Follow updates on the war in the Middle East for Wednesday, May 13, here. See earlier developments below.
What to know about the Iran war:After President Trump rejected Iran’s response to the latest U.S. peace proposal and said the ceasefire is “on life support,” the speaker of Iran’s parliament said the Islamic Republic’s military is ready to “teach a lesson” to any aggressor. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Tuesday that Israel sent anti-missile batteries and personnel to the UAE to help protect the country from Iranian attacks, underlying a growing defense relationship between the two Middle Eastern countries that has been bolstered by the Iran war. The cost of the war in Iran has grown to $29 billion, acting Pentagon comptroller Jules Hurst said in congressional testimony Tuesday. Secretary Pete Hegseth said last month it was $25 billion, but U.S. officials familiar with internal assessments suggested at the time the war could already have cost close to $50 billion. Israel strikes cars on highway south of Beirut, Lebanon state media say
Israeli targeted two cars with strikes on Wednesday on a major highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon, state media reported, despite a truce in the war between Israel and the Lebanon government.
The attacks took place near Jiyeh, about 12 miles south of the capital, Lebanon’s National News Agency said, without specifying if there were casualties.
An AFP photographer saw a burned-out car in the middle of the road and rescuers carrying a body.
On Saturday, similar strikes targeted two other cars in the same area.
Israel has kept up airstrikes in Lebanon against the Iran-backed militant group despite a truce since April 17 aimed at halting the fighting.
On Tuesday, 13 people were killed in attacks on towns in the south, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, which said 380 people had been killed since the start of the ceasefire.
The Israeli military also issued new evacuation warnings Wednesday for six villages in the Tyre region in anticipation of fresh attacks.
The violence came with Lebanon and Israel due to hold a new round of direct negotiations in Washington on Thursday, brokered by the United States.
Hezbollah, which has been launching attacks on northern Israel as well as Israeli troops who have entered and occupied a section of southern Lebanon, says it opposes the talks in the U.S.
On Tuesday, its leader, Naim Qassem, warned that he would turn the battlefield into “hell” for Israel.
Since Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the wider regional war in early March, more than 2,800 people have been killed in the country, including 200 children, according to the health ministry.
Iran to be key topic in Trump-Xi summit
President Trump said he would ask his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to “open up” China to American firms during their high-stakes summit in which he will also raise the Iran war.
But his desire to ramp up trade will have to contend with political frictions over Taiwan and the war in the Middle East, which already delayed the trip from March.
As he departed the White House to head for Beijing on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he expected a “long talk” with Xi about Iran, which sells most of its U.S.-sanctioned oil to China.
But he also downplayed disagreements, telling reporters that “I don’t think we need any help with Iran” from China and that Xi had been “relatively good” on the topic.
Yet Beijing is growing impatient for peace, with China’s foreign minister urging his Pakistani counterpart on Tuesday to step up mediation efforts between Tehran and Washington.
Beijing has grown more confident and assertive since Mr. Trump’s trip there in 2017, and he finds himself in a weakened position as he seeks a way out of the Iran war.
But the summit also comes at an uncertain time for China’s economy, which has struggled in recent years with sluggish domestic spending and a protracted debt crisis in the once-booming property sector.
Iran hangs man accused of spying for Israel
Iran on Wednesday hanged a man found guilty of selling information to Israeli intelligence, the judiciary said, the latest in a wave of executions during the Mideast war.
Since the start of the conflict with Israel and the United States in February, Iran has ramped up executions, particularly in cases involving alleged espionage or security-related charges.
“Ehsan Afreshteh, a spy trained by Mossad in Nepal who sold sensitive information to Israel, has been executed,” said the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online website.
“Arrested and tried for espionage and collaboration with the Zionist regime, he was hanged this morning after … the verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court,” it added.
Iran is the world’s second-most prolific executioner after China, according to rights groups.
On Monday, the country hanged an aerospace engineering student who had also been convicted of spying for Israel and the U.S.
Price shocks from Iran war powering solar sales in energy-hungry Asia
Soaring costs for fuel due to the Iran war are leading panicked consumers in hard-hit Asia toward rooftop solar power, a likely windfall for China as the world’s largest provider of solar technology.
