Sasha Barbagat

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I'm Sasha Barbagat.

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We start today again in the Middle East as tensions continue to escalate between the US and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.

Donald Trump has claimed the US has, quote, total control over the key waterway and has issued an order to his navy to shoot and kill any boat laying mines in the strait.

Meantime, on another front of this war, peace talks are getting underway today.

The US ambassadors from Lebanon and Israel

Israel are meeting in Washington, with Beirut set to ask for an extension of the ceasefire between the pair.

Tel Aviv, meantime, says it has no serious disagreements with Lebanon, but wants to destroy militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and operates in the country.

And look, just on the Strait of Hormuz, Trump making that threat about any boats laying mines in the Strait, there has been a Pentagon assessment that's estimated it could take six months to completely clear the Strait of Hormuz of mines that have been deployed by the Iranian army.

Now, some officials within the White House have come out to question that and say, well, maybe that's not quite accurate.

But there is this one assessment at least, and from the Pentagon, might I add, that says that

We could be, even if this war ends tomorrow, it still might not be safe for ships to use it for six months.

So, yeah, the ongoing ripple effects of this war that we see here in Australia, the petrol, the groceries, you know, any hope that we'll see a swift end once the war is over, they continue to fade.