Iran-US war latest: Chinese tanker sails through Strait of Hormuz as Trump flies to Beijing for crucial summit

Trump will meet Xi Jinping to discuss ending the Iran war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz - along with other contentious issues

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A Chinese supertanker sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, data shows, as Donald Trump travels to Beijing where he will discuss reopening the waterway with Xi Jinping.

The Very Large Crude Carrier Yuan Hua Hu , carrying two million barrels of Iraqi crude, is now failing through the Gulf of Oman, online tracker MarineTraffic shows.

The voyage marks the third known passage by a Chinese oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Iran has strengthened its control over the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, cutting deals with Iraq and Pakistan to ship oil and liquefied natural gas from the region.

The New York Times reports that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of its 33 missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz during the temporary ceasefire with the US.

On Thursday and Friday, Trump will hold landmark talks with President Xi Jinping including on how to bring an end to the war in Iran and reopen the strait

The US president will be greeted by Mr Xi at 10am Beijing time (3am BST), before a state banquet is held at 6pm.

• Trump brushes off Iran war’s cost at home: ‘I don’t think about American financial situation’
• Tehran threatens to accelerate nuclear weapon programme after Trump rejects ‘garbage’ peace proposal response
• All the airlines cancelling flights and adding extra charges amid jet fuel crisis
• UK flight cancellations increase as soaring jet fuel prices hit

Key Points

• Chinese supertanker transits Strait of Hormuz
• Trump accuses media of 'treason' for saying Iranian army 'doing well'
• Trump says he does not need China's help to end Iran war
• Iran war has cost Trump administration $29bn so far
• Oil prices slip to $106 a barrel
• UAE has secretly been carrying out military strikes on Iran - report

Israel escalates attacks on Gaza after halting Iran strikes

Israel has escalated its attacks in Gaza in the five weeks since halting its joint bombing with the US in Iran.

The military is redirecting its fire back on the ruined Palestinian enclave where the military believes Hamas fighters are tightening their grip.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 120 Palestinians, including eight women and 13 children, were killed in Gaza since the Iran war was paused on April 8 - 20 per cent more than in the five weeks prior when Israel was flying sorties over Iran.

Conflict monitor ACLED, which tracks Israeli attacks in Gaza, said in a monthly report for April that Israel had carried out 35 per cent more attacks last month than in March.

The increase in Israeli strikes on Gaza is a further sign of stalled progress under U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to halt the war there and begin reconstruction.

"The war is still ongoing," said Lafi Al-Najjar, 36, a blind Palestinian, one of whose sons was killed on April 28 in an Israeli attack.

"It stopped in the announcement, but in reality and on the ground, the war has not stopped," said Najjar, whose family have been living in a tented camp in the ruins of Khan Younis, once Gaza's second-largest city.

Chinese supertanker attempts Strait of Hormuz passage, trackers show

A Chinese supertanker carrying two million barrels of Iraqi crude was attempting to sail through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, according to LSEG and Kpler ship-tracking data.

The Very Large Crude Carrier Yuan Hua Hu was past Iran's Larak Island and was on the eastern side of the strait and heading south, the data showed.

If successful, the voyage would mark the third known passage by a Chinese oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Iran has appeared to firm up its control over the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, cutting deals with Iraq and Pakistan to ship oil and liquefied natural gas from the region, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

The Yuan Hua Hu loaded nearly 2 million barrels of Basrah Medium crude at Iraq's Basrah terminal in early March and has remained stranded inside the Gulf since then, according to the tracking data. It is headed to Asia.

Watch: Trump heads to China amid escalating tensions with Iran

UAE has secretly been carrying out military strikes on Iran, report says

The United Arab Emirates has carried out secret strikes on Iran during the war started by the US and Israel earlier this year, according to a report, in what would mark the first involvement of a Gulf nation in the conflict.

The Gulf monarchy was Iran’s number one target since it began its retaliatory attacks across the region, targeting states that are allied with the US.