China is poised to profit from demand caused by the war. Chinese clean technology equipment exports hit a record high in March, according to energy think tank Ember, and worldwide interest in solar is increasing.
“China really is, by far, leading this race,” said Li Shuo, director of the Asia Society Policy Institute’s China Climate Hub, who called the renewable industry “a one-man show.”
The Philippines, which relies heavily on Middle Eastern crude oil and liquefied natural gas, is among the Southeast Asian nations impacted most by the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
In the Philippines, which is in a national energy emergency, a survey of 20 local solar companies found a 70% increase in weekly installations and a six-fold jump in customer inquirers since the conflict began.
“This crisis is a driving force for solar,” said Brenda Valerio of the nonprofit New Energy Nexus, which ran the survey. “People want solar and people want solar now.”
Hezbollah chief urges Lebanon to withdraw from direct talks with Israel
The leader of the Lebanon-based militant Hezbollah group, Naim Kassem, called on the Lebanese government on Tuesday to withdraw from direct talks with Israel this week in Washington, calling them a concession and instead urged for indirect negotiations.
Lebanon and Israel are scheduled to hold two days of talks in Washington, D.C., starting Thursday, in an attempt to end the latest Israel-Hezbollah conflict that broke out two months ago, following the Iran war, and discuss the future of relations between the two countries, which have officially been at war since Israel was created in 1948.
Kassem said in a letter directed to the group’s officials that direct negotiations benefit Israel and that they are “concessions by Lebanese authorities.” He said Lebanon’s government should instead resort to indirect negotiations, as it has done in the past, such as when a ceasefire was reached in November 2024.
Indirect talks are usually done through a third party.
Kassem also said the dispute over Hezbollah’s weapons was an internal affair and should not be part of the talks with Israel. The Lebanese government has sought the disarmament of the militant group after the latest round of fighting broke out in early March, calling all military activities by the group illegal.
Lebanese authorities have also demanded the cessation of hostilities, Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, deployment of Lebanese troops south of the Litani River, the release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israel and the return of displaced people to their homes.
Kassem said Hezbollah is ready to cooperate to help achieve the five points demanded by the Lebanese government.
China’s top diplomat urges Pakistan step up U.S.-Iran mediation, state media reports
China’s top diplomat urged Pakistan to step up mediation efforts between Iran and the United States, and help to “properly” address the reopening of the Hormuz strait, Chinese state media said Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke to his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar on a call, state news agency Xinhua reported, ahead of President Trump’s visit to Beijing.
AFP
Australia says it will join France, U.K. mission to help secure Strait of Hormuz shipping
Australia will join a “strictly defensive” mission led by France and Britain to secure shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Defense Minister Richard Marles said.
The nation will contribute a Wedgetail E-7A surveillance aircraft, already deployed in the region to protect the United Arab Emirates from Iran drone attacks, Marles said after a meeting of 40 countries.
“Australia stands ready to support an independent and strictly defensive Multinational Military Mission, led by the United Kingdom and France, once it is established,” Marles said in a statement. The mission is aimed at demonstrating “a tangible commitment to the security of international trade,” he said.
Amid sharp criticism from President Trump at all NATO allies for declining to join offensive efforts against Iran, France and the U.K. began efforts to build a coalition of nations willing to help ensure the strait remains safe and passable after the war.
French President Emmanuel Macron said last week he would speak to Mr. Trump about the mission, which comes as the U.S. military suspended its operation to guide commercial ships out of the Persian Gulf.
CBS/AFP
Trump says it’s “virtual treason” for media to say Iran is doing well in the war
President Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday that it’s “virtual TREASON” for the news media to say that Iran is doing well in the war.
“When the Fake News says that the Iranian enemy is doing well, Militarily, against us, it’s virtual TREASON in that it is such a false, and even preposterous, statement,” Mr. Trump said. “They are aiding and abetting the enemy! All it does is give Iran false hope when none should exist. These are American cowards that are rooting against our Country.”
Treason is defined in the U.S. Constitution as a crime when someone “owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere.”
The president said in the post, as he has previously maintained, that Iran’s navy and air force have been decimated by U.S. forces, and Tehran’s leaders “are no longer with us.”
