US President Donald Trump said he would be reviewing Iran's new 14-point peace proposal but cast doubt over its prospects, arguing that Tehran has not yet "paid a big enough price" for its actions over the last 47 years.

All crew aboard the unidentified carrier were safe after the attack off Sirik, Iran. The report warns vessels to transit with caution.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani expressed deep apprehension regarding the escalating tensions across the Middle East during a telephone conversation with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi.

In a statement shared on X on Saturday, Tajani noted that both parties examined the "ongoing conflict in Iran and the situation in the Middle East," while highlighting the critical necessity of averting a broader escalation.

A bulk carrier near the Strait of Hormuz has reported being attacked by multiple small craft, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said Sunday, marking at least two dozen attacks in and around the strait since the Iran war began.

All crew aboard the unidentified carrier were safe after the attack off Sirik, Iran. The report warns vessels to transit with caution.

Iranian officials have asserted that they continue to control the strait and that ships not affiliated with the United States or Israel can pass if they pay a toll.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said he on Sunday demanded that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz and give up its nuclear weapons programme in a telephone call with Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi.

"I emphasised that Germany supports a negotiated solution," Wadephul said in a post on X about the call. "As a close US ally, we share the same goal: Iran must completely and verifiably renounce nuclear weapons and immediately open the Strait of Hormuz, as also demanded by" US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

A tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for India has sailed out of the Strait of Hormuz and is now headed towards the country, an official statement said on Sunday.

The Marshall Islands-flagged LPG carrier MT Sarv Shakti, loaded with 46,313 tonnes of LPG and staffed by 20 crew, including 18 Indians, cleared the key shipping chokepoint on May 2 and is expected to reach Visakhapatnam on May 13, it said.

The cargo -- enough to meet half a days requirement of the country -- will partly tide over supply constraints being faced since the start of the West Asia conflict more than two months back.

Iranian authorities plan to turn a bombsite at a university in central Iran into a museum about the impact of US-Israeli strikes, an official said. 

"The current damaged site will be preserved as a war museum at the university to remain a document of the country's scientific oppression in history," said Zafarollah Kalantari, head of Isfahan University of Technology on Saturday. 

He added that other land had been allocated for the "construction of a new building and provision of advanced equipment" for the university, according to the official IRNA news agency.  (AFP)

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that the United States faced a choice between an "impossible" military operation or a "bad deal" with the Islamic republic.

US President Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday that there is the possibility the United States could restart strikes on Iran. Trump was responding to a reporter's question at West Palm Beach in Florida. (Reuters)

The United States is warning shipping companies they could face sanctions for paying Iran to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz.

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control alert on Friday adds pressure in the standoff over control of the strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where about a fifth of the world's trade in oil and natural gas typically passes.

Iran effectively closed the strait by attacking and threatening ships after the US and Israel launched a war on February 28. It later offered some ships safe passage via routes closer to its shore, charging fees at times.

The US warns against transfers not only in cash but also in "digital assets, offsets, informal swaps, or other in-kind payments," including charitable donations and payments at Iranian embassies.

(AFP)

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, on Saturday confirmed that Tehran's recent diplomatic proposal to the United States, presented via Pakistan as a mediator, is intended to "permanently end the imposed war" and bring a resolution to the ongoing tensions between the two countries.

According to the state broadcaster, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the remarks came in a gathering of foreign diplomats and ambassadors based in Tehran, where Gharibabadi emphasised Iran's preparedness for both diplomatic negotiations and any potential military aggression.

"Iran has always believed in interest-based diplomacy to resolve existing issues and has played its part," the deputy minister said, as quoted by IRIB.

The United States has redirected 48 vessels in the Persian Gulf, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz, over the past 20 days amid ongoing enforcement actions related to restrictions on Iranian maritime assets by the US Navy.

The update was shared by US Central Command (CENTCOM) in a post on X on Saturday, which said that the USS New Orleans (LPD-18) was operating in the Arabian Sea as part of its deployment during what it described as a blockade of Iranian ports.

"USS New Orleans (LPD 18) sails in the Arabian Sea during the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, April 28. Over the past 20 days, 48 vessels have been redirected to ensure compliance with the blockade," the post read.

(ANI)

According to Iran's Fars News, Mohammad Jafar Asadi, a senior figure in the Iranian military's central command, said, "a renewed conflict between Iran and the United States is likely."

Representative of Iran's Supreme Leader in India, Abdul Majeed Hakeem Ilahi on Saturday characterised the ongoing tensions between his country and the Israel-US alliance as a state of “no war, no peace”.

Calling for an immediate halt to the conflict, he said the global stability hinges on those who initiated the war.

He questioned why countries affected by the war and suffering from the energy crisis are not pressuring the US and Israel to stop the aggression.

Addressing a press conference here, Ilahi said Iran did not want the conflict, but was compelled to respond amid continued attacks, even as negotiations were expected to continue.

(PTI)

An Iranian proposal so far rejected by US President Donald Trump would open shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and end the US blockade of Iran while leaving talks on Iran's nuclear programme for later, a senior Iranian official said.

