Iran can either negotiate a deal with the United States or continue to be targeted with military strikes, President Donald Trump said Friday when asked about a U.S. exit strategy.
"There's two ways. I mean, you can just keep doing exactly what we're doing and take them apart piece by piece," Trump told reporters on Friday. "We could do it in a more rapid fashion, which we might do. Or we can negotiate with them, which we're also doing right now. I mean, as we speak, we're talking to them."
Trump said Tehran wants to make a deal despite the current regime's actions.
"Sometimes they don't want to say they want to make a deal," he said. "They want to be the tough guys, but they do want to make a deal."
American intelligence agencies believe Iran's new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is more willing than his father, and predecessor, to develop a nuclear weapon, according to media reports.
Iran's previous Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei maintained that nuclear weapons were forbidden under his religious fatwa, Iran International reported.
A New York Times report said U.S. officials believe Iran has not resumed nuclear enrichment despite moving some equipment to the heavily fortified underground facility known as Pickaxe Mountain.
President Donald Trump repeated calls for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords in an effort to normalize relations with Israel, in order for a recently signed U.S.-Saudi nuclear agreement to take effect.
“In order to do it, they have to be a member of the Abraham Accords, which have been very successful, but it’s time now that they do it,” Trump said Friday.
The deal, inked this week, would allow U.S. companies to provide nuclear energy to Saudi Arabia.
"A lot of things have changed with respect to that country," Trump said. "So, no, we want them to it's a two way street, and we think it's very important for the future of the Middle East."
{{#rendered}}President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States was “locked and loaded” should the war with Iran escalate.
Trump said his administration was talking with leaders in Tehran amid continual military strikes aimed at degrading the country's military capability.
“I think they're getting more and more serious as the days go by. There are two ways. I consider that the smarter way, but the other is probably the easier way, doing what we are doing,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “And we can take that to a much higher level if we want to… We're locked and loaded and ready to go.”
"But we're talking to them. I think while we're talking, we'll see what comes of it,” he added.
A Mozambique-flagged tanker carrying 28 Indian crew members was attacked in Iranian territorial waters on Friday, the Indian embassy in Tehran said.
All crew member were safe, the embassy said. The embassy said it was monitoring the situation.
The vessel, the Disha, was attacked by an unknown missile near the Strait of Hormuz while en route to the Persian Gulf. the Forward Seamen's Union of India, which represents Indian maritime workers, said on X.
President Trump was meeting Friday with top advisers and senior members of his cabinet to decide whether to intensify the military action against Iran, according to media reports.
The meeting comes after the collapse of a fragile cease-fire and a memorandum of understanding that was intended to bring the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table for a longer-term denuclearization deal, The New York Times reported.
“I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision," he told Axios on Thursday. "We are all set for it.”
{{#rendered}}The Trump administration and British leaders are planning to convene a high-level meeting in London next week to discuss a potential international coalition to protect maritime shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
The narrow waterway has been a primary point of contention between the U.S. and the Iranian regime.
The strait is at the center of the fight, with Tehran claiming ownership and U.S. forces initiating a blockade.
Bahrain and Kuwait, Gulf states that have been targeted multiple times by Iranian missile strikes, secretly sent fighter jets to attack targets inside Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The United Arab Emirates provided intelligence on the targets and defensive air cover for the strikes, according to the report.
The airstrikes were carried out earlier this month and targeted drone and missile storage facilities, among other military sites.
The French Embassy in Iran mocked a report by an Iranian state-run media outlet that claimed European ambassadors stationed in Tehran gathered at the residence of the French ambassador on July 20.
The claim was part of a report alleging that the departure of British diplomats from Tehran was part of a U.S. psychological warfare campaign, coordinated directly with Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a phone call with the British Foreign Secretary.
"To the esteemed journalists of the Tehran Times, next time, please check your information with your friends in Iran's intelligence services, who have about ten cameras monitoring the French Embassy," the French Embassy wrote on X. "Unfortunately, no gathering took place at our embassy on July 20!"
{{#rendered}}President Donald Trump thanked Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Rumen Radev after the country’s lawmakers approved allowing the U.S. military to use an air base there in support of American operations amid the war with Iran.
