UN chief welcomes planned US-Iran talks and urges ‘good faith’ engagement

US intelligence assessments said Iran still retains thousands of ballistic missiles and is able to recover launchers stored in underground facilities despite recent US and Israeli strikes, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The report said Iran’s missile force has been significantly degraded but remains operational, with more than 1,000 medium-range ballistic missiles still in its arsenal from an estimated pre-conflict stockpile of around 2,500.

US officials said more than half of Iran’s launchers have been destroyed, damaged, or buried in underground sites, though many are believed to be repairable or retrievable from fortified mountain complexes.

A US-sanctioned very large crude carrier (VLCC) carrying Iranian oil is anchored near India’s Paradip port and could deliver a cargo of Iranian crude for the first time since 2019, according to shipping data cited by TankerTrackers.

The vessel, identified as Jaya, previously been linked to so-called “identity-switching” practices used by tankers involved in sanctions evasion, according to industry reports.

If discharged, the shipment would mark the first known delivery of Iranian crude to India in several years.

Persian Gulf countries would bear the vast majority of costs under Iran’s proposed toll system for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The report said Iran is seeking to impose charges of up to $2 million per vessel, or about $1 per barrel of oil, in exchange for allowing passage through the strategic waterway.

Because most oil exports from the Gulf pass through the strait, countries such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would shoulder between 80% and 95% of the total cost burden, the WSJ said, citing estimates from analysts.

The proposal would have only a limited effect on global oil prices but could cost Persian Gulf exporters billions of dollars annually, while raising concerns over the principle of free maritime navigation, according to the report.

Iran’s state media said on Friday the Islamic Republic’s delegation for talks in Islamabad includes several senior officials, among them Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and other top security and economic figures.

According to the report, the delegation also includes Ali-Akbar Ahmadian, Kazem Gharibabadi and Ali Bagheri Kani, along with Central Bank Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati.

Only two ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, according to ship-tracking data from S&P Global Market Intelligence cited by NBC News.

The data showed that neither of the vessels were oil or gas tankers, marking a steep decline in traffic through the strategic waterway.

The report said daily transits have fallen in recent days compared with pre-war levels of around 130 to 160 ships, which typically carry oil, gas and other goods to global markets.