Trump says Strait of Hormuz could be reopened Wednesday after touting 'very good' Iran negotiations

Iran has executed at least 56 people on national security-related charges since March, including 27 in cases linked to anti-regime protests earlier this year, according to United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk.

Türk said more than 100 others are at risk of being put to death on similar charges.

"I am alarmed by the rise in executions and death sentences issued in Iran since March, and that capital punishment continues to be used to instill fear among the population and suppress dissent," Türk said in a statement. "I urge the authorities to urgently halt all executions and move towards the abolition of the death penalty."

Türk also raised concerns that confessions were reportedly obtained through torture, some executions may have been carried out in public, and defendants were put to death just weeks after their arrests.

"Twelve defendants were reportedly sentenced to death following a single three-hour closed-door hearing," Türk said.

The demonstrations against the Iranian regime began on Dec. 28, 2025, after citizens became frustrated with country's worsening economy and the declining value of its currency, according to the UN.

By January, the discontent had spread throughout the entire nation, with many chanting slogans directly denouncing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's leadership, The Associated Press reported.

Iran cracked down with brute force, leading to worldwide condemnation and threats of attack from the United States.

Iran's government has estimated 3,000 people died amid the protests. Human rights organizations believe the death toll was likely in the tens of thousands, the UN has said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Yemen's Houthis, an Iran-backed terrorist group, said Wednesday they struck another Saudi oil tanker that had been moving through the northern Red Sea.

The Saudi-flagged "Wafa" was targeted with “a number of ballistic missiles,” making it the eighth vessel the Houthis say they have struck since announcing a blockade of Saudi Arabia on July 22, according to spokesman Yahya Saree.

The Houthis said the ship was hit while it was off the coast of Yanbu, a Saudi Arabian city roughly 650 miles from the country's border with Yemen.

Saree said the Houthis will escalate attacks in the northern Red Sea, where Saudi Arabia is diverting oil tankers to avoid strikes in the southern Red Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.

Saudi Arabia has not publicly acknowledged the latest attack, but it has previously retaliated with airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump said he believes gas prices will sink to around $2.50 per gallon in the United States if the Strait of Hormuz can be fully reopened.

"If we have no friction, then oil will go down to—I think it'll go down to two-and-a-half dollars a gallon," Trump said.

According to AAA, the average price for regular gasoline across the U.S. currently sits at $4.08 per gallon.

Trump also told Fox News the U.S. held an "all-day negotiation" with Iran on Tuesday that went very well.

Later that same day, the president told reporters before he left Los Angeles on Air Force One that a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could be reached on Wednesday or Thursday.

"They want to talk," Trump said of his counterparts in Iran. "We've been talking. They want to make a deal. They do not want to be hit."

Iran is ramping up political pressure on the United States in a bid to gain leverage, a leading Iran analyst warned Tuesday.

"This is a regime that knows it cannot win an outright battle of conventional capability," Foundation for Defense of Democracies Iran Program Senior Director Behnam Ben Taleblu said on Fox News' "America Reports."

"They're even fighting a battle of wills right now against the Trump administration, both on the battlefield and diplomatically," he added.

"Clearly they have some steel, but this is a regime that has shown us, in word and deed, over the past 47 years, that it will play to the edge and that it will gamble. Unfortunately, we're in a very tough situation right now," Taleblu said.

Taleblu also said no U.S. president has inflicted more damage on the Iranian regime than President Donald Trump, but argued that the administration has recently pulled back from several earlier threats.

"I think eight or nine — and even a newspaper run by Tehran's municipality basically said all of Trump's threats are watered down and that the U.S. is a paper tiger," he said."So this is a tough position for U.S. deterrence to be in right now, despite the good track record that the president has had."

Taleblu's remarks came as Qatar said Tuesday that mediators were making progress toward ending the war, although Tehran denied Trump's assertion that talks were already underway.