“Thank you, President Radev!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, sharing a Newsmax report on the parliamentary vote despite Tehran’s warnings to Bulgaria.
The vote by the country's parliament to authorize the use of Bezmer Air Base comes as Western allies have resisted participating in the conflict.
The U.S. Embassies in Jordan and Jerusalem each issued stark warnings to Americans in the region amid heightened tensions and the threat of Iranian attacks.
The U.S. Embassy in Jordan, a country which announced its military had already shot down Iranian missiles and drones on Friday, warned Americans against traveling to U.S. bases in Jordan after direct threats from Iran. The embassy also warned all Americans not already in the Middle East from traveling to the area.
"Americans currently in the Middle East should exercise caution and heightened vigilance and should be prepared for flight cancellations, periodic airspace closures, and potential travel disruptions. Some airlines in the region have postponed resumption of earlier flight schedules; others have cancelled some routes," the embassy wrote in a Friday post on X.
"U.S. diplomatic facilities, including outside the Middle East, have been targeted. Iran and groups supportive of Iran may target other U.S. interests overseas or at locations associated with the United States and Americans throughout the world, including U.S. businesses and other institutions," the post continued.
U.S. Embassy Amman advises all Americans to avoid travel to military bases in Jordan. We remind U.S. citizens that Iran has also attacked civilian and critical infrastructure across the Middle East, including hotels, airports, and other civilian locations," the embassy also added.
Similarly, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem also advised U.S. travelers to prepare for canceled flights.
"Due to heightened tensions in the Middle East, the security environment remains complex, with the potential for unforeseen escalation. U.S. citizens should exercise increased caution, stay alert, and be prepared for possible flight cancellations, airspace closures, and other travel disruptions," the embassy said in a Friday post on X.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington, D.C., next week to meet with President Donald Trump and attend the memorial service of late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., his office announced Friday.
The office said Netanyahu will leave Israel on Monday and meet Trump the following day. Graham’s communications director said last week that the late senator's "life and legacy" will be celebrated on Tuesday, July 28, in Washington, D.C., and on Wednesday, July 29, in Columbia and Pickens County, South Carolina.
Netanyahu, in a post on X paying tribute to Graham, described him as a "dear friend."
This is an excerpt from a story by Greg Norman-Diamond.
{{#rendered}}The U.S. government announced new sanctions Friday against Iranian financier Babak Zanjani and his network, targeting four individuals and nine entities accused of helping the Iranian regime evade sanctions and finance destabilizing activities, including support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“The Iranian regime continues to pay a steep economic price for its reckless behavior, with the rial plunging to another record low and inflation up massively,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury will continue cutting off economic access for corrupt Iranian regime elites, along with their financiers and facilitators," Bessent added.
"The United States is holding Babak Zanjani and his sprawling network accountable for enabling the Iranian regime to evade sanctions and finance its destabilizing activities, including supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This action applies further pressure on the Iranian regime following its attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz and regional neighbors," State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott also wrote in a statement.
"Today’s action targets four individuals and nine entities tied to Zanjani’s operations. Zanjani’s re-emergence as a regime-linked financier—despite previously receiving a death sentence in Iran for embezzlement—demonstrates the lengths to which Iranian state-affiliated elites will go to preserve access to the international financial system so that they can enrich themselves, even as they mismanage the Iranian economy," Piggott continued.
"The United States calls on governments and financial institutions worldwide not to engage with entities connected to Zanjani or the broader networks that prop up Iran’s security apparatus. The Iranian regime is the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, and for more than 40 years has used the IRGC to foment instability in the region and beyond. We will continue to expose and disrupt networks that provide the regime and its proxies with the resources they use to undermine U.S. national security interests," his statement concluded.
The Treasury Department also included details about the conglomerates they sanctioned, including the Dot One Conglomerate, which Zanjani heads.
"Zanjani has frequently used his social media profiles to promote and celebrate Dot One ventures, including the April 2025 $800 million rail contract Dot One Rail Company secured with the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways. As both Iranian and international press have increasingly scrutinized Zanjani’s role within the Dot One conglomerate, the companies have obfuscated their ties with him," the statement read.
