• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has issued conditions for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, including an end to the US’s naval blockade and compensation for war damages.
• US Vice President JD Vance says Iranian leaders have “told us they have no plans to toll the Strait of Hormuz” and Washington is seeking a commitment to end attacks on ships in the strait.
• Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says Iran is not the target of the defence pact signed between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan in Mecca.
• Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have condemned what the United Arab Emirates says was an Iranian attack on a vessel belonging to the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s president says now is best time for an agreement

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for the country to move beyond a state of “neither war nor peace”.

“There is cohesion, strength and unity in the country, and as far as I know, Iran is considered victorious and powerful in this war,” he told Iranian media, adding that he believed now is the best time for an agreement.

Pezeshkian also said Iran and Washington should have set up a channel to address ceasefire violations.

“In any case, violations occur in every memorandum of understanding. In principle, a team should have been formed to address violations back then, rather than to fight,” he said.

“We need to see how to resolve them now, if a solution is possible, which is currently being worked on in the Oman negotiations. God willing, we will reach a point where we can get out of this state of ‘neither war nor peace’,” he added.

Turkiye says Egypt could join Mecca defence pact in its next phase

Turkey's foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, says Egypt could join the landmark mutual defence agreement between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan, signed in Mecca.

Fidan told the Anadolu agency’s “Editors’ Desk” programme that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s vision is to widen the pact to other countries in the region. However, the deal – which says an attack on one would be considered an attack on all three – will only be a defensive arrangement, and they have no expansionist ambitions, he said.

“Our president’s vision is for this initiative not to remain limited to three countries, but to grow and, if necessary, bring all countries under this umbrella,” Fidan said.

Egypt, he said, could also be part of the agreement in the future.

“Egypt is our natural partner on all issues. I believe that at the next stage Egypt will also be among us in the alliance. We already act toward one another as if we were alliance members,” he said.

He added that the agreement does not specify any “common threat” and said there will be military exercises and training sessions under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement.

Pakistani PM says Mecca defence pact ‘purely’ defensive in nature

Ishaq Dar says the trilateral Mecca defence deal, signed by Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, is “purely” defensive in nature and not targeted against any country.

In a statement posted on X, Dar said the sole purpose of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement is to further strengthen joint ongoing efforts towards peace, stability, and prosperity in the wider region.

The agreement, signed by the three countries on Friday in Mecca, treats an attack on any one of the countries as an attack on all three.

Dar said the defence pact remains open to any country in the region willing to uphold its fundamental principles and resolve differences through “mutual respect, cooperation and peaceful means”.

He reiterated that, according to the accord, any external armed attack on any one of the three countries will be considered an attack on all, consistent with the inherent right of individual and collective self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter.

The pact, he added, does not abrogate or replace any existing bilateral or multilateral agreements between these countries, or with other countries or organisations.

Iran’s conditions for reopening Hormuz

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has urged the US to “correct its behaviour” in order for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, the secretary of the council, listed six demands for the US. They are:

• Ending threats against Iran and its “sacred values”
• Permanently halting military action against Iran and its regional allies
• Withdrawing US naval and air forces involved in a blockade against Iran
• Compensating Iran for damage caused during the recent conflict
• Lifting US sanctions
• Releasing Iran’s frozen assets.

“The Supreme National Security Council will not retreat from these demands, whether in war or in negotiations,” he said.

US attacks ‘undermining those who support diplomatic engagement’ in Iran

Abas Aslani, a senior research fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies, says Iran is insisting on compensation from the US in a bid to deter further attacks.

He described the demand as an “invoice” for US aggression, and said Tehran is aiming for a familiar cycle of events “not to be repeated – today negotiating, tomorrow breaking it, then attacking, threatening, then back to square one”.

Iran “thinks that by trying to include some costs, this could make the Americans think twice if they intend to do similar scenarios in the future”, he told Al Jazeera.

Aslani also said that differences of opinion on whether and how much to engage with Washington diplomatically still exist in Iran, but are being narrowed by the US military’s actions.

“What the United States … have been doing also have been pushing those different factions together,” he said. “This is something which even those reformists and those supporting the negotiations cannot defend … And this makes different fronts to be united,” he added.

“When you look at the Iranian position, you would see mostly continuity and a consistency. You’re not seeing that much of a difference from what Iran was saying a few months ago, a few weeks ago and today. This indicates that this is not [because] of decision-making in Iran but what the US is doing; it is undermining those who are supporting diplomatic engagement with the US.”

War on Iran accelerates change at Pentagon as US seeks lower-cost weapons

A senior Pentagon official has said that the US has sufficient munitions stockpiles, countering media reports of shortages following the war with Iran.

