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Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said Lebanese authorities were exposing the army to 'ongoing humiliation' and Israeli pressure by implementing the June framework with Israel, rejected a proposed verification committee over the army's deployment, and said the authorities were 'targeting the resistance instead of targeting the enemy.' He again rejected the framework and Hezbollah's disarmament.
Saudi Arabia hosted the third planning meeting of the Multinational Maritime Defence Alliance in Jeddah with 39 countries, its defense ministry said. Fifteen have signed the joint statement and 13 have completed national procedures, signed the alliance charter and announced their accession, with the rest still finalizing.
After meeting CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said Sept. 30 is the 'fixed and final date' for ending the anti-ISIS coalition's mission and withdrawing its forces, and a U.S. official confirmed the U.S. expects to finish its pullout by then. U.S. forces now remain mainly in the Kurdistan region, where their bases have been attacked repeatedly since the war began.
The International Energy Agency cut its 2026 forecast to a fall in global oil demand of 1.6 million barrels a day, from 1 million a month earlier, saying 'the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz and elevated fuel prices continue to weigh on oil consumption.' It put July supply at 101.5 million barrels a day, still 6.3 million below pre-war levels.
CENTCOM said a Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles into the engine room of the Panama-flagged container ship Vela Nova, disabling its steering, after its crew ignored repeated warnings while trying to cross the Gulf of Oman toward Iran. CENTCOM said the blockade had redirected 55 vessels, disabled three and boarded two since July.
Trump extended for 90 days, from Aug. 17, the Jones Act waiver he first issued on March 17, letting foreign-flagged ships carry oil, fuels, fertilizer and related cargo between U.S. ports. Unlike earlier extensions it covers only energy and agricultural cargo, and the Pentagon will consult the Maritime Administration on which voyages qualify.
Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei made six senior military appointments, formally naming Ahmad Vahidi commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards and Ali Abdollahi chief of staff of the armed forces in place of Abdolrahim Mousavi. His decree also ordered the merger of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters with the General Staff of the Armed Forces.
After Iran's security council made war compensation a condition for reopening the strait, Trump wrote that he was 'likewise demanding compensation from Iran' for people killed and wounded by its 'roadside bombs,' the 17 sailors killed on the USS Cole and protesters killed in Iran, and later added damages in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Gaza. He said he had told his negotiators to put this 'firmly into any, and all, future negotiations.'
Associated Press live report, Associated Press sanctions analysis +4 more
Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei appointed Mohsen Rezaei, his military adviser and a former Revolutionary Guards commander, as his representative to and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, replacing Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who took the post in March after Ali Larijani was killed and becomes a political adviser.
Trump told Axios by phone, 'We are low-keying it. We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money,' adding that Tehran cannot pay its soldiers and that 'it's like a chess game.'
In a statement by secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr on state TV, Iran's Supreme National Security Council said the Strait of Hormuz will not open until the U.S. "corrects its behavior," demanding a permanent end to the war including against Iran's allies, lifting of the naval blockade, withdrawal of U.S. forces, full war compensation, sanctions relief and release of frozen assets.
OFAC designated Shahr Bank and two Dubai-based exchange houses, Titan Exchange and Alps International, which it said helped retrieve oil revenue for the National Iranian Oil Company and other exporters, in its eighth action this year against Iran's shadow banking. In a separate action it sanctioned two digital asset exchanges and the head of a network of front companies it said laundered funds for the IRGC.
U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of the Treasury (2) +1 more
The Saudi-led coalition said a Houthi attack late Thursday on the Najran border region wounded at least 11 civilians, seven of them Saudis including a woman and a four-year-old child, along with two Egyptians, a Yemeni and a Pakistani. Earlier that day Houthi missile and drone strikes killed at least 58 Yemeni government troops, according to a military source.
A bill under review by the Iranian parliament's national security commission would bar ships of the U.S., Israel and other countries Iran deems hostile from the Strait of Hormuz, ban vessels linked to countries that 'have caused damage' to Iran until compensation is paid, and fine violators up to 20 percent of their cargo's value, Fars and IRIB reported. Lawmaker Alireza Salimi said it was still under expert review.
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said 'the geographical coordinates of the route envisaged by the two sides have been agreed upon' and a joint statement was in final drafting 'if certain third parties do not obstruct the process.' Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the corridors would partly pass through Iranian waters, run for two to four months or longer, and need a separate decision by Iran's leadership.
