Middle East crisis live: Trump claims ‘very good chance’ of deal to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear weapon

Before Donald Trump’s announcement he was holding off on attacking Iran, Turkey’s foreign minister said the immediate concern of the negotiations between the US and Iran was keeping the strait of Hormuz open, but that Iran’s nuclear program remained a central issue.

Speaking at a joint news conference with his German counterpart in Berlin, Hakan Fidan said much of Iran’s enriched uranium that could potentially be used for a nuclear weapon was buried under collapsed tunnels after attacks in June that the US launched with Israel. The US has said it is closely monitoring any movements around the stockpile.

“At present, there isn’t a situation that poses a real threat,” Fidan said on Monday, quoted by the AP. “But for this to continue, the parties must reach and conclude a nuclear negotiation among themselves.”

The Turkish minister said he believed Iran was not opposed in principle to complying with nuclear conditions, but added:

The question is what will be given in return, in what order, and under what conditions.”

With talks at a standstill last week, Iran’s foreign minister said on Friday that a lack of trust was the biggest impediment to negotiations.

Iran remained defiant in statements issued on state media after Donald Trump’s announcement he’d paused an attack on Iran, with Tehran warning the US and its allies against making any further “strategic mistakes or miscalculations” in striking Iran.

The Islamic republic also contended the Iranian armed forces were “more prepared and stronger than in the past”.

Iran’s top joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya, said Iran’s armed forces were “ready to pull the trigger” if the US began new strikes, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported.

“Any renewed aggression and invasion ... will be responded to quickly, decisively, powerfully and extensively,” the Khatam al-Anbiya commander, Ali Abdollahi, was quoted as saying.

Oil prices and stock markets worldwide swung through a shaky Monday with uncertainty about what will happen with the Iran war.

The S+P 500 swivelled between gains and losses before finishing with a dip of 0.1% – its second loss since setting an all-time high last week – while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3% and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.5% after both indexes also yo-yoed, the AP reports.

Stocks moved in the opposite direction of oil prices, with the price for a barrel of Brent crude – the international standard – going from a high of $112 overnight to below $107 in the morning before turning back higher.

After settling at $112.10 per barrel, Brent’s price then fell back below $109 after Donald Trump said late in the day that he would hold off attacking Iran on Tuesday at the request of allies in the region, keeping alive hopes of a deal that would reopen the strait of Hormuz.

Just to recap on some important news from earlier, if you’re just joining us:

The US has announced another 30-day extension of a sanctions waiver allowing purchases of Russian seaborne oil to aid “energy-vulnerable” countries hit by the Iran war, reversing plans not to grant an extension.

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said in a post on X that the Treasury was issuing the 30-day general license after a previous waiver lapsed on Saturday. This would allow temporary access to Russian oil and petroleum products stranded on tankers without violating severe US sanctions on Russian oil majors, he said.

Bessent, who last month told the Associated Press that no further extension of the Russian oil sanctions waiver was planned, on Monday said the measure would help reroute existing supply to countries most in need, allowing them to compete with China for previously sanctioned oil.

The action marks the second time the Treasury has allowed the sanctions waiver to lapse and subsequently extended it.

The Iranian proposal – as described to Reuters by a senior Iranian source – appeared similar in many respects to Iran’s previous offer, which Trump rejected last week as “garbage”.

It would focus first on securing an end to the war, reopening the strait of Hormuz – the vital energy supply route Iran has effectively blockaded – and lifting maritime sanctions.

Contentious issues around Iran’s nuclear programme and uranium enrichment would be deferred to later rounds of talks, the source said.

However, in an apparent softening of Washington’s stance, the senior Iranian source said on Monday that the US had agreed to release a quarter of Iran’s frozen funds – totalling tens of billions of dollars – held in foreign banks. Iran wants all the assets released.

The Iranian source also told Reuters that Washington had shown more flexibility in agreeing to let Iran continue some peaceful nuclear activity under supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The US has not confirmed that it agreed to anything in the negotiations.

Donald Trump’s social media post saying he had paused a planned attack on Iran at the request of Gulf leaders came after Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei confirmed that Tehran’s views on ending the war had been “conveyed to the American side through Pakistan” but gave no details.

A Pakistani source confirmed that Islamabad had shared the latest peace proposal with Washington. But the source suggested progress had been difficult, Reuters is reporting.

The sides “keep changing their goalposts”, the Pakistani source said, adding: “We don’t have much time.”

Pakistan has conveyed messages between the US and Iran since hosting the only round of peace talks last month.

