US Iran war highlights: Trump says Iran ‘has come a long way’, questions if it will go far enough

The White House has said that negotiators are continuing to engage with the Iranians, who are “struggling to sort out their leadership situation” amid the war.

In a statement to US media, spokesperson Anna Kelly said Trump would only enter into an agreement with Iran that “puts US national security first”.

“He has been clear that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon,” Kelly said.

The White House’s statement comes after Trump said on his TruthSocial media platform that Iran did not know how to sign a non-nuclear deal and that they “better get smart soon”.

Lebanon’s army said Wednesday that one of its soldiers was among two people killed in an Israeli strike in the country’s south, the latest deadly raid despite a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

“A soldier and his brother were killed in an Israeli strike that targeted them in the town of Khirbet Selm in Bint Jbeil (district) while they were travelling on a motorbike” heading home from the soldier’s post, the army statement said.

The raid comes one day after 11 people including three civil defence personnel were killed in strikes in the country’s south, according to updated health ministry figures, while two army troops were also wounded.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has called the strike that killed the civil defence workers a “war crime”.

President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday that authorities were keeping up “contacts to consolidate the ceasefire and stop the demolition of homes in occupied southern villages”, according to a statement from his office.

At least five people have been killed, including a soldier and 21 injured in an Israeli raid on Jebchit, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said in a statement.

Those wounded in the attack on Tuesday night include four children and nine women.

British police have arrested a man after two people were stabbed in Golders Green, an area of north London with a large Jewish population, the Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.

A UAE official told Reuters on Wednesday that the UAE is revising the relevance and utility of its role in multilateral organisations, and it is not considering any withdrawals at this time.

India has repatriated a total number of 2929 seafarers so far with 29 Indian seafarers being repatriated in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways said on Wednesday.

Addressing an interministerial media briefing on recent developments in West Asia, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Mukesh Mangal, assured that all Indian vessels and crew currently in the Persian Gulf are being closely monitored, and confirmed that all seafarers in the region remain safe.

“All Indian seafarers are safe in the region. In the last 24 hours, there has been no report of any incident related to the Indian-flagged vessel,” the official said.

“Ministry of Port, Shipping has facilitated the safe repatriation of 2829 Indian seafarers. In the last 24 hours, 29 seafarers were repatriated,” Mangal added.

The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely still at its Isfahan nuclear complex, which was bombarded by airstrikes last year and faced less intense attacks in this year’s US-Israeli war, the head of the UN nuclear agency told The Associated Press.

Rafael Grossi said in an interview on Tuesday that the International Atomic Energy Agency has satellite images showing the effects of the latest US-Israeli airstrikes against Iran and that “we continue to get information.”

IAEA inspections ended at Isfahan when Israel last June launched a 12-day war that saw the United States bomb three Iranian nuclear sites.

The UN nuclear watchdog believes a large percentage of Iran’s highly enriched uranium “was stored there in June 2025 when the 12-day war broke out, and it has been there ever since,” Grossi said.

“We haven’t been able to inspect or to reject that the material is there and that the seals — the IAEA seals — remain there,” he said. “I hope we’ll be able to do that, so what I tell you is our best estimate.”

German premium automaker Mercedes-Benz warned Wednesday that a drawn-out conflict in West Asia could cause shortages of key inputs as it reported tumbling quarterly profits due to fierce Chinese competition.

Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has slowed to a trickle as Iran and the United States maintain competing blockades, restricting global energy supplies and raising the cost of smelting industrial metals like aluminium.

Oil is also a key input for plastics and other petrochemical products.

“We’re continuously monitoring (the war) and analysing the implications for the supply chain,” Mercedes finance chief Harald Wilhelm told reporters on a call.

“If it were to last longer, you could not rule out the possibility of shortages in certain areas, whether of energy or certain commodities that are heavily sourced from the region.”

Iran rial has hit a record low against the dollar amid the US blockade.

The decision of the United Arab Emirates to leave the OPEC does not, hopefully, mean the end of the OPEC format of the leading global oil producers, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, adding that Russia will stay in the group.

The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday said it was quitting OPEC, dealing a blow to the oil producers’ group as an unprecedented energy crisis caused by the Iran war exposes discord among Gulf nations.

US President Donald Trump and his top officials met with oil and gas executives, including Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the energy fallout of the Iran war and other topics, Axios reported on Wednesday.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were present, and the meeting covered domestic production, progress in Venezuela, oil futures, natural gas, and shipping, according to the Axios report.

