US Iran war highlights: US threatens sanctions on businesses working with ‘sanctioned Iranian airlines’

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US Iran news LIVE: Iran shared on Tuesday a breakdown of the death toll from a deadly strike on an Iranian school on the first day of the Middle East war, state media reported.

Seventy-three boys and 47 girls were killed in the February 28 strike on an Iranian elementary school in Minab, state broadcaster IRIB and local media reported. (AFP)

US Iran news LIVE: A US official said Monday that President Donald Trump is dissatisfied with an Iranian proposal, as it fails to address Tehran’s nuclear program, according to Reuters.

“He doesn’t love the proposal,” the official said, adding that Trump discussed it earlier with his top national security aides.

The U.S.-Iran standoff continues, with regional energy supplies impacted. Iranian sources said the proposal seeks to defer nuclear talks until the conflict ends and Gulf shipping disputes are resolved, while Washington insists nuclear issues must be addressed upfront.

US Iran news LIVE: Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov held talks in Kyrgyzstan on Monday with Iran’s Deputy Defence Minister Reza Talaei-Nik, state-run TASS news agency reported.

Belousov reiterated Russia’s longstanding position that the Iran war should be resolved exclusively through diplomatic means and said he was confident Moscow and Tehran would continue to support one another.

Talaei-Nik also traveled to Belarus, one of Russia’s closest allies, where Belarus’ Defence Ministry said he discussed the Middle East situation with Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin.

The ministry, quoted by the state BelTA news agency, said both officials agreed that the sole way to resolve the conflict was “a return to the sphere of a political-diplomatic settlement and the intensification of the process of negotiations.”

The ministry statement said the meeting “confirmed the mutual interest of Minsk and Tehran for a further deepening of their joint interaction”.

US Iran news LIVE: Typically, around 100,000 mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews would gather next week on Mount Meron in northern Israel to celebrate the Lag BaOmer holiday.

However, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the large festival will replaced with a smaller symbolic ceremony, citing concerns about the gathering being attacked by Hezbollah. Similar restrictions were imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and previous wars.

Mount Meron is only about 4 miles (6 kilometers) from the border with Lebanon. People normally light bonfires, dance and have large meals there in honor Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a 2nd-century sage and mystic who is believed to be buried on the mountain.

Across Israel, even in secular areas, people often celebrate Lag BaOmer with barbecues and bonfires in parks and forests.

US Iran news LIVE: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s national security team met Monday and was discussing Iran’s proposal on reopening the key waterway. But she offered no detail on what came of the discussion and how the proposal was being received. She instead said that Trump would address it later.

US Iran news LIVE: Meeting with army commanders, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah’s ability to fire into Israel has been sharply degraded, estimating the group retains about 10% of its arsenal. He did not clarify whether that figure refers to the Lebanese militant group’s stockpile from before the current war, or since the Gaza war began back in 2023.

Iran-backed Hezbollah is believed to still have tens of thousands of rockets, missiles and drones despite decades of efforts by Israel, U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanon’s government to disarm it. Despite Israeli pressure, it’s unclear whether Lebanese authorities have the capacity or political will to disarm Hezbollah.

Netanyahu said Israeli forces’ occupation of parts of southern Lebanon — which he described as a “security zone” — has made northern Israel safer. He said deals brokered with the U.S. and Lebanon gave Israel a “freedom of action” to counter threats inside that country. Beirut has not acknowledged any such right, and Hezbollah says it will keep firing as long as Israel does.

US Iran news LIVE:France said Monday that Iran must be ready to make “major concessions” to end a crisis, as countries piled pressure on Tehran at a UN session on its control of the key Strait of Hormuz.

“There can be no lasting solution to this crisis unless the Iranian regime agrees to major concessions and a radical shift in its stance,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the UN Security Council.

Barrot said that Iran must show a way “to peaceful coexistence within its region and for the Iranian people to be able to build freely their own future,” months after the cleric-run state ruthlessly repressed mass protests.

US Iran news LIVE: The United States and Iran clashed over Tehran’s nuclear programme as a review of the treaty meant to prevent the spread of atomic weapons got underway Monday at the United Nations, a confrontation almost certain to be repeated during the monthlong meeting.

At issue was the election of Iran as one of 34 vice presidents of the conference, where 191 parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty are reviewing its implementation as they have done every five years since it took effect in 1970.

Iran was a candidate of what has been dubbed the “nonaligned movement,” made up of 121 mainly developing countries.

US Iran news LIVE: Businesses working with Iranian airlines risk U.S. sanctions, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday, calling the warning a part of a campaign to put economic pressure on Iran during the U.S. and Israel’s war against Tehran.

“Doing business with sanctioned Iranian airlines risks exposure to U.S. sanctions,” Bessent said in a post on X.

US Iran news LIVE: Oil prices climbed about 3% to a two-week high on Monday as peace talks between the U.S. and Iran stalled and shipments through the Strait of Hormuz remained limited, keeping global oil supplies tight.

Brent futures rose $2.90, or 2.8%, to settle at $108.23 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.97, or 2.1%, to settle at $96.37.

That put Brent up for a sixth day in a row for the first time since March 2025 and at its highest close since April 7. WTI closed at its highest since April 13.