US Central Command has said its forces have “redirected” another commercial ship during its blockade of Iran’s ports.

Centcom added that it has “redirected” a total of 85 commercial vessels, and “disabled” four. The US blockade began on 13 April.

Further to our earlier post, Ireland’s president has urged world leaders not to “normalise war” or “slaughter” as she expresses concern for her sister who was on board a Gaza flotilla intercepted today by Israel.

On her first official visit to the UK, Catherine Connolly, went slightly off script at an event in the Irish embassy to express concern about wars currently tearing up the world order.

Normalising war is never acceptable, normalising slaughhter is never acceptable.

Earlier she met King Charles who “graciously and gratefully” received an invitation for a state visit to Ireland next year.

She spoke to guests at the Irish embassy in London of the need to always defend the values of an independent sovereign nation “by defending international law and the structures of the UN”.

She said Ireland “will not be silent when international law is treated as optional”.

She was asked by reporters about her sister Margaret who was on board the flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces off the coast of Cyprus.

“It’s quite upsetting and I’m also very worried about her,” she said.

“I’ve been very busy today ... I haven’t really had a chance to get details in relation to my sister and indeed, equally importantly, her colleagues on the boat.”

The organisers of a flotilla of aid vessels bound for Gaza said on Monday that Israeli forces had intercepted 39 of their boats in the eastern Mediterranean, while the remaining ships were continuing to sail toward the enclave.

Earlier on Monday, Israel’s foreign ministry had said on X that it “will not allow any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza”. Ships from the Global Sumud Flotilla had set sail for a third time on Thursday from southern Turkey, after earlier attempts to deliver aid to Gaza were intercepted by Israel in international waters.

Live video showed military vessels approaching the vessels on Monday.

“Military vessels are currently intercepting our fleet and (Israeli) forces are boarding the first of our boats in broad daylight,” the Global Sumud Flotilla initially said on X.

“We demand safe passage for our legal, non-violent humanitarian mission.”

The group said there were 426 people taking part in the 54-vessel flotilla from 39 countries. It named 44 Turks among those on the intercepted vessels, some 250 nautical miles (463 km) from Gaza.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday it has been informed by the United Arab Emirates that off-site power was restored to Unit 3 of the Barakah nuclear power plant following the drone strike on Sunday.

The drone strike caused a fire at an electrical generator outside the inner perimeter of the Barakah nuclear power plant.

Whilst authorities confirmed that safety levels were unaffected and no radioactive material was released, it came at an extremely tense moment in the sixth week of a ceasefire in the Iran war.

The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent said on Monday that the US will give a 30-day extension for countries to import Russian oil that is already in tankers at sea, a move that is meant to reduce the oil supply shortages caused by the Iran War.

The announcement marks a continued policy reversal by an administration that had previously said the sanctions on Russian oil would resume. Originally announced in early March, the temporary waiver on the sanctions was first renewed in April, two days after Bessent said at the White House that he had no plans to extend the sanctions relief.

The announcement comes after Bessent said that the waiver on Russian oil sanctions would lapse, a sign of the economic challenges created by the Iran war as shortages are pushing up prices.

Earlier on Monday, Donald Trump took to Truth Social to attack the US media over their coverage of his war on Iran.

He claimed that even if Iran completely surrendered, the “fake news media” would report that Tehran had won a victory over the US.

If Iran surrenders, admits their Navy is gone and resting at the bottom of the sea, and their Air Force is no longer with us, and if their entire Military walks out of Tehran, weapons dropped and hands held high, each shouting ‘I surrender, I surrender’ while wildly waving the representative White Flag, and if their entire remaining Leadership signs all necessary ‘Documents of Surrender,’ and admit their defeat to the great power and force of the magnificent USA, The Failing New York Times, The China Street Journal (WSJ!), Corrupt and now Irrelevant CNN, and all other members of the Fake News Media, will headline that Iran had a Masterful and Brilliant Victory over The United States of America, it wasn’t even close. The Dumacrats and Media have totally lost their way. They have gone absolutely CRAZY!!!

Could undersea cables – the sinews of the global internet – become the next frontier in the US-Israel war against Iran?

Last week, two Iranian state-linked media channels, Tasnim and Fars, suggested Iran could leverage its power over the strait of Hormuz, the 25-mile (40km) stretch between Iran and Oman, by charging US tech companies to use the internet cables that traverse the strait. Tasnim implied this could be a lucrative proposition, netting Iran hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

At least seven cables lie beneath the waters of the strait, many of them vital to the massive AI buildout under way in Gulf countries. But what exactly is Iran proposing, and is it a realistic course of action?