The UAE has not publicly acknowledged the strikes, which included an attack on a refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf in early April, around the time Donald Trump announced a temporary truce, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Read more here:

UAE has secretly been carrying out military strikes on Iran, report says

Trump and Xi prepare to discuss Iran and Strait of Hormuz

Shweta Sharma reports:

The Iran war will weigh heavily in talks as it has also complicated the broader US-China relationship.

China maintains close economic and diplomatic ties with Iran, absorbing some 90 per cent of its exports. The double blockage of the Strait of Hormuz – a route critical to global oil supplies – has suddenly thrust China into the centre of Trump’s Middle East calculations.

The Trump administration has criticised Beijing for giving a critical financial lifeline to Tehran with its energy purchases and threatened banks with secondary sanctions if they worked with Chinese refiners engaging with Iranian oil.

China arrives at this summit in an unusually comfortable position.

“It has weathered the energy crisis better than expected and studiously avoided getting embroiled in the Iran situation, despite being an ostensible ally and biggest recipient of Iranian oil,” Jonathan Sullivan, director of China programs at the Asia Research Institute of UK’s Nottingham University, told The Independent.

“Watching the US get embroiled in a mess of its own making, weakening its alliances in the Middle East and perhaps fatally weakening the transatlantic alliance and so on is the Chinese strategy right now”, he added, referring to Nato.

Beijing is focused on what the Middle East looks like after the war ends and how China can position itself to fill whatever vacuum the US leaves behind. But it is not threatened in the near term, and it knows it.

“Trump is under water from different directions and could really do with China's help [most pressingly to sort out the Iran impasse, but also by getting a win on soybean orders or rare earths]” Sullivan argued.

Days before the summit, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi met Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing, where China called for the swift reopening of the strait. Analysts say the visit’s timing underscored Beijing’s role and a potential sway over Tehran in could influencing the direction of the conflict.

Iran retains enough firepower to cause 'serious disruption', says former US official

A former US official has told The Independent that Iran retains enough firepower to wreak “serious disruption” in the Middle East if a full-scale war with the US were to resume.

“Even after recent losses, my assumption is that Iran still retains enough of these capabilities to create serious disruption in the region,” said Frank A. Rose, former assistant secretary of state for arms control in the Obama administration.

He said Ian likely retains “significant inventories” of ballistic and cruise missiles, drones, and naval mines.

It also still has the capacity to launch attacks via their proxy groups in the Houthis of Yemen and Lebanese militants Hezbollah. 

“Even a degraded Iran can threaten maritime traffic and energy infrastructure in the Gulf,” Mr Rose added.

Nine small earthquakes strike near Tehran overnight - report

A series of nine small earthquakes struck the Pardis area east of Tehran overnight, Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday.

The tremors have renewed fears among experts and residents that the Iranian capital could face a major seismic disaster.

The repeated activity has revived concerns that accumulated tectonic pressure beneath and around the capital, which lies close to several active fault lines, could at some point in the future trigger a much larger earthquake.

While tremors in the area are frequent, it is far less common for several to take place in a row.

The tremors, recorded over a single night in eastern Tehran province, were felt in an area close to the Mosha fault, one of Iran’s most active seismic zones.

Trump’s war has barely weakened Iran’s military with missile power still largely intact, US intelligence says

Donald Trump’s war in Iran has failed to break Tehran’s missile capability, US intelligence assesses, despite the president’s claim to have completely defeated the regime’s military.

Intelligence agencies have reportedly told lawmakers that Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities after a month of ceasefire.

Iran is believed to have restored access to all but three of its 33 missile sites stationed along the Strait of Hormuz, allowing it to project power across the vital waterway and continue testing the American blockade.

The storage and launch facilities buried underground across the country have fared as well, with some 90 per cent now “partially or fully operational”, sources told the New York Times.

Read our full report:

Trump’s war has barely weakened Iran’s military, US intelligence says

Two cars in Beirut hit by Israeli strikes - Lebanese media

Two separate Israeli strikes targeted two cars in Lebanon's Jiyeh area south of Beirut on Wednesday, Lebanon's state news agency NNA is reporting.

We haven’t yet heard any information on any casualties and there has been no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Watch: 'I think he is alive': Israeli PM Netanyahu says of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei

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