Nearly five months after launching a sweeping campaign against Iran’s nuclear, missile, naval and proxy capabilities, the Trump administration is now fighting to reopen the Strait of Hormuz while negotiations have yet to produce a permanent settlement.
The administration says its renewed strikes have a clear immediate objective: "making Iran pay." Less clear is what Iran must do to end the strikes — or what conditions would allow the U.S. to step back from a growing military commitment in the region.
President Donald Trump has threatened to expand the campaign to Iran’s nuclear sites, bridges, power plants and other infrastructure.
This is an excerpt from a story by Morgan Phillips.
Qata r's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani urged a return to the previously agreed-upon memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the U.S. and Iran on Friday.
Al-Thani made the plea while meeting with newly minted United Kingdom Prime Minister Andy Burnham in Qatar's capital Doha on Friday.
"The Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs stressed during the meeting the importance of ensuring all parties were committed to dialogue, diplomacy, and implementing the MoU reached between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the freedom of navigation at the Strait of Hormuz, maintaining security in the region, protecting the gains made, and enhancing regional stability," a readout from the state-affiliated Qatari News Agency read.
Leaders from the U.S. and Iran formally signed the MOU on June 17, agreeing to a framework that included a cessation of restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz, the stoppage of U.S. Treasury sanctions on Iran and a deal to end Irani's nuclear program.
However, after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired rockets at civilian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the MOU fell apart. President Donald Trump declared "the MOU is dead" during remarks at the NATO Summit in Turkey on July 8.
{{#rendered}}President Donald Trump announced Friday that China's President Xi Jinping and Russia's President Vladimir Putin both agreed not to sell weapons to Iran.
"President Xi, at our recent meeting in Beijing, China, told me that he would not, under any circumstances, give or sell Weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran — And that statement included Chinese Companies. Considering our relationship, I take him at his word and, besides, l am doing him very big favors," Trump wrote in a Friday post on Truth Social.
"Likewise, President Putin, despite the horrible War going on in Ukraine (The relationship remains, as it does with President Zelenskyy), told me that he would not sell Weapons to Iran. He understands that I do not sell Weapons to Ukraine, but to NATO Countries. They pay full price, and how those Weapons are distributed, I have no idea," Trump's message continued.
"Therefore, two major Countries that people speak of often in terms of Iran are, in my opinion, not participating. If they did, it would be very bad for them — Certainly not in their best interests," he concluded.
The U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned four individuals and nine entities which OFAC claimed were linked to Iran.
Solmaz Bani, Sukhrob Oimakhmadov, Mehdi Rezazadeh and Bahareh Morteza Zanjani were all added to OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, OFAC announced Friday. Bani is a Dutch national, Oimakhmadov is from Tajikistan while Rezazadeh and Zanjani hail from Iran.
Additionally, OFAC added the following companies to the SDN list: BZ Dimaond DMCC, Dot One Value Creation Group, Dotone Airlines Company, Dotone Barter Company, Dotone Gold Company, Dotone Rail Company, Dotone Trip, Zedpay Finansal Sistem Ve Hizmetleri Anonim Sirketi and ZEDX DMCC.
The Dotone companies are linked to the Iranian umbrella corporation Dot One Value Creation Group. BZ Diamond and ZEDX are based out of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while Zedpay is based out of Turkey.
The European Union's European Council announced Friday that it is imposing restrictive measures on six Iranian individuals for "serious human rights violations."
"Today, the EU imposed new restrictive measures on Iranian judges responsible for serious human rights violations, including the persecution of political dissidents and religious minorities," Kaja Kallas, the Vice-President of the European Commission, wrote in an X post Friday.
"We also sanctioned a leading figure of a cyber group who enabled the regime’s repression of information," she added.
"As Tehran intensifies its domestic crackdown, the EU will continue to hold those responsible to account," Kallas concluded.
The judges, according to the council, targeted dissidents such as Nobel Peace Prize Winner Narges Mohammadi, who is currently serving a 13-year prison sentence for what Iranian officials called "collusion against state security."
