Iran ‘has cash’ and is on international weapons market, China and Russia happy to sell

Meanwhile, the US President has announced an agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas, calling it a critical step toward a new Palestinian government in Gaza. Here's News24 defence analyst Peter Jennings. The breaking news this morning was President Trump's announcement of the complete disarmament of Hamas. That was part of ongoing peace negotiations over Gaza. I don't believe that Hamas is genuinely committed to handing over all its weapons. More likely, this is a tactic on the part of the terror group. They're looking for a break, they want to see the Israel Defence Force withdraw, and they can smell international money. So let's be cautious about how realistic this really is. Nothing should be taken at face value from Hamas. The most interesting news in the Iran war this week was a well-sourced allegation that China had supplied Tehran with 400 shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles. Beijing denied this, of course, but President Trump was quick to comment on the report, saying in an unusual understatement how disappointed he would be if it was true. The story was broken by the Reuters news agency, claiming that three sources pointed to a Hong Kong-based front company supplying the weapons. Now, this is important for a number of reasons. Iran has cash and it's on the international weapons market. China and Russia are happy to sell. Overnight, the US State Department sanctioned companies in China, Russia and, interestingly, India for selling weapons to Iran. And this is also a direct threat to American air power. Donald Trump keeps reminding us the US can bomb any part of Iran any time. It's not surprising the Revolutionary Guard are looking to arm themselves to threaten American air power. Another fascinating development was that the US and Saudi Arabia bombed a large number of targets in Iraq. Now, this is the first time Saudi has directly entered the war with its own military. They claim to be hitting Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq. So what this tells us is that the war is far from over. In fact, it's broadening. It's becoming a wider Middle East conflict, drawing in more countries. I think there was a little chance that President Trump is going to achieve his peace deal between now and the November midterm elections in the United States. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard is going to make sure that won't happen. I've been saying for weeks now that the only way the United States can bring an end to this war is to bring an end to the Revolutionary Guard. That's another way of saying we need to see regime change in Iran. I'm sorry to say that this war is going to continue well into 2027. Donald Trump doesn't want that, but he's caught in a war of his own making. Trump may try to keep things quiet in the lead-up to America's congressional elections, but in 2027, don't be surprised if we see a significant ramping up of military operations. Now, the bad news for the rest of the world is that this is going to impact oil prices. The United States has drawn substantially down on its reserves of crude oil. If war continues, that means we will not see tanker traffic out of the Persian Gulf coming back towards its more normal levels. And this time, less crude oil and petrol will be available in long-term storage to compensate.