Trump’s Iran war thrown into chaos over fears Putin and Xi are plotting chilling next move

Donald Trump’s decision to pull back from strikes on Iran has sparked alarm in Washington, with officials warning that Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping could seize on critically low US missile interceptor stocks to hit targets in Europe and Asia.

Trump’s top military advisers and Vice President JD Vance warned the President that continued strikes on Iran could dangerously deplete US stockpiles of Patriot interceptors, leaving American forces across the Middle East exposed, according to CNN.

The US and Iran have both halted strikes over the weekend as officials claim the President ended 13 consecutive days of attacks to create space for diplomacy.

However, Trump’s decision to pull back from attacking Iran based on US stockpiles could enable his biggest foes: Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.  

US officials fear the shortages are shaping decisions in Moscow and Beijing and that Putin is weighing renewed pressure on Ukraine and NATO’s eastern flank, and Xi is considering action against Taiwan, according to the New York Times. 

Patriot interceptors are among the most heavily demanded munitions in the US arsenal, and production has struggled to keep pace with the rate at which they are being fired in the Middle East and Ukraine.

The strain has been building for months, with Washington already balancing shipments to Kyiv against the needs of US bases and allies elsewhere.

The White House has consistently denied that stockpiles are depleted. Karoline Leavitt has insisted the military has the resources to execute any mission the President orders.

As officials worry Putin will exploit the shortfall in Ukraine, the war there has spilled into Iran’s northern waters. Ukraine struck vessels in the Caspian Sea on Saturday, and Tehran says one of them was an Iranian commercial ship.

The strike caused an explosion that killed one sailor and injured several others, according to Iran’s foreign ministry, which summoned Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Tehran to protest what it called a hostile and criminal act.

Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had hit vessels used to carry military cargo involving Iran, along with a Russian warship. 

Tehran insists the ship was commercial and that it has never intervened in the Russia-Ukraine war.

The US and Iran had signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding in mid-June, opening a 60-day window to negotiate over freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, and sanctions relief.

Those talks began in Switzerland and quickly stalled over the strait, and the deal collapsed this month after Iran struck commercial vessels. 

The US answered with a nightly bombing campaign against Iranian command centers and missile sites and reimposed its naval blockade.

Trump also ordered US forces to disable tankers bound for Kharg Island and threatened to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant every time a ship was attacked.

Iran responded to each round by firing on US bases in neighboring Gulf states, attacks that killed at least four American soldiers. 

Diplomacy now rests on talks in Tehran between Iranian and Omani deputy foreign ministers over shipping through the strait. 

Oil markets reacted to the stalled fighting with some positivity as Brent crude fell more than seven percent on Monday to around $89 a barrel, its lowest in a week, after touching $102 last week.