Trump said he was "not satisfied" with Iran's latest proposal, without spelling out in detail which elements he opposes. "They're asking for things that I can't agree to," he told reporters at the White House.

Iran executed two men accused of spying for Israel, including one accused of gathering intelligence near the Natanz nuclear site in central Isfahan province, Iranian media reported.

They quoted the judiciary as saying Yaghoub Karimpour and Nasser Bakarzadeh were hanged after being found guilty of intelligence cooperation with Israel and its spy agency, Mossad. 

They said Karimpour passed sensitive information to a Mossad officer, while Bakarzadeh was accused of collecting details on government and religious figures and key sites, including in the Natanz area.

The United States is withdrawing 5,000 troops from NATO ally Germany, the Pentagon announced, as a rift over the Iran war widens between President Donald Trump and Europe.

A senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said recent German rhetoric had been "inappropriate and unhelpful". "The president is rightly reacting to these counterproductive remarks," the official said.

Earlier, Trump had said he may pull US troops from Italy and Spain due to their opposition to the war, telling reporters in the Oval Office, "Italy has not been of any help to us and Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible."

US President Donald Trump evaded a question about striking Iran on Friday.

While Trump was speaking to reporters in Washington, a reporter asked him, "Are you considering new strikes on Iran?" The Republican stepped back and said, "Why would I tell you that?" essentially ending the conversation.

The Pentagon said Friday that it has reached deals with seven tech companies to use their artificial intelligence in its classified computer networks, allowing the military to tap into AI-powered capabilities to help it fight wars.

Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Nvidia, OpenAI, Reflection and SpaceX will provide their resources to help "augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments," the Defense Department said.

Notably absent from the list is AI company Anthropic, after its public dispute and legal fight with the Trump administration over the ethics and safety of AI usage in war.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has approved expedited arms transfers to Israel, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, bypassing a standard congressional review to rush air defense missiles and laser guidance systems to the Middle East as the Iran war ceasefire seems ever more fragile.

The agreements amount to nearly $9 billion, according to the State Department.

The department authorized the sale to Israel of as many as 10,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System-II All Up Rounds, worth $992.4 million and manufactured by BAE Systems.

President Donald Trump said the US is in a war with Iran because "lunatics can't have a nuclear weapon", a statement that comes at a time the Republican has told the US Congress that the war stands terminated.

US action against Iran saved the Middle East from a trigger-happy nuclear-enabled Iran, he said at an event in Florida. "We stopped them (Iran) with the B2 bombers. If we didn't do that, they would've had a nuclear weapon. Israel, the Middle East, and Europe would have been blown to pieces," he said.

Trump claimed that Iran is getting decimated, adding that, "They have no navy. They have no air force. They have no anti-aircraft equipment. They have no radar. Their leaders are all gone."

US President Donald Trump on Friday said military action was taken against Iran's nuclear programme to save the Gulf region, including Israel, from the threat posed if Tehran had been successful in having a nuclear weapon.

Speaking at the Villages Charter School in Florida, Trump described the stakes of the confrontation with Iran.

"Because we have to take a little journey down to a beautiful country known as Iran, and we have to make sure that they don't have a nuclear weapon. 

US President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States faces a stark choice in its approach to Iran, either to pursue a negotiated settlement or escalate militarily.

The US State Department said on Friday it was approving military sales worth a total of over $8.6 billion to Middle Eastern allies Israel, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

The announcement comes as the US and Israel's war against Iran marked nine weeks since its start and more than three weeks since a fragile ceasefire in the Iran war came into effect.

The United Nations' telecoms agency decided on Friday to condemn, monitor and report on the impact of Iranian attacks on telecommunications infrastructure in four targeted countries in the Middle East.

Since the war in the region began on February 28 with a barrage of US and Israeli strikes on Iran, Tehran has retaliated, attacking infrastructure across the Gulf.

The six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, plus Jordan, demanded action at the UN's International Telecommunications Union agency.

President Donald Trump told top US lawmakers on Friday that hostilities in Iran had ended, after coming under pressure from Congress to seek authorization for the conflict as it headed into its third month.

Trump told reporters outside White House that he is 'not satisfied' with new Iran proposal

The United States imposed new sanctions Friday on three Iranian foreign currency exchange firms, in an effort to target Tehran's "financial lifelines" in the Middle East war.

The US Treasury Department warned in a separate statement against paying a "toll" to Iran's government in exchange for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, saying this could trigger sanctions.

Tehran has virtually blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for energy transit, since US-Israeli strikes on Iran from late February.

(AFP)

Tel Aviv sent a version of its Iron Beam laser defence system to the UAE, which vaporises short-range rockets and drones. It was first used by Israel against Hezbollah projectiles from Lebanon.

Iran has delivered a new proposal for talks with the United States via mediator Pakistan, state media reported on Friday. 

"The Islamic Republic of Iran delivered the text of its latest negotiating proposal to Pakistan, as the mediator in talks with the United States, on Thursday evening," the official IRNA news agency reported, without elaborating.