Mohammadi won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for helping to lead the 2022 protests that followed the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, who died in Iranian police custody after morality police detained her for not covering her hair properly.
The EU has now sanctioned over 269 Iranian officials and 53 entities, according to a Friday EU statement. Those sanctions include asset freezes, travel bans, export bans and more.
{{#rendered}}Eyewitness footage obtained by Reuters shows the moment U.S. strikes produce explosions in Bandar Abbas, a key Iranian port city on the Strait of Hormuz.
Explosions were seen in the Tappe Allah Akbar neighborhood of the city early in the morning July 24, marking the U.S.'s 13th straight day of attacks on Iran.
The fresh round of strikes followed an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attack on civilian crafts in the Strait of Hormuz.
Reuters contributed to this post.
Oman's foreign minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamoud Al Busaidi said that the Strait of Hormuz, which his country borders, should remain open and unrestricted during Friday remarks.
"On maritime affairs, His Excellency reaffirmed the Sultanate of Oman's steadfast position that vital waterways, including the Strait of Hormuz, remain open and accessible for navigation, free from any measures that would impede freedom of navigation and international trade flows," Oman's Foreign Ministry wrote in a Friday morning post on X.
"His Excellency stressed that international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, constitutes the foundation for maritime security, and that respect for its provisions safeguards freedom of navigation, which holds utmost importance for global trade, food security, and energy security," the post added.
Officials in Oman, which sits across Iran on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, have discussed with Iran and with European allies the possibility of charging foreign tankers tolls or maintenance fees to use the Strait of Hormuz, though Al Busaidi has publicly downplayed the likelihood of tolling.
Bahrain's Ministry of Interior warned citizens to shelter in place as missile alarms rang in the small Persian Gulf state amid apparent strikes from Iran on Friday.
"The siren has been sounded, Citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place," the Ministry of Interior wrote in a Friday morning X post.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for Friday attacks on Bahrain and issued a warning to other Gulf States through its media operations center on the social messaging platform Telegram.
"To all citizens and residents of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria: For your safety, you are urged to immediately stay away from military and security bases, facilities, and headquarters, as well as locations where U.S. forces are deployed. Do not approach any area witnessing military movements or exceptional security measures," the message read.
"Immediately maintain a distance of at least 500 meters (1,640 feet) from any covert or concealed accommodations used by U.S. military personnel," the message continued.
"These locations include American hotels, American banks, American companies, high-rise towers, properties owned by the Trump family, and investments associated with them," it concluded
{{#rendered}}Iran reportedly flew Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, military advisors and munitions to Yemen to assist the Houthi terrorists in attacking vessels in the Red Sea, Reuters reported, citing Yemen's information minister.
The IRGC made the delivery on a July 13 flight from Tehran to Yemen's Red Sea port city Hodeidah, Reuters reported, also citing three other sources, including two Iranian sources.
Between 10 and 21 IRGC personnel, including IRGC commanders, were on the flight.
The IRGC brought the Houthi rebels gold to fund the attacks.
Houthi spokesman Abdel Rahman al-Ahnomi, who was on the flight, denied the report as "lies and fabrications," claiming all the flight's passengers were civilians.
The news corroborates statements Secretary of State Marco Rubio made Wednesday.
"They decided to send direct flights from Tehran into Yemen, carrying IRGC elements and others into the country," Rubio told reporters. "And the Saudis responded to it."
The Houthis, an Iranian-backed terrorist group that have been at war with Yemen's government for over a decade, fired rockets at two Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea on Thursday, opening a new front in the Iran war and sending global crude oil prices higher.
Reuters contributed to this post.
Explosions were heard across multiple parts of Iran on Thursday after the U.S. military launched another wave of strikes targeting Iranian military capabilities, according to local media.
An explosion was heard on the southern coast of Qeshm Island, Iran's state broadcaster reported, according to Reuters.
The outlet also said multiple explosions were reported in the southern city of Ahvaz, according to Iran's Fars News Agency.
A separate explosion was heard west of the port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran's state broadcaster reported, also according to Reuters.
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