All posts tagged: Strait of Hormuz

Iran sends huge 2-word warning to Trump as US peace talks on the brink | World | News

Iran sends huge 2-word warning to Trump as US peace talks on the brink | World | News

Published by Sam Flores

Iran’s National Security Council has warned there will be “no retreat” in the war with the US – hours after Donald Trump piled pressure on Tehran to agree a peace deal. Secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr said the country’s military had shown “fierce resistance and pinned the enemy to the ground”. He added: “Now more than ever, the country needs unity and cohesion so that the Americans and Zionists will also be disappointed in this regard.” This comes after two senior Iranian officials travelled to meet the Qatari Prime Minister in Doha to discuss a peace deal with the US. Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will lead Tehran’s delegation, according to Reuters. They are joined by the governor of Iran’s central bank, there to negotiate the release of frozen funds. Mr Trump had claimed negotiations with Iran “are proceeding nicely” in a lengthy statement on his social media platform Truth Social. However, he warned that if a deal cannot be agreed upon, US forces would go “back to the battlefront … bigger …

Iran ‘to surrender uranium and open Hormuz’ in US deal

Iran ‘to surrender uranium and open Hormuz’ in US deal

Published by Sam Flores

The US and Iran have agreed in principle to a deal that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and see Tehran surrender its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, a US official has said. It is hoped that the agreement will end the US and Iranian blockades of the vital waterway, restoring stability to the Middle East and ending the global energy crisis triggered by the war. A US official stressed that, while the broad framework had been decided, final sign-off was still needed from Donald Trump and Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, expressed cautious optimism that a deal could materialise as early as Monday, while reiterating Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks. “We thought we might have some news last night, maybe today, I wouldn’t read too much into it,” Mr Rubio said in New Delhi, referring to the potential agreement. “We have what I think is a pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the straits, get the straits …

Rubio Says Details on Iran Nuclear Program Still to Be Negotiated

Rubio Says Details on Iran Nuclear Program Still to Be Negotiated

Published by Sam Flores

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States was prepared to enter “into very serious talks” about Iran’s nuclear program if Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz, signaling that the Trump administration was prepared to accept an interim agreement that didn’t immediately take away Iran’s ability to make nuclear weapons. “You can’t do a nuclear thing in 72 hours on the back of a napkin,” Mr. Rubio said in a brief interview Sunday during his visit to New Delhi. “The straits have to be immediately reopened, and then we will enter, under agreed-to parameters, into very serious talks about enrichment, about the highly enriched uranium and about their pledge to never have nuclear weapons.” Neither the United States nor Iran has released details publicly, but on Sunday a U.S. official said there was an agreement in principle to a deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz with a commitment from Iran to dispose of their highly enriched uranium. Iran has not commented publicly, nor confirmed its stance on its stockpile of enriched uranium. …

These Are 5 of the Main Issues to Be Resolved in an Iran-U.S. Peace Deal

These Are 5 of the Main Issues to Be Resolved in an Iran-U.S. Peace Deal

Published by Sam Flores

The United States and Iran have signaled that they are moving closer to a deal to end the war in the Middle East. But neither country has released a copy of the possible deal and as of Sunday afternoon, it remained unclear exactly what they had agreed to — or if they had agreed to much at all. In interviews, American and Iranian officials described basic elements of a deal differently. Notably, they portrayed discussions about the future of the nuclear program — and Iran’s existing stockpiles of highly enriched uranium — in divergent terms. Here are five of the main issues at stake, and the positions each side has revealed at this point. 1. Iran’s Nuclear Program President Trump has repeatedly said Iran must give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which the United States and Israel fear could be used to build a nuclear weapon. Iran has resisted. One big question is what Iran would do with its existing stockpile of enriched uranium. It has about 970 pounds of uranium enriched to …

Israeli Leader Says He and Trump Agree On Blocking an Iranian Nuclear Weapon

Israeli Leader Says He and Trump Agree On Blocking an Iranian Nuclear Weapon

Published by Sam Flores

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Sunday evening that he and President Trump remained united in their stance on preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, in his first statement on an emerging peace deal. A senior U.S. official said on Sunday that the United States and Iran had agreed to a preliminary deal that would fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz and see Iran dispose of its stock of highly enriched uranium. He cautioned that a deal had not been signed and would have to be approved by President Trump and Iran’s supreme leader. Many of the most intractable problems between the countries, including the future of Iran’s nuclear program, were put off to future negotiations, the official added. Mr. Netanyahu’s remarks came more than 18 hours after Mr. Trump first announced the unfolding agreement on Saturday evening in Washington. Mr. Netanyahu’s long silence throughout most of the day on Sunday was not a sign of contentment, according to experts. Analysts said it reflected the uncertainties and anxiety inside Israel that this deal …

