• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says regional diplomacy must go beyond meetings, adding that it “must be a real tool: for crisis management, maintaining dialogue, preventing escalation, and driving practical cooperation.”
• The Kremlin says US President Donald Trump welcomes Russia’s involvement in Iran settlement efforts during a call with Putin.
• Iran’s IRGC has said it has struck a giant LPG gas carrier named NV Sunshine “attempting to pass through the illegal route” south of the Strait of Hormuz.
• US Central Command says its forces have redirected 133 commercial vessels during an ‘ironclad’ blockade on Iran.

US war on Iran

Trump may return to war with Iran after the midterms

US President Donald Trump says he will not order new strikes on Iran before the November 3 midterm elections, despite reports that the Pentagon has prepared options for renewed military action.

The timing matters. Polls show the Iran war remains deeply unpopular in the United States, with rising fuel and food prices adding to voter frustration ahead of the vote.

But Trump has repeatedly left open the possibility of escalating after the elections. In recent weeks, he has threatened to “end” the war with force and said it would be “possible” to ramp up bombing afterwards.

Meanwhile, the US has reinforced its military presence in the region with thousands of additional sailors and Marines, several warships and another carrier strike group.

Trump is either genuinely signaling restraint — or simply delaying a decision until after Americans vote.

Assassinating Ali Khamenei was a ‘mistake’, Israeli politician says

The leader of Israel’s Democrats party says the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the beginning of the US-Israel war on Iran was a “mistake”.

“I think, unequivocally, the elimination of Khamenei, the father, was a mistake – not because he didn’t deserve to die, only because it doesn’t serve the interests of the State of Israel,” Yair Golan said.

Khamenei was assassinated in the opening strikes of the war on February 28 along with several other senior Iranian officials. He has since been replaced by his son, Mojtaba, who is believed to be far less risk-averse than his father. The elder Khamenei issued a fatwa in 2003 banning nuclear weapons in Iran, arguing that such weapons violated the tenets of Islam.

Golan also called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of toppling the Iranian government “unrealistic”.

On June 16, 2025, and during a interview with ABC News, Netanyahu called on the US for help in the assassination of Khamenei while knowing that Hezbollah would respond.  On December 17th that year, when he went to visit Washington, Netanyahu presented Trump attack plans and vowed to attack Iran in 2026 again.

Then, Netanyahu has been obsessed with Iran's nuclear program for more than 30 years.

Golan's claim should be seen as a election stunt, as he should have said that eight months ago when Netanyahu spilled over the war to Lebanon. Hezbollah threw it back to Netanyahu.

Iran’s crisis management chief calls for fuel storage tanks to be moved out of Tehran

The head of Iran’s Crisis Management Organization says fuel storage tanks should be relocated outside Tehran to protect civilians in the event of US or Israeli attacks, the Tasnim News Agency reports.

“The Crisis Management Organization has issued a formal expert recommendation to relocate these tanks to safe sites outside the city in order to protect the lives and property of citizens,” Hossein Sajedinia said.

Sajedinia added that previous fires involving fuel tanks had been extinguished with the help of Iranian energy companies.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran’s energy infrastructure. Tehran has warned that it would respond in kind by targeting energy facilities throughout the Gulf region.

Tehran preparing for US attack despite Trump election statements: Senior Iranian editor

Despite comments by Trump that he will not attack Iran before next month’s midterm elections, Tehran is preparing for a new potential confrontation and testing new air defence systems, with the Iranian military bracing for ongoing pressure over the next two years and treating any agreements as strictly temporary, the editor-in-chief of the Iranian newspaper Al-Wefaq said.

“The Iranian armed forces are ready. When we see the testing of new air defence systems in Tehran and other Iranian cities today, alongside ongoing military exercises, it becomes clear that the Iranian side does not actually base its calculations on the US president’s statements,” Mokhtar Haddad said.

Haddad said there is a lack of trust in Iran regarding what Trump says, and that the government and the military are not relying on what he called “election-related rhetoric”.

“They believe the US president could reverse any step he has taken at any moment. He has a track record of this, showing no hesitation to upend negotiations even when they are at the peak of positivity,” he said.

Haddad added that Iran anticipates that the conflict will persist over the next two years, and that even if any agreements are reached, the outcomes will likely be temporary given the US president’s behaviour.

“Therefore, Iran is bracing for a protracted conflict and expects to face ongoing difficulties with the current US president for the next two years,” he said.

“It is preparing for a new round of conflict in the short term, while gearing up for continued confrontation and pressure in the long term.”

IRAN-US talks

US congressman calls for ‘negotiated settlement’ to end Iran war

US Representative Adam Smith, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, has called for a “negotiated settlement” to end the war on Iran.

In a post on X, he wrote that the Trump administration “has not accomplished its strategic objectives after over seven months of war”.

“It is far past time for President Trump to wake up to reality and evaluate the real options on the table that will best serve the interests of the American people and our regional partners,” Smith added.

He suggested that an agreement similar to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal is “the only logical end to this war”.

Putin tells Trump what Iran wants for war to end

Russian President Vladimir Putin has conveyed Iran’s conditions for ending the war to US President Donald Trump, the Kremlin says.

“In coordination ⁠with the president ⁠of Iran, Putin conveyed to Trump the Iranian ⁠side’s view on ⁠a possible ⁠resolution of the conflict,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian media outlets.

Trump announced on Friday that he had reached an agreement with Putin allowing Russia to export more than one million tonnes of diesel in the coming months, despite US sanctions.

