Israel called off broad Iran strike an hour before launch - Times of Israel

Iran will soon begin connecting its electricity grid with Qatar, Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said on Tuesday.

Aliabadi said studies for the project were in their final stage and that Iran was at the start of the implementation phase.

He said Iran was also studying electricity grid connections with other Persian Gulf states.

Belgian lawmaker Darya Safai said on Tuesday that she proudly carried Iran’s pre-revolution Lion and Sun flag into a stadium in Los Angeles, where Iran and New Zealand were playing a World Cup match, despite a FIFA ban.

“No ideological flag can take the place of our Lion and Sun,” Safai said on X.

Shipowners will avoid resuming transit through the Strait of Hormuz for weeks until they are confident the US-Iran agreement has changed conditions on the water, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing the head of the world’s biggest tanker operator.

Jotaro Tamura, chief executive of Mitsui OSK Lines, said many operators would wait before restarting crossings despite the agreement to reopen the strait.

“What will have to come in place is not just a simple agreement between the relevant countries, but it has to be material and translated into the real situations in the Strait of Hormuz, so that shipping lines can make themselves comfortable to go through,” he said.

US Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told CNN that the US military was led into a war with Iran that it could not win.

“I give a ton of credit to our generals and our soldiers, but they were led into a war that they could not win,” Murphy said. “The military mission was impossible. There was no way for airstrikes to eliminate Iran's nuclear program, their drone program, or their missile program.”

Murphy said he supported ending the war immediately, even on what he called “humiliating” terms, because continuing it would have been worse for the United States.

“We need to stop this war right now unilaterally because Americans can't bear the prices. Iran is getting stronger every single day,” he said.

Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said he does not expect the current US-Iran agreement to lead to a final deal, adding that the arrangement is primarily aimed at restoring oil supplies to global markets while broader disputes remain unresolved.

"There will be no final Iran deal. This phase one is about getting oil back to market at the lowest possible price paid to the regime. We’ll find out what that price is over the next 30–60 days," Dubowitz posted on X.

"There is no phase two deal. Soon enough, President Trump will be back to relying on American power, not the regime’s false promises. At that time, the strategy needs a missing pillar: maximum support for the Iranian people. Economic and military pressure can weaken the regime. The Iranian people can cripple it. Together, they offer the only path to a durable solution," he added.