Posted by Tyler Durden, Authored by Alastair Crooke

The Iranian parliament speaker invoked the Iran-Iraq War, which lasted eight years, suggesting Tehran is preparing for the possibility of a prolonged conflict with the US

By Dave De Camp, antiwar.com

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf said in a televised speech on Wednesday that the US must be “punished” in order for it to accept Iran’s demands to end the war.

Wednesday has witnessed another Houthi ballistic missile attack targeting Saudi Arabia's capital. The kingdom's civil defense spokesman has confirmed bystanders were injured when missile debris from an inbound rocket fell after it was intercepted over Riyadh.

"The incident resulted in injury to an Arab resident and limited material damage to a residential building and a vehicle," stated the spokesman, as quoted by state SPA news agency.

Update(1629ET): Saudi Aramco facilities are once again under Houthi attack, with reports saying the kingdom is busy trying to intercept inbound ballistic missiles. Tuesday night saw several eyewitnesses report loud booms near the headquarters of Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company in Dhahran. However, Aramco has not immediately given confirmation of impact or that its sites are being targeted.

When the Strait of Hormuz closed at the end of February, Saudi Arabia had what almost no other Gulf producer had: a way out at scale. The East-West pipeline, known in the industry as Petroline, carries crude 1,200 kilometers across the desert from the oil fields of the Eastern Province to Yanbu on the Red Sea. Its maximum capacity is about 7 million barrels a day. For seven months it has been the reason the world could still count on Saudi oil. That lifeline is now failing.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis are attempting to manufacture advanced medium-range ballistic missiles using components obtained from Chinese suppliers, according to a report cited by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

Dave de Camp, antiwar.com

President Trump said on Monday that the US and Israel “might have gone too far” with the killing of Iranian leaders, suggesting it was complicating negotiations with the Islamic Republic.

Reprinted with permission from Trita Parsi’s Substack.

If you read one thing today, make sure it is this:

In a stunning piece published by the head of one of Israel’s most prominent think tanks, Maj. Gen. Tamir Hayman describes the reality of Israel’s new security doctrine:

Important to note that Hayman does not advocate for this. Rather, he contends that this already is the new security doctrine of Israel.

newsquawk.com

US President Trump said he will make a decision on Iran very soon; Israeli PM Netanyahu and Trump reportedly discussed launching a major new operation against Iran before the US and Israeli elections.

Iran reportedly stepped up attacks on shipping ahead of the US midterms. Saudi Arabia and the Houthis continued exchanging strikes.

Houthi rebels responsible for deadly missile strikes in Saudi Arabia have been using Anthropic's artificial intelligence to make warheads, the US firm has admitted.

The makers of Claude revealed in a report last month that the Yemen-based fighters launched three weapons programmes using their AI products.

Over the weekend, the Houthis launched their most devastating attacks on Saudi Arabia to date.