An Israeli drone has targeted the town of Khirbet Selm in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reported.

Earlier, Israel launched an air raid on the town of Ghandouriyeh, also in southern Lebanon.

French oil giant TotalEnergies has announced that it restarted its Satorp refinery in Saudi Arabia on April 14 after it had been shut down following damage sustained during Iran’s attacks.

“Following the events of April 8, which affected three units at the Satorp site and led to its shutdown as a safety precaution, the undamaged units were able to be restarted, and the refinery has been operating at a capacity of 230,000 b/d [barrels per day] since April 14,” the company said.

The Israeli army has announced that it has intercepted a drone in the area of Avivim that was launched from Lebanon before it crossed into Israeli territory.

In a post on Telegram, the army also said an interceptor was launched toward a “suspicious aerial target” in the same area where soldiers are operating in southern Lebanon, but the results of that interception were under review.

In a later update, the army said it launched another interceptor toward a “suspicious aerial target” in the area of Metula, an area where soldiers are also operating in southern Lebanon.

Iran has executed at least 21 people and arrested more than 4,000 since the beginning of the Middle East war, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Since the US-Israeli strikes sparked the war in late February, “at least nine people have been executed in connection with the January 2026 protests, ten for alleged membership in opposition groups, and two on espionage charges,” the UN’s rights office said.

“Since 28 February, more than 4,000 individuals are estimated to have been arrested on national security related charges in Iran,” the agency added in a statement.

“Iran can’t get their act together”, claims Trump in a social media post, warning that “they better get smart soon”.

“They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal,” he added in the post.

US Iran war LIVE updates: Despite a ceasefire remaining in place between Israel and Lebanon, strikes are continuing in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reports. Israel is carrying out airstrikes in the town of Ghandouriyeh in southern Lebanon, according to the report.

US Iran war LIVE updates: A Japanese-owned supertanker carrying around two million barrels of crude oil has successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz after securing clearance from Iranian authorities, marking a rare transit through the strategic waterway since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran, according to Press TV.

US Iran war LIVE updates: Donald Trump has sharply criticised German Chancellor Friedrich Merz after the latter questioned the US approach toward Iran, saying it lacked a clear exit strategy and that Tehran was “humiliating” Washington with its negotiating tactics.

Responding, Trump defended his actions, stating, “I am doing something with Iran, right now, that other Nations, or Presidents, should have done long ago.” He also took aim at Merz’s leadership, adding, “No wonder Germany is doing so poorly, both Economically, and otherwise!”

US Iran war LIVE updates: The US signaled it would stick with a naval blockade of Iranian ports, as it tries to choke-off Tehran’s oil exports and force it back to the negotiating table.

US President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that Iran was in a “state of collapse.” Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, later said Washington’s “maximum pressure campaign” had caused Iran’s inflation to accelerate and that the country was running out of oil storage. It would soon have to start cutting production, Bessent said. (Bloomberg)

US Iran war LIVE updates: Al Jazeera reports that Israeli forces have carried out a drone strike on the town of Burj Qalaouiyah in southern Lebanon.

The development comes as the Israeli military said it had intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” near its forces operating in southern Lebanon.

US Iran war LIVE updates: The White House confirmed that Donald Trump and his national security team have reviewed a new Iranian proposal to end the war. Reports suggest it includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for halting hostilities, with nuclear talks postponed. Trump signalled dissatisfaction, claiming Iran is in “collapse.” Marco Rubio called the offer better than expected but insisted any deal must block Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the The Wall Street Journal reported plans for a prolonged blockade, as Iran warned it remains in a “war situation.”

US Iran war LIVE updates: While Iran is securing international backing with its foreign minister Abbas Araghchi visiting Islamabad and meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg, regional powers in West Asia have begun voicing opposition. At a meeting in Saudi Arabia, leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, convened under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, formally rejected what they described as Iran’s “illegal actions” concerning the closure of the strait and threats to maritime passage. (ANI)

US Iran war LIVE updates: President Donald Trump said Iran has asked the US to lift a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz while the two sides negotiate an end to the two-month war, which has upended global energy supplies.

Tehran wants the critical waterway for oil and gas shipments open “as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation,” Trump said on Truth Social on Tuesday. Iran has said it’s in a “State of Collapse,” he added. (Bloomberg)

US Iran war LIVE updates: Israeli forces killed three terrorists from the Hezbollah terror organization, who were operating to advance a firing plot toward our forces, said a post from IDF on X. “Immediately after identification, the Air Force struck and eliminated the terrorists,” said X.