The principal deputy director of the Defense Innovation Unit, Jarred Conley, says defence strategy is also shifting to autonomous weapons to bring down costs.

Tankers ‘operating in digital darkness’ to ship oil through Strait of Hormuz, tracking firm says

TankerTrackers.com, a monitoring service, is reporting that a fleet of at least 56 tankers is conducting “covert ship-to-ship transfers” to move oil from Gulf countries through the Strait of Hormuz.

It said the fleet has been “visually identified” but is operating in “digital darkness to support oil exports from Arab nations” neighboring Iran.

“These vessels transit the Strait of Hormuz to conduct covert ship-to-ship (STS) transfers in the Gulf of Oman,” it said, adding that this helps “ensure that you can still afford to enjoy your summer holiday, even if it is only a day trip”.

Saudi Arabia, Yemen join condemnation of attack on UAE tanker

Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s internationally recognized government have joined Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar and Syria in condemning the attack on an oil tanker operated by the UAE’s ADNOC while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The UAE blamed Iran for the attack and said it did not result in any injuries.

In a statement, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “These reprehensible attacks constitute an assault on the security and safety of maritime navigation, as well as on the security of global energy supplies.”

The kingdom “holds Iran responsible for the consequences of its continued acts of aggression and calls on Iran to immediately cease these violations”, it added.

Yemen’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a similar statement, calling it “a serious threat to the security and safety of maritime navigation and commercial vessels”.

It demanded an immediate end to such attacks and adherence to international law.

Vance says US will keep ‘applying pressure’ on Iran if it fails to make changes

US vice president Vance was saying on Fox News that the US was assessing whether Iran was prepared to make long-term changes that could improve relations between the two countries. If it was unwilling to, Washington would continue applying pressure, he said.

“We’ve destroyed their nuclear program. We’ve destroyed their conventional military. We’ve radically reduced their, what you might call, their asymmetric military abilities. And right now we’re trying to see if they’re willing to make the kind of long-term changes that would be necessary to have a better relationship with the United States,” he said.

“And if not, that’s fine too. We’re just going to keep on applying the pressure that we can apply and getting as much oil and gas out of the Middle East so that Americans can enjoy lower gas and energy prices,” he added.

"We’ve radically reduced their, what you might call, their asymmetric military abilities."

Like the other comments Vance made, they are the same claims Trump continues to make, while the US provided no evidence that whatever is Iranian military has been destroyed or reduced.

Analysts and other experts, whether observing the attacking side (US) or the defensive side (Iran) or both, are indicating that Iran's asymmetric capabilities, not abilities, has increased.

Iran-Oman talks on the Strait of Hormuz

Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz remains severely restricted even as Iran and Oman report closing in on a deal to manage shipping in the critical waterway.

• Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters on Saturday that the ongoing talks are about establishing a “temporary route” in the Strait of Hormuz and said, “We’re almost very close to the result.”
• But he said that other conditions, including compensation from the US for war damages, must be met before the strait is reopened.
• Iran’s National Security Council meanwhile laid out six conditions for Hormuz to reopen. They are: the US ending its threats to Iran; halting military action against Iran and its regional allies; withdrawing naval and air forces involved in blockading Iran; compensating Iran for damage caused in the conflict; lifting sanctions and unfreezing Iranian assets.
• A spokesperson for the IRGC also said on Saturday that the reopening of Hormuz is conditional on the US “fully accepting Iran’s conditions and ceasing to interfere in the regional negotiations”.
• For its part, Oman condemned continuing attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, without assigning blame, and said negotiations with Iran on the waterway were “positive and constructive”.
• Iranian media reported last week that the talks were aimed at establishing a “middle corridor” through the strait, distinct from both the northern route established by Iran and the southern corridor favored by the US. The Foreign Ministry said the geographical coordinates of the new route have been finalized.

US, Iran ‘talking past each other’ in indirect talks

Richard Weitz, a senior fellow at the NATO Defense College, says talks between the US and Iran are dragging in part due to the fact that they are indirect.

“As far as we can tell, it’s somewhat convoluted because of this indirect process. The Iranians refuse to talk with the US directly. The Iranians talk to Omanis and Pakistanis, and the Omanis and Pakistanis come to the US,” he said.

The result, he said, is a pattern in which “positive signals” that the US receives from intermediaries are often contradicted by subsequent statements from Tehran.

“So I think talking past each other is probably a good way to describe that process,” he said.

Weitz said the prevailing interpretation in Washington, DC, of Iran’s six conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz was that they reflected hard line elements within the IRGC reasserting themselves over the Iranian Foreign Ministry. This, he argued, explained why just when the White House believes an agreement is close, Tehran issues a new list of hard line demands.