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said talks with Oman on inbound and outbound shipping routes were assessed positively at technical and political levels. Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman said drafts of a possible U.S.-Iran agreement were 'being circulated' but that no direct talks were scheduled, and an Iranian source told CBS the proposal has ships enter on the Iranian side and leave on the Omani side, with a service fee split between the two.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC 'there is a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow' on the strait because Iran's air force, navy and much of its missile force were 'wiped out.' Later Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is 'involved in' the Iran-Oman talks, that 'there's been progress made in those talks, but not finality yet,' and that denuclearization is 'the ultimate deal' while the strait is 'the immediate deal.'
In the Oval Office Trump said Gulf states had asked him to give diplomacy 'a last chance. This is a last chance,' adding, 'I want to give them every last chance before decapitation.' He said the Strait of Hormuz could open fully by Tuesday as 'phase one,' with denuclearization to follow, and that he would not let Iran charge ships for transit.
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told a news conference that 'we are not negotiating with the United States at this time' and that Iran's talks with Oman, under way for 7-8 days, aim at a temporary safe route through the Strait of Hormuz and had made some progress. He said a route deal with Oman would not by itself reopen the strait while U.S. attacks continue; a day earlier he said the strait 'will in no way return to the status it was before February 28th.'
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Iran 'and other Middle Eastern Countries' had asked him to hold off because 'the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to,' and that he would cancel the attack 'subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL' including the full reopening of Hormuz and 'an end to Iran's nuclear threat.' The next day he said negotiations would begin Monday and that Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar had asked him to call it off; Iranian state-linked media denied Tehran had asked for anything, and acting Defence Minister Majid Ebn-e-Reza said the pullback was made 'within the context of psychological operations and a war of calculations.'
Iraq and Turkey announced a one-year agreement to keep Iraqi crude flowing through the pipeline to Turkey's port of Ceyhan at 750,000 barrels a day, after their 50-year deal expired on July 27. Turkey's energy minister said the line holds 'a more strategic position than ever' for supply security.
U.S. embassies in Amman, Jerusalem and Baghdad, and then the State Department region-wide, told Americans to 'consider departing, or be prepared to depart should there be escalation.' U.S. officials had told CNN that strikes on Iran were planned as soon as that weekend, after Trump said at a Cabinet meeting, 'We will be hitting them very hard.'
The IRGC said it 'struck and stopped' two tankers it claimed were under U.S. aerial escort and that four others turned back. Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority then said transit 'is not currently possible' because of U.S. military actions and that permits would resume only 'once stability and calm are restored'; CENTCOM replied that the strait 'remains open' and 'Iran does not control it.'
CENTCOM said it had redirected 24 commercial vessels since restarting the blockade of Iranian ports on July 14, up from 20 a day earlier, and had boarded two ships and fired on two others to disable them. Only five vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz the next day, all on Iran's approved northern route, according to marine traffic data cited by CNN.
Saudi Arabia's defense ministry said Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia issued a joint statement backing a multinational alliance to protect shipping routes, after a meeting attended by military chiefs and representatives of 43 countries and an EU delegation. Saudi Arabia is to found and lead the alliance and host its headquarters.
Treasury designated the Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company and HormuzSafe Marine Services Authority, which it said sell IRGC-approved policies ships must buy to cross the strait, covering risks such as seizures that Iran itself creates, with payment accepted in digital assets. It also sanctioned eight companies operating shadow-fleet tankers that carried Iranian oil and petrochemicals to China and the UAE.
President Masoud Pezeshkian called on Iranians to 'fight the enemy and stand firm against them so that we do not submit to injustice and oppression,' IRNA reported, adding that Iran had shown 'a unique model of resistance.'
CENTCOM said IRGC forces launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran at U.S. forces in the Middle East at 5:45 p.m. ET and that all were intercepted; a U.S. official told CNN there were no more than four. Jordan said it shot down five Iranian missiles overnight.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the U.S. halted strikes because Iran asked: "They asked us very nicely, 'Please stop, let's meet.'" Earlier that day Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said "We currently have no negotiations with the United States," describing talks with Oman on Hormuz traffic as Iran's only channel, while AP reported that Qatari and Pakistani mediators had made significant progress toward restarting U.S.-Iran talks.
Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said that since the U.S. had stopped its attacks for two nights and Iran's strategy 'has essentially been retaliatory, we have also halted our retaliatory operations,' warning the conflict would widen if U.S. strikes resumed. CENTCOM said its blockade continues, having redirected 12 vessels, disabled two and boarded two, and U.S. envoy to the U.N. Mike Waltz said Trump was 'giving talks some space.'