Iran said on Wednesday it had received a U.S. response to its latest proposal to resurrect the collapsed ceasefire in the Gulf, days after President Donald Trump said he had rejected it.
"At today's cabinet meeting, the American side's proposal was presented to President Masoud Pezeshkian by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi," government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani told Iranian state media on Wednesday.
Trump publicly rejected Iran's proposal last week, and Iran has not confirmed a response to the U.S. counterproposal.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Fox News host Sean Hannity discussed the latest developments in the U.S.-Iran conflict, including escalating tensions in the Middle East, as well reports of an attempted bombing at a U.K. military base used by U.S. forces and the broader security implications on 'Hannity.'
President Donald Trump emphasized that a nuclear-armed Iran would cause immense turmoil and warned of potential threats to Israel, the Middle East, and the United States.
{{#rendered}}Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicts Iran's economy will collapse within two weeks as the country runs out of oil on the water to trade.
FOX Business' Lauren Simonetti and "Varney & Co." host Stuart Varney analyze the timeline and the impact of the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz
This is an excerpt from an opinion article by Fox News' Hugh Hewitt.
"Iran’s regime has lost control of the Strait of Hormuz," Swiss energy analyst and investor Alexander Stahel declared in his Monday morning investment letter "The Commodity Compass."
Stahel followed up his assertion with a 1,200-word description (excluding maps and charts) of how the operation that he describes as "the Hormuz shuttle" got stood up and is now running massive quantities of oil out of the Arabian/Persian Gulf to an oil-thirsty world.
Find and read Stahel’s detailed analysis. He has an "X" account where he posts under his own name and links to his newsletter. He is persuasive.
First, the United Arab Emirates and then its neighbors developed an enormous system to shuttle oil out of the Gulf via a new shipping channel which hugs the Omani coast and which is patrolled and protected by the United States military. Central Command isn’t replicating the destroyer-heavy escort system of decades past when Iran threatened the Strait, but its new tactics are effective and the September decline in the price of oil demonstrated that, as October’s anticipated decline will as well.
It started early. Already back in May, it placed eleven hulls — mostly VLCCs [very large crude carriers], owned, leased & operated by ADNOC [Abu Dhabi National Oil Company] — to get the risky job done of shuttling crude out of the Persian trap via the Oman Lane into the Gulf of Oman, unloading it via Ship-to-Ship (STS) transfer and then re-entering the Persian trap to repeat the trade."
The detailed assessment focuses on the key exporters: "ADNOC has become very good at the Hormuz Shuttle, Aramco [Saudi Arabia’s state-owned energy giant] and Kuwait have learned from the UAE and copied the model. By now, we have some 116 hulls active in the Shuttle trade around the Strait of Hormuz, most of them using the Oman Lane." The assessment is that Qatar and Iraq are also now using the "Hormuz Shuttle."
"Iran has failed to shut the Strait," Stahel concludes, "the shuttle system is scaling, and time is increasingly working against Tehran."
At this writing, West Texas crude — critical to the American market — is at $94.50 a barrel and Brent just under $107.00 as the world’s commodity traders worry that President Trump rejected the Iranian overtures to reopen talks.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz says the attempted hijacking of a Flydubai aircraft on Wednesday was an attempted jihadist terrorist attack.
Katz made the statement after Israeli passengers broke into the plane's cockpit after hearing shouts between the two pilots.
"The serious incident aboard the Flydubai aircraft was an attempted jihadist terrorist attack, thwarted only through the bravery of several Israeli passengers who broke into the cockpit, overpowered the terrorist, and personally restored control of the aircraft to another flight crew that was on board," Katz said in a statement.
"According to the preliminary information available to us, the terrorist had one intention: to crash the aircraft with everyone on board. When the Prime Minister and I issue security warnings and alerts based on intelligence, everyone—both our external enemies and uninformed former officials at home—would do well to listen and take them seriously," he continued.
"Every warning has several intended recipients and objectives. Most importantly, these warnings never come at the expense of—and are no substitute for—the proactive and offensive operations that we are leading together with the IDF against every threat," he added.
{{#rendered}}A Flydubai passenger said the co-pilot apparently stabbed the captain during a cockpit altercation before the Israel-bound jet plunged thousands of feet, triggering a terrifying scene aboard the aircraft and an emergency diversion to Saudi Arabia Wednesday.
Two Israeli officials told Reuters that the co-pilot was believed to have stabbed the captain before cabin crew entered the cockpit and took control of the plane. The officials said Israel's current assessment was that the incident may have been an attempted "terror attack." The Jerusalem Post separately reported that the growing assessment among Israel's security establishment, including the IDF, Mossad and Shin Bet, was that the incident was intended as an act of terror.
The passenger told Fox News that accounts of what happened remained conflicting, but said passengers understood that the co-pilot had stabbed the captain and then collapsed onto the controls.
"There are many different accounts, but apparently the co-pilot stabbed the captain and collapsed onto the controls, shutting down the entire instrument panel. We began plunging downward for several minutes. Everyone on the plane was screaming, the overhead compartments opened, and the power went out. We were sure we were going to die. It was very scary," the passenger said.
Flydubai has not publicly confirmed the reported stabbing or the circumstances surrounding the cockpit confrontation. Saudi Arabia's Tabuk airport said both pilots were hospitalized after suffering injuries, according to Reuters. An investigation into the incident remains underway.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Bradford Betz.
Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg commented on President Donald Trump's handling of Iran during an appearance on "Kudlow" on Tuesday.
