Trump halts ‘major attack’ on Iran, but ready to strike if Tehran won’t give up nuclear weapon plans
President Donald Trump halted a planned “major attack” on Iran on Tuesday in pursuit of a possible peace deal, but warned the U.S. remains poised to strike if negotiations fail. The standoff continues as Iran holds onto its nuclear weapons aspirations and Washington presses for guarantees that Tehran will not develop a nuclear weapon.
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G7 finance chiefs call for reopening Strait of Hormuz, warn on global imbalances
Reopening the Strait of Hormuz is imperative, G7 finance ministers said Tuesday, underscoring the economic stakes of disruption in one of the world’s most important energy corridors.
In a joint statement, the finance chiefs from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States said they remained committed to stable energy markets and urged countries to avoid arbitrary export restrictions.
Keeping Hormuz open and energy markets stable is a priority not only for the region, but for the broader global economy, the Group of Seven allies stressed as President Donald Trump pushes Iran toward peace and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
G7 ministers said in a joint statement that it was “imperative” to ensure a return to free and safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz and ease strains on energy, food and fertilizer supply chains.
Trump said on Monday he had paused a planned attack against Iran after Tehran sent a peace proposal to Washington, and that there was now a “very good chance” of reaching a deal limiting Iran’s nuclear program.
But other G7 countries have expressed frustration that Washington and Israel launched strikes against Iran without considering the economic impact, and the foreseeable closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for energy markets.
Officials from three Gulf countries attended Tuesday’s meeting in Paris to discuss the crisis, and Lescure said that the IMF and the World Bank should do more to support the most vulnerable countries from the impact of the conflict, especially on food supplies.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that President Donald Trump is still pursuing a diplomatic deal with Iran but remains “locked and loaded” to restart the military campaign if nuclear talks collapse.
“It takes two to tango,” Vance told reporters at the White House daily press briefing Tuesday. “We are not going to have a deal that allows the Iranians to have a nuclear weapon.
“So as the president just told me, we’re locked and loaded. We don’t want to go down that pathway. But the president is willing and able to go down that pathway if we have to.”
The administration sees two paths forward, according to Vance: a negotiated agreement that permanently blocks Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, or renewed U.S. military action.
“We think the Iranians want to make a deal,” Vance said. “The president of the United States has asked us to negotiate in good faith. And that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
But Vance warned that diplomacy will not come at the cost of Trump’s core demand that Tehran never obtain a nuclear weapon.
“There’s an option B, and the option B is that we could restart the military campaign to continue to prosecute the case, to continue to try to achieve America’s objectives,” Vance said. “But that’s not what the president wants. And I don’t think it’s what the Iranians want either.”
Trump says Gulf leaders knew he was ‘getting ready to attack’ Iran without being told
President Donald Trump remains steadfast in keeping his war plans to himself.
“They knew I was getting ready to attack,” Trump told reporters at the White House ballroom construction site. “I didn’t tell them. I never tell anybody when.
“But they knew that we were very close. I would say we were, I was an hour away from making the decision to go today, and we would probably not be talking about a beautiful ballroom today. We’d be talking about that.”
But Gulf leaders had an inkling, Trump added.
“So they called up, they had heard I made the decision and said, ‘Sir, could you give us a couple of more days because we think they’re being reasonable?’”
Breaking News
Trump says China’s Xi promised not to send weapons to Iran
President Donald Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping personally promised him that Beijing would not send weapons to Iran, as Trump warned Tehran still had some ability to retaliate despite what he described as devastating U.S. strikes on Iran’s military.
“President Xi has promised me that he’s not sending any weapons to Iran,” Trump told reporters during a White House ballroom construction huddle with reporters.
“That’s a beautiful promise. I take him at his word. I appreciate it.”
Trump said he and Xi had “an amazing time” during his China visit and suggested Beijing shared U.S. concerns about keeping oil lanes open.
“We got along very well before this, but President XI and I had a really an amazing time,” Trump added. “I think you’d say the same thing, but he promised that he’s not sending any weapons.