“Only Losers, Ingrates, and Fools are able to make a case against America!” he said.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly criticized media coverage of the U.S-Israeli war against Iran since the fighting began. In March, Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened to revoke broadcast licenses after the president accused the media of falsely reporting on the war.
Iranians arrested at sea by Kuwaiti authorities were maritime workers, Iran’s foreign ministry claims
Iran’s Foreign Ministry told state media that the four Iranians arrested at sea Tuesday by Kuwaiti authorities are maritime workers whose navigation system malfunctioned.
“We strongly condemn the Kuwaiti government’s inappropriate action in politically and propagandistically exploiting the case of four Iranian employees,” Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency. “The four Iranian employees were carrying out their duties as part of a routine maritime patrol.”
Earlier Tuesday, Kuwaiti’s ministry of defense said the four Iranians confessed “their affiliation to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Kuna state news agency reported.
They had also admitted to attempting to infiltrate Kuwait’s Bubiyan Island “aboard a fishing boat rented specifically to carry out hostile acts,” Kuwaiti authorities alleged.
In the statement to Tasnim, the Iranian foreign ministry urged the Kuwaiti authorities “to avoid hasty statements and baseless claims and to pursue issues through official channels.”
Mais Al-Bayaa contributed to this report.
Consumer prices for Americans surge to highest level in almost 3 years
Inflation accelerated in April to an annual rate of 3.8%, the highest since May 2023, as the Iran war pushed up energy costs and raised prices across the economy.
The Consumer Price Index, which tracks price changes of goods typically purchased by consumers over time, shows inflation rose 0.6% in April from the prior month.
Energy prices were the major driver, accounting for 40% of the total CPI increase, according to the Labor Department. On an annual basis, gasoline prices jumped 28.4% from a year earlier.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 2.8% from a year earlier, suggesting price pressures are also spreading beyond fuel costs.
Read more here.
Trump will be “thinking about” red line for ending ceasefire on the plane, he says
The president was asked before leaving for China what his red line will be to end the ceasefire with Iran. The president didn’t have an immediate answer, but said they’ll be thinking about that on the long plane ride to Beijing.
“Well, we’re going to see,” he said. “And we’ll be thinking about it on the flight and we’ll be thinking about it for the next little while. But we’ve beaten their military very soundly, that’s over with.”
Trump says he doesn’t think about Americans’ financial situations while negotiating with Iran
President Trump said he doesn’t think about Americans’ financial situations as he negotiates with Iran, “not even a little bit,” as he took questions from reporters on the White House South Lawn before leaving for China.
“When you’re negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are Americans’ financial situations motivating you to make a deal?” one reporter asked.
“Not even a little bit,” the president responded. “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, I don’t think about anybody.”
A reporter asked the president if he really doesn’t consider Americans’ financial situation.
“The most important thing by far, including whether our stock market, which by the way is at an all-time high, but including whether our stock market goes up or down a little bit, the most important thing by far is Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
“Every American understands,” he added.
“I don’t think” Xi needs to do anything to intervene with Iran, Trump says
Speaking to reporters on the White House South Lawn before leaving for his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China, President Trump told reporters, “I don’t think” Xi needs to do anything to help with Iran.”
“I don’t think he does,” Mr. Trump told reporters about Xi. “I don’t think we need any help with Iran.”
Last week, Mr. Trump told Fox News he isn’t overly disappointed about China, but said China “could help a lot more” on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran criticizes U.S.’s alleged “humiliation, threats, and coercive score-settling”
As President Trump threatens a return to military operations against Iran, the country’s leaders expressed dissatisfaction with how the United States has negotiated a peace deal.
“True peace cannot be built with a literature of humiliation, threats, and coercive score-settling,” Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadim, wrote on X. “When the party that has itself played a direct role in war, siege, sanctions, and threats through brute force rejects Iran’s response simply because it is not a capitulation, it becomes clear that the real issue is not peace, but the imposition of political will through threats and pressure.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly rejected Iran’s proposals for a lasting end to conflict, most recently referring to a proposal filed late last week as “Totally Unacceptable.”
Gharibabadim wrote Iran is looking for a deal including a permanent end to the war; compensation for damages; an end to the siege in the Strait of Hormuz; a repeal of sanctions; and respect for Iran’s sovereignty.
