Summary

• Despite Trump’s pleading to Netanyahu not to respond, Israel launched missiles at Iran striking military targets inside the country. 
• Iran fires missiles on Israel, after IDF unleashed deadly airstrike on Beirut earlier Sunday.
• Despite Trump saying on Sunday that he would tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike ​back, an Israeli official warned that “There will be a forceful response.“
• Sunday is day 100 since President Trump launched Operation Epic Fury.
• Ghalibaf warns after IDF escalation in Lebanon: US & Israeli bases, assets in region are ‘legitimate targets’.
• Talks stuck on unfreezing assets: “Twenty-four billion dollars is not much for America if he wants to reach an agreement with Iran,” Iranian Gen. Mohsen Rezaei told CNN. “This is our own, not America’s money.”
• Defying Washington, Iran has been collecting $1.5 million to $2 million per vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz (Fars).

*  *  * 

Oil Spikes After Israel Strikes Military Targets Inside Iran, Ignoring Trump’s Pleas

Ignoring Trump’s pleas not to respond to Iran’s earlier strike, the Israel Defense Force has confirmed that it has launched strikes in the last few minutes against military targets in Western and Central Iran.

The Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran a short while ago.

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 8, 2026

According to unconfirmed reports, explosions were heard in at least 6 cities across Iran, including Kermanshah, Urmia, Tehran, Mehrabad, Tabriz, Isfahan.

Israeli strikes on Najafabad, western Iran. pic.twitter.com/5QezAUbp2k

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) June 8, 2026

Iran’s decision is a slap in the face for Trump who earlier had communicated with Israel’s Netanyahu, pleading the PM not to strike back.

The move, which will make Trump look even more powerless as he can’t control either Iran or Israel, sent oil surging over $3 in late Sunday trading, with WTI last just around $94 and Brent below $97.

*  *  *

Trump Presses Israel To Hold Back

President Trump said on Sunday he would tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike ​back after Iran fired a salvo of missiles at Israeli targets in retaliation for an attack on the outskirts of Beirut, news outlet Axios reported. 

Iran has long said any peace deal with the U.S. would depend on a ‌ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters who fired rockets and drones across the border in solidarity with Tehran. But Israel earlier on Sunday launched strikes in the Beirut area for the first time since the U.S. announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week.

The Israeli military later said it had identified missiles launched from Iran and that its defense systems had intercepted them. Details on whether Israel suffered any damage were not yet available.

Trump, who was spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, had been briefed about the escalation between Iran ​and Israel, a U.S. official told Reuters. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“It’s certainly not going to help negotiations,” Trump told Fox News after the Iranian missile launches. “What I would suggest to Iran: ​You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough, get back to the table and make a deal.”

Asked about the earlier Israeli strike on Beirut, he said: “I’m not happy about it.” Trump ⁠also told Axios he would call Netanyahu and press him not to retaliate.

Iran’s chief peace negotiator, parliamentary speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, said U.S. bases and Israeli assets are legitimate targets because of hostile acts including the “violation of agreements over Lebanon.” “They showed that they ​only understand the language of power,” he wrote on X.

۱/ نه به آتش‌بس پایبندند نه به گفتگو باور دارند، و با محاصرهٔ دریایی و نقض توافقات دربارهٔ لبنان نشان دادند که فقط زبان قدرت می‌فهمند.

— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) June 7, 2026

Ebrahim Rezaei, an influential hardline lawmaker who serves as spokesperson for the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, posted on X that Iran would deliver a “decisive and painful response” to Sunday’s Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

به حمله رژیم صهیونسیتی به ضاحیه پاسخ قاطع و دردآور خواهیم داد. این سگ هار را باید تأدیب کرد و سر جایش نشاند.
امشب آسمان سرزمین‌های اشغالی را ببینید.

— ابراهیم رضایی (@EbrahimRezaei14) June 7, 2026

Iran ​has not targeted Israel directly since a ceasefire in the wider war in April, although Hezbollah has done so.

In turn, an Israeli official, responding to the apparent threat, told Reuters that Israel would retaliate against any attacks on its territory from Iran, and consider it “an opportunity to renew the campaign”.

Washington and Tehran have shown little progress in reaching a deal to end the war that Trump launched in February with a campaign of air strikes alongside Israel against Iran. Trump has repeatedly threatened to restart the strikes unless there is an agreement soon.

“We’re very close to a deal, or I’m ​going to blow the hell out of them,” Trump told NBC News in an interview, broadcast to mark 100 days of the conflict. The comments were recorded on Friday and broadcast on Sunday as Trump visited his New Jersey golf course. Trump has said a similar version of the same news for much of the past month. 

Meanwhile, Netanyahu said the Israeli strikes on Sunday on Beirut’s southern outskirts, a district known as Dahiyeh that has long been a Hezbollah stronghold, were ordered in response to Hezbollah firing toward Israel. The Israeli military earlier said it had intercepted two projectiles fired over the border. It issued an evacuation order for the southern Lebanese city of Tyre and surrounding areas ahead of possible strikes there.

Elsewhere in Beirut on Sunday, mourners ​held a military funeral for Brigadier General Wissam Sabra, a ​senior military officer killed in a strike on his ⁠vehicle in south Lebanon on Saturday.

The wider war has been stalemated since the U.S. and Israel paused their attacks on Iran in early April, with Tehran blocking most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the main transit route for Middle East oil. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

Though Washington and Tehran have said they are close to a preliminary agreement that ​would reopen the strait, they have repeatedly traded strikes, with escalations in recent days that have included attacks on nearby Arab states hosting U.S. bases.

Early on Saturday, U.S. forces struck Iranian coastal radar ​sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island, ⁠both in the strait, after shooting down drones launched by Iran that U.S. Central Command said posed a threat to maritime traffic. Two more Iranian attack drones that were threatening shipping in the strait were shot down, the U.S. military said late on Saturday.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they retaliated against U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Kuwait’s army said it engaged seven ballistic missiles that passed over residential areas, resulting in material damage but no casualties.

Trump has said any agreement to end the war must prevent Iran from ⁠developing a nuclear ​weapon, and he is under pressure to deliver terms tougher than those agreed in 2015 under then-President Barack Obama in a deal Trump later repudiated. 

