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As it happened: Stocks plummet on latest Iran war tensions; Neets crisis a ‘human tragedy’

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Senior City Reporter

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Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog.

The US and Iran are back to exchanging fire in a major blow to hopes of peace in the Middle East.

Tehran struck an American airbase overnight in its retaliation for the US striking a military site that it said “posed a threat to US forces and commercial maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz”.

Iran has insisted that “aggression will not go unanswered” and threatened a “more decisive” response. 

The US has branded this an “egregious ceasefire violation” and said it remains “vigilant and measured” as it defends its forces and interests from “unjustified Iranian aggression”.

It comes despite emerging details of a supposed peace deal by Iranian state media, though this was also quickly quelled by US officials, who branded it a “complete fabrication”.

Oil was back on the move higher amid the latest tensions with Brent crude climbing towards $97 per barrel, recovering losses from the previous session as negotiations looked to be breaking down.

Trump held a cabinet meeting on Wednesday where Iran dominated the agenda. He accused Iran of trying to stall on a deal until the November mid-term elections.

“They thought they were going to outwait me, you know, ‘we’ll outwait him, he’s got the mid-terms’,” the President said.

He added that current attempts to reach a deal had thus far failed because “we’re not satisfied with it”.

“But we will be,” Trump added. “Either that, or we will just have to finish the job.”

Reports suggest this has been one of the key parts of contention in negotiations – along with Iran’s nuclear programme – with Tehran refusing to give up control of the waterway.

We’ll be bringing you all the latest on this and more.

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