Iran

Out of the wreckage of the US-Israel-Iran war, one issue is almost certain to dominate whatever settlement follows: Iran’s nuclear programme. And if a deal does emerge, it is likely to bear a striking resemblance to the accord President Trump abandoned in 2018 — the awkwardly titled Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. Signed in 2015, the agreement is widely seen as the defining foreign policy achievement of Barack Obama’s second term. It was also detested by Donald Trump, much of the Republican Party and Israeli…

Fresh tension in the Gulf has cast new doubt over US-Iran diplomacy, with Tehran openly questioning Washington’s credibility even as the White House awaits an answer to its latest proposal. US President Donald Trump said yesterday he expected Iran to respond to Washington’s most recent offer for an agreement aimed at prolonging a fragile truce and opening the door to peace talks — “supposedly tonight”. Yet if Pakistani mediators did receive an Iranian reply, no public indication of it emerged. In a call with his Turkish…

Fresh violence in the Strait of Hormuz has thrown a fragile US-Iran ceasefire into doubt, with Tehran accusing واشنگتن of violating the truce and both sides trading blame for an overnight confrontation in one of the world’s most strategically sensitive waterways. "The action carried out last night was both a blatant violation of international law and a breach of the ceasefire," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said, according to the ISNA news agency. "At the same time, the country's defenders delivered a 'major…

Tarek ChouirefFriday May 8, 2026 Iran said early Friday that it had carried out a major missile and drone assault on US destroyers operating near the Strait of Hormuz, escalating tensions around one of the world’s most sensitive shipping lanes. In a statement, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said the operation was launched after what it called a US ceasefire violation, citing a strike on an Iranian oil tanker near Jask port and the advance of US destroyers toward the strategic waterway. The statement said Iranian…

By  ADAM SCHRECK and AUDREY McAVOYFriday May 8, 2026 This locator map shows Iran and its capital, Tehran. (AP Photo) The Iran war’s fragile ceasefire came under fresh pressure Friday after the United Arab Emirates said it had responded to a missile and drone attack, just hours after the U.S. announced it had stopped attacks on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz and carried out retaliatory strikes on Iranian military sites. As Iranian and U.S. negotiators continue searching for a way to end the fighting, both sides have…

A fragile opening is taking shape in the conflict between the United States and Iran, with sources and officials saying the two sides are moving toward a limited, temporary accord that would halt the war while postponing the hardest disputes. Rather than a full peace settlement, the plan now taking shape is built around a short-term memorandum, highlighting how far apart Tehran and Washington remain and suggesting that any deal reached for now would serve only as a stopgap. Even the prospect of a partial breakthrough has…

A fragile diplomatic opening emerged on Wednesday as Iran said it was reviewing a fresh US proposal, after sources indicated Washington and Tehran were nearing a one-page memorandum that could halt the war in the Gulf while postponing the hardest disputes, including Iran's nuclear programme. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, quoted by Iran's ISNA news agency, said Tehran would soon send its response through Pakistan, the host of the war's only peace talks and, since then, the main channel for messages between the two…

A fresh warning from Iran's military has raised the stakes in the Strait of Hormuz, after President Donald Trump said the United States would begin helping ships trapped in the Gulf by the US-Israeli war on Iran. Mr Trump offered few specifics on how Washington would assist vessels and crews that he said had been "locked up" in the strategic waterway, with many now short of food and other essential supplies more than two months into the conflict. "We have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of…

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered an unusually sharp rebuke of Washington this week, accusing America of entering the war with Iran without a clear plan for how to finish it. The US, he said bluntly, appeared to have no strategy for the conflict. "The problem with conflicts like this is always you don't just have to get in," he said during a meeting with German students, "you have to get out again". "We saw that very painfully in Afghanistan for 20 years - we saw it in Iraq," he added. The remarks quickly set off a…

Iran put two men to death on Saturday after convicting them of spying for Israel, according to the judiciary, marking the latest in a series of executions carried out in recent weeks.  "Yaghoub Karimpour and Nasser Bekrzadeh were hanged for the crime of intelligence cooperation and espionage in favor of the Zionist regime," the judiciary's Mizan Online website said. It was not immediately clear when the two men were arrested. Mizan said Karimpour was convicted of the capital offence of "moharebeh," or waging war against God,…