“Brent blowing out to a double-digit plus premium to WTI … should attract customers to the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and possibly drive U.S. crude oil exports to (a) new all-time record,” Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho, said in a note.

via Reuters

US Iran news LIVE: Iran has condemned US seizures of Iran-linked tankers as “outright legalization of piracy and armed robbery on the high seas.” “Welcome to the return of the pirates — only now, they operate with government-issued warrants, sail under official flags, and call their plunder “law enforcement.” The United States must be held fully accountable for this brazenly lawless behavior, which strikes at the heart of international law & international free trade, and threatens the basic principles of maritime security,” Iran foreign minister Easmaeil Baqaei wrote on X.

US Iran news LIVE: US President Donald Trump met with his top security advisors Monday to discuss an Iranian proposal that would reportedly re-open the Strait of Hormuz as broader negotiations over the war continue, the White House said.

When asked about the reported plan — which would see both Iran and the United States lift their blockades ahead of further talks on the thorny issue of Tehran’s nuclear program — spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told a White House briefing that “the proposal was being discussed.”

“Only because it’s been reported, I will confirm the president has met with his national security team this morning,” she said, refusing to say if Trump would accept the proposal.

US Iran news LIVE: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says a purported offer from Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz under strict conditions is not acceptable to the United States or others.

Speaking in a Monday interview with Fox News, Rubio said Iran has a different view of the strategic waterway than most of the rest of the world.

“What they mean by opening the straits is, yes, the straits are open, as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission, or we’ll blow you up and you pay us,” he said.

“That’s not opening the straits. Those are international waterways. They cannot normalise, nor can we tolerate them trying to normalise, a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use the waterways,” Rubio said.

US Iran news LIVE: US President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept Iran’s offer to lift Strait of Hormuz restrictions in exchange of US lifting the sanctions on the Islamic Republic, AP reported. The existing ceasefire keeps the US and Iran in a fragile standoff over the strait.

US Iran news LIVE: Iran has offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the US lifting its blockade on the country and an end to the war, two regional officials said Monday. Under the proposal, discussions on the larger question of Iran’s nuclear program would come later.

US President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer. The existing ceasefire keeps the US and Iran in a fragile standoff over the strait.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Russia Monday for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin as part of a trip that included two stops in Pakistan, where leaders are scrambling to reignite stalled talks between Tehran and Washington.

via AP

US Iran news LIVE: UN’s maritime agency head Monday said there was “no legal basis” for imposing any fees for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

“There’s no legal basis for the introduction of any tax, any customs, or any fees for on straits for international navigation,” AFP cited IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez as saying.

US Iran news LIVE: US Secretary of State Rubio on Monday said Washington will not tolerate attempts to hold the Strait of Hormuz hostage.

“If what they mean by opening the straits is, yes, the straits are opened as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission or we’ll blow you up, and you pay us. That’s not opening the straits,” Rubio told Fox News.

Rubio said Iran “cannot normalise” a system in which “Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway, and how much you have to pay them to use it.”

US Iran news LIVE: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said rockets and drones possessed by Hezbollah were “threats.”

“There are still two central threats from Hezbollah: the 122mm rockets and the drones. This demands a combination of operational and technological activity,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office, AFP reported.

US Iran news LIVE: Israeli defence minister Israel Katz warned Monday that Hezbollah was “playing with fire”, adding that it would have negative consequences for Lebanon.

“Naim Qassem is playing with fire, and the fire will burn Hezbollah and all of Lebanon,” AFP cited Katz as telling UN envoy to Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

“If the Lebanese government continues to take cover under the wing of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation — fire will break out and engulf the cedars of Lebanon,” Katz added.

US Iran news LIVE: France’s foreign minister on Monday said Iran would have to make “major concessions” to end the crisis in West Asia and Strait of Hormuz, AFP reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said he would talk to Iranian authorities after his two-day trip to Andorra.

“We have established a coalition whose purpose is precisely to ensure security, to secure and stabilise, to demonstrate that the international community supports an opening (of the Strait of Hormuz), and so I hope that we will be able to convince the stakeholders in the coming days,” Reuters news agency cited him as saying.

US Iran news LIVE: Six tankers loaded with Iranian oil were forced back to Iran by the US blockade over the past few days, Reuters news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains affected. Between 125 and 140 ships usually crossed in and out of the strait daily before the conflict in West Asia. However, only seven vessels have transited the waterway in the past day, according to Kpler ship-tracking data and satellite analysis from SynMax.

US Iran news LIVE: Bahrain’s interior ministry on Monday said the Gulf kingdom revoked the citizenship of 69 individuals for their support of Iran. This comes after Iran’s retaliatory strikes on the nation and other Gulf states.

In a statement, the ministry said these individuals were “found to have supported hostile Iranian acts, including colluding with foreign entities,” AFP reported.

US Iran news LIVE: French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said he would talk to Iranian authorities after his two-day trip to Andorra.

“We have established a coalition whose purpose is precisely to ensure security, to secure and stabilise, to demonstrate that the international community supports an opening (of the Strait of Hormuz), and so I hope that we will be able to convince the stakeholders in the coming days,” Reuters news agency cited him as saying.

US Iran news LIVE: Iran foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday said Tehran was “considering” US’ “request” for negotiations, adding that America had not achieved any of its objectives during the conflict.

“It is clear that Iran has stood up against the world’s greatest superpower, and they have not achieved even one of their goals. This is why they have requested negotiations, and we are currently considering it,” Araghchi told Russia media, according to his Telegram channel.