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✍️ Written by Saket Suman Within a span of just over two weeks, the United States has issued three separate sanctions waivers, first for Indian-bound Russian crude, then for Russian oil globally, and now for Iranian crude itself. This has revealed a pattern that suggests Washington’s sanctions regime is no longer a static enforcement mechanism but a dynamic tool being repositioned in real time to balance war objectives with global energy stability. Representational Image Via:  U.S. Central Command As IndianRepublic.in had earlier reported on March 6 , the U.S. Treasury issued General License 133 permitting Indian refiners to receive Russian crude already at sea, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stating the aim was to “ensure oil continues flowing into global markets,” even while maintaining pressure on Russia. That India-specific measure was expanded on March 13 through General License 134 , which allowed the delivery of Russian crude glo...

The United States Treasury has authorized a limited, time-bound waiver allowing the delivery and sale of Iranian-origin crude oil already loaded on vessels before March 20, 2026, granting a one-month window until April 19, even as broader sanctions on Iran remain firmly in place. File Photo of Kharg Island; Via: Adam Cochran In an official General License  U  issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) , the U.S. said that “all transactions… ordinarily incident and necessary to the sale, delivery, or offloading of crude oil or petroleum products of Iranian origin loaded on any vessel… on or before 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time, March 20, 2026 are authorized through 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time, April 19, 2026,” effectively creating a narrowly defined compliance window for cargoes already in transit. The license explicitly covers operational and logistical activities required to complete such deliveries, stating that permitted transactions include those nece...

U.S. President Donald Trump has said Washington is “very close” to achieving its military objectives in the ongoing conflict with Iran and is now considering winding down operations, outlining a five-point framework that includes dismantling Iran’s missile capabilities, destroying its defence industrial base, and preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons. File Photo of President Donald Trump Via: AF Post on X In a public statement , Trump said the United States aimed at “completely degrading Iranian missile capability, launchers, and everything else pertaining to them,” while also targeting “Iran’s defence industrial base” and “eliminating their Navy and Air Force, including anti-aircraft weaponry.” He added that a core objective remained “ never allowing Iran to get even close to nuclear capability ,” while ensuring the U.S. retains the ability to “quickly and powerfully react” if required. Trump also framed the campaign in terms of regional security, saying the U.S. was acti...

Iran has sharply escalated its rhetoric against the United Kingdom after London approved U.S. use of British bases for operations targeting Iranian missile capabilities , with Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi warning that the move amounts to dangerous escalation and could trigger retaliation under Iran’s right to self-defence. File Photo of Seyed Abbas Araghchi Via On u ka on X In a public statement , Araghchi said a “vast majority of the British people do not want any part” in what he described as a U.S.–Israel war on Iran, and accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer of “ignoring his own people” while “putting British lives in danger by allowing UK bases to be used for aggression against Iran.” He added that “Iran will exercise its right to self-defense,” signalling that Tehran views the decision as a direct security threat. The warning comes hours after Downing Street confirmed that U.S. forces would be allowed to use British bases for “defensive operations” to degrade missile site...

The United Kingdom has formally agreed to allow the United States to use British military bases for operations targeting Iranian missile capabilities threatening commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz , while maintaining that it will not directly join the strikes, according to a statement issued by 10 Downing Street after a ministerial meeting on Friday. Representational Image Via U.S. Central Command In a detailed readout, the Prime Minister’s Office said ministers “confirmed that the agreement for the U.S. to use U.K. bases in the collective self-defence of the region includes U.S. defensive operations to degrade the missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz ,” explicitly linking the expanded scope of cooperation to Iran’s recent targeting of maritime traffic and energy infrastructure. The decision marks a significant escalation in London’s operational posture, allowing U.S. forces to launch strikes on Iranian missile systems and related...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected speculations and claims that Israel had pushed the United States into war with Iran, saying “does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do?”, while portraying the U.S.-Israeli campaign as a tightly coordinated effort to dismantle Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, weaken its military-industrial base and create conditions for internal political change in Tehran. Image of Israeli PM Netanyahu; Via: SilencedSirs on X Speaking to the foreign press from a protected underground venue as air raid precautions remained in force, Netanyahu said Israel’s Operation was being carried out “under President Trump’s visionary leadership” and that “America and Israel are acting together in Iran with great determination and unprecedented strength.” He said the operation was designed to remove “ the existential threats posed by the Ayatollah regime ,” which he accused of waging war for 47 years against “Am...