He referred to the talks as “the continuation of a policy of coercion dressed in diplomatic language.”
Kuwait summons Iranian ambassador over paramilitary island attack
Kuwait has summoned the Iranian ambassador over the reported Iran-linked attack on Bubuiyan Island on Kuwait’s eastern border.
The country’s ministry of defense reported Tuesday that six people associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had “attempted to enter the country by sea.” The Kuwaiti national news agency said after clashes with local security services, four of the assailants were arrested and two escaped.
Kuwaiti Deputy Foreign Minister Hamad Suleiman Al-Meshaan handed Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Totonji a “formal protest note” over the incident on Tuesday, according to a statement from Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he “reiterated Kuwait’s strong condemnation and denunciation of this hostile act.”
Kuwait, along with its Persian Gulf neighbors, came under repeated Iranian missile and drone attacks starting Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched their joint war with Iran, until the tenuous ceasefire between Washington and Tehran took effect on April 8.
Hegseth reiterates Trump doesn’t need congressional approval if war resumes
GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who has said she intends to introduce formal authorization for the use of military force in Iran, asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth whether the administration has considered seeking an authorization of military force from Congress.
“Our view is that should the president make the decision to recommence, that we would have all the authorities necessary to do so,” Hegseth said.
When Murkowski asked whether it would be “helpful to the president if it was made clear” he had full authority through congressional approval, Hegseth reiterated, “Our view is that he has all the authorities he needs under Article II to execute.”
Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the president has 60 days to terminate the use of force unless Congress has declared war or authorized the use of military force.
However, when the deadline passed on May 1, the administration refuted the need, with Hegseth citing the clock stopping with the ceasefire. Mr. Trump said in a letter to congressional leaders that “hostilities” with Iran had “terminated.” He also cited previous presidents ignoring the need for congressional approval, both Democrats and Republicans.
Senate Democrats have attempted to pass resolutions limiting Mr. Trump’s war powers six times.
Gen. Caine urges Iran “to think wisely about their next moves”
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois asked Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine how Iran is still capable of stopping ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
“It’s a complex situation out there, with a lot of different small boats that are out there and other capabilities,” Caine told members of a Senate appropriations subcommittee. “Some of this is on the commercial traffickers, some of this is on, again, back to the main problem, and that’s Iran holding the global economy hostage through the straits.”
“I would encourage them to think wisely about their next moves and to take the opportunity to open the straits — they have that choice to make,” he said.
Sen. Graham questions Hegseth, Caine about Iranian military aircraft at Pakistani airfields
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina questioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Dan Caine on Tuesday about Pakistan allowing Iranian military aircraft to park on its airfields, appearing to reference a report from CBS News.
Asked whether he was aware of the reports, Caine said he’d seen one. When Graham asked if the activity would be, “inconsistent with being a peace mediator,” Caine said he “wouldn’t want to comment on that, based on the ongoing negotiations and Pakistan’s role.”
Hegseth said he also wouldn’t want to get into the middle of the negotiations, to which Graham replied: “Well I do.””If they actually do have Iranian aircraft parked in Pakistan bases to protect Iranian military assets, that tells me we should be looking, maybe, for somebody else to mediate,” Graham said. “No wonder this damn thing is going nowhere.”
Iran could enrich uranium to weapons grade if attacked, Iranian lawmaker says
Iran will review the prospect of boosting its enrichment of uranium to 90% purity — the level required to make an atomic bomb — if it is attacked again, an Iranian lawmaker said Monday.
“One of Iran’s options in the event of another attack could be 90 percent enrichment,” parliamentarian Ebrahim Rezaei, who’s also the spokesperson for Iran’s National Security Commission, said in a post on X, adding: “We will review it in parliament.”
As of June 2025, Iran was believed to have about 970 pounds of uranium enriched to 60%, according to the World Nuclear Association. At that level, it is a short technological step away from being further processed into weapons-gade material, and in that quantity, Iran could theoretically have enough to make approximately 10 nuclear weapons, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Under the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran negotiated by the Obama administration, Iran’s enrichment program was monitored by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency and limited to enriching uranium to lower levels.
