operations in Iran. Madrid went further, banning all use of its airspace by US military aircraft involved in the attack on Iran.

Meloni’s administration has assured lawmakers that they will seek approval from Parliament if there are requests made by the US to use these bases.

Corriere della Sera said the decision to deny the use of US military aircraft was made a few days ago, after initial tests suggested that the aircraft were not part of a routine exercise or maneuver, and were therefore not covered under the US-Italy agreement governing the use of bases.

This newspaper said that it was General Luciano Portolano, the head of the Italian army, who informed the American administration about this decision.

Iranian media said on Tuesday that an Israeli or US airstrike had taken a desalination plant on the Persian Gulf island of Qeshm offline.

According to the Iranian government correspondent Borna News, the head of the Department of Health at the Environmental and Labor Health Center said that all the drinking water in Qeshm is desalinated and the strike took out the factory. Borna quoted the minister as saying that they will not be able to fix this period.

There have been unconfirmed reports that a power plant on the same island has also been hit by a strike, and the power and desalination plants are often linked.

Qeshm is Iran’s largest island in the Persian Gulf, home to about 150,000 people according to the United Nations.

President Trump warned on Monday that, unless Iran makes an agreement to end the war, “we will end our good ‘occupation’ in Iran by blowing up and destroying all of their power plants, oil facilities and Kharg Island (and probably all the desalination plants!), which we haven’t touched on purpose.

Kuwaiti army said Monday that an explosion that may have been caused by an Iranian drone caused serious damage to one of the country’s desalination plants, killing a worker.

Iran and many Persian Gulf regions rely heavily on desalination plants to produce clean water for everything from crop irrigation to human consumption, making them critical public infrastructure and a major vulnerability point in conflicts.

According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Kuwait relies on desalination for 90 percent of its drinking water, with at least half a dozen plants operating to meet demand.

Iran’s attack sparked a fire on a Kuwaiti oil tanker in Dubai Port, media reported on Tuesday local time.

“A large Kuwaiti crude oil tanker was directly attacked by Iranians while it was in the anchorage of Dubai Port in the UAE,” KUNA media reported, citing Kuwait’s state-owned oil company. The Kuwaiti Very Large Crude Oil Carrier (VLCC) Al-Salmi was the target, according to state media.

KUNA reported that there were no injuries and Dubai authorities confirmed that maritime firefighting units are continuing to put out the fire.

According to KUNA, the ship was fully loaded at the time of the attack, which caused “visible damage to the ship’s hull” and “possibility of oil spillage in the surrounding waters.”

Kuwait’s military also said on Tuesday its air defenses were responding to “brutal missile and drone attacks,” according to a post on X.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the war against Iran has achieved more than half of its goals, without setting a time frame for when it will end.

“Of course it’s more than half the point. But I don’t want to put a schedule on it,” Netanyahu told Newsmax in an interview.

He added that he meant that the war was more than half “in terms of equipment, not in terms of time.”

When asked about the plan to open the The Strait of Hormuz, Netanyahu said there are military solutions led by the United States, but declined to go into details, including whether the US will send troops to try to take Kharg Island.

Speaking of a long-term and post-war solution, the prime minister floated the idea of ​​”diverting all the electricity, oil and gas pipelines, from the Gulf where the Iranians have a perimeter to the other side of Saudi Arabia, to the Red Sea … and up there to the Mediterranean port – our ports in Israel.”

CBS/AFP

Israel’s military said on Tuesday four of its soldiers were killed in a battle in southern Lebanon, where its forces clashed with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

A military statement said three soldiers from one battalion “fell in action” while another statement said another soldier, whose name has not been released, died in the same incident.

One soldier was seriously injured and one of the soldiers was slightly injured, according to the second statement.

In addition, the UN mission in Lebanon said two Indonesian peacekeepers were killed when an “unexpected explosion hit their vehicle” and two other peacekeepers were injured, one seriously. A third peacekeeper was killed on Sunday.

Israel’s military said earlier Tuesday it had opened an investigation to determine whether it or Hezbollah was responsible.

France, a key player in Lebanon, called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, which was scheduled for Tuesday.

CBS/AFP

A possible strike by the United States struck the center of the city of Isfahan in Isfahan early Tuesday, sending huge fire into the sky. President Trump, who insisted this week that talks with Iran are progressing on a possible peace deal, shared a video of the attack on Isfahan, with fiery explosions lighting up the night sky.

Isfahan is home to one of three nuclear facilities that were attacked by US forces in June 2025, and is believed to be at least one. some of Iran’s most enriched uranium is stored, possibly buried after the June strikes.

A satellite image taken shortly before June’s 12-day war between Iran and Israel suggests that Tehran has transferred a truckload of highly enriched uranium to a site in Isfahan.

An image from the Airbus Defense and Space Pléiades Neo satellite shows a truck loaded with 18 blue containers entering a tunnel at the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center on June 9, 2025. Israel launched the war on June 13. The United States joined in, bombing the Isfahan facility and two other nuclear facilities on June 22.

François Diaz-Maurin, an analyst for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, wrote that the truck was probably carrying 18 shielded containers of about 534 kilograms (1,177 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60% purity, a short, technical step from 90% weapons-grade levels.

The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security also suggested that the vehicle was transporting highly enriched uranium. The French newspaper Monde first reported on the photos.

CBS/AP

America’s Gulf allies, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are urging President Trump to continue prosecuting the war against Iran, saying Tehran has not been weakened enough by a month-long US-led bombing campaign, according to American, Gulf and Israeli officials.

After privately complaining at the beginning of the war that they were not given enough advance notice of the US-Israeli attack, and complaining that the US was ignoring their warnings that the war would have devastating consequences throughout the region, some of the regional allies accused the White House that it is now providing a historic opportunity to cripple the rule of Tehran’s clerics forever.

Officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain have indicated in private talks that they do not want the military operation to end until there are significant changes in Iran’s leadership or a major change in Iran’s behavior, according to the officials who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The push from the Gulf countries comes when Mr. Trump oscillated between saying that Iran’s embattled leadership is ready to resolve the conflict and threatening to escalate the war if an agreement is not reached soon.