One of Indian billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani’s companies will pay the US Treasury $275 million to settle a probe into whether it violated US sanctions against Iran, the Treasury said in a statement on Monday.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the agreement had been reached with Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL), part of the billionaire’s sprawling conglomerate of companies.

“AEL agreed to settle its potential civil liability for 32 apparent violations of OFAC’s Iran sanctions,” the Treasury said, pointing to AEL purchases of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) shipments between November 2023 and June 2025.

Iraq’s foreign ministry said Monday that the country’s air defence systems had not detected any drones launched from its territory toward Saudi Arabia.

Late Sunday, Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted and destroyed three drones that entered from Iraqi airspace, adding that it “reserves the right to respond at the appropriate time and place.”

But, the Iraqi foreign ministry said authorities had opened an investigation “to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident”.

It added that the country’s air defence and surveillance systems had not detected any launches.

Ryanair said it has “almost zero concerns” about its jet fuel supplies this summer amid fears over widespread cancellations linked to the Iran war but warned that holidaymakers booking their flights later this year could face higher fares.

The budget airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said Europe had now found plenty of alternative sources of jet fuel, but persistent consumer uncertainty had led to lower summer bookings than usual, keeping fares down.

He said: “There was a real concern in Europe two months ago. We now have almost zero concerns over fuel supplies in Europe. The challenge remains price.”

The travel industry has been hit by worries about jet fuel supply this summer, as shipping through the strait of Hormuz remains restricted. Ryanair said Europe is well stocked with fuel thanks to shipments from west Africa, Norway and the Americas.

While Ryanair has hedged 80% of its jet fuel requirements to April 2027 at about $67 a barrel, it said the carrier’s unit costs could rise by about 5% if fuel prices remained higher, it said. You can read the full story by my colleagues Lauren Almeida and Gwyn Topham here:

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has posted to his Telegram account saying that he has held a phone conversation with his Saudi Arabian counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan al Saud, in which they discussed the latest “regional developments” and issues “related to the current diplomatic process” (between Tehran and Washington).

Here are some of the latest images being sent to us over the newswires from Gaza, Lebanon and Iran:

Lebanese president Joseph Aoun said Monday that he would do the “impossible” in order to stop the war with Israel, after a ceasefire and direct talks between the countries failed to end the fighting.

“The framework that Lebanon has set for the negotiations consists of an Israeli withdrawal, a ceasefire, the deployment of the army along the border, the return of the displaced, and economic aid,” Aoun said in a statement.

“My duty, based on my position and my responsibility, is to do the impossible, and to choose what is least costly, in order to stop the war against Lebanon and its people,” he said.

The Israeli military has ordered residents of three towns and villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately by a “distance of no less than 1000 meters to open areas” in advance of attacks against the locations.

The affected towns and villages are: Harouf, Burj Al-Shamali and Dibal, according to a social media post by the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, who claimed the attacks are being launched due to Hezbollah, the Iranian backed Lebanese militant group, violating the US-mediated ceasefire agreement Israel signed with the Lebanese state in mid April.

International law experts say Israel’s warnings are inconsistent and often overly broad and open-ended. Sometimes there is no warning at all before the airstrikes. More than one million people have already been displaced by the renewed Israeli war on Lebanon which started when Hezbollah launched missiles at Israel on 2 March after the US-Israeli bombing of Iran in late February.

In its latest update, the Lebanese health ministry said since 2 March Israeli attacks have killed at least 2,988 people, including many women and children.

Friedrich Merz has been embroiled in a row with Donald Trump over his war on Iran ever since the German chancellor suggested the Trump team was being outplayed in its negotiations with Tehran and said he would not advise his children to study or work in the US in the current climate.

The Guardian’s Berlin correspondent, Deborah Cole, has looked at the declining relationship between the two leaders in this story. Here is an extract:

Disputes over trade and military aid for Ukraine have fuelled tensions between the US and its European allies and tested the Nato alliance.

Merz is struggling to revive an anaemic German economy and has said the impact of the US-Israeli military action in Iran and the ensuing closure of the strait of Hormuz has been severely damaging to European interests.

Late last month he stunned listeners in Germany as well as the US with blunt comments stating that the Americans were being “humiliated” by Iran’s leadership in the current conflict, angering Trump.

Days later, Washington announced a partial troop withdrawal from Germany, where it has about 36,000 military service members, and tariff hikes on cars imported from the EU, a sector crucial to the German economy.