“And, you know, if you think about it, he gets 40% of his oil” from the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said of Xi. “He’s not sending oil boats and, you know, tankers in with 20 destroyers alongside of them.
“He does want it open, like me. I want it open and we’ll get it open.”
Rubio urges UN to help ‘stop Islamic Republic of Iran’s unlawful mining and tolling of the Strait’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday about U.S. efforts to confront Iran’s activity in the Strait of Hormuz, the State Department said.
“The Secretary further discussed U.S. efforts to stop the Islamic Republic of Iran’s unlawful mining and tolling of the Strait of Hormuz, including a draft UN Security Council resolution, presented by the United States and Bahrain with the support of other Gulf partners,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott wrote in a readout of the call.
“The Secretary emphasized the overwhelming support of a broad base of UN members for these efforts.”
Rubio discussed advancing President Donald Trump’s vision for a “back-to-basics” United Nations that is “leaner and more accountable.”
Trump on higher gas prices: ‘It won’t be much longer’
President Donald Trump is urging Americans to hang on amid rising gas prices as he tries to complete the mission in the Middle East of ridding Iran of nuclear weapons aspirations.
“I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while,” Trump told reporters at the White House ballroom construction site Tuesday. “It won’t be much longer.”
Trump pointed to the rising stock market in showing how the money experts are expecting peace with Iran.
“We just hit a new high in the stock market – everything’s going good,” Trump said. “I’m sorry, but we have to go down and take a little journey down to we have to do something with Iran. We cannot let them have a nuclear weapon.”
The price of gas “is peanuts” compared to the threat of a nuclear Iran, but noted he is a deflationary, energy-conscious president.
“You know, I had gasoline down to $1.85 in Iowa,” Trump said. “I was in Iowa, and the stations had it at $1.85. But I was down to, in many cases, less than $2 a barrel, a gallon. And then I said to myself, this is great.”
Treasury sanctions Iran-linked companies, shadow fleet vessels under ‘Economic Fury’
The Treasury Department on Tuesday announced sanctions on more than 50 companies, individuals and vessels tied to Iran’s sanctions-evasion networks, targeting what officials described as a shadow banking and shipping system that helps generate revenue for Tehran.
“Iran’s shadow banking system facilitates the illicit transfer of funding for terrorist purposes,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “As Treasury systematically dismantles Tehran’s shadow banking system and shadow fleet under Economic Fury, financial institutions must be alert to how the regime manipulates the international financial system to wreak havoc.”
The action, taken by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control under its “Economic Fury” campaign, designates a prominent Iranian foreign currency exchange house and associated front companies accused of overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions for sanctioned Iranian banks.
Treasury said Iranian exchange houses collectively facilitate billions of dollars in foreign currency transactions each year, helping the regime and its armed forces evade sanctions, access the international financial system and move funds from oil and petrochemical sales.
OFAC also blocked 19 vessels allegedly involved in Iranian petroleum and petrochemical shipments to foreign customers, which Treasury said have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
Breaking News
Treasury Secretary Bessent: ‘No money for terror’ must come with ‘no room for excuses’
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered a forceful message Tuesday: cutting off terrorist financing must remain central to U.S. national security strategy.
“If we are serious about ‘no money for terror,’ then there must also be ‘no room for excuses,’” Bessent said in his opening statement at the No Money for Terror conference in Paris, France.
Bessent framed sanctions not as “acts of aggression,” but as President Donald Trump‘s “instruments of peace” designed to change behavior, disrupt illicit networks, and prevent terror groups from accessing the money that sustains them.
“The United States is hardly alone in facing the scourge of terrorism, especially from Iran,” Bessent said. “Yet, too often, we seem to be alone in our resolve to thwart it.
“As President Trump brings renewed vigor and focus to this fight, crushing the threat of terrorism compels all of you to step up and join us in rooting out the financing that sustains it — from shell companies that are embedded within Europe, to shadow banking networks that lurk across the Middle East, and drug cartels across the Western Hemisphere.