Tehran’s ​demands include the lifting of U.S. and international sanctions, recognition of its sway over the strait and the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets. However, as reported earlier, Washington is weighing making Iranian assets available to Gulf neighbors to repair damage inflicted by Iran. Iran’s Deputy Foreign ​Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Sunday any such diversion of Iranian assets would be illegal, and Tehran would take measures in response.

* * * 

Iran Launches Missiles On Israel In First Since April

Tehran makes good on its earlier threats, after the IDF conducted a deadly airstrike on the Lebanese capital of Beirut earlier Sunday. Day 100 of the war has seen a major renewal and escalation, again bringing Iran and Israel into a likely state of all-out war, per WSJ:

Iran fired missiles toward Israel on Sunday, after a deadly Israeli airstrike on Beirut hours earlier targeting the Tehran-backed militants Hezbollah, Israel’s military said.

It marks the first time Iran has targeted Israel during its ceasefire with the U.S. that went into force in early April.

The attack came after Tehran threatened to hit Israel and American bases in the Middle East in response to the airstrike on the Lebanese capital, the first time Israeli warplanes have targeted Beirut since a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was announced by the U.S. last week.

So is the ceasefire dead yet?

BREAKING: Trump to Fox News:

What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough. Get back to the table and make a deal.

Source: @TreyYingst

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 7, 2026

President Trump has continued to maintain adherence to it, and days ago suggested that a ‘moderate’ amount of firing doesn’t necessarily mean a broken ceasefire.

WATCH: Iranians celebrate missile strikes targeting Israel. pic.twitter.com/CzQKenllnN

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 7, 2026

Israel earlier confirmed an airstrike on a Hezbollah headquarters in the Dahieh district of Beirut. Iran last week warned again hitting Beirut, saying it would assure US and Israeli bases and assets in the region would come under new attack. The earlier warning is reviewed as follows: 

• Iran’s military said Israel had “crossed all red lines” in intensifying its attacks in southern Lebanon and targeting the south Beirut suburb of Dahieh.
• “If it expands its attacks in that area, or responds to Iran’s action, it will face more forceful blows, and devastating attacks will be launched” against Israel and its supporters, the military added.

Video of reported initial inbound projectile on Israel circulating…

A third round of sirens sound in northern Israel, after the IDF intercepted several Iranian ballistic missiles. No initial reports of injuries or damages.

A senior Israeli official tells Israeli media: “There will be a forceful response.” pic.twitter.com/BixzsXOrhs

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) June 7, 2026

US, Israeli Bases are ‘Legitimate Targets’: Iran Issues Fresh Threat

On Sunday Tehran ramped up its threats to renew ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel and America’s Gulf allies, describing that the Israeli military’s ongoing deadly attacks on Lebanon could obliterate the extended ceasefire with the US

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf announced on X that the ongoing American naval blockade against the Islamic Republic, with Washington having given a green light to Israel for its attacks on Hezbollah and Lebanon, turns both countries’ bases and assets in the region into “legitimate targets.” The last days even saw a Lebanese general and other officers killed by IDF airstrike in south Lebanon.

“They neither abide by a ceasefire nor believe in negotiations,” Ghalibaf wrote.

Below is the latest Bloomberg summary on where stalled negotiations stand… to be expected it cites “little progress”:

“The US and Iran appear to be making little progress toward an interim deal to end the war Washington and Israel began 100 days ago, as fresh attacks pile pressure on a fragile ceasefire,” Bloomberg writes, and continues:

• The past week saw the worst flare-up in tensions since the truce started around April 8.
• Negotiations between Washington and Tehran are bogged down over the fate of billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets and a parallel conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
• US Central Command said early Sunday it downed two Iranian attack drones that threatened international maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway crucial to global energy exports that’s also been at the heart of discussions.
• On Friday, six ballistic missiles fired at Bahrain and Kuwait were intercepted and another failed to reach their intended target, hours after four unmanned craft headed to Hormuz were shot down, Central Command said. The US struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island, it added.

Talks Stuck on Unfreezing Iran’s Assets

The U.S. and Iran remain stuck in preliminary talks to end the war, with the main obstacle being Tehran’s demand for access to billions of dollars in frozen assets and the Trump administration’s refusal to provide upfront cash or broader sanctions relief. Tehran is seeking about $12 billion upfront and $24 billion during a proposed 60-day negotiation window.

“Twenty-four billion dollars is not much for America if he wants to reach an agreement with Iran,” Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, a senior adviser to Iran’s top official, told CNN on Friday. “This is our own, not America’s money.”

For the Trump administration, releasing frozen funds for Tehran is optically displeasing because the president spent years blasting the Obama administration over the $1.7 billion Iran payment tied to the 2015 nuclear deal, and later criticized the Biden administration’s move to allow Iran access to $6 billion in assets during a prisoner swap.

The U.S. government estimates that Tehran has $100 billion in inaccessible assets, mostly oil revenue trapped abroad, including funds in China, Qatar, Oman, and Iraq.

Iran FM Complains of ‘Moving Goal Posts’

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei spoke with CNN’s senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen about the ongoing negotiations with the U.S.

Baghaei stated, “The main problem of negotiating with this administration is that you have to face so many changing positions, moving the goal posts, different statements, contradictory remarks by different officials, so it makes the whole process very cumbersome.”

He outlined one of the main problems is that “the Americans must understand that they have to recognize Iran’s rights,” including its right to peaceful nuclear enrichment under the international non-proliferation treaty.

“At the same time, when they are talking about our blocked assets, they’re not going to give us any concession,” he said. CNN reported earlier on Sunday that the US plans to allow Iranian assets to be used for rebuilding projects in Gulf countries impacted by the war, according to a source close to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Baghaei added that the US must “simply stop their sanctions” and “need to let Iranian assets be released and be available for the Iranians.”

Iran Implements Toll System as US Balks

Beyond US-Iran talks, IRGC-linked Fars News reports that Iran has been collecting $1.5 million to $2 million per vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Fars said the payments are deposited into Iran’s treasury under the budget law and directed toward designated spending areas. Some payments are reportedly settled not in cash but in USDT/Tether or through barter arrangements.