Kellogg argued that Iran is showing more signs of weakness than ever as oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz return to nearly pre-war levels and the U.S. maintains its blockade on Iranian ports.
A leading American evangelical leader has condemned remarks made by a Palestinian official claiming the Bible as a "Palestinian book."
Palestinian Ambassador to the U.K. Husam Zomlot made the comments earlier this month at the University of Bradford as the revisionist argument takes shape asserting Jesus was a Palestinian.
Zomlot’s claims that the Bible is a "Palestinian book" and that, by extension, all Christians are Palestinian has drawn sharp criticism from those who say the remarks advance a contested historical narrative about the land.
"The Palestinians aren’t the ‘people of the Book.’ When the ‘Book’ was written, the term Palestinian had not yet been coined," Pastor John Hagee, founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), told Fox News Digital."
The Palestinian ambassador’s attempt to claim the Jewish mantle of religion and history as his own is the clearest indication that his own narrative lacks both," he said, adding: "Such attacks are contemptible, but their danger is decided by who will listen and who will challenge such bigotry."
Hagee argued that describing Jesus as Palestinian because Bethlehem is today in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank would be anachronistic, comparing it to calling television personality Dr. Phil Cherokee simply because he was born in Oklahoma.
"History also disproves what the ambassador is saying. The Romans intentionally adopted the name ‘Palestine’ as a replacement for ‘Judea’ in an effort to erase the Jews from the land, roughly a century after Christ was crucified," he added.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Amelei Botbol.
{{#rendered}}Iranian security forces have stepped up their presence in Tehran and other cities, with motorcycle patrols, checkpoints and forces positioned across major urban areas as authorities brace for possible unrest, multiple sources inside Iran told Fox News Digital.
The security buildup comes as university students have returned to the streets in Tehran, protesting compulsory hijab rules, rising education costs and political repression, videos published on Iran International show.
Sources inside Iran confirmed to Fox News Digital that motorcycle units have been operating across Tehran and other cities during events surrounding Iran’s annual "Sacred Defense Week," while members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Basij and law enforcement have been positioned at major squares and other locations.
The sources also said security personnel have stopped pedestrians, searched some individuals and examined mobile phones, including material authorities consider "anti-regime."
The accounts follow a report from the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s (NCRI's) Committee on Security and Counterterrorism alleging that Iranian authorities ordered a "100%" state of readiness for the Army, IRGC, Basij and law enforcement and canceled leave through Sept. 27. The NCRI also claimed 51,000 personnel had been deployed across Greater Tehran, including 30,000 IRGC and Basij members and 21,000 law enforcement personnel. The reported preparations are taking place as signs of public unrest have begun resurfacing on university campuses. Fox News Digital has not independently confirmed those claims.
One source in Tehran told Fox News Digital that the heightened security presence extends beyond what is visible on the streets.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Efrat Lachter.
The U.S. military is scheduled to end its mission in Iraq on Wednesday, bringing to a close a military operation that has lasted more than two decades — despite an ongoing war in Iran sparked earlier this year.
The Iraq mission began with the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and later evolved into a campaign to help Iraqi forces defeat the Islamic State group after the terrorist organization's rapid rise across Iraq and Syria.
In recent years, however, the remaining U.S. military presence has increasingly served as both a counterweight to Iran's influence and a frequent target of Iran-backed militias.
The Iraq agreement was reached before the U.S. and Iran entered direct conflict earlier this year and under a different administration and military leadership — leaving the final phase of the withdrawal to unfold in a dramatically different security environment than the one envisioned when the timeline was negotiated.
The deadline stems from an agreement reached by Washington and Baghdad in 2024 under President Joe Biden to wind down the U.S.-led coalition's military mission after Iraqi officials concluded their security forces were increasingly capable of handling the fight against ISIS.
It follows the U.S. military's 2021 departure from Afghanistan, also under the Biden administration, which ended another two-decade American war and left no U.S. troops in the country. The withdrawal, however, was chaotic, widely viewed as 'botched' and resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and dozens of civilians.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Morgan Phillips.
The U.S. has officially ended Operation Inherent Resolve and is in the process of withdrawing U.S. military forces from Iraq, the Pentagon confirmed Wednesday.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell says the withdrawal of U.S. and coalition forces will take place from Erbil Air Base, ending a 12-year campaign that saw the defeat of ISIS.
"We expect the Iraqi Security Forces, including the Peshmerga and other security forces in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, to lead the continuing effort to secure Iraq and keep ISIS remnants suppressed. The Department of War will continue to provide targeted training and intelligence support to our Iraqi partners," Parnell said in a statement.
"The primary responsibility for addressing Iraq's remaining security challenges, including ISIS remnants and Iran-aligned militias that undermine Iraqi sovereignty and regional stability, now rests with the Government of Iraq. The United States remains committed to counterterrorism and will continue to work with Iraq and our partners to ensure ISIS can never reconstitute from Iraqi territory," he added.
{{#rendered}}Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is appealing directly to American voters ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, urging them to oppose President Donald Trump and pressure Washington to end the war.
The message appeared in a 25-page letter addressed to Americans and presented by IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi, according to the New York Post.
The letter blamed Trump and U.S. support for Israel for the conflict while accusing the president of misleading Americans about Iran’s nuclear program and the economic consequences of the war.
“The US economy is on the precipice of collapse, and yet he keeps on telling Americans that the economy is booming and the prices will soon start coming down,” the letter said.
The message comes as Iran faces mounting economic pressure of its own, with the rial falling Tuesday to a record low of more than 2.5 million to the U.S. dollar
Fox News' Brittany Miller contributed to this report.
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