Talks, statements, sanctions, nuclear policy, and government decisions.
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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met in Cairo and emphasized the need to secure freedom of navigation through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait amid continuing Houthi attacks.
Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohsen Rezaei wrote on X: 'Don't get distracted by the U.S. president's mixed signals... The stakes around oil and the straits have changed. Damage control won't stop what's coming. No talks until Iran's conditions are met. Period!'
The US Treasury sanctioned Russia's state-controlled VTB Bank, which operates in Iran, for involvement in Iranian sanctions evasion and for correspondent relationships with sanctioned Iranian banks, calling it 'among the most comprehensively sanctioned financial institutions in the world.'
Trump wrote that 'the failing Nation of Iran wants to make a deal, quickly and badly. I will determine whether or not the U.S.A. will choose to engage – The concept of which we are open to.' He added that countries that did not help restore oil flows through Hormuz 'should and will reimburse the United States.'
Vice President JD Vance told reporters in Kansas City that the US has been in direct conversations with the Houthis, voiced concern about their seizure of Mayyun (Perim) Island in the Bab al-Mandeb, and said Washington was in constant contact with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and others affected.
Austria refused entry to Atomic Energy Organization chief Mohammad Eslami for the IAEA General Conference in Vienna, saying the UN Security Council committee rejected its request for an exemption from his UN travel ban for lack of consensus. Iran summoned Austria's charge d'affaires and blamed US pressure.
A senior Israeli official said the Lebanese army is 'very afraid to move against Hezbollah' and is 'dealing with cosmetics,' leaving the work to the IDF, while Israeli defence officials said Beirut fears a return to civil war.
Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said the regional meeting set for Monday in Salalah had been postponed 'in the interests of consensus.' Iran's Foreign Ministry said the delay was requested by some regional countries, and spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei later said Saudi Arabia had asked for it; Bahrain had already said it would not attend.
At the Irish Open golf championship, Trump said the US would 'ultimately get out' of Iran 'unless we decide to stay and keep the oil like Venezuela,' adding that Venezuelan revenue had 'paid for the war many times.' He repeated that the war could end right after the midterms and that gasoline prices would 'drop like a rock.'
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed Al Nahyan agreed to 'put aside the past' in talks on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in New Delhi, the highest-level Iran-UAE contact since the war began.
The New York Times reported that Iranian hardliners, allegedly led by Basij chief Hossein Taeb, launched attacks on Hormuz shipping in early July without authorization from President Masoud Pezeshkian or IRGC chief Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, derailing a US-Iran peace memorandum that had been under negotiation.
Times of Israel Liveblog (citing New York Times), The Times of Israel live blog
An Iran-Oman understanding sets the basis for eventually reopening the Strait of Hormuz under Iranian protocols but does not provide for an immediate reopening, which depends on the US meeting Tehran's conditions, Tasnim reported; the southern route the US favoured would be closed. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the deal does not 'in any way' signal a reopening.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: 'If Americans are warriors, let them face our valiant military forces. Why wage war on civilian infrastructure, food supplies, and livelihoods?' He accused Washington of denying Iranians water, food and medicine and said: 'Iran won't surrender.'
Bahrain said it would not join any group meeting that includes Iran before diplomatic relations are restored, citing Iranian attacks and the strike on Saudi Arabia's pipeline, and said any Hormuz arrangement must guarantee transit 'without discrimination, fees, or permits.' Pezeshkian had said Gulf ministers would meet in Muscat on Monday to sign off on an Iran-Oman shipping route.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told the BRICS summit in New Delhi that the war in the Middle East and Gulf 'has caused serious losses to people across the region and does not serve the common interests of the international community,' and said China was willing to work with BRICS partners to play a role in achieving peace.
Iraq closed the Shalamcheh, al-Shib and Mandali crossings with Iran, officials said, as part of efforts to track those behind the drone attack launched from Maysan province on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline. Reuters had first reported the Shalamcheh closure overnight.
Asked in Dublin whether Iran was responsible for the drone attack that shut Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, Trump said 'probably, they are,' and said the Houthis had 'called us' asking the US not to get involved in Yemen. Asked about moving shipping through Hormuz, he said everything would 'work out just fine.'
President Joseph Aoun, with army commander Gen. Rodolphe Haykal, made an unannounced visit to Nabatieh and Zawtar al-Gharbiya near the Ali al-Taher ridge, pledging to secure an Israeli withdrawal and rebuild the south and telling residents the state would meet their needs 'so that you stay here.'
The next round of US-brokered Israel-Lebanon talks, planned for Rome next week, was pushed to October, a US official said, citing scheduling constraints, particularly the UN General Assembly; Axios reported the Jewish holidays and a Paris conference on the Lebanese army were also factors. The two countries' ambassadors were still expected to meet at the State Department next week.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered an urgent investigation into the attack on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline; his office later said a drone had been launched from Maysan province, dismissed the province's operations commander and set up an inquiry into the command.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on the East-West pipeline 'by several drones coming from Iraq' and said it would not respond for now, 'to allow the Iraqi authorities the opportunity to take measures to prevent attacks launched from its territory.'
At a Pentagon ceremony marking 25 years since the 9/11 attacks, Trump saluted troops working 'to ensure the world's number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never, ever have a nuclear weapon.' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said: 'We control the strait. We will finish this fight.'
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said a meeting in Oman on Monday would brief Iraq and Gulf states on an Iran-Oman understanding on temporary shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz, adding that 'Iran remains committed to ensuring the security of navigation in the strait.'
The State Department said the US was taking action under Operation Economic Outcast against Kataib Hezbollah, Hezbollah and the financial networks that sustain Iran's regional campaign, calling them instruments of 'violence and subversion' that threaten Iraq, Lebanon, US personnel and global energy flows.
The next round of US-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon will be held in Rome next week over two days, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel; L'Orient Today, citing Israeli media, put the dates at Sept. 15 and 16. The State Department urged Beirut to draw up a plan to disarm Hezbollah across Lebanon.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said remote imagery showed 'some indications that there is movement around this construction site' at Pickaxe Mountain near Natanz, but that the agency had no concrete information on activities there and has never sent inspectors inside.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog met with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and said he hopes for a future trilateral meeting including a president of Lebanon, stating: 'My dream is for the president of Israel and the president of Cyprus to meet together with the president of Lebanon here.'
Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other senior advisers have privately warned Trump that Iran could hold out against the blockade and military pressure, and that the war could last through the end of his term in January 2029, The Wall Street Journal reported. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Trump told reporters: 'I think war is going to end immediately after the election because they can't hold out any longer. They're desperate to try and affect the election.' He said the US was not looking for a deal with Iran but that negotiations 'could happen.'
The IAEA Board of Governors passed a US, British, French and German resolution reporting Iran to the UN Security Council over its refusal to allow inspections, by 23 votes to 3 with 8 abstentions; Russia, China and Niger voted against. It was the first such referral in 20 years; Iran's UN mission called it a 'biased, political resolution' and Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said it could not 'achieve anything in the Security Council.'