China is looking to help rebuild Iran after Tehran signed a deal with the United States to end the war. Beijing is expected to provide economic and diplomatic support as Iran begins reconstruction efforts.

During a meeting in New Delhi on Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told an Iranian security official, Ghadir Nezamipour, that China was ready to play a constructive role in restoring peace and stability in the region.

"China is willing to continue to provide assistance in its own way and play a constructive role in restoring regional peace and tranquility at an early date," Wang said, according to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The deal between Iran and the United States to end the Middle East war is "America's declaration of defeat", Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the head of the Iranian negotiating team, said on Wednesday.

"The Islamabad understanding was not the result of pressure and coercion, but rather the result of the resistance and authority of the brave Iranian nation," Ghalibaf said at a conference in Azerbaijan broadcast on Iranian television.

"That is why, the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding became a declaration of America's defeat," he said, adding that security in the Middle East must be ensured by the countries of the region.

The US-Iran peace process is well and truly on. In accordance with the provisions of the 14-Point MoU that was signed on June 16, the first round of talks were held in Burgenstock, Switzerland, on June 22. It resulted in the agreement for a roadmap of 60 days, which involves many confidence-building measures before the really tricky issues are discussed and agreed upon. Coming in the backdrop of many doubts and apprehensions if and when the talks will take place, mainly due to the continuing ceasefire violations in Southern Lebanon and the occasional threat from President Trump of restarting the war and bombing Iran, this roadmap is indeed a welcome step. However, the bigger question is not the the roadmap itself but whether it can finally lead to an acceptable deal that can ensure lasting peace in the region, battered by war and instability for almost three years since the outbreak of Gaza war in October 2023.

The head of the UN's nuclear agency signalled Wednesday that Iranian nuclear enrichment sites would be visited by his inspectors, a key component in the interim deal between the United States and Iran to reach an end to the war.

Since Israel launched a 12-day war on Iran in 2025, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been blocked by Tehran from visiting enrichment sites where the Islamic Republic is believed to store enough highly enriched uranium to potentially build as many as 10 nuclear weapons, should it choose to rush for the bomb. Iran long has maintained that its program is peaceful, though it is the only country in the world to have uranium enriched up to 60 per cent purity without a weapons program.

US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance say their interim deal to end the war with Iran will deliver a financial windfall to American farmers. But the Iranians deny it.

Lashing back at critics Tuesday on his Truth Social media platform, Trump said US farmers would get a payday: The US Treasury Department, he wrote, would release the Iranian assets "into escrow, controlled by the USA, and will be used for the purchase of food and medical supplies, exclusively from the United States, including Corn, Wheat, and Soybeans from our great American farmers. These are things that are desperately needed by Iran.''

Vance, who spoke about the proposal after high-level talks in Switzerland, and Trump say that any frozen funds and assets held outside of Iran will be used to buy US crops.

But the Iranians deny that's part of the deal. A spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said any agricultural purchases would be based on "prices and quality,'' not terms dictated by Washington.

"It is interesting that the philosophy and goal of the war, which was the destruction of the Iranian civilization and the collapse of Iran, has become enriching American farmers," Baghaei said.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticised Congress passing a largely symbolic resolution calling for an end to the war with Iran, calling it "poorly timed and meaningless."

"So, I have Iran on the 'ropes,' ready to go down for the fall...and the U.S. Senate decides to have a poorly timed and meaningless War Powers Act Vote," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform of the 50-48 Senate vote, adding: "These Senators have just made my job more difficult, but I will get it done, one way or the other, because I always get it done!"

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, US President Donald Trump claimed he has "Iran on the ropes, ready to go down for the fall."

Trump further claimed that Iran is "willing to give US practically anything for the first time in decades."

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed that 19 millions barrels of oil flowed out of the Hormuz Strait on Monday, which was an all time record.

"Oil prices are tumbling down, and the world is a much safer place," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Just one in four Americans believes President Donald Trump's war with Iran was worth its costs and a majority worry that a truce with Tehran is unlikely to last, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Only 23% of Americans — including just half of Republicans — think the US is now in a stronger position with Iran compared with its position before the war, the poll found. Some 35% of respondents think it is in a weaker position. The rest said they were not sure or that the US position was about the same as before.

The US Senate backed legislation on Tuesday directing President Donald Trump to halt US military action against Iran, the latest rebuke of the Republican president from an increasingly restive Congress.

The Senate voted 50-48 in favor of the war powers resolution, which passed the House of Representatives early this month, reflecting growing concern even among some of Trump's Republicans about the unpopular conflict that began on February 28.