Trump criticizes Iran not allowing more oil through Strait of Hormuz: 'Not the agreement we have'

Click here to follow the latest on the U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan.

Iran’s internet blackout has extended for more than 1,000 hours, according to a global internet monitor.

The outage has lasted roughly 42 days, NetBlocks said.

While Iran’s domestic intranet remains operational — allowing users to access messaging apps, banking platforms and other services — access to the global internet has been largely restricted since the beginning of February, The Times of Israel reported.

Vice President JD Vance arrived in Pakistan early Saturday, where he will lead high-stakes negotiations with Iran aimed at preserving a fragile ceasefire and preventing a broader regional war.

Vance was welcomed by a Pakistani honor guard on the tarmac in Islamabad.

The group welcoming the vice president included Field Marshal of Pakistan Asim Munir and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan Mohammad Ishaq Dar.

Federal Minister of Interior, Narcotics Control of Pakistan Mohsin Naqvi and U.S. Chargé d'Affaires to Pakistan Natalie A. Baker also greeted Vance.

Vance is joined by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, as part of a senior delegation engaging Iranian officials in Islamabad.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf will be negotiating for Iran.

The talks, scheduled for Saturday, come over a month after the U.S. launched Operation Epic Fury Feb. 28 — a sweeping military campaign targeting Iran’s military infrastructure following the collapse of nuclear negotiations.

That operation pushed the U.S. and Iran to the brink of a ground war before a tenuous diplomatic breakthrough in recent days.

Trump announced a two-week ceasefire Tuesday, agreeing to suspend further U.S. strikes on the condition that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping route.

While Iran signaled it would allow passage through the strait as part of the agreement, traffic remains severely disrupted, with shipping companies hesitant to resume normal operations amid ongoing security concerns and uncertainty over enforcement.

Vance struck a cautious tone before departing, warning Iran not to test the U.S. negotiating posture.

"If they’re gonna try and play us, then they’re gonna find that the negotiating team is not that receptive," Vance said, adding he still expects the talks to be "positive."

This is an excerpt from a story by Fox News Digital's Morgan Phillips

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Friday warned Iran to make a deal as the country prepares for talks with the Trump administration on Saturday.

“I just talked to Trump today. If you don't take this deal, you're gonna regret it,” Graham said in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier.

U.S. talks with Iran are expected to take place in Pakistan this weekend. Vice President JD Vance, along with special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will lead the high-stakes talks on behalf of the U.S.

“I'm glad we're trying to solve it through diplomacy,” Graham said. “What are we looking for – an Iran that can't build nuclear ballistic missiles to hit Europe or us. We're looking for them to get out of the state sponsor of terrorism business, and we're looking for them to abandon their quest to create a nuclear bomb because we fear they will use it.”

Graham added, “I've never felt better about the state that Iran is in.”

“As we talk to them about ending this war, President Trump has done everything and then some to weaken them.”

Iran’s first vice president, Mohammad Reza Aref, wished Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf success as the Iranian delegation prepares for talks with the Trump administration.

Aref said in a post on X that “we are supporters” of the negotiators, just as they were supporters of the military during the war.

The Iranian delegation, led by Qalibaf, arrived in Pakistan on Friday.

He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Akbar Ahmadian, and Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati, as well as members of parliament, Iran's Fars News Agency reported.

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Friday said military action alone will not lead to regime change in Iran.

Panetta argued that bombing campaigns do not lead to lasting outcomes.

“I think we’ve understood for a long time that you cannot bomb your way to a change in regime,” Panetta told Bloomberg. “With all sides now exhausted, there is now an opportunity to pursue a ceasefire.”

Panetta pointed to previous conflicts, including the Vietnam War, which he said demonstrate that military action alone cannot change a country’s leadership.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said he was disappointed with Israel’s Foreign Ministry for criticizing a social media post that appeared to show a 2024 video of Israeli soldiers throwing a body from a rooftop in the occupied West Bank.

In a separate X post on Saturday, Lee wrote: “One would think that, even just once, it would be worth reflecting on criticism from people around the world who are suffering due to these ceaseless actions that violate human rights and international law.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry accused Lee on X of misrepresenting a 2024 incident.

Lee did not specifically comment on Israel’s ongoing conflict with Iran but said in a series of X posts Friday that “lessons marked on the painful wounds of the past must not be repeated as recurring tragedies.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Iran has been nominated for a seat on the United Nations Committee for Program and Coordination, which is slated to meet to shape policy on human rights, women’s rights, and terrorism prevention—all causes it has been repeatedly accused of violating.

The nomination came during a meeting of the U.N. Economic and Social Council.

Iran has been repeatedly accused of numerous human rights violations and imposing draconian rules on how women live their daily lives.

In addition, Tehran has resisted calls to stop its nuclear enrichment program and is considered one of the world's biggest sponsors of terrorism.

With Iran increasingly isolated among its Gulf neighbors, recent reports say Tehran has been deepening its ties in the South Caucasus with the Republic of Georgia.

The former Soviet republic, which was until recently seen as an aspiring European Union and potential NATO member candidate, has slowly moved closer to Tehran.

"Iran has built a vast influence infrastructure in Georgia, which includes entities sanctioned by the U.S. government for links to extremism and viewed in Washington as fronts for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)," Giorgi Kandelaki, former member of the Georgian Parliament, told Fox News Digital.

Kandelaki, co-author of a recent report with the Hudson Institute titled Georgia’s Iranian Turn: Tehran’s Rapid Expansion of Influence in a Once-Committed U.S. Ally, said that Tbilisi’s turn toward Iran is bad for Georgians but also bad for U.S. interests in the region. 