The regime started enriching uranium to 60% after President Trump, during his first term in office, unilaterally pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal, which he had criticized as too generous to Tehran.
Pentagon official says U.S. has now spent $29 billion on Iran war
Acting Pentagon comptroller Jules Hurst, testifying Tuesday before the House and Senate subcommittees that oversee Pentagon budget requests, said the price tag for the Iran war had risen to $29 billion.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testified last month before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees that the conflict had cost $25 billion up to that point, but U.S. officials familiar with internal assessments suggested at the time that the war could already have cost close to $50 billion.
Read more here.
Kuwait says Iran-linked “infiltrators who attempted to enter the country by sea” arrested after clashes
Kuwaiti authorities have arrested four alleged Iran-linked “infiltrators who attempted to enter the country by sea,” according to the small Persian Gulf nation’s ministry of defense. Two other suspects escaped after clashing with security forces, the ministry said in a statement carried by the Kuna state news agency.
The four confessed during interrogation to “their affiliation to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the ministry was quoted as saying, adding that the group had also admitted to attempting to infiltrate Kuwait’s Bubiyan Island “aboard a fishing boat rented specifically to carry out hostile acts.”
Kuwait, along with its Persian Gulf neighbors, came under repeated Iranian missile and drone attack from Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched their joint war with Iran, until the tenuous ceasefire between Washington and Tehran took effect on April 8.
Ties with China give Iran “strategic diplomatic depth” to relay positions during Trump-Xi summit, Iranian ambassador says
Iran’s relationship with China gives Tehran “strategic diplomatic depth,” Iran’s ambassador to China said Tuesday, adding that Beijing could help to “echo” the Islamic Republic regime’s position on the war during the upcoming summit in the Chinese capital between President Trump and his counterpart Xi Jinping.
“Long-term cooperation with China provides Iran with a kind of strategic diplomatic depth” as it seeks an end to the war “in the face of American pressure,” Ambassador Abdulreza Rahmani Fazli told Iranian state news agency IRNA on Tuesday.
He said China had “paved the way” for the previous round of direct U.S.-Iran peace talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, and he predicted that Beijing could emerge as a key player in ongoing diplomacy.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Beijing last week, and Mr. Trump is due to land in Beijing Tuesday evening, with the Iran war widely expected to be on the agenda as he meets with Xi.
“Iran’s message is clear: a permanent cessation of hostilities, a lasting ceasefire, lifting of the [U.S.] blockade, and respect for Iran’s legitimate rights. China can echo this message at the major power level,” said Fazli.
Hegseth says it’s a “very dynamic situation,” but the ceasefire with Iran “is in effect”
Pressed by Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar of California on the ceasefire with Iran, Defense Secretary Hegseth insisted Tuesday that the truce remains “in effect.”
“As you know, for the most part a ceasefire means the fire is ceasing, and we know that has occurred while negotiations occur, and there are lots of different discussions with our negotiating team that are happening,” Hegseth said at a congressional hearing. “So, it’s a very dynamic situation, where a negotiated settlement could be the outcome here where Iran does not have nuclear capabilities.”
On the brief Project Freedom operation, which, for a day, saw U.S. warships and planes guide a couple commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, Hegseth said “it was paused and it’s an option we could always recommence, should the commander in chief want us to.”
“The theory of the entire case is to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon, and if that has to be done kinetically and militarily, the Department of War is locked and loaded and ready to do that,” he said.
Hegseth also pushed back on the suggestion that U.S. munitions are depleted, saying “that’s not true.”
“Ultimately we have all the munitions needed to execute what we need to execute, and we’re going to ensure that we supercharge that going into the future,” he said.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, who was also testifying before the committee Tuesday, said the U.S. has “sufficient munitions for what we’re tasked to do right now.”
But he added that he “will always want more.”
Supertanker turns back off Omani coast after transiting Strait of Hormuz in “coordination” with Iran
A tanker loaded with Iraqi crude oil turned around and headed back toward the Persian Gulf on Monday off the southern coast of Oman, a day after Iran said the ship had transited the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with Iranian authorities.
