'Having productive discussions with Iran': Trump rules out strikes before US midterms

US President Donald Trump said the United States will not attack Iran before the country's midterm elections on November 3, while indicating that Washington is engaged in talks with Tehran.“We will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to midterm elections to be held in United States on November 3rd,” Trump said.He also said the United States was holding “productive discussions with Islamic Republic of Iran”.Trump did not provide further details about the discussions or specify what issues were being addressed.Trump’s remarks come despite shipping through the Strait of Hormuz faces growing security risks, with Iran warning that it could block routes it has not authorised.Tankers are facing a higher risk of attacks and intimidation as they try to carry critical shipments through the strategic waterway. Last week saw the highest number of tanker attacks in the Strait since the Iran war began, while the number of vessels attempting to pass through fell to its lowest level in more than two months.Iran has also warned regional countries that any attempt to establish new routes for oil exports would be considered hostile, a senior regional official close to Tehran told Reuters. The official said the policy was part of a plan agreed by Iran’s political leadership and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.“Iran has absolutely no intention of allowing control of the Strait of Hormuz to slip from its hands, and has plans ready to block routes that some regional countries have for exporting oil,” a senior diplomat in the region briefed by Tehran told Reuters.“This could involve missile and drone attacks on ships, or sending boats to scare ships away,” the diplomat added. “It plans to continue this policy of fear and threats,” he said.Tankers seek alternative routesIn recent months, Gulf oil producers have moved shipments through routes closer to the Omani side of the Strait before transferring the oil to vessels in open waters in the Gulf of Oman, with US aerial support, sources told Reuters.The latest incident has raised concerns that the threat could extend beyond the Strait itself. Projectiles struck a tanker about 51 nautical miles off Qatar's coast inside the Gulf in the past 24 hours, the British navy agency UKMTO reported.Maritime security sources said the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged chemical tanker Acers was hit by multiple projectiles north of Qatar's Madinat ash Shamal. The incident caused minor injuries to members of its crew.“The Acers strike raises the prospect of a wider combat area affecting approaches to Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq,” maritime risk intelligence group Pole Star Global’s subsidiary Clearwater Dynamics said in a report on Thursday.The vessel's operator, listed in shipping databases as Antigua and Barbuda-based Valvoria Shipping, could not be reached for comment.The attacks have also affected the willingness of shipping companies to use the waterway.“The recent spate of Iranian attacks seems to have dampened the appetite of shipowners to sail through the Strait,” said Jakob Larsen, chief safety and security officer at shipping association BIMCO. “The Iranian threat appears to have increased.”You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.