I’ve seen quite a bit of video this evening of Iranian ballistic missile attacks with cluster warheads into Israeli. Israeli ambulance services have confirmed two dead today at one scene. Iran seems to certainly still have some dry powder… They’re not out of the fight yet.
I’ve not seen much today about strikes elsewhere in the Gulf; some of the Gulf states have been leaning in pretty hard on censorship of information about strikes, but maybe there just haven’t been many?
Not sure if you guys saw this but (yesterday?) an Iranian aligned militia flew an FOV drone seemingly unhindered through the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad. The embassy has taken one or more additional hits since… It’s C-RAM system is definitely getting a workout. I fear that if they can fly FPV drones right into the compound low and slow, those higher end defensive systems may be pretty vulnerable to getting picked off once the FPVs are laden with explosives.
FPV recce of the embassy:
C-RAM fails to stop an incoming drone:
Iran appears to be exercising traffic control over the Strait, with some permitted vessels taking a routing through that brings them in close through Iranian waters.
While WTI and Brent Crude are holding steady around $100 a barrel, many Asian markets are seeing major spikes in prices for actual oil delivery; they get much of theirs from the conflict zone. It’s having real economic impacts. Most of the oil commodity prices we see quoted reflect paper trading such as futures. Actual physical delivery costs of Omani crude as one example are now north of $150/bbl.
This is the latest in a series of measures undertaken by Asian countries which rely on oil from the Gulf.
www.bbc.com
Muscat: The Oman crude for delivery in the coming month of May traded at $152 .58 on Tuesday, an increase of $4.79 from the last trading on Monday.On...
www.omanobserver.om
There are lots of other economic sectors getting hit hard by this, only a few of which I’ve had time or brain cells to read up on. Apparently fertilizer is one to watch; a significant portion of the world’s urea apparently flows through the strait. A jump in fertilizer costs will be a real ‘oh shit’ for many.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz — now entering its third week following US-Israeli strikes on Iran and the Islamic Republic’s retaliation across the Gulf — is inflicting significant damage on the global fertilizer supply chains that underpin food ingredient production. Prices for urea, a...
www.foodingredientsfirst.com
So, various stuff that’s caught my eye today as I’ve had moments to read…