“For at their core, sanctions are not acts of aggression, they are instruments of peace. Their purpose is not to condemn nations or people to indefinite isolation, but to create the conditions that can hasten a change in behavior.”
GOP Rep. Van Orden: House members should face DOJ probe over classified leaks
Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., says House Armed Services Committee members cannot be trusted with classified information.
“There are several members of this committee that have proven to not be capable of maintaining classified material and secrets that safeguard our nation,” Van Orden said during Tuesday’s committee hearing. “And we are not capable of doing our constitutionally mandated congressional oversight if we cannot be exposed to classified information.”
Unauthorized disclosures of classified information should be investigate by the Justice Department, he says, warning that leaks could endanger U.S. troops during the Iran war.
Van Orden said Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and ranking member Adam Smith, D-Wash., recently sent committee members a memo about “another unauthorized disclosure of classified material” by a member of the panel.
He said the leaks explain why he was not offended that only the Gang of Eight was briefed on Operation Midnight Hammer.
Van Orden said the committee should not stop at sending warning memos and called for criminal accountability.
“I believe that the Department of Justice should be actively investigating members of this committee for the criminal unauthorized disclosure of classified material,” he said. “If anybody were to be killed because somebody is trying to run for a higher office, they should be held accountable. It’s reprehensible.”
CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper declined to say whether Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz amounts to an act of war, telling lawmakers the military is operating under an “international armed conflict” framework.
“So I defer to the department as well as the White House and any characterization of how we execute business,” Cooper told the House Armed Services Committee during a Tuesday hearing. “From a combatant command standpoint, from my perspective, we execute the orders as given. And today, the legal umbrella that we’re operating under is international armed conflict.”
The answer stopped short of calling the blockade itself an act of war, even as U.S. officials have described the Strait of Hormuz as a vital international waterway and warned that Iran cannot be allowed to use it as leverage.
Cooper’s remarks came during a tense hearing in which lawmakers pressed defense officials on the administration’s Iran strategy, civilian casualty investigations and the status of the Strait. Democrats repeatedly accused the Pentagon of refusing to give direct answers as the conflict enters a more dangerous phase.
CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper pushed back Wednesday after Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., pressed him to acknowledge U.S. responsibility for a strike that Smith said killed more than 150 schoolgirls in Tehran, insisting the investigation remains ongoing and that American forces do not deliberately target civilians.
Cooper rejected Smith’s claim of bombing civilians, telling the House Armed Services Committee that the U.S. does not intentionally target civilians and that “the Iranian people” are not the enemy.
“Congressman, to reiterate, the United States does not deliberately target civilians. Full stop,” Cooper said. “And nor are the Iranian people our enemy. The IRGC is the adversary in this case.”
Smith cut in, accusing the military of stalling and asking whether Cooper would “acknowledge that that mistake was made and that we were responsible for it.”
Cooper responded that the inquiry is still underway and said the case is not straightforward because of the school’s location.
“The investigation is ongoing,” Cooper said. “As soon as it is complete, I’m happy to be — it’s a complex investigation. The school itself is located on an active IRGC cruise missile base. It’s more complex than the average strike. As soon as we’re complete, I’m fully committed to transparency, given your important oversight role and the other members here.”
Iran, like its terrorist proxies in the Middle East, has been accused of using civilians as human shields.
“So that’s a no, we will not take responsibility for something we very obviously did,” Smith replied.
The exchange grew sharper when Smith asked Cooper whether it was appropriate for a senior official to use the phrase “no quarter” to describe U.S. operations in Iran.
Cooper avoided directly endorsing or condemning the phrase, saying military leaders are bound by the law of armed conflict.
“I think it’s appropriate, as military leaders, we follow the law of armed conflict and our constitutional responsibilities. And that’s what we’ve done,” Cooper said.
“Is no quarter following the law or not?” Smith pressed on.
Cooper answered, “I would agree that we follow the law, sir.”
Breaking News
Congressional report lists 42 US aircraft lost or damaged in Iran war
A new post citing the Congressional Research Service says the U.S. has lost or sustained damage to 42 aircraft so far in the war with Iran.