Tracking data from the MarineTraffic website shows the Malta-flagged crude oil tanker Agios Fanourios I made a sharp turn off Ras Al Hadd in the Gulf of Oman Monday afternoon, and was slowly moving back westward, back into the strait, on Tuesday afternoon.
Iran said Monday that the ship had coordinated with its authorities for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The Sepah news channel, run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, claimed in a social media post that the ship had been turned back by the ongoing U.S. naval blockade, but the U.S. military did not immediately comment.
The tanker last called at Iraq’s Basra port in late April, and was broadcasting its ultimate destination as Vietnam.
The Pentagon says the U.S. blockade is of Iranian ports and vessels belonging to or linked to Iran, but that other ships are permitted to pass. Iran, however, has warned it will attack any ship transiting the strait without its permission.
Given those dueling de-facto blockades, overall shipping traffic through the vital shipping lanes of the Strait of Hormuz has dropped a staggering 90% since the U.S. and Israel launched their joint war with Iran.
Hegseth: “We have a plan to escalate if necessary, we have a plan to retrograde if necessary”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the Pentagon has a plan for a number of scenarios when asked at a congressional hearing about the possible directions the war with Iran could take.
Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota questioned Hegseth about continued military operations in Iran, following a dispute over a 60-day timeline for the administration to withdraw American forces from a conflict in the absence of congressional authorization. McCollum said if Congress doesn’t authorize continued military operations, “you’re going to have to have a plan put in place to draw down our troops, to reset the region and protect our assets.”
“We have a plan for all of that,” Hegseth said. “We have a plan to escalate if necessary, we have a plan to retrograde if necessary, we have a plan to shift assets.”
Hegseth said he wouldn’t reveal any next steps in a public setting, “considering the gravity of the mission that the president is undertaking to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear bomb.”
The defense secretary is testifying to a House appropriations subcommittee about the Pentagon’s budget proposal.
Hegseth said the $1.5 trillion budget request, “reflects the urgency of the moment” and would address both the “deferment of longstanding problems as well as position our forces for the current and future fight.”
Iran’s government promises to drop internet restrictions “once normal conditions return”
An Iranian government spokeswoman promised the country’s roughly 93 million people on Monday that the severe restrictions on internet access would be lifted, but not until “normal conditions return.”
“The government’s view is that everyone should have fair access to all infrastructure, including the internet,” Fatemah Mohajerani said in a statement delivered on Iranian state TV.
“The restrictions that have been imposed over the years, especially in 1404 [2025–2026], when their frequency was naturally higher due to very difficult, severe, and painful events that occurred that year, mean that we have passed through a year with frequent internet disruptions,” Mohajerani said. “After the disruptions and once normal conditions return — that is, a return to normal circumstances — this situation will also return to normal, God willing.”
Restrictions, which at times have amounted to a virtual shutdown of internet access, have been in place since the beginning of the year, when Iran was rocked by widespread anti-government protests.
Trump says Iran went back on allowing U.S. to remove highly enriched uranium
President Trump said Monday that Iran had informed his administration it would allow the U.S. to come in and help extract its highly enriched uranium, but that Tehran retracted that offer in its latest ceasefire proposal.
“They changed their mind, because they didn’t put it in the paper,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
He said that, in addition to taking control of the uranium, the U.S. wants Iran to “guarantee no nuclear weapons for a very long period of time and a couple of other minor things, but they just can’t get there. So they agree with us and then they take it back.”
Iran has not publicly agreed to give up its enriched uranium, and the regime insists its nuclear program has always been peaceful — for energy, medical and research purposes — and that it is a legitimate national right.
Mr. Trump on Sunday dismissed Iran’s response to the latest U.S. peace deal offer as “totally unacceptable.”
Qatar’s state-backed Al-Jazeera news outlet said Iranian negotiators had proposed transferring the country’s enriched uranium to Russia, but that Washington rejected that idea and instead requested it be moved to a third country, which Iran refused.
Hezbollah chief says group’s weapons not on table in Lebanon-Israel negotiations
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said Tuesday that his Iran-backed group’s weapons stockpiles were not part of upcoming negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, and he vowed that Hezbollah fighters would turn the battlefield into “hell” for Israeli forces.
