News and Analysis 5/13/26

The role of the Gulf states in the Iran war greater than previously known and the risks in the future are sobering:

• Saudi Arabia Launched Covert Attacks on Iran as Regional War Widened, Sources Say (Straits Times)
• UAE’s Secret Attack on Iran Risks Drawing Gulf States into the War (The Guardian)

The rise in real prices wrought by the Iran War is something worse than inflation …

• Iran War Energy Shock Squeezes U.S. Paychecks (Axios)
• Soaring Inflation and Plummeting Economy Test Iran’s Ability to Withstand War and US Blockade (AP)

… but Trump gives “Not even a little bit” of thought to Americans’ financial situations in negotiating with Iran …

• Trump: ‘I Don’t Think About’ Americans’ Financial Situation in Iran Negotiations (The Hill)

… and Hegseth thinks Congress has no role at all …

• Hegseth on Murkowski’s Iran War Authorization Effort: We Don’t Need It (The Hill)

… yet, “[e]ven as he insisted that the U.S. military has plenty of missile defense systems and other munitions for the Iran war or future conflicts, Hegseth told House and Senate lawmakers overseeing defense spending that the Trump administration is working to ramp up production of weapons”:

• WATCH: Hegseth, Caine Testify on Capitol Hill as Trump Says Iran Ceasefire Is Weak (PBS)

The ruling means that defendants “convicted of criminal damage for disrupting an arms factory …. [can] then be sentenced as ‘terrorists’ without having been convicted of terror charges and with this having been kept secret from the jury” …

• Palestine Action Activists in Elbit Protest Could Be Sentenced as Terrorists (The Guardian)

… but an “unprecedented attempt to criminalise lawyers for doing their job and representing their clients fearlessly” has been foiled:

• Palestine Action Trial Lawyer Wins Appeal Against Contempt of Court Charge (The Guardian)

Settler violence and Israeli war crimes continue:

• Palestinians Lose More Land After Israel Secretly Approves a Record Number of Settlements in the West Bank (Drop Site)

“Iran denies accusations, saying the arrested sailors were in Kuwaiti waters due to their navigation system’s malfunction”:

• Kuwait Says It Foiled Infiltration Operation by Iran’s IRGC (Aljazeera)

“The suspected oil spill covering many square miles of sea near Iran’s main oil hub of Kharg Island has been seen on satellite imagery”:

• Oil Spill in Gulf Likely Caused by Tanker Dump, Iran Says (NBC News)

“The resolution calls for freedom of navigation through the waterway and urges an immediate halt to Iranian attacks on its Gulf neighbours”:

• Bahrain-led UN Resolution on Strait of Hormuz Gains Support of 112 Nations (Aljazeera)

“The report cited by Case, published by US defense news outlet The War Zone, said the US Air Force carried out nearly 13,000 flights during the conflict with Iran” …

• US Lawmaker Says Washington Lost 39 Aircraft in Iran War, Citing Defense Report (Andalu Ajansi)

… while the NY Times “cited senior US officials, who warned that … Iran can still use the missile stockpiles in non-operational sites by launching them with mobile launchers, with the country maintaining roughly 70% of its mobile launcher inventory”:

• Iran Retains Access to Majority of Missile Launch Sites, US Intelligence Shows – Report (Jerusalem Post)

ImadadDean