“This is challenging for the US because it can’t accept some of the demands, such as the payment of reparations,” he said. “There may be more flexibility on sanctions and a few other issues, but just listing all these demands as non-negotiable isn’t going to get us anywhere,” he added.

VP Vance says US ‘destroyed’ Iran’s nuclear program

US Vice President JD Vance claims Washington has “destroyed” Iran’s nuclear program and degraded its military as Tehran demands US compensation and an end to the naval blockade of its ports before reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

No. While US administration officials like Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump have maintained the rhetoric based on the June 2025 military strikes  "obliterated" or "destroyed" Iran’s nuclear program, subsequent intelligence assessments and expert evaluations indicate that the program was severely damaged rather than entirely wiped out.

• Operation Midnight Hammer struck key nuclear infrastructure at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan using bunker-buster bombs and cruise missiles.
• Above-ground structures, conversion processes, and specific facility entrances suffered major destruction.
• Initial intelligence and defense evaluations suggested the strikes set Iran's enrichment capabilities back by months to a couple of years rather than permanently eliminating the residual technical know-how or scattered stockpiles.

Iran, US may try to ‘find out who’s going to blink first’

Paul Musgrave, an associate professor of government at Georgetown University, believes that, provided the current negotiations between Iran and Oman continue, there will be other talks with Washington “over the points the US has control over”.

He reminded that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran-Muscat talks are close to a deal.

“Now, the question is whether either side is really interested in going back to the MoU, which, of course, failed,” he said.

Musgrave said it is likely that the situation will become “another round of chicken in which both sides are trying to find out who’s going to blink first”.

He said this is because Iran seems to “be hardening its demands”, and, seeing US Vice President Vance’s latest statements, “the administration is not going to back down”.

US-Iran talks mired in mistrust as Tehran lays out demands

Tehran has been trying to practice cautiously calibrated pragmatism in response to the actions and statements from the US administration, and in particular the US president.

The entirety of any diplomatic engagement with Washington has been engulfed by a cloud of mistrust, and that is coming from the very fact that Iranians were attacked in the middle of talks with the Americans several times.

The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, yesterday strongly criticised the US for lack of commitment pertaining to the deal. Also, we’ve got other statements from Araghchi saying that compensation is a necessity.

This situation and the talks between Muscat and Tehran are being interpreted as a precondition for a potential revival of the talks between Iran and the US. But what we see on the ground is an uncertain situation marked by a lot of points of contention between Tehran and Washington.

Iran says no talks with US, only messages via intermediaries

Iran is currently not holding negotiations with the US and is only exchanging messages through intermediaries, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says, adding that talks can’t resume until Washington makes amends for what he described as violations of an MoU between them.

In comments carried by Iran’s Mehr news agency, Araghchi said mediators were still trying to find ways to restart talks but that Tehran didn’t believe negotiations could resume until the alleged US breaches were addressed.

“Efforts are under way to create grounds for negotiations,” he said, reiterating that there was no possibility of resuming talks until the US corrected its violations.

Araghchi said changing sea routes in the Strait of Hormuz is a technical and legal matter and doesn’t amount to opening the strait.

Iran, Oman close to agreeing on new Hormuz route: Araghchi

Iran’s negotiations with Oman over establishing a new maritime route in the Strait of Hormuz have progressed well and reached their final stage, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says, though he stressed this did not mean the strategic waterway was reopening.

Speaking to journalists on Sunday, Araghchi said existing routes through the strait would be replaced by new ones and that specialists were currently working on the maps.

“This, of course, does not mean that the Strait of Hormuz is reopening,” he said, adding that any reopening was contingent on the fulfillment of a number of other conditions that had been conveyed to the relevant parties through intermediaries.

Araghchi described the talks with Oman as entirely technical and legal, aimed at determining maritime routes that were first established in 1968.

He said the recent war had made clear the need for changes to those routes, and that Iranian and Omani experts were carrying out the work. Once the routes were determined, he said, they would be used when the strait was to be reopened.

‘No war, no peace’: Pezeshkian tries to push Iran towards a deal

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for an end to what he describes as a state of “neither war nor peace” with the United States as negotiators seek an agreement to end the war.

Pezeshkian said on Saturday that Iran was in a position of strength and he believed it was the right time to reach an agreement with the US.

The president’s remarks came as Iran and Oman pursue an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway through which about one-fifth of global oil shipments transited in peacetime.

Pezeshkian is trying to push Iran towards a deal.

