Editor
Tucker Reals is CBSNews.com’s foreign editor, based in the CBS News London bureau. He has worked for CBS News since 2006, prior to which he worked for The Associated Press in Washington, D.C., and London.
What to know on the 21st day of the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran:
The U.S.-Israel’s war with Iran showed no signs of letting up Friday after nearly three weeks. Iran’s theocratic regime has taken a beating but maintained its grip on power — and its chokehold on international energy markets through relentless strikes across the Persian Gulf.
Iran struck a major Kuwaiti oil refinery for the second consecutive day, continuing its retaliation for Israel’s attack on the South Pars natural gas field — a move Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu said he wouldn’t soon repeat after President Trump voiced clear frustration.
Gas and oil prices remained well above pre-war levels Friday, with international standard Brent crude trading around $107, up more than 47% since the conflict began on Feb. 28.
Mr. Trump and Netanyahu have said ensuring Iran cannot build a nuclear weapon is one of their goals, but the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency told CBS News securing Iran’s enriched uranium will be “very challenging,” even when the fighting ends.
Sri Lanka denied U.S. military planes access for Iran war, “steadfastly maintaining our position of neutrality”
Sri Lanka refused permission to the United States to station two of its warplanes at a civilian airport in the island’s south in early March, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said Friday.
Washington wanted to relocate two of its missile-armed aircraft from a base in Djibouti to Sri Lanka’s civilian Mattala International Airport, Dissanayake told parliament.
The request, made on Feb. 26, two days before the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran began, was turned down to maintain Colombo’s neutrality and ensure its territory was not used for any military purpose that could help or hinder either side, he said.
Sri Lanka was drawn into the consequences of the war when a U.S. submarine torpedoed an Iranian frigate, the IRIS Dena, just off its coast in March.
“They wanted to bring two warplanes armed with eight anti-ship missiles to Mattala International Airport from March 4 to 8, and we said ‘no’,” Dissanayake said.
He did not say whether the U.S. request was to use Sri Lanka as a base for the aircraft to carry out offensive actions against Iran.
Dissanayake said Iran, too, had requested port calls for three of its warships, returning from India after a naval exercise, on the same day the U.S. requested permission to station their two aircraft.
“We were still considering the Iranian request to bring the three ships to Colombo from March 9 to 13. Had we said ‘yes’ to Iran, we would have had to say ‘yes’ to the U.S. too,” he said. “But we didn’t. We are steadfastly maintaining our position of neutrality.”