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President Donald Trump on Saturday abruptly canceled a planned trip by special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to Pakistan, pulling back from what had been billed just a day earlier as a potential jump-start to fragile Iran talks. “I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going is [to] Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership.’ Nobody knows who on earth is in charge, including them. Also, we have all...

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will head to Pakistan on Saturday morning to engage in “direct talks” with their Iranian counterparts, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Friday. “The Iranians reached out” and asked for an in-person conversation, as President Donald Trump had asked them to do, Leavitt said on Fox News.

Donald Trump has eight days before he will be forced to make up his mind on Iran. He wants to end the unpopular war, but claimed on Thursday he was under “no time pressure” to do so. In fact, the US president is bound by the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which limits his ability to wage war without congressional approval to 60 days. That deadline passes on May 1, 60 days after his formal notification of the war to Congress on March 2. It will compel him to choose one of four options – seek congressional authorisation to continue the...

US intelligence assessments have suggested that Iran likely still has access to around 70 percent of its pre-war ballistic missile stockpiles, and around 60 percent of its missile launchers, The New York Times reports. It also still retains around 40% of its drone arsenal, the report says, citing US intelligence and military officials. According to the Times, when a two-week ceasefire came into effect between Iran and the US on April 8, Tehran had access to around half of its ballistic missile launchers. Since then, the report says it has managed to dig out another 100 launchers from under the...

President Trump convened an extraordinary Saturday morning meeting in the White House situation room to discuss next steps as the situation in Iran teeters between a peace deal and a resumption of war. The specific subjects under discussion were the status of the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian responses to some U.S. proposals. Quite honestly, I imagine one key subject of discussion was "who the hell is calling the shots in Iran?" Because from an outsider's point of view, it looks like the 95 IQ types in the government think they are in charge, but actions on the ground indicate...

Two vessels, including an Indian-flagged supertanker, were forced back out of the Strait of Hormuz after being approached by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval units, shipping monitor TankerTrackers said on Saturday. It said audio recordings indicated IRGC gunboats fired during the encounter as the ships were redirected westward. One of the vessels was a very large crude carrier transporting about two million barrels of Iraqi oil, it added. “Meanwhile, India is still importing Iranian oil. With friends like these,” TankerTrackers said. According to two Channel 16 audio recordings captured today, two Indian vessels were forced back west out of...

US forces have so far directed 21 ships to turn around since the blockade began this week, the US Central Command posted on X overnight, accompanied by an image of an American guided-missile destroyer patrolling the Arabian Sea. Trump also mocked Western allies over plans to deploy a British and French-led naval taskforce to patrol the Strait of Hormuz. Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron said on Friday they would send warships to help secure the key shipping route, which carries roughly a fifth of the world's oil. But the US president dismissed the effort in a post on X,...

The U.S. and Iran are negotiating over a three-page plan to end the war, with one element under discussion being that the U.S. would release $20 billion in frozen Iranian funds in return for Iran giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium, according to two U.S. officials and two additional sources briefed on the talks.

Iran insisted its uranium was “not going anywhere” despite Donald Trump claiming a deal had been struck for the US to remove the nuclear material.The US president told Reuters that he would work with the Iranian leadership to extract the radioactive element from the country at a “nice leisurely pace” before taking it back to America.But Iran’s foreign ministry rejected Mr Trump’s claim, insisting that no such deal existed.“Iran’s enriched uranium is not going to be transferred anywhere,” Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, said.Tehran officials also denied Mr Trump’s suggestion that the Islamic Republic had agreed...

President Trump sprinted ahead Friday to take a victory lap celebrating what he said was Iran’s agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz and a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. But conflicting statements from Iranian officials and Israeli pushback on the terms of the ceasefire with Lebanon are raising doubt about the president’s actual successes. “I’m concerned that, in this round, Iran came out with the upper hand,” Danny Citrinowicz, senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, posted on the social platform X. Trump began Friday morning with a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in...

