❗Conflict Overview: Day 166

▪Iran has full control of the Strait of Hormuz despite US claims to the contrary, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for the central headquarters of the Islamic Republic’s Armed Forces, said

▪The US can maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said

▪Iran and the United States are holding talks behind closed doors, and some progress has been made, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Moscow Faisal Niaz Tirmizi told TASS

▪The United States lost nearly a quarter of its MQ-9 Reaper drones during the war with Iran, The Washington Post quoted sources as saying

▪The United States is preparing to send the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln as part of a planned rotation, according to The Wall Street Journal

▪Yemeni Houthi rebels from the Ansar Allah movement struck an oil refinery of state-owned Saudi Aramco in the Saudi city of Jizan with two drones, said rebel-controlled SABA news agency

▪Any country including Iran can join the Mecca Pact, Pakistani Ambassador to Moscow Faisal Niaz Tirmizi told TASS