"Georgia has an overwhelmingly pro-U.S. public opinion committed to Western values with it also being viewed as a traditional U.S. ally in Washington. This reality presents a terrible precedent and reversing this trajectory is in the interest of both the U.S. but also Georgian society," he added.

While Georgia has remained diplomatically neutral, the Hudson report details the budding ties between the two countries and how Iran uses Georgia as a network for intelligence infrastructure, penetrating Georgia’s religious, educational and cultural institutions to impact society.

This is an excerpt from an article by Chris Massaro.

President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace says it has no funding constraints and that all requests have been met “immediately and in full” to date.

Earlier in the day, Reuters reported that the board had received only a tiny fraction of the $17 billion pledged for Gaza’s rebuilding effort.

“We are focused on enabling the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) to restore governance, allow aid to scale, and address the acute injustice faced by tens of thousands of civil servants who are currently serving without pay,” a board statement said. “All civil servants deserve to be treated lawfully, fairly, and with dignity, in full respect of their rights.”

In a statement refuting the Reuters report, the board said it was a “lean, execution-focused organization that calls capital as needed.”

A sanction tanker carrying Iranian oil was anchored Friday near an Indian port.

The U.S. sanctioned vessel, identified as Jaya, has been linked to so-called “identity-switching," a practice used by tankers to evade sanctions, Iran International reported, citing industry reports.

The ship was set to deliver the first Iranian crude oil to India since 2019.

President Donald Trump said he doesn’t need a backup plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, pointing to Iranian military losses.

“You don’t need a backup plan,” Trump said. “Their military is defeated. Their military is gone. We’ve degraded just about everything. They have very few missiles. They have little manufacturing capability. We’ve hit them hard.”

He noted that the main goal of a deal with Tehran is the prevention of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

“I think it’s already been regime change, but we never had that as a criterion,” he said. “No nuclear weapons. That’s 99% of it.”

Trump said he was confident the strait will open up to commercial shipping traffic.

“If we just left, the straits are going to [open]; otherwise, they make no money. So the strait is going to open,” he said.

Lebanese and Israeli officials will meet next week in Washington to discuss a ceasefire, the office of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a social media post.

The meeting was set during a phone call between Lebanon’s Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Mouawad, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Yehiel Leiter, and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michael Issa, Aoun’s office said.

“During the call, they agreed to hold the first meeting next Tuesday at the US State Department to discuss the announcement of a ceasefire and the date for the start of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel with American sponsorship,” Aoun’s office said.

The Iranian delegation has arrived in Pakistan for talks with Trump administration officials, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday.

The group, led by Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has landed in Islamabad. He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Akbar Ahmadian, and Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati, as well as some members of parliament, Iran's Fars News Agency reported.

Pakistani officials “expressed the hope that parties would engage constructively, and reiterated Pakistan’s desire to continue facilitating the parties toward reaching a lasting and durable solution to the conflict,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The key to achieving peace with Iran includes preventing it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, placing restrictions on its missile and drone programs, and creating an international framework for the Strait of Hormuz, a nonprofit group committed to combating Iranian threats said.

A 10-page report compiled by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), titled "The Islamabad Framework: The Essential Components of a Diplomatic Resolution with Iran," lists several key provisions Iran must agree to in an effort to end the war in the Middle East.

Among the measures are preventing Tehran from continuing its uranium enrichment program, as well as "anytime, anywhere" inspections of its undisclosed nuclear facilities.

"The emerging 'Trump Doctrine' mandates that either the Iranian regime verifiably dismantles its nuclear program, imposes limits on its missile and drone program, and ends its support for terrorism, or America and Israel will do so," the report states.

The report also calls for the scaling back of Tehran's missile and drone programs and an end to its support for terrorism abroad.

Iran is often cited as the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism beyond its borders. UANI also called for Iran to release all its hostages, including American citizens, before the implementation of sanctions relief.

"If Tehran backslides and takes any further hostages, sanctions should be automatically reinstated," the report states.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said that the U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad are a make-or-break event to achieve a permanent ceasefire in the weeks-long Middle East conflict.

Sharif thanked those attending the talks and said his government would do everything necessary to ensure a peace deal is brokered, Iran International reported.

He further urged Pakistani citizens to pray for the meeting to succeed.

Pope Leo XIV once again condemned the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran on Friday, saying that “God does not bless any conflict."

Leo issued his remarks during a gathering of top bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq, whose clerics are in Rome to elect a new patriarch, The Associated Press reported.

"God does not bless any conflict," his X account states. "Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs. Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples."

Israel has expelled Spain from the United States Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), its foreign ministry said Friday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Spain—a major critic of Israel's war against Hamas—of defaming “our heroes, the soldiers of the IDF, the soldiers of the most moral army in the world.”

“Therefore, I have instructed today to remove Spain’s representatives from the coordination center in Kiryat Gat, after Spain has chosen repeatedly to stand against Israel,” Netanyahu said. “Those who attack the State of Israel instead of terrorist regimes will not be our partners regarding the future of the region.”

“I am not willing to tolerate this hypocrisy and hostility,” he added. “I do not intend to allow any country to wage a diplomatic war against us without paying an immediate price.”

President Donald Trump on Friday said U.S. warships are being reloaded with “the best ammunition” to attack Iran should peace talks in Pakistan fail.

“We’re going to find out in about 24 hours. We’re going to know soon,” Trump said in a phone interview with the New York Post.

Vice President JD Vance was en route to Islamabad, where he will be joined by special envoy Steve Witkoff for high-stakes talks. They will attempt to negotiate a final peace after a two-week cease-fire was reached on Tuesday.

“We have a reset going. We’re loading up the ships with the best ammunition, the best weapons ever made—even better than what we did previously, and we blew them apart,” Trump said.