“Nobody outside Lebanon has anything to do with the weapons, the resistance … this is an internal Lebanese matter and not part of negotiations with the enemy,” Qassem said in a written statement ahead of a third round of talks in Washington between Lebanese and Israeli representatives this Thursday and Friday.
Hezbollah has condemned direct talks between Lebanon and Israel as “appeasement.”
“We face an Israeli-American aggression seeking to subjugate our country Lebanon and make it part of Greater Israel,” Qassem said.
“We will not surrender and we will continue to defend Lebanon and its people, however long it takes and however great the sacrifices… we will not abandon the battlefield and we will turn it into hell for Israel,” he added in the statement, which was addressed to the group’s fighters and broadcast on its Al-Manar television channel, as fighting continues in Lebanon despite a ceasefire.
CBS/AFP
U.S. ambassador to Israel says Israel sent Iron Dome batteries and personnel to UAE
Israel sent Iron Dome anti-missile batteries and personnel to operate them to the United Arab Emirates to defend the country during the Iran war, the U.S. ambassador to the country said Tuesday.
Mike Huckabee made the comment on stage at an event in Tel Aviv, Israel.
“I’d like to say a word of appreciation for United Arab Emirates, the first Abraham accord member,” Huckabee said at the Tel Aviv Conference. “Just look at the benefits. Israel just sent them Iron Dome batteries and personnel to help operate them.”
The United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020.
The UAE didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment over the acknowledgment by Huckabee, though it underlined the growing defense relationship between the countries long suspicious of Iran.
Israeli strikes kill 6 in southern Lebanon, state media say
Israeli strikes on a town in southern Lebanon killed six people and wounded seven others, state media said Tuesday, as fighting continued despite a ceasefire agreement.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israeli strikes Monday night hit a house in Kfar Dounine, a town about 59 miles from Beirut.
The NNA reported the wounded were transported to hospitals in the coastal city of Tyre.
Israel has intensified its attacks in south Lebanon as it trades fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah despite an April 17 ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanon government that aimed to halt the fighting.
More than 2,800 people have been killed in Lebanon since the country was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2, according to health authorities.
Lebanese leaders recently urged the U.S. ambassador to Beirut to pressure Israel to halt its attacks during the truce, though Israel has also reported coming under fire.
Israel’s military said over the weekend that one of its soldiers was killed in fighting near the border with Lebanon, bringing its losses to 18 troops and a civilian contractor since the war began.
The NNA on Tuesday reported strikes near other southern Lebanese towns, and the Israeli military ordered an evacuation of multiple Lebanese towns.
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said Tuesday that his Iran-backed group’s weapons were not part of upcoming negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, and vowed his fighters would turn the battlefield into “hell” for Israeli forces.
Iran ready to “teach a lesson” if attacked, parliament speaker says
The speaker of Iran’s parliament said his country’s military stood ready to “teach a lesson” to any aggressor on Monday, after President Trump warned the ceasefire in the Middle East was hanging by a thread.
“Our armed forces are ready to respond and to teach a lesson for any aggression,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on social media. “A bad strategy and bad decisions always lead to bad results — the world already understands this.”
Mediator Pakistan allowed Iran to park military aircraft on its airfields
As Pakistan positioned itself as a diplomatic conduit between Tehran and Washington, it quietly allowed Iranian military aircraft to park on its airfields, potentially shielding them from American airstrikes, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.
Iran also sent civilian aircraft to park in neighboring Afghanistan. It was not clear if military aircraft were among those flights, two of the officials told CBS News.
Together, the movements reflected an apparent effort to insulate some of Iran’s remaining military and aviation assets from the expanding conflict, even as officials publicly served as brokers for de-escalation.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry told CBS News the reporting was “misleading and sensationalized.”
Read more here.
Trump says ceasefire is “on life support” after “garbage” Iranian response
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, President Trump said Monday that the Iran ceasefire is “on life support” after the “garbage” response Iran sent the U.S.
“It’s unbelievably weak, I would say,” the president responded when asked if the ceasefire remains in place.
“I would call it the weakest, right now, after reading that piece of garbage they sent us. I didn’t even finish reading it. I said, they’re going to waste my time reading it. I would say it’s one of the weakest, right now, it’s on life support.”