Iranian supreme leader, president hold talks

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has met Pezeshkian on the occasion of the latter beginning his third year in office, according to Iranian media.

“The two extensively discussed the country’s challenges, including public livelihood needs, the ongoing third war of aggression, future prospects, military developments and economic engagement with foreign partners,” state-run Press TV said.

Top Iranian general warns US troops against ground invasion

Brigadier General Ali Jahanshahi, Iran’s commander of ground forces, says, “If any US military personnel set foot in Iran, we will cut them off.”

“We will respond to any enemy action with a firm and deterrent response,” the state media reported, quoting him.

“Iranian army ground forces remain at full combat readiness, continuously monitoring movements and threats while firmly guarding the country’s borders,” he said.

Iranian official says footage of supreme leader to be released soon

Iran plans to release footage of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei soon, showing him in public and in meetings with military commanders, a deputy commander of the Basij Organization says.

Qasem Qoraishi’s comments were reported by Mizan, the Iranian judiciary’s official news outlet.

The Basij is an Iranian paramilitary volunteer force under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that serves as the regime’s domestic security arm.

Khamenei, who was appointed the supreme leader in March following the death of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US Israeli air strikes has not been seen in public since taking office.

We've seen the footage aired on Al Jazeera English at around 15:00 pm our time.

Tehran to hold on to Hormuz at ‘any cost’, ex-Iran chief judge says

Iran will not retreat from the Strait of Hormuz at “any cost”, former Iranian chief justice Ayatollah Amoli Larijani has said, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

Larijani, who currently heads the Expediency Council, a key conflict resolution and advisory body appointed by Iran’s supreme leader, also said that the country has sovereignty over the strategic waterway despite attempts by its “enemies” to besiege it.

Sultan of Oman visits Qatar

Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said has concluded a state visit to Doha and talks with Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

They discussed bilateral relations and ways to “support and enhance them across various levels, in addition to exchanging views on a number of issues of mutual interest”, according to a Qatari government statement.

Oman is in negotiations with Iran to agree on a joint framework for the management of the Strait of Hormuz. It is expected to pave the way for broader re-engagement with the US.

Qatar has mediated peace talks between Iran and the US.

Oman-Iran talks on Hormuz advance, but US-Iran deadlock persists

Roxane Farmanfarmaian, a lecturer at the University of Cambridge, says there is “an enormous amount of negotiation that’s making real progress” between Muscat and Tehran on new routes in and out of the Strait of Hormuz.

Farmanfarmaian said the aim is to have everything “in place” for Oman and Iran – which both hold territorial control over the strait – to reopen it once the US lifts its embargo and follows through on the rest of the agreement.

But she said the bigger problem lies with Washington. Iran believes the US hasn’t honored its side of the deal, leaving only “an exchange of notes” instead of direct talks, as Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said.

Farmanfarmaian pointed to two Iranian demands still unmet: unfreezing Iran’s foreign reserves, and lifting the US naval embargo on the outer rim of the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump says US ‘low-keying it’ with Iran

Trump has said the US is ‘low-keying it’ with Iran during a phone interview with Axios

“We ⁠are only semi-negotiating ⁠with them. We are ⁠just watching Iran with its huge inflation ‌and the fact they have no money,” he said.

Trump claims dealing with Iran is ‘like a chess game’

Trump has said he is prepared to allow economic pressure on Iran mount, according to his phone interview with Axios.

The president did not make any military threats in the brief exchange, despite Iran not yet agreeing to a Strait of Hormuz deal with Oman and Tehran issuing new demands on Saturday.

Trump said the US naval blockade has put Iran “in very bad shape” while, on the other hand, he claimed US consumers are feeling less of a pinch, as oil has dropped down to $75 per barrel.

“It will work out. It always works out. It’s like a chess game,” Trump said of Washington’s back and forth with Iran.

Iran sees Strait of Hormuz as linked to national security

Iran does want the Strait of Hormuz to reopen, political analyst Mohammad Eslami of the University of Tehran has said.

“Of course, Iran knows that a closed Strait of Hormuz is not useful for any country, also not for Iran.”

But the problem, he argued, is that the US and Israel’s war on Iran has caused Tehran to prioritise the strait as a matter of national security.

If the US is serious about continuing down the diplomatic path with Iran, it would need to consider Iran’s conditions to open the passageway, including Tehran’s demands to end the war on other fronts, such as Lebanon, Eslami added.

“This war was not just a war on Iran, it was a war on the security of the region.”

Regarding Israeli PM Netanyahu’s rejection on Sunday of the US-brokered deal with Hamas, and his statements that Israel might venture out alone without further support from the US in the months-long conflict, Eslami said any Israeli attacks on Tehran would prompt severe retaliation.

