War returns

It’s been a night of war.

• Israel has rejected Iran’s warning not to attack Lebanon, though aerial operations appear paused.
• Israeli officials say strikes on Iran being halted at President Trump’s request to ‘stop shooting’. Netanyahu confirms attacks halted ‘for now’.
• Iran FM accuses US of cooperating with Washington: “No one believes that the Zionist regime would carry out any action without prior coordination and cooperation with the United States” (Foreign Ministry spox).
• Iran’s sprawling Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex bombed by Israeli Air Force.
• Houthis seek to close/threaten Bab-el-Mandeb Strait for Israeli-linked passage: We declare a complete and total ban on maritime navigation for the Israeli enemy in the Red Sea.
• Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator, says the US is “neither seeking a ceasefire nor seeking dialogue” and Tehran should respond “decisively to defend the rights of the Iranian people”.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Iran “tried to dictate a new equation, one that we cannot accept”, adding that if “they commit another error and strike us again, we will respond harshly”.
• Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warns the escalation between Israel and Iran is a “reminder of the dangers associated with a tenuous ceasefire and the unbearable consequences it may lead to”.

Good luck making sense of that. Obviously, the US helped Israel, even if only via the IRS, but probably with refuelers. Iran’s response was pretty serious, especially bringing in the Houthis; it is clear they do not trust the US.