U.S.  President Donald Trump has said that the Iran war was “ almost over ,” ruled out deploying more U.S. troops to the region, and claimed U.S. forces had “obliterated” much of Iran’s military capacity, as Japan publicly aligned itself with Washington’s hardening stance by condemning Iran’s attacks on neighboring states and its “de facto or effective closure” of the Strait of Hormuz. Image Via White House Speaking at the White House during a bilateral meeting with Japan’s prime minister  Sanae Takaichi , Trump said, “The war is almost over,” and argued that Washington had moved faster than expected in degrading Iran’s capabilities. “We’ve obliterated their Navy. We’ve obliterated their just about everything there is to obliterate, including leadership,” he said, adding that “their Navy’s gone, their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft equipment is gone” and that “we’re flying wherever we want.” Trump said he would not send additional U.S. ground forces into the region. As...

U.S. President Donald Trump has declared that the United States “ does not need the help of anyone ” in its ongoing war against Iran, even as NATO allies declined to participate militarily and European leaders publicly distanced themselves from the conflict, exposing a widening transatlantic rift at a moment of escalating global energy disruption. Photo Via: Vice President Vance Speaking during a bilateral meeting on March 17, Trump said that while “all of our NATO allies were very much in favor of what we did” and “ agreed fully ” that Iran posed a nuclear threat, “ they don’t want to help us ,” adding that “we don’t need too much help and we don’t need any help actually.”  He further asserted that the war had been “long prosecuted” and that U.S. forces had “wiped out their navy, wiped out their military in every aspect,” claiming Iran now had “no air force, no navy… no radar, their anti-aircraft machinery is gone.” The remarks followed an earlier public statement in which T...

In the first major internal rupture within the United States security establishment since the start of the Iran war, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent has resigned, declaring he could not “ in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran ” and asserting that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation,” directly contradicting the central justification offered by the Trump administration for launching military action. File Photo Via Joe Kent Kent’s resignation, effective immediately, marks the first senior-level departure tied directly to the conflict , and has now exposed a widening divide between intelligence leadership and political decision-making at a critical moment in a war that has already destabilised global energy markets and expanded across multiple fronts. In his resignation statement, Kent wrote that “it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” adding that he could not support sending “the next gen...

Donald Trump on Sunday accused Iran of deploying artificial intelligence-generated propaganda to manipulate global coverage of the ongoing Iran-Israel war, rejecting reports circulating online and in some media outlets that suggested damage to U.S. military aircraft and naval assets in the Gulf. File Photo: White Ho use In a lengthy statement posted on social media , Trump alleged that Iran has intensified what he described as a coordinated disinformation campaign during the Iran-Israel conflict, using AI-generated imagery and fabricated battlefield narratives to project military strength while suffering heavy losses from U.S. and Israeli strikes across Iranian territory. “Iran has long been known as a master of media manipulation,” Trump wrote, arguing that recent images and videos circulating online — including purported footage of attacks on American ships and aircraft — were fabricated using artificial intelligence tools designed to mislead global audiences about the war’s trajecto...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman More than two weeks into the Iran war and the clearest record of what this conflict has become is found in Donald Trump’s own words . Read chronologically, his public statements and social media posts do not reveal a coherent war aim so much as they point to a pattern of escalation without restraint, triumphalism without closure, and threats so sweeping that they dissolve the distinction between military coercion and open-ended devastation. What emerges is a head of state normalising the language of civilisational punishment while the global economy convulses, shipping slows in Hormuz, migrants and seafarers die in the Gulf, and ordinary households from South Asia to Europe brace for the price of a conflict they did not choose. File Photo of POTUS Trump; Via: White House The argument for this war was never stable. Even as the administration invoked Iran’s nuclear programme, Trump’s own rhetoric kept widening the battlefi...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Wars are often measured in missile strikes, territorial advances and diplomatic confrontations but beneath those visible markers lies a quieter human story. The Iran war has begun to expose the vulnerability of the millions of migrant workers, seafarers and civilian employees who sustain the infrastructure of the global economy. Photo of Thai crew from cargo ship Mayuree Naree; Via: Ounka Across the Gulf and wider West Asia, these workers form the backbone of ports, shipping fleets, construction sites, energy facilities and service industries. They power the logistics networks that keep energy flowing and goods moving across continents. When conflict erupts, they are often the first to feel the consequences even though they have no role in the political decisions that lead to war. In recent days, the widening conflict has produced a growing list of casualties and disruptions affecting this largely invisible workforce. As...