Preston Stewart, a military commentator, posted on the CRS tallies.
The figures, if confirmed, would point to a significant toll across both manned and unmanned platforms, with drones accounting for the largest share of the listed losses.
The list comes as President Donald Trump has claimed Iran’s air force and navy are “completely gone” and warned that Tehran will not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
The Pentagon has not immediately released a full public accounting matching the aircraft-by-aircraft breakdown cited in the post.
The UAE Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that air defense systems intercepted six hostile drones over the past 48 hours, including drones tied to a May 17 attack on the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant that officials said originated from Iraqi territory.
The ministry said the drones attempted to target “civilian and vital areas” in the country.
“The air defense forces succeeded in intercepting and neutralizing the hostile targets with the highest levels of readiness and efficiency, without recording any human casualties or impact on the safety of vital facilities,” the ministry wrote in a post on X, according to a translation from Arabic.
The announcement came as UAE officials said technical tracking from the Barakah incident showed three drones were involved in the earlier attack.
Two were intercepted, while a third struck an electrical generator outside the plant’s internal perimeter, according to the ministry.
“In the context of completing the investigations related to the brazen attack on the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant on May 17, 2026, the results of technical tracking and monitoring confirmed that the three drones, two of which were successfully engaged, while the third struck an electrical generator outside the internal perimeter of the plant on that date, in addition to the drones intercepted later, were all originating from Iraqi territory,” the ministry wrote.
The ministry said the UAE “reserves its full right” to take necessary steps to protect its sovereignty and national security under international law. It added that the armed forces remain fully prepared “to deal with any threats targeting the security of the state and its national capabilities.”
Trump: ‘I’m not going to let the world be blown up on my watch; it’s not going to happen’
President Donald Trump remains resolute in his Iran war goal objective being achieved: “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”
“Whether it’s popular or not popular, I have to do it — because I’m not going to let the world be blown up on my watch,” Trump told reporters in a media scrum at the site of the White House ballroom construction Tuesday. “It’s not going to happen.”
Trump bashed Democrat obstruction attempts in trying to stop him.
“I’m in the middle of a negotiation – I’m saying you cannot have a nuclear weapon – and it comes over the wire that the Democrats want to stop Trump from further negotiations,” Trump said. “They want to stop Trump from, if he has to, giving them another slap.
“They want to have a nuclear weapon to blow up the Middle East and to blow up, frankly, the world. It’s not going to happen.”
Ultimately, Trump vows to keep his military attack plans close to the vest.
Breaking News
Trump: ‘We may have to give ’em another big hit’
President Donald Trump issued another urgent warning for Iran’s delay tactics Tuesday from the White House ballroom construction site.
“They’re begging to make a deal,” Trump told reporters during a question-and-answer session.
“I hope we don’t have to do the one, but we may have to give them another big hit.
“I’m not sure yet. You’ll know very soon.”
Trump has paused Tuesday’s plan for a “major attack” on Iran.
“I was an hour away” from striking Iran on Tuesday, Trump continued.
“It would have been happening right now.”
“The ships are all loaded. They’re loaded to the brim, and we’re all set to start.”
Breaking News
CENCOM Commander Cooper: Strait of Hormuz blockade has ‘turned away 88 ships’
Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told House lawmakers that a U.S.-led maritime blockade of Iran has effectively stopped trade in and out of Iranian ports, saying Tuesday that 88 ships have been turned away as part of a pressure campaign tied to ongoing negotiations.
“The ceasefire continues,” Cooper said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Middle East posture for CENTCOM and AFRICOM. “And consistent with the president’s direction, we’ve established a highly effective maritime blockade of Iran.”
Cooper said the operation has produced “zero trade into Iranian ports and zero trade out of Iranian ports,” arguing that the blockade is “squeezing Iran economically and creating powerful leverage for the ongoing negotiations.”
Cooper described the blockade as both an enforcement measure during the ceasefire and a tool designed to increase economic pressure on Tehran.