Top Overnight Headlines (courtesy of Bloomberg):

US-Iran Conflict Flashpoints

• US Central Command shot down two Iranian attack drones over the Strait of Hormuz early Sunday that threatened international maritime traffic
• US forces intercepted multiple Iranian missiles and drones in the Persian Gulf late Friday and responded with attacks on radar sites in Iran
• Six ballistic missiles fired by Iran at Bahrain and Kuwait were intercepted, with a seventh not reaching its intended target
• US attacked Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island early Saturday
• Iran condemned US attack on its radar and coastal surveillance facilities as a clear violation of the April 8 ceasefire

Peace Negotiations Status

• The US and Iran appear to be making little progress toward an interim deal to end the war 100 days after it began
• Negotiations are bogged down over the fate of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets
• Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran on Sunday in a fresh bid to restart negotiations between Iran and the US
• Iran’s Baghaei said the US needs to let Iranian assets be released and must stop their sanctions
• The Trump administration is seeking to steer Iranian assets toward helping US allies in the Persian Gulf rebuild from damage inflicted by Tehran

War Damage and Infrastructure

• About 7,000 megawatts of Iran’s power-generation capacity was damaged in the war, with some 2,500 megawatts restored to service so far
• Despite 4,000 megawatts of damaged power plant capacity remaining offline, there are currently no plans to implement planned blackouts this summer
• Kuwait’s airspace was temporarily closed for two hours early Saturday as a precautionary measure due to Iranian missile and drone attacks

Economic Impact

• Italy extended a fuel tax cut until July 3, cutting pump prices by €0.05 per liter for diesel while keeping it unchanged for unleaded fuel
• India raised prices of domestic cooking gas for the second time since the Iran war started, with a 14.2-kilogram LPG cylinder increasing by 29 rupees
• Container shipping spot rates from Asia to northern Europe rose 27% to $3,649 as of Friday, while rates to the US West Coast increased 20% to $3,933
• Crude oil remains below $100 a barrel despite the Strait of Hormuz being effectively blocked for over three months, defying forecasts for prices as high as $200

Previous US-Iran Wrap

• US Intercepted Fresh Iranian Ballistic Missile Attacks Overnight As Tehran Blasts ‘Ceasefire Violations’

Institutional Market commentary:

• Goldman analyst Johann Cohen: Markets appeared to suffer from headline fatigue, alongside fading expectations of any near-term agreement between the US and Iran.
• UBS analyst Zeynep Akkok: European equities are resilient, with SX5E trading off earlier lows and price action is largely unchanged into the weekend as markets pause after recent moves. The focus remains on US-Iran negotiations, with US President Trump flagging talks are in their final stages, but the continued lack of tangible progress caps upside. The tone remains constructive, but increasingly conditional on delivery.
• Goldman analyst Chris Hussey: But as we saw back in 2021, global supply chain shortages are plentiful. The prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is still cutting off about 10% of the world’s oil supply with a bigger impact on things like jet fuel, diesel, and aluminum.

Global Supply Chain:

• Alarming Supply-Chain Stress Sends Transport Cost Soaring, Fueling Inflation Fears
• UBS Reactivates Supply-Chain Stress Watch After Detecting Alarmingly Rapid Deterioration

Energy Market:

• Goldman Explains Why Oil Refuses To Rise Despite Continued Hormuz Closure
• Oil Prices Hold Gains As Gasoline Stocks Hit 12 Year Lows, Cushing ‘Tank Bottoms’ Loom

A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sarangani province in Mindanao early Monday morning, triggering tsunami warnings and causing reported building collapses in the General Santos area.

The quake hit at approximately 7:37 a.m. local time, with its epicenter located roughly 26 kilometers southwest of Kablalan in Sarangani Province. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the event at magnitude 7.8, while the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) initially reported a preliminary magnitude of 7.0.

Tsunami Warning Issued

Phivolcs immediately issued a tsunami warning for coastal communities across multiple provinces in Mindanao. Residents in Sarangani, Davao Occidental, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and several other areas were advised to evacuate to higher ground immediately due to the risk of waves exceeding one meter. The warning remains in effect as authorities monitor the situation.

Building Collapses Reported

Footage of the major Philippines earthquake.

Originally an 8.8-9.0 now adjusted to 7.8-8.2

Tsunami advisories in effect. It was a fairly deep earthquake, so praying the tsunami impacts are minor. pic.twitter.com/hjIr0Sr5t8

— THE™ Jessi Davin (@jessithebuckeye) June 8, 2026

Video footage circulating on social media shows buildings collapsing in General Santos City following the strong shaking.

WATCH: Footage shows a high school building that collapsed following the powerful earthquake that struck the Philippines. pic.twitter.com/XGgbnposCY

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 8, 2026

Some videos appear to capture a commercial building going down, while other reports and footage indicate damage to school structures in the region.

Another video captures the Jollibee building collapse in General Santos, Philippines following powerful earthquake. No word on casualties. https://t.co/LJEVl0qTjC pic.twitter.com/DgixNijwoY

— AZ Intel (@AZ_Intel_) June 8, 2026

An establishment in General Santos City collapses after a powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Sarangani province on Monday (June 8, 2026) morning. Intensity VI was felt in the city. | Che Palicte (🎥: Quero Ya) pic.twitter.com/yiDEIZKwHQ

— Philippine News Agency (@pnagovph) June 8, 2026

The earthquake struck on what was the first day of the school year in some areas.

Strong shaking was widely felt across Mindanao, including in Davao City. Intensity reached very strong levels in parts of Sarangani and nearby provinces.

No official casualty figures have been released as of this report. Authorities are still assessing the full extent of damage. Aftershocks have continued in the hours following the mainshock, including at least one magnitude 5.0 event.

After the close on Friday, we said that on Monday, Korean stocks would be a “bundle of joy”…

Korea on Monday will be a bundle of joy

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 5, 2026

… and that appears to be playing out in early Asian trading, as the Kospi index crashed 8.8% just after the open, taking the key index’s decline from its recent peak to nearly 17%, poised to enter a technical correction and on pace for an outright bear market (20% drop from highs) should the local plunge protection team fail to stem the collapse.

Memory maker Samsung Electronics fell as much as 11% while peer SK Hynix Inc. slid 10%.