“They know better than any other country that the Iranian response would be more than any imaginings the Israelis are thinking about,” Eslami concluded.

Iran feels less time pressure than Trump in Hormuz standoff

Roxane Farmanfarmaian, a lecturer at the University of Cambridge, says Iran believes it can afford to wait out the US in talks over reopening the Strait of Hormuz, even as US President Trump insists Iran is desperate for a deal.

Farmanfarmaian said that reports of splits in Iran’s leadership are hard to verify, but the evidence points to strong internal support for negotiations. In President Masoud Pezeshkian’s recent speeches, he said 12 of 13 National Security Council members backed the agreement, more than the number Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei required.

However, she noted Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf’s frustration that talks are stuck in a loop, with issues “brought up, and then denied, and then brought up again by President Trump” – a sign of Iran’s impatience over unmet promises like frozen reserves and the naval embargo.

She said Iran doesn’t feel it’s on the clock the way the US is, with Trump facing his own pressure from US midterm elections, oil prices and inflation – calling it “a cat and mouse type of thing” over “who blinks first”.

Iran’s strategy, she concluded, is to show good faith through the Oman talks and put the pressure on Washington to act first.

Iran’s supreme leader appoints former IRGC chief Rezaee to top security post

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has appointed Mohsen Rezaee as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council – the top security post in the country, where he will be Khamenei’s representative.

The position was held formerly by Ali Larijani, who was assassinated in US-Israeli strikes in March, and then Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr.

Rezaee is a former IRGC chief and is a member of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council, which resolves differences between parliament and the Guardian Council, a separate body that vets candidates for office.

He was a military commander during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, referred to in Iran as the “Sacred Defence”.

Khamenei also appointed Zolghadr as his political adviser.

‘A long way to go’ before Iran conflict is resolved, says former US general

Retired US general and former diplomat Mark Kimmitt has said there’s “a long way to go” before there is any resolution to the various problems in the region and that Trump now faces a choice between “show patience or find some off ramps”.

On Iran, Kimmitt said the Strait of Hormuz standoff shows the limits of military pressure alone, noting that “no war has been won” by air power alone throughout history, and that any US military role in an economic and diplomatic effort to bring Iran back to the table “must change”.

He invoked the 1968 Christmas bombing of North Vietnam as a historical parallel for combining military and diplomatic pressure, but said he was not “confident” that diplomacy and military power alone will bring Iran back this time – “it’s going to take a lot more economic” pressure as well, he said.

Kimmitt said Washington’s original goals – a reduced or eliminated Iranian nuclear and missile program and severed ties to proxies – have narrowed since Iran took control of the Strait of Hormuz. He said Trump may ultimately settle for reopening the strait and “declare victory” on the nuclear, missile and proxy fronts.

Trump pivots to diplomacy with Iran, as midterm pressure mounts

Trump has shifted towards diplomacy with Iran, moving away from what had widely been expected – a much larger strike on Iranian military targets, including sites with both civilian and military uses.

The strikes were meant to force concessions from Tehran on the Strait of Hormuz, its nuclear ambitions and its support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. But it seems, instead, that the president decided to give diplomacy some time. Whether the approach holds is unclear, given how quickly the conflict has shifted from day to day.

The shift also comes as dissatisfaction grows in national polling – largely among Democratic and independent voters, but some Republicans too – over the decision to go to war with Iran, its economic fallout on energy and consumer prices, and doubts about a viable US exit strategy.

Trump posted on Truth Social this past week that his internal polling shows support for the war, but the issue is increasingly becoming a talking point ahead of the November 3 midterms.

US military says total 55 vessels redirected to enforce Iran blockade

The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) says it has redirected 55 commercial vessels as part of its naval blockade on Iran.

That is two more than the 53 vessels it reported having redirected yesterday.

It said more than 20 US warships were now deployed to the Middle East supporting military missions, including strict enforcement of the blockade.

Iran’s new top security official will play vital role in domestic affairs

Iran’s new secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, will bring military, economic and political experience to the role, says Abas Aslani, senior research fellow at the Tehran-based Center for Middle East Strategic Studies.

“They needed to have someone who can somehow synchronize different bodies of the government,” Aslani said.

“Politically, he is not that much different from his predecessor on security, but the role he can play domestically, and being a balancing act in the country, is quite significant in this regard,” he added.

Aslani said that Rezaei, a former IRGC chief and member of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council, will also play an important role in Tehran’s negotiations with the US.

“I think it is important to have someone who is able to reach out to different factions and to talk to them, and that is why he has been picked,” he said.