Not even the president can answer why his latest efforts to reach a deal with Iran will go any differently. Monday’s outburst suggests that he’s too angry to care, writes John Bowden.

A military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader has warned Donald Trump over America’s continued naval blockade against Iranian ports.

“If the blockade continues, American vessels and forces will face serious risks and casualties,” Mohsen Rezaei wrote on X.

“The US must change its behaviour – or we will not tolerate this. We will never permit the opening of a second corridor in the Strait of Hormuz,” he added.

Donald Trump has insisted that talks with Tehran are happening after the Iranian side denied any discussions were taking place.

Speaking from the Oval Office, the US president told reporters that it was Iran’s last chance to make a deal.

“This is a ‌last chance for ⁠them to sign ⁠a good document,” he said.

“[The talks] are going on, they’re going on right now. “For some reason, when they’re talking, they don’t like saying that they’re talking.

“So I say, ‘We’re in talks’. Big deal, we’re in talks. And they’ll sometimes deny it, even though they spend hours and hours together talking.”

He said the Iranian side had asked for talks after the US had planned the biggest attack since the Second World War.

Syrian interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa and Iraq’s Kurdish regional president met yesterday in Damascus to discuss ways of improving mutual cooperation and contributing to regional security.

The meeting between al-Sharaa and Nechirvan Barzani came amid regional tensions as Iranian-backed Iraqi militia groups carried out multiple drone strikes targeting American interests across Iraq, including the country’s Kurdish region.

Syrian state media reported last month that authorities at the country’s border with Iraq thwarted an attempt in June to smuggle weapons believed to have been headed to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. Hezbollah denied the charges.

Oil prices rebounded slightly this morning on concerns that Middle Eastern supply remains at risk as a diplomatic resolution to ‌the US-Iran war that has disrupted shipments still seems unlikely.

Front-month Brent futures rose $0.62, or 0.7 per cent, to $84.39 a barrel as of 0055 GMT after dropping 7 per cent in the previous session to a three-week low.

US West Texas Intermediate crude was $0.61, or 0.7 per cent higher at $80.95 after falling over 5 per cent ​in the previous session to its lowest in nearly a week.

In an email last week, an officer in the intelligence branch of US Central Command asked a broad group of military analysts for suggestions, CNN said, citing an unidentified source.

Military officials said the effort to crowdsource a solution to the war by email was highly unusual, CNN reported.

The move came as Trump is considering dramatic, “fireworks”-style airstrikes against Iran that could hit the same or similar sites that the US bombed last year when targeting the nation’s suspected nuclear weapons program, a source told CNN.

The United Kingdom Maritime ⁠Trade Operations said it had ⁠received a report of ⁠an incident 20 ​nautical ⁠miles ‌northeast of Oman’s Al ‌Khasab, after ‌a cargo vessel ⁠broadcast over VHF channel 16 that it had ‌been ​hit ‌by ⁠an unknown projectile.

A senior officer at the US Central Command’s intelligence branch is said to have written to military analysts last Wednesday asking for new ideas to “pressure and punish Iran”, according to CNN, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter.

Centcom spokesperson Captain Timothy Hawkins said: “US Central Command has a long history of thinking and working in innovative ways. [Centcom commander] Admiral [Brad] Cooper, in particular, reaches out to members of our great team, regardless of rank, to achieve the highest levels of operational performance possible.”

A new AP-NORC poll suggests Americans are growing increasingly skeptical of the war with Iran, with about two-thirds saying the conflict has not been worth fighting and support for President Donald Trump’s handling of the war slipping.

The survey, conducted July 23-27, found just 28% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of Iran, down from 34% last month. Support also dipped among Republicans, with 61% approving, compared with 71% in June, though the poll’s margin of error means the decline is modest.

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