Since these two stocks account for virtually all the recent upside in Korean stocks, levered retail investors – who were buying everything foreign investors had to sell after a record stretch of 21 days of non-stop selling… 

Foreigners have sold Korean stocks every single day – mostly to domestic ultra-levered retail investors – since May 6, the longest stretch on record by far. pic.twitter.com/78EQExLJr6

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 5, 2026

… are having a very bad day. 

The sudden plunge triggered a circuit breaker, halting trading for 20 minutes.  The Korea Exchange held an emergency meeting Monday to assess rising volatility and discuss measures to ensure stable market operations.

What is perhaps most shocking about this move (aside from being notably more of an extension of Friday’s losses in EWY in the US session – and not just catch down – is that it comes as SK Hynix and Nvidia announced a multi-year technology partnership to advance next-generation memory for the global AI factory buildout and accelerate semiconductor design and manufacturing.

Something that would typically trigger all kinds of circular panic bids as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says: “Together, we will co-develop the next generation of memory for AI factories and support the accelerating global expansion of AI infrastructure — from frontier model training to agentic and physical AI.”

Concerns over overheating in the AI rally combined with uncertainty in the macro environment have taken some steam out of global tech stocks over the past few sessions. Korea is seeing outsized losses after its world-beating gains, with the Kospi still up 77% since the start of the year.

As we pointed out most recently last Thursday just as the Kospi hit its all time high, foreign investors have been fleeing, selling more than $10 billion worth of Kospi shares on a net basis last week alone.

That’s put pressure on the won, with the currency touching its weakest level against the dollar since March 2009.   

We warned Friday that market breadth is the central worry. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, enjoying AI-driven chip demand, account for 54% of the Kospi’s market weight and roughly half of the gauge’s average daily turnover in May, according to Korea Exchange data. Nearly three-quarters of its gains this year have come from the two firms.

When the benchmark hit a record on Tuesday, only 2.6% of stocks reached 52‑week highs while 31% slid to 52‑week lows

Single‑stock leveraged ETFs tied to Samsung and SK Hynix are adding to concerns.

The four most popular single-stock ETFs accounted for 21% of the total ETF turnover in South Korea in their first five sessions after launching May 27, exchange data show.

“The current market structure is vulnerable to a downturn as it’s dominated by the short gamma in the leveraged ETFs,” said Kenny Kim, chief executive officer at Meridian One Asset Management.

“The setup requires investors to chase rallies with heavy buying when the market rises, but forces them to dump shares when the market falls.”

Retail investors, once key drivers, are showing less willingness to commit fresh cash. Brokerage deposits fell to 121 trillion won ($79 billion) by May 22 from 137 trillion won on May 12, according to the Korea Financial Investment Association.

Meanwhile, margin balance hit a record 38 trillion won on May 29, up from 27.3 trillion won at end-2025, KFIA data show.

Rising margin loans alone may indicate heightened interest. But the increase, while investor deposits fall, may point to more leverage stress without fresh appetite to take on risk, according to Shawn Oh, an equity sales trader at NH Investment & Securities.

“The signal is clear: the cash buffer eroding while active leverage refuses to unwind,” he added.

The South Korean market faces risk of a “Black Monday” event with “currency instability, interest-rate repricing and profit taking in semiconductors all happening at the same time,” said Kim Doo-un, an analyst at Hana Securities.

The government on Sunday laid out a series of targeted measures to try and bolster the won, pledging firm action against speculative trading and other activities. The moves come as policymakers across Asia step up efforts to support their currencies amid rising energy costs and a stronger dollar stemming from the Iran war.

There is a silver lining for some as Korea’s loss is crypto’s gain…

Kospi bubble bursting is just what bitcoin bros are waiting for https://t.co/aAazCwjzpG

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 5, 2026

…for now.

Finally there is one potentially ‘existential’ threat to the ‘semis shortage’ narrative that is circulating one some desks tonight.

Google has published a paper in which researchers claim to have redone the entire ‘Transformer’ process within the LLM framework, which uses caching instead of constantly compounding memory (which has been the source of screaming demand)…

Google has published a paper that might end the transformer era.

For the last 7 years, every major AI, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, has been built on the exact same architecture: The Transformer.

But Transformers have a fatal flaw.

To remember context, they have to process every… pic.twitter.com/uhiv6Hef3W

— How To AI (@HowToAI_) June 6, 2026

Bottom line, if this becomes the norm, the multi-digit returns on Semi stocks (forecast on the back of the belief in seemingly endlessly higher prices and demand) are dead in the water.

Back in November, amid mounting speculation that OpenAI’s massive cash burn was massively unsustainable in light of the $1.4 trillion of funding commitments by the AI company, which in turn has sparked the biggest capex flood in modern history all on the hope that the company’s promised payments will be made good, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar sparked a market selloff when amid an admission that OpenAI was “looking for an ecosystem of banks [and] private equity” to support its ambitious plans, she explicitly said that the US government would have to “backstop the guarantee that allows the financing to happen.” 

In other words, as we explained at the time, when all the other sources of funds dried up – clearly a scenario the company is considering judging by her response – the company would have to come to the US taxpayer.

Friar further explained that “Federal loan guarantees would really drop the cost of the financing,” enabling OpenAI and its investors to borrow more money at lower rates to meet the company’s ambitious targets. Right… because there is nothing like a company with $14BN in revenue, $1 trillion in “valuation” and $1.4 trillion in commitments, than loading up to the gills with government-backstopped debt… if only Enron and Lehman had thought to do the same, both would still be around.

Anyway, after the market vividly demonstrated it was less than enthused by this proposal, sending shares in the AI sector sharply lower as it signaled OpenAI itself doubted it would have the financial wherewithal to meet its obligations, the company promptly shelved any discussion of a taxpayer bailout backstop Federal loan guarantee, and even prompted a rare tweet from Sam Altman to explain why Sarah didn’t really mean the things she said. 

All that changed late last week, when Donald Trump caught much of the AI industry by surprise when he threw his weight behind a radical proposal for companies such as OpenAI to hand equity stakes to the American people.

Elements of the idea, which had started as a fringe argument on the progressive left, have recently drawn support from an unlikely cast of characters including Trump cabinet members, democratic socialists such as Bernie Sanders and Maga populists such as Steve Bannon.