Iran Projects Victory in Potential Deal With Washington

Iran Projects Victory in Potential Deal With Washington

Published by Sam Flores

As President Trump and regional diplomats began to herald the possibility of a deal with Iran that could end the war, the spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry responded with his version of a history lesson. Esmail Baghaei, the spokesman, posted an image on social media of a famous relief carved into an archaeological site in Iran that portrays a Roman emperor bowing in submission to a king of the Sassanians, an ancient Iranian empire. “In the Roman mind, Rome was the undisputed center of the world,” Mr. Baghaei wrote, in an apparent reference to the political and military might of Washington today. “The Iranians shattered that illusion.” Despite the military and economic battering Iran has endured during its war with the United States and Israel, its leaders are casting the reported terms of a possible preliminary agreement with Washington as a victory. On Sunday, a senior U.S. official said that the United States and Iran had agreed to a preliminary deal that would fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz and see Iran dispose of …

Many Questions, Few Details in Latest Iran Peace Proposal

Many Questions, Few Details in Latest Iran Peace Proposal

Published by Sam Flores

Eleven weeks ago President Trump said the outcome of the Iran war would be simple. “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” he wrote on social media. The White House issued a clarifying statement hours later, saying that even if no one in Tehran submitted a formal surrender, Mr. Trump would declare when the country had essentially given up, or, as Mr. Trump put it, cried “uncle.” It is too early to tell what exactly Mr. Trump and Iran have agreed to, or if they have agreed to much at all. The president wrote in a Truth Social post that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen under some kind of memorandum of understanding. Two U.S. officials with knowledge of the negotiations said on Saturday that Iran has agreed in principle to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. But the Iranians have not publicly confirmed that, and much hinges on the details of how that would be accomplished. In 2015, without resorting to war, Iran shipped about 97 percent of its …

Britain Preparing for Mission That Could Clear Strait of Hormuz

Britain Preparing for Mission That Could Clear Strait of Hormuz

Published by Sam Flores

President Trump has fumed repeatedly about Britain’s failing to help the U.S. wage war on Iran. The United Kingdom responded by allowing U.S. bombers to strike Iran from southern England, while Britain’s fighter jets have flown thousands of defensive missions across the region. Now the British military is embarking on yet another phase: to secure the Strait of Hormuz if the war comes to an end, dispatching an advanced destroyer to the region and another ship armed with autonomous mine-hunting equipment. The move to remove mines from the waterway could also serve to deflect further criticism from Mr. Trump. The war with Iran was not Britain’s making, but the country cannot escape the conflict’s far-reaching effects. Halted traffic in the strait has crippled international shipping and driven up energy prices in the United States and around the world. The British military took a handful of reporters on Friday to Gibraltar, a small patch of British territory at the tip of Spain. The trip seemed like an effort to highlight its military capabilities and resolve, and …

U.S. and Iran at odds over uranium enrichment, Strait of Hormuz tolls

U.S. and Iran at odds over uranium enrichment, Strait of Hormuz tolls

Published by Sam Flores

An Iranian flag flutters in the wind as ships remain anchored on May 16, 2026 in the Strait of Hormuz near Larak Island, Iran. Majid Saeedi | Getty Images News | Getty Images The U.S. and Iran have signaled progress in talks to end the war, but the combatants remain at loggerheads over Tehran’s enriched uranium stockpile and tolls on the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said there were “good signs” that an agreement to end the conflict is in sight, but warned any such deal would be “unfeasible” if Iran pursues measures to permanently control shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. “No one in the world is in favor of a tolling system. It can’t happen [and] it would be unacceptable,” Rubio told reporters in Miami, Florida. “If we can’t get a good deal, the president’s been clear he has other options,” Rubio said, without elaborating. It comes shortly after Iran said the latest proposal from the U.S. had brought the two warring sides closer to …

Middle East live: US military at ‘peak readiness’, CENTCOM says, as Pakistan mediates Iran talks

Middle East live: US military at ‘peak readiness’, CENTCOM says, as Pakistan mediates Iran talks

Published by Sam Flores

22/05/2026 – 11:00 UAE-Israel ties under scrutiny as Iran war deepens Gulf divides Relations between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran have been severely strained since the US and Israel launched the war on Iran. The UAE, which signed the Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020, has come under repeated Iranian attacks since February. Israeli media reports last week of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s secret wartime visit to the UAE has put the focus on ties between the two countries. Andreas Krieg from King’s College London notes that the Israeli leak could have been aimed at potentially driving a wedge between the UAE and other Gulf states. He describes Israel as “the arsonist who then appeared as a firefighter” while the UAE and other Gulf states are “prisoners of geography”.  22/05/2026 – 10:36 Saudis warn against political chants, flags as Iran war casts shadow over Hajj pilgrimage More than a million Muslims are gathering in Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage overshadowed by the Middle East war, as animosity smoulders across the region despite a fragile …