Saudi Arabia joins US in striking Iran-backed militias
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- Saudi Arabia publicly joined the U.S. in striking Iranian-backed militia logistics and weapons sites in Iraq — the first publicly announced joint U.S.-Saudi strikes, which followed drone attacks on the kingdom.
- Iran fired ballistic missiles at Jordan's Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, a key U.S. military hub that Trump said were intercepted, while separate drone strikes ignited fires on two natural gas vessels at a port in Egypt, a close U.S. ally previously largely spared from direct action.
- Trump told reporters "we got to smack them a little bit" and vowed to hit Iran "very hard," even as Iran's deputy foreign minister said Tehran has made no requests to restart diplomatic talks in more than two weeks — contradicting Trump's claim that Iran is "begging" to negotiate.
- Netanyahu told Trump at their first White House meeting since the Feb. 28 war began that the U.S., not Israel, is "in the driver seat" with Iran, but Israeli officials privately expressed concern that Trump is trying to "keep this war on a low flame" ahead of November midterms and amid surging oil prices from the closed Strait of Hormuz.
- Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Trump that the state of the munitions stockpile — including already-diminished Patriot and THAAD interceptors, per a CSIS analysis — could impact military operations in Iran.
- The Trump administration is not actively pursuing diplomatic talks at the moment, per a senior U.S. official, after an interim ceasefire MoU signed in mid-June collapsed amid deepening mutual mistrust between Washington and Tehran.
Why it matters: Trump is publicly vowing to "hit them very hard" while Gen. Caine warns that critical Patriot and THAAD interceptor stockpiles are already diminished — meaning each escalation risks both battlefield readiness and political cost ahead of November midterms. With no active diplomatic track and Iran publicly refusing to even request talks, the conflict's expansion into Iraq, Jordan, and now possibly Egypt is outpacing any off-ramp.