But the concept suddenly gained more traction in the White House when – six months after OpenAI first flirted with the idea of a backstop – OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman visited Capitol Hill this week.

According to the FT, the plan proposed by his company, alongside others, would involve setting up a sovereign-wealth-style fund into which AI companies would contribute equity so the American public can share in the lossmaking sector’s soaring valuations. What was left unsaid is that while the “American public” would share in the soaring valuations, they would also share in the AI sector’s continued losses and, more importantly, would be on the hook for the hundreds of billions in commitments if OpenAI is unable to fund them.

Translation: OpenAI – which reportedly is worth just shy of $1 trillion on pre-IPO paper, is once again seeking a government bailout, pardon, backstop. 

Such a plan would be distinct from the $9bn stake the Trump administration took in chipmaker Intel last year, as the public would own shares individually, rather than the US government directly owning equity, according to a person with knowledge of OpenAI’s plans.

In response to a question about equity stakes on Air Force One on Friday, Trump suggested “pieces [of AI companies] could be given to the American public” in an effort to quell the growing alarm around the rapid rollout of the technology. As if the American public can somehow sell its shares of OpenAI to offset soaring electricity prices. 

ALTMAN COMPLETELY FLIPS AI NARRATIVE AS HE PLANS IPO

Then: Sam Altman warned AI would wipe out entire job categories.

Now: he says companies blaming AI for layoffs are adopting AI the least.

What changed? OpenAI is racing to go public this year at up to $1 trillion+ pic.twitter.com/zcvnk8LTG7

— Official Layoff (@LayoffAI) June 2, 2026

Industry sources told the FT that a voluntary contribution of small amounts of equity — led by OpenAI — was the most likely outcome. This would be used to build a fund that is distributed to Americans, similar to the scheme Alaska has for redistributing oil revenues.

Brad Gerstner, a large investor in Anthropic and OpenAI, said on Friday he was “encouraging founders/companies to donate shares for the direct benefit of all citizens” and that this could filter through to Americans via a previously established plan for the Trump administration to put $1,000 in an investment account for every child born between 2025 and 2028.

According to the FT, OpenAI – which has a philanthropic arm sitting on more than $200bn in largely undisbursed funds – has floated the idea of giving the government a stake in the company with administration officials in recent months. 

In a paper published in April, OpenAI proposed that policymakers and AI companies work together to seed a “Public Wealth Fund that provides every citizen – including those not invested in financial markets – with a stake in AI-driven economic growth”. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has shown interest in similar proposals, according to a person familiar with the matter.

However, some White House officials and OpenAI rivals, including Anthropic, were caught by surprise by Trump’s Friday announcement. Altman had no plans to be in Washington next week, according to a person close to the discussions, despite Trump announcing a White House meeting with AI bosses for the coming week.

A person close to Anthropic, which the US government has designated as a “supply-chain risk”, said the company was not having conversations with the administration about providing equity to the government, suggesting that Antrhopic’s cash burn is now ostensibly far less than that of OpenAI. After all, who voluntarily cedes equity in their venture unless they want something in return. 

Which brings us to the next question: Why is this happening now?

The idea of public ownership of AI companies had been gaining traction on the progressive left for some weeks and was supercharged by an intervention from Sanders, the Vermont senator, in the past few days. Sanders proposed a one-off 50% tax raid on AI labs.

His proposal has won qualified support from some on the populist right, including Bannon, Trump’s former chief of staff, who has long railed against the power of AI companies. Strategists from the Democratic and Republican parties are simultaneously grappling with how to appease voters increasingly worried about the threat AI poses to jobs ahead of November’s elections, not to mention AI’s relentless impact on higher electricity prices, which is rapidly becoming one of the top political topics into the midterms. 

OpenAI’s Altman was in Washington this week, where he met Sanders and other lawmakers from both political parties. He did not discuss these proposals with Trump this week, according to media reports.

His company, valued at close to $1tn, is likely to go public soon, while Anthropic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which owns xAI, are also racing to the public markets. This prompted us to ask, tongue-in-cheek, if the OpenAI taxpayer bailout would come before the IPO, or after.

Question is will OpenAI do the IPO before the government bailout or after https://t.co/mckJPwGJfM pic.twitter.com/k20K84YTeG

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 5, 2026

Is there any precedent?

The Trump administration has broken with economic orthodoxy by aggressively pursuing equity stakes in key sectors as part of an America First industrial strategy. Last year, it spent $9bn taking a 10 per cent stake in Intel and has invested billions of dollars in rare-earths and quantum computing start-ups in exchange for stock.

However, there is certainly no precedent whatsoever for the government taking a stake in lossmaking AI labs collectively worth trillions of dollars (based on laughable hockeystick projections which assume China will never be able to undercut prevailing pricing models). Additionally, the Intel equity was bought using funds already appropriated by the Biden-era Chips Act. Buying a stake in leading AI companies, rather than accepting a donation, would be expensive and probably require approval from Congress.

Will there be a backlash?

The initial response from pro-business Republicans and AI investors has been muted. In a post before Trump’s comments, billionaire Silicon Valley investor and White House adviser David Sacks warned against the government assuming “direct ownership and control” of AI companies – a post that was endorsed by Republican senator Ted Cruz.

If the Trump administration did go for equity stakes in leading labs, the backlash would be even more widespread, said Samuel Hammond, director of AI policy at the pro-tech Foundation for American Innovation, with protests from investors and companies that were not cut in on the deal.

“Even if taking partial ownership of frontier AI companies can make sense on paper, in practice it’s a recipe for political favouritism and corruption,” he added. 

Sacks, who was previously Trump’s AI tsar and was one of the most accelerationist voices in the administration, left his role this year. His lieutenant Sriram Krishnan announced on Saturday that he would be leaving the Trump administration at the end of this month.

Apple’s AI problems didn’t become impossible to ignore because competitors released better chatbots. They became impossible to ignore when Apple itself realized it had fallen behind, according to a new feature by Bloomberg. 

By early 2025, senior leaders inside the company were holding emergency-level discussions about the state of Apple’s AI efforts. What was supposed to be a major leap forward—Apple Intelligence and a next-generation Siri—had instead exposed deeper weaknesses. While Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, and Anthropic were rapidly improving their models, Apple was struggling to deliver features it had already announced.