Merz, whose popularity ratings are plumbing record depths in German polls, has since then said he was “not giving up on working on the transatlantic relationship”, while declining opportunities to retract his criticism of Trump.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz has posted the following statement on his X account:

We strongly condemn the renewed Iranian airstrikes against the United Arab Emirates and other partners. Attacks on nuclear facilities pose a threat to the safety of people throughout the entire region. There must be no further escalation of violence.

Iran must enter into serious negotiations with the USA, stop threatening its neighbours, and open the strait of Hormuz without restrictions.

Merz’s comments come after a drone strike caused a fire on the edge of the UAE’s only nuclear power plant on Sunday in what authorities called an “unprovoked terrorist attack” (see post at 08.48 more details).

Gaza’s health ministry said in its latest update that at least six people were killed and 40 others injured in Israeli attacks across the territory over the past day.

The health ministry says 877 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire in October 2025.

It says that 72,769 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since October 2023, when Isreal launched its assault on the territory following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed.

Israel has widely been accused of committing genocide against the Palestinian population of Gaza, including by human rights groups. Amnesty International has said Israel is still committing genocide in Gaza during the ceasefire by continuing to target Gaza’s now mostly destroyed civilian infrastructure and restrict access to medical supplies and humanitarian relief. Israel denies the charge of genocide.

The October 2025 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas explicitly required the immediate resumption of humanitarian aid. Over half a year into the ceasefire, the amount of aid being let into Gaza is still wholly inadequate to meet the needs of the population, despite a small increase from before the agreement.

“Israel’s intermittent closure of crossings, restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid, and continued ban on the entry of essential supplies have produced chronic shortages of food, medicine, and basic goods across Gaza,” a recent reliefweb report noted.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has accused Israel of manufacturing a malnutrition crisis in Gaza. “The malnutrition crisis is entirely manufactured,” Mercè Rocaspana, MSF medical adviser for emergencies, said.

“Before the war, malnutrition in Gaza was almost nonexistent. For two and a half years, the systematic blockade to humanitarian aid and commercial goods, on top of insecurity, have severely restricted access to food and clean water. Healthcare facilities have been forced out of service and living conditions have profoundly deteriorated. As a result, vulnerable groups of people are placed at heightened risk of malnutrition.”

Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas has systematically diverted aid supplies for military or political purposes and infiltrated aid organisations but has provided limited evidence to support the allegations.

Israeli forces were intercepting a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on Monday after it set sail from Turkey last week.

“Military vessels are currently intercepting our fleet and IDF forces are currently boarding the first of our boats in broad daylight,” the Global Sumud Flotilla posted on X.

“We demand safe passage for our legal, non-violent humanitarian mission. Governments must act now to stop these illegal acts or piracy meant to maintain Israel’s genocidal siege on Gaza. Normalisation of the occupation’s violence is a threat to us all.”

About 50 ships had departed from southwestern Turkey on Thursday as part of the flotilla that set off for Gaza to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza and attempt to reach the territory – devastated by relentless Israeli attacks – with humanitarian aid. On Monday, Israel had vowed to block the vessels.

“Israel will not allow any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza,” the foreign ministry posted on X. “Israel calls on all participants in this provocation to change course and turn back immediately.”

Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of a blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. Israel claims the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms, but many say it amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s Palestinian population.

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei has been speaking at a news conference.

He told reporters that Iranian and Omani technical teams have met in Oman to negotiate a mechanism for safe transit in the strait of Hormuz, a strategic stretch of water located between Iran, the UAE and Oman at the heart of the impasse in the peace talks, Al Jazeera is reporting.

About a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas usually passes through the strait. But Iran closed the shipping route to so-called “hostile” countries in response to being attacked by Israel and the US on 28 February, causing global energy prices to surge and raising bills for consumers around the world.

Iran effectively closed the strait by attacking – or just threatening to attack – some ships and told others not affiliated with the US or Israel that they could pass through the waterway if they paid a toll.

Donald Trump imposed a counter-blockade of ships using Iranian ports on 13 April to try to pressure Tehran into accepting concessions to bring an end to the war – but this failed. The US has said repeatedly there can be no permanent solution to the blockade that involves the payment of a toll to Iran, and claims that Oman holds a similar view.

Oman’s foreign ministry has condemned the drone strike that caused a fire at the perimeter of UAE’s Barakah nuclear power plant on Sunday.

In a statement shared to X, the ministry expressed its solidarity with the UAE but stressed that it rejected all “hostile and escalatory acts” as it urged for dialogue to address regional issues and called for international law to be respected by all parties.

The UAE did not say who launched the attack and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. No injuries were reported and officials said there was no impact on radiological safety levels.