“To date, we’ve turned away 88 ships,” Cooper told the committee.
President Donald Trump is holding the stronger hand in the standoff with Iran, according to retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward, arguing the White House has both the military leverage and the time to force Tehran into concessions.
“The president has time on his hands. He controls the narrative. He controls the strike capabilities,” Harward told co-hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on Tuesday morning. “I don’t see it as negotiations. It really is capitulation.”
Harward said Trump has made clear Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon” or the material needed to build one, while also demanding that Tehran keep the Strait of Hormuz open to free commerce.
“He can take his time, let the blockade and the economic sanctions continue to erode the economy of Iran,” he continued. “All those things work in his favor, and he can strike whenever he wants to.”
“When you talk about resilience, the IRGC, the entity that controls the country, may have resilience, but the Iranian people are suffering miserably.”
Trump is meeting with his National Security Council on Tuesday, but peace or war is in the hands of the leftovers of the IRGC leadership, ultimately, he concluded.
“At the end of the day, the real center of gravity is the IRGC,” he said.
“We’re going to have to need a government in Iran that not only hands over the nuclear material, stops threatening the Straits of Hormuz, but quits exporting the Islamic revolution throughout the region.”
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday there were no special arrangements in place for the export of energy products, but that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz had added complexity to supply chains in the region.
Oil prices did fall Tuesday, with global benchmark Brent crude dropping 1.5%, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had paused a planned attack on Iran to allow for negotiations to end the war in the Middle East.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent extended a sanctions waiver by 30 days to allow “energy-vulnerable” countries to continue purchasing Russian seaborne oil.
In the U.S., a record 9.9 million barrels were drawn from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve last week, Energy Department data showed, bringing stockpiles down to about 374 million barrels, the lowest point since July 2024.
U.S. crude inventories are expected to fall about 3.4 million barrels in the week to May 15 in weekly data from the Energy Information Administration due out Wednesday.
Trump has long promised oil prices will fall quickly once Iran and the U.S. come to peace and the Strait of Hormuz allows blocked tankers to finally move.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Breaking News
Explosions heard on Iran’s Qeshm Island for neutralization of unexploded munition
Explosions were heard Tuesday on Iran’s Qeshm Island, according to Iranian state-linked media, prompting initial uncertainty before reports the blasts were tied to the neutralization of unexploded munition.
Iran’s Mehr news agency first reported that explosions had been heard on the island. A subsequent report by Tasnim, citing an official, said the explosions were caused by the neutralizing of unexploded munition. President Donald Trump remains ready to trigger a restart to military operations.
Qeshm Island sits in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically sensitive waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Details remained limited, and Iranian officials had not issued a broader public statement on the incident as of the initial reports.
Reuters contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump said Monday he is delaying a planned military strike on Iran after Gulf allies urged him to give negotiations more time, saying there is a “very good chance” of reaching a deal to end the war without renewed U.S. attacks.
“We were getting ready to do a very major attack [Tuesday], and I put it off for a little while — hopefully maybe forever,” Trump said, “because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran, and we’ll see what they amount to.”
“There seems to be a very good chance that they can work something out,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “If we can do that without bombing the hell out of them, I’d be very happy.”
The announcement marked the latest shift in Trump’s handling of the fragile ceasefire reached in mid-April. For weeks, the president has warned Iran that fighting could resume if it did not accept a deal, while repeatedly setting deadlines and then backing away from them.
Over the weekend, Trump warned that “the Clock is Ticking” and said Iran needed to move “FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them.”
Trump first disclosed the pause in a social media post Monday, saying he had ordered the U.S. military to be ready “to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice” if an acceptable deal is not reached.
He later told reporters that Gulf allies, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, asked him to delay the strike by two to three days because they believe talks with Iran are close to producing an agreement.
Trump called the delay a “very positive development,” though he acknowledged past moments when diplomacy appeared close to succeeding before collapsing.
“But this is a little bit different,” Trump said.
This Associated Press contributed to this report.
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