Bloomberg writes that the issue wasn’t simply that Siri needed work. Executives increasingly believed Apple had underestimated the importance of generative AI altogether. The company had spent years assuming its traditional strengths—hardware, privacy, and tightly integrated software—would be enough. By the time ChatGPT reshaped expectations for consumer AI, Apple had no competitive answer.

Internally, confidence in the existing AI organization had eroded. Leaders concluded that the company’s problems were structural as much as technical. Decision-making was fragmented, ownership was unclear, and AI lacked the urgency that surrounded other major Apple initiatives. What had once been viewed as a side technology suddenly looked like the foundation of the industry’s future.

That realization triggered a leadership shake-up. Mike Rockwell, best known for leading Vision Pro, emerged as one of the strongest advocates for a more aggressive AI strategy. He had long argued that Apple was not taking the technology seriously enough. When the company’s AI shortcomings became impossible to ignore, he was brought in to help rescue Siri and reset the effort.

The shift also forced a change in Tim Cook’s approach. Historically, Cook delegated product strategy to his lieutenants, stepping in mainly for reviews and major decisions. AI became an exception. After the disappointing rollout of Apple Intelligence, Cook reportedly became far more involved, pushing executives to move faster and treating AI as a top corporate priority rather than another software feature.

Bloomberg even called Apple Intelligence 1.0 a “black mark” on the resume of Tim Cook. 

Perhaps the clearest sign of Apple’s miscalculation is how dramatically its position has changed. The company initially downplayed the importance of chatbot-style assistants and generative AI products. Now it is preparing to launch a more conversational Siri and AI experiences that look much closer to what competitors have already been offering for years. Apple once argued that many of these products weren’t necessary; now it is racing to build them.

The consequences extend beyond software. Several future hardware projects have reportedly been delayed because Apple’s AI capabilities weren’t ready. Devices that depended on intelligent assistants, computer vision, or advanced AI interactions could not move forward without the underlying technology.

What makes the situation unusual is that Apple rarely finds itself reacting to industry trends rather than defining them. The company built its reputation by anticipating shifts in computing before everyone else. With generative AI, it appears to have done the opposite. Instead of leading the transition, Apple spent years underestimating it and is now trying to catch up.

The real story isn’t the launch of a new Siri. It’s that Apple spent decades shaping the future of consumer technology, only to discover that the next major platform shift had started without it.

By Robert Walton of UtilityDive

The Trump administration approved 76 coal-related permits in more than a year of efforts to revive the flagging fuel and execute an agenda of “energy dominance.” His latest attempt includes tapping Defense Production Act funding to expand the industry.

“Last year we prevented 17 GW of coal-powered electricity from going offline. That’s enough power for about 13 million homes, and at a very low price. It’s the lowest price,” Trump said of coal resources.

But critics say the opposite is true. “This move, along with the President blocking the retirement of old coal plants that are too costly to operate, is making most Americans poorer,” Jenkins said. “This is a total misuse of the Defense Production Act, a giant giftwrapped payout to subsidize and prop up a flailing industry that can no longer compete in the free market.”

The coal funding is “another example of Trump ignoring the affordability crisis,” Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program, said in a statement. “Abusing emergency authorities to justify subsidies for coal is a waste of taxpayer dollars and a clear giveaway to an absurdly outdated, expensive and dirty fossil fuel.”

DOE said it plans to use up to $425 million in Defense Production Act Title III funds to support a dozen coal-plant projects and $75 million for the West Gateway Terminal Project, to operate a rail-served marine export terminal. The coal projects include:

• $19 million for Arizona Electric Power Cooperative to modernize and extend the operating life the Apache Generating Station near Cochise, Arizona;
• $33 million for Duke Energy Kentucky to boost generating capacity at its East Bend Station in Boone County, Kentucky;
• $22.5 million for Oklahoma Gas and Electric’s Sooner DCS Modernization Project near Red Rock, Oklahoma, to modernize the facility’s distributed control system to maintain reliability and improve efficiency; and,
• $46.3 million for Tennessee Valley Authority to revitalize its Cumberland Fossil Plant in Stewart County, Tennessee, to meet regional demands for dispatchable power.

The West Gateway Terminal Project “will support continued growth in U.S. coal exports, improve supply chain resilience, and strengthen energy partnerships with allies throughout the Indo-Pacific region,” DOE Under Secretary of Energy Kyle Haustveit said in a statement.

In a separate announcement, DOE said four projects will receive up to $350 million under the agency’s “Restoring Reliability: Coal Recommissioning and Modernization” initiative, to add or preserve roughly 3.6 GW of coal-fired capacity.

Along with almost 3 GW of new capacity split between Alaska and West Virginia, DOE announced funding for a project in Guayama, Puerto Rico, to retrofit and modernize an existing 510-MW coal-fired plant, and another project in Cumberland, Maryland, to recommission a 205-MW facility that ceased operations in 2024.

The Anchorage plant will have 1.25 GW of new coal capacity and the West Virginia Energy Campus project will offer 1.6 GW, according to a fact sheet from DOE. They would be the first new U.S. plants to come online since 2013, Trump said.

Also Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright issued an emergency order directing the Orlando Utilities Commission to ensure that Unit 1 at the coal-fired Stanton Energy Center near Orlando, Florida, remains available to operate. The unit was slated to enter a premature extended cold shutdown this month. The order is effective through Sept. 1. 

“Americans are upset about high electricity prices,” Wright said at the White House event. “Blame closing existing, reliable, secure plants, and replacing them with subsidized, unreliable plants — a gauranteed way to drive electricity prices up.”

But critics say coal plants are expensive to operate and the administration’s efforts are driving U.S. power bills higher. In March, the Sierra Club published analysis showing the Trump administration’s emergency orders to keep six retiring fossil-fueled power plants online have cost ratepayers more than $230 million.

More emergency orders have been issued since the Sierra Club analysis. Coal supporters, however, say the resources are essential and Trump’s investments will help maintain power grid reliability.

“Coal is a critical part of America’s energy security,” America’s Power President and CEO Michelle Bloodworth said in a statement. The group represents the U.S. coal sector.