(AFP)

The cost of sending some aid to Sudan - the world's largest displacement crisis - has more than doubled due to the Iran war, as shipping disruption pushes up costs and delays the delivery of relief, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday.

Heightened insecurity around key Gulf shipping routes, including the Strait of Hormuz, as well as congestion at ports, rising fuel prices and higher insurance premiums have all hampered the delivery of aid, particularly in Africa, the agency said.

Ships with aid that previously passed from Dubai through the Strait of Hormuz are being replaced by ships coming from Europe around the Cape of Good Hope, adding up to 25 days to delivery times, UNHCR spokesperson Carlotta Wolf told reporters in Geneva.

"People in dire need are receiving things that are ready later than what's needed," she said.

(Reuters)

The U.S. Navy is ramping up its AI capabilities to hunt for Iranian mines in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most critical shipping lanes, a recently awarded contract shows.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. Navy is clearing Iranian mines from the strait, a vital sea route for oil shipments, whose disruption is increasingly threatening the global economy. Sweeping for underwater explosives could take months despite a tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran in their weeks-long war.

The up to $100 million contract for the San Francisco artificial intelligence company Domino Data Lab could quicken this process with software that can teach underwater drones to identify new types of mines in a matter of days.

(Reuters)

Tehran's air defences were activated to counter small aircraft and drones late Thursday, as the White House signalled that it will not be reined in by a congressional deadline on the Iran war.

The Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that air defence systems, heard in some parts of the Iranian capital, were activated "to counter small aircraft and reconnaissance drones" for around 20 minutes but that the situation had returned to "normal".

US President Donald Trump's administration faced a looming midnight deadline to secure congressional authorisation for the war against Iran, setting up a clash between the White House and Congress.

The Trump administration argued that the 60-day clock to seek authorisation was effectively paused by a ceasefire announced last month.

A senior United Arab Emirates official said on Friday Tehran could not be trusted over any unilateral arrangements it makes for the Strait of Hormuz, in a sign of deep mistrust on all sides as efforts to end the Iran war remained at an impasse.

Two months into the conflict, the vital sea channel is still largely closed because of an Iranian blockade and the U.S. Navy is blocking exports of Iranian crude oil. The blockade has choked off 20% of the world's oil and gas supplies, pushing up global energy prices and increasing concerns that there will be an economic downturn.

A ceasefire has been in place since April 8 but reports that U.S. President Donald Trump was to be briefed on plans for new military strikes to compel Iran to negotiate pushed global oil prices up to a four-year high at one point on Thursday. 

Iran has activated air defences and plans a wide response if attacked, having assessed that there will be a short, intensive U.S. strike, possibly followed by an Israeli attack, two senior Iranian sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM), which is actively conducting a naval blockade of Iranian ports, has briefed President Donald Trump on its plan for potential military action in Iran.

The 45-minute briefing, which the Chairperson of the Joint Chiefs also attended, coincides with reports that claimed the United States recently shipped over 6,000 tonnes of munitions and materiel to Israel, fuelling speculation about the possibility that US President Donald Trump might be planning to resume major combat operations in Iran to end the stalemate.

Citing the Israeli Defence Ministry, reports by The Israel Times and The Jerusalem Post claimed that two cargo ships and several planes carrying 6,500 tonnes (6,500,000 kilograms) of air and ground munitions, military trucks, Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs), and additional military equipment from the United States arrived in Israel this week.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth mounted a forceful defence of President Donald Trump's proposed $1.5 trillion military budget, arguing it reflects "the urgency of the moment" and is essential to counter a rapidly deteriorating global security environment.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Hegseth said the record request would "position our forces for the current and future fights" while reversing years of "underinvestment and mismanagement."

"The $1.5 trillion budget will ensure that the United States continues to maintain the world's most powerful and capable military," he said.

Iran's supreme leader vowed to protect the Islamic Republic's nuclear and missile capabilities, which US President Donald Trump has sought to curtail through airstrikes and as part of a wider deal to cement the war's shaky ceasefire.

In a statement read by a state television anchor, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said the only place Americans belonged in the Persian Gulf is "at the bottom of its waters" and that a "new chapter" was being written in the region's history.

His remarks come as Iran's economy is reeling and its oil industry is being squeezed by a US Navy blockade halting its tankers from getting out to sea. The world economy is also under pressure as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all crude oil is transported.

The Trump administration is arguing that the war in Iran has already ended because of the ceasefire that began in early April, an interpretation that would allow the White House to avoid the need to seek congressional approval.

The statement furthers an argument laid out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during testimony in the Senate earlier Thursday, when he said the ceasefire effectively paused the war. Under that rationale, the administration has not yet met the requirement mandated by a 1973 law to seek formal approval from Congress for military action that extends beyond 60 days.

Under the War Powers Resolution, the law that sought to constrain a president's military powers, President Donald Trump had until Friday to seek congressional authorization or cease fighting. The law also allows an administration to extend that deadline by 30 days.