The US president said he struck the deal in a bid to lower global fuel prices, which have rocketed as a result of the US-Israel war on Iran.

Nuclear issue

Strait of Hormuz

Iran’s IRGC says supertanker in Hormuz exploded after hitting mine

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says a supertanker transiting the “unauthorised” route in the Strait of Hormuz has suffered a “massive explosion” after hitting a mine.

In a statement shared by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, the IRGC said the tanker had turned off its navigation and positioning systems while attempting to leave the strait with crude oil.

“A terrible fire is the end result of any violating tanker that tries to ignore the security and rules of the Strait of Hormuz,” the statement added.

UKMTO says vessels near Ras al-Khaimah told to leave anchorages

Multiple ship captains near the UAE’s Ras al-Khaimah have been “directed via VHF broadcast to move from their anchorages”, ⁠the ⁠UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has said.

Authorities “continue to investigate”, UKMTO said.

Ras al-Khaimah is adjacent to the Strait of Hormuz, and the closest emirate to the waterway.

UKMTO says outbound tanker hit by projectile in Strait of Hormuz

A tanker has reported being hit by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire on board, according to ⁠⁠UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

UKMTO said in a report on Sunday that the outbound tanker was hit on the port side and its crew is safe.

Oil & Oil markets

US arbitrary sanctionism

Under modern international law, the legality of unilateral sanctions is inherently tied to whether the state imposing them is responding to an initial illegal act. Because the attacking belligerent is the original violator of the prohibition on the use of force (Article 2(4) of the UN Charter), any "arbitrary sanctions" it levies cannot be legally justified.

(delusional) US politics

Senior Iranian official hits back at Marco Rubio over Athens speech

Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, has denounced comments made by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about Iran’s history.

“A country whose history began with the massacre of indigenous peoples and has never ceased from colonialism and bloodshed accuses the Achaemenids – who wrote the world’s first declaration of human rights – of crimes!” Azizi said in a post on X.

“Your vile nature has a problem with Iran and Iranians.”

Rubio gave a speech in Athens on Wednesday, during which he argued that the West should “maintains its place at the head of the world”. He also criticized the Achaemenid Empire, which was ruled by an Iranian dynasty and went to war with parts of Ancient Greece.

The (European) forefathers of the white Americans uprooted the native people of what later became the United States.

Iranians are native to their country. Americans are a people from around the world starting from Europe just like the Israelis.

Iran has a native history, culture and tradition, but those of the US descends from Europe.

US problem is with Iranian civilization, not Islamic revolution, adviser to supreme leader says

Another senior Iranian official has criticised remarks made by Rubio during a visit to Athens, where the US secretary of state drew parallels between ancient Greco-Persian conflicts and modern tensions between Tehran and Washington.

In a post on X, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said: “There is a glaring contradiction in Rubio’s recent speech: Standing firm ‘to the last man’ is praised in the context of ancient Greece, yet the steadfastness of the great Iranian nation is disparaged with the label of a ‘death cult’.

“Mr Rubio, your problem is not with the Islamic Revolution; it is with a strong and independent Iranian civilisation.”

Velayati added that praising resistance when it applies to “one’s own” while disparaging it when it applies to “the other” is not civilisation but dishonesty.

Velayati also stated that those who perpetrated the catastrophes of Hiroshima, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan have no right to lecture others on morality.

Trump says oil prices will be ‘tumbling down’ when Iran war ends

US President Donald Trump says oil prices will be “tumbling down” when the war on Iran ends.

During a campaign rally in Syracuse, New York, on Friday, Trump claimed that “more oil is coming through the strait today than it was before the war.”

The US president called on oil refiners and retailers to “start dropping their prices right now”.

He reiterated his claim that the US has “total control over the Strait of Hormuz”.

Trump says he will soon ‘settle or win’ Iran and Ukraine wars

US President Donald Trump has made further remarks regarding Iran during a campaign rally in Syracuse, New York, saying that he expects to soon “settle or win” the Iran war and the Russia-Ukraine war.

During the event on Friday, he claimed again that reaching an end to the Iran war “will be very quick, one way or the other”.

He reiterated a threat to Iran by saying that “either they give us everything or they do not exist any longer”.

He added that resolutions to the conflicts are “moving along at rapid speed”.

Iran ‘not afraid’ of US threats, says Pezeshkian

President Masoud Pezeshkian has said the people of Iran are “not afraid of the enemy’s threats”.

Speaking at the International Exhibition of Rural and Nomadic Capabilities in Tehran, Pezeshkian said that as long as Iranians are alive, they will “remain servants of the proud people of our heroic Iran”.

Despite mounting economic pressure from Washington, Tehran has maintained that it will not compromise on its conditions for ending the war.

In its latest peace proposal, submitted last month, the Iranian government demanded a regional ceasefire, the unfreezing of Iranian assets, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil exports and an end to the US naval blockade. In return, Tehran said it would reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days. Trump rejected the offer.

Iranian threats to LA and San Diego are ‘imaginary’, says Iranian diplomat

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says Trump’s claims that Tehran could attack San Diego or Los Angeles are “imaginary” and being used to “frighten” the American people.

Trump’s comments are “a textbook example of the politics of fear”, Baghaei wrote in a post on X.

The US president drew backlash for suggesting earlier this week that Iran may destroy the West Coast cities, but that it would be a “small price to pay” for a “tremendous victory” over Tehran.

Baghaei said the “real danger” is not from Iran, but “a ruling establishment that has imposed an illegal war on the world”.

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