“The United States has approximately 400 years of domestic coal reserves, making it one of the most fuel-secure energy sources available,” Bloodworth said.

Summary

• HUGE ESCALATION: Iran fires missiles on Israel, after IDF unleashed deadly airstrike on Beirut earlier Sunday.
• Israeli official: “There will be a forceful response.“
• Sunday is day 100 since President Trump launched Operation Epic Fury.
• Ghalibaf warns after IDF escalation in Lebanon: US & Israeli bases, assets in region are ‘legitimate targets’.
• Talks stuck on unfreezing assets: “Twenty-four billion dollars is not much for America if he wants to reach an agreement with Iran,” Iranian Gen. Mohsen Rezaei told CNN. “This is our own, not America’s money.”
• Defying Washington, Iran has been collecting $1.5 million to $2 million per vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz (Fars).

*  *  *

Iran Launches Missiles On Israel In First Since April

Tehran makes good on its earlier threats, after the IDF conducted a deadly airstrike on the Lebanese capital of Beirut earlier Sunday. Day 100 of the war has seen a major renewal and escalation, again bringing Iran and Israel into a likely state of all-out war, per WSJ:

Iran fired missiles toward Israel on Sunday, after a deadly Israeli airstrike on Beirut hours earlier targeting the Tehran-backed militants Hezbollah, Israel’s military said.

It marks the first time Iran has targeted Israel during its ceasefire with the U.S. that went into force in early April.

The attack came after Tehran threatened to hit Israel and American bases in the Middle East in response to the airstrike on the Lebanese capital, the first time Israeli warplanes have targeted Beirut since a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was announced by the U.S. last week.

So is the ceasefire dead yet?

BREAKING: Trump to Fox News:

What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough. Get back to the table and make a deal.

Source: @TreyYingst

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 7, 2026

President Trump has continued to maintain adherence to it, and days ago suggested that a ‘moderate’ amount of firing doesn’t necessarily mean a broken ceasefire.

WATCH: Iranians celebrate missile strikes targeting Israel. pic.twitter.com/CzQKenllnN

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 7, 2026

Israel earlier confirmed an airstrike on a Hezbollah headquarters in the Dahieh district of Beirut. Iran last week warned again hitting Beirut, saying it would assure US and Israeli bases and assets in the region would come under new attack. The earlier warning is reviewed as follows: 

• Iran’s military said Israel had “crossed all red lines” in intensifying its attacks in southern Lebanon and targeting the south Beirut suburb of Dahieh.
• “If it expands its attacks in that area, or responds to Iran’s action, it will face more forceful blows, and devastating attacks will be launched” against Israel and its supporters, the military added.

Video of reported initial inbound projectile on Israel circulating…

A third round of sirens sound in northern Israel, after the IDF intercepted several Iranian ballistic missiles. No initial reports of injuries or damages.

A senior Israeli official tells Israeli media: “There will be a forceful response.” pic.twitter.com/BixzsXOrhs

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) June 7, 2026

US, Israeli Bases are ‘Legitimate Targets’: Iran Issues Fresh Threat

On Sunday Tehran ramped up its threats to renew ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel and America’s Gulf allies, describing that the Israeli military’s ongoing deadly attacks on Lebanon could obliterate the extended ceasefire with the US

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf announced on X that the ongoing American naval blockade against the Islamic Republic, with Washington having given a green light to Israel for its attacks on Hezbollah and Lebanon, turns both countries’ bases and assets in the region into “legitimate targets.” The last days even saw a Lebanese general and other officers killed by IDF airstrike in south Lebanon.

“They neither abide by a ceasefire nor believe in negotiations,” Ghalibaf wrote.

Below is the latest Bloomberg summary on where stalled negotiations stand… to be expected it cites “little progress”:

“The US and Iran appear to be making little progress toward an interim deal to end the war Washington and Israel began 100 days ago, as fresh attacks pile pressure on a fragile ceasefire,” Bloomberg writes, and continues:

• The past week saw the worst flare-up in tensions since the truce started around April 8.
• Negotiations between Washington and Tehran are bogged down over the fate of billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets and a parallel conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
• US Central Command said early Sunday it downed two Iranian attack drones that threatened international maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway crucial to global energy exports that’s also been at the heart of discussions.
• On Friday, six ballistic missiles fired at Bahrain and Kuwait were intercepted and another failed to reach their intended target, hours after four unmanned craft headed to Hormuz were shot down, Central Command said. The US struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island, it added.

Talks Stuck on Unfreezing Iran’s Assets

The U.S. and Iran remain stuck in preliminary talks to end the war, with the main obstacle being Tehran’s demand for access to billions of dollars in frozen assets and the Trump administration’s refusal to provide upfront cash or broader sanctions relief. Tehran is seeking about $12 billion upfront and $24 billion during a proposed 60-day negotiation window.

“Twenty-four billion dollars is not much for America if he wants to reach an agreement with Iran,” Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, a senior adviser to Iran’s top official, told CNN on Friday. “This is our own, not America’s money.”

For the Trump administration, releasing frozen funds for Tehran is optically displeasing because the president spent years blasting the Obama administration over the $1.7 billion Iran payment tied to the 2015 nuclear deal, and later criticized the Biden administration’s move to allow Iran access to $6 billion in assets during a prisoner swap.

The U.S. government estimates that Tehran has $100 billion in inaccessible assets, mostly oil revenue trapped abroad, including funds in China, Qatar, Oman, and Iraq.

Iran FM Complains of ‘Moving Goal Posts’

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei spoke with CNN’s senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen about the ongoing negotiations with the U.S.

Baghaei stated, “The main problem of negotiating with this administration is that you have to face so many changing positions, moving the goal posts, different statements, contradictory remarks by different officials, so it makes the whole process very cumbersome.”

He outlined one of the main problems is that “the Americans must understand that they have to recognize Iran’s rights,” including its right to peaceful nuclear enrichment under the international non-proliferation treaty.

“At the same time, when they are talking about our blocked assets, they’re not going to give us any concession,” he said. CNN reported earlier on Sunday that the US plans to allow Iranian assets to be used for rebuilding projects in Gulf countries impacted by the war, according to a source close to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Baghaei added that the US must “simply stop their sanctions” and “need to let Iranian assets be released and be available for the Iranians.”