“We’re very close to making a deal with Iran,” Trump said, adding that negotiators may meet again “over the weekend.” Pakistan, which has been mediating between the two sides, is expected to host the next round of talks. Trump said he would consider traveling there if an agreement is reached. “I would go to Pakistan,” Trump said. “If a deal is signed in Islamabad, I might go. They want me.” The ceasefire between the sides, which began last Tuesday, is set to expire next week, though Trump suggested it may not need to be extended.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said the U.S. military is "locked and loaded" and prepared to escalate against Iran if negotiations fail. "We are locked and loaded on your critical dual-use infrastructure, on your remaining power generation, and on your energy industry," Hegseth said during his weekly press conference at the Pentagon, *** "We'd rather not have to do it, but we're ready to go at the command of our president and at the push of a button," Hegseth told reporters*** Hegseth issued a direct warning to Iran's military leadership, saying the imbalance in capabilities is decisive. "Our capabilities...

News of the temporary ceasefire between the United States and Iran immediately sent oil prices tumbling. Within minutes of President Donald Trump announcing an agreement had been reached, crude oil prices had fallen below the $100 mark. About an hour after the announcement, the price of oil had dipped all the way into the $91/barrel range before working its way back up. As of 9 p.m., crude oil was trading around $97/barrel, which was still a $20 drop from its intraday-high. The big question that will be on the minds of drivers will be whether this decline, if it holds...

Video at link. About 50 minutes. A very good source of news that often includes cell phone video from inside Iran. Navy aircraft are being prepared for night time operations over Iran.

Vice President JD Vance said on Saturday evening that the U.S. delegation has decided to leave peace talks with Iran in Pakistan after the Islamist regime refused to agree to America’s terms.Speaking alongside White House Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad, Vice President Vance said that after 21 hours of talks, it became clear that no agreement with Iran could be reached and that U.S. negotiators have therefore decided to walk away from the table.“We have had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians, that’s the good news. The bad news...

An Iranian negotiating delegation led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqher Ghalibaf arrived in Islamabad Friday ahead of Saturday’s peace talks with the United States, which Ghalibaf demanded accept Iran’s “preconditions” before talks could begin. Speaking from Islamabad, Ghalibaf claimed Iran had goodwill toward negotiations but no trust in the United States, adding that the Islamic Republic was ready to reach a deal if Washington offered what he described as a genuine agreement and granted Iran its rights, Iranian state media reported. Ghalibaf stated earlier that Tehran’s demands include a ceasefire in Lebanon, which Iran and mediating Pakistan have stated was...

'Just shut up!': MAGA allies fed up with Trump's belligerence and war with Iran. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/just-shut-up-maga-allies-fed-up-with-trump-s-belligerence-and-war-with-iran/vi-AA20wRD8?ocid=socialshare#details

The Iranian regime is once again proving why it cannot be trusted. Despite a delicate ceasefire agreement, Iran is already backsliding, attempting to choke off the world’s oil supply and reportedly shaking down tankers for “tolls” in the Strait of Hormuz. The Gateway Pundit reported on Wednesday that Fars News Agency, the official propaganda arm directly linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported that tanker traffic is now “suspended” after Israel continued hammering Hezbollah. PBS journalist Elizabeth Landers confirmed that President Trump told her directly: Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon is NOT part of the ceasefire deal.

President Trump lashed out at Iran’s handling of the Strait of Hormuz since the two-week cease-fire came into force – claiming “That is not the agreement we have!” “Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday. The vital waterway, through which 20% of the world’s oil passes daily, has effectively been closed since the US and Israel launched their first attacks on Iran as part of “Operation Epic Fury” on Feb. 28. One of the tankers was hauling one million barrels...

Following the US-Iran Ceasefire, Iran announced a closing of the international traffic separation scheme by mining the area and re-routing ships through a new traffic pattern within the territorial waters of Iran and under jurisdiction and control.