Iran Implements Toll System as US Balks

Beyond US-Iran talks, IRGC-linked Fars News reports that Iran has been collecting $1.5 million to $2 million per vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Fars said the payments are deposited into Iran’s treasury under the budget law and directed toward designated spending areas. Some payments are reportedly settled not in cash but in USDT/Tether or through barter arrangements.

Top Overnight Headlines (courtesy of Bloomberg):

US-Iran Conflict Flashpoints

• US Central Command shot down two Iranian attack drones over the Strait of Hormuz early Sunday that threatened international maritime traffic
• US forces intercepted multiple Iranian missiles and drones in the Persian Gulf late Friday and responded with attacks on radar sites in Iran
• Six ballistic missiles fired by Iran at Bahrain and Kuwait were intercepted, with a seventh not reaching its intended target
• US attacked Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island early Saturday
• Iran condemned US attack on its radar and coastal surveillance facilities as a clear violation of the April 8 ceasefire

Peace Negotiations Status

• The US and Iran appear to be making little progress toward an interim deal to end the war 100 days after it began
• Negotiations are bogged down over the fate of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets
• Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran on Sunday in a fresh bid to restart negotiations between Iran and the US
• Iran’s Baghaei said the US needs to let Iranian assets be released and must stop their sanctions
• The Trump administration is seeking to steer Iranian assets toward helping US allies in the Persian Gulf rebuild from damage inflicted by Tehran

War Damage and Infrastructure

• About 7,000 megawatts of Iran’s power-generation capacity was damaged in the war, with some 2,500 megawatts restored to service so far
• Despite 4,000 megawatts of damaged power plant capacity remaining offline, there are currently no plans to implement planned blackouts this summer
• Kuwait’s airspace was temporarily closed for two hours early Saturday as a precautionary measure due to Iranian missile and drone attacks

Economic Impact

• Italy extended a fuel tax cut until July 3, cutting pump prices by €0.05 per liter for diesel while keeping it unchanged for unleaded fuel
• India raised prices of domestic cooking gas for the second time since the Iran war started, with a 14.2-kilogram LPG cylinder increasing by 29 rupees
• Container shipping spot rates from Asia to northern Europe rose 27% to $3,649 as of Friday, while rates to the US West Coast increased 20% to $3,933
• Crude oil remains below $100 a barrel despite the Strait of Hormuz being effectively blocked for over three months, defying forecasts for prices as high as $200

Previous US-Iran Wrap

• US Intercepted Fresh Iranian Ballistic Missile Attacks Overnight As Tehran Blasts ‘Ceasefire Violations’

Institutional Market commentary:

• Goldman analyst Johann Cohen: Markets appeared to suffer from headline fatigue, alongside fading expectations of any near-term agreement between the US and Iran.
• UBS analyst Zeynep Akkok: European equities are resilient, with SX5E trading off earlier lows and price action is largely unchanged into the weekend as markets pause after recent moves. The focus remains on US-Iran negotiations, with US President Trump flagging talks are in their final stages, but the continued lack of tangible progress caps upside. The tone remains constructive, but increasingly conditional on delivery.
• Goldman analyst Chris Hussey: But as we saw back in 2021, global supply chain shortages are plentiful. The prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is still cutting off about 10% of the world’s oil supply with a bigger impact on things like jet fuel, diesel, and aluminum.

Global Supply Chain:

• Alarming Supply-Chain Stress Sends Transport Cost Soaring, Fueling Inflation Fears
• UBS Reactivates Supply-Chain Stress Watch After Detecting Alarmingly Rapid Deterioration

Energy Market:

• Goldman Explains Why Oil Refuses To Rise Despite Continued Hormuz Closure
• Oil Prices Hold Gains As Gasoline Stocks Hit 12 Year Lows, Cushing ‘Tank Bottoms’ Loom

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is reportedly pursuing a pathway to repurpose Iranian assets to compensate Amerca’s Gulf allies which have suffered significant damage due to Iran’s attacks in the wake of Trump’s Operation Epic Fury.

Over eighty oil, gas, and vital infrastructure facilities across the Gulf have been hit – with most of the attacks having occurred in March and April – with one recent report estimating up to $58 billion in damage. Iran has sought to justify these attacks as ‘retaliation’ for these Gulf countries hosting American bases during the US unprovoked assault on the Islamic Republic.

“Treasury will utilize all tools available to allow Iranian assets to be made available to our Gulf allies to support rebuilding and repairs for any future damage caused by Iran,” a US official told ABC’s Senior White House correspondent Selina Wang over the weekend.

“The Secretary has also directed his team to assess conditions amongst our Gulf allies and request comprehensive estimates of the costs associated with repairing damage Iran has inflicted since the start of the conflict,” the source continued.

“Treasury will further consider whether Iranian assets could be used to support repairs for past damages,” it added, per the ABC correspondent. She also wrote on X:

The Iranian assets could include frozen assets and ships the U.S. has seized. The administration is reaching out to Gulf allies right now and asking for their evaluation.

If Treasury pulls the trigger on such a plan, it would likely further derail efforts to get Tehran and Washington back to the negotiating table. Already the US has balked at Iran’s own insistent it be given reparations for damage done. 

Iran is demanding that its billions in funds long frozen by Washington be given back as part of a deal. The Trump administration has so far appeared to reject this.

While some Gulf allies might welcome this, some might see it as unrealistic and a recipe for just prolonging the war. In this scenario, Gulf societies would only suffer more, especially in any future escalation leading to all-out war.

The D.C. think tank Freedom for Defense of Democracies has estimated Iran’s damage suffered since the US-Israel war on it was launched at well over $100 billion, and possibly reaching as high as $300 billion – according to the highest-end estimates.

“FDD’s first model-based estimate of Iran’s economic losses to date due to Operation Epic Fury are $144 billion, or 40 percent of pre-war GDP,” a late April report said.

TOTAL IRAN ECONOMIC DAMAGE ESTIMATE, FDD on April 23…

On this basis, Tehran will pursue its case that it unjustly suffered the greatest damage to its national infrastructure and society, and that the surprise attack was launched as it was seeking to engage in good faith negotiations with the United States, ironically enough.