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President Trump’s Saturday afternoon call with Gulf leaders has concluded, according to U.S. officials.

Counties invited to join the conference call with Mr. Trump to discuss Iran negotiations include Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Qatar, sources familiar with the situation told CBS News.  

Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, referred to a potential deal with Iran as “a disaster.”

Wicker, like Sen. Lindsey Graham, has been a prominent critic of negotiating a deal and has pushed to restart widespread bombing of Iran.

“The rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster,” Wicker wrote on X. “Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!”

Wicker said on Friday that Mr. Trump was “being ill advised to pursue a deal” and the decision would “define President Trump’s legacy.”

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham questioned on Saturday the wisdom of making a deal with Iran as news began to leak about a potential agreement.

“If a deal is struck to end the Iranian conflict because it is believed that the Strait of Hormuz cannot be protected from Iranian terrorism and Iran still possesses the capability to destroy major Gulf oil infrastructure, then Iran will be perceived as being a dominate force requiring a diplomatic solution,” Graham wrote on X. 

Graham, who has been one of the more prominent advocates for the U.S. resuming attacks on Iran, said a deal would cause a significant increase in Iran’s power in the region.

“This combination of Iran being perceived as having the ability to terrorize the Strait in perpetuity and the ability [to] inflict massive damage to Gulf oil infrastructure is a major shift of the balance of power in the region and over time will be a nightmare for Israel,” Graham continued.

“Also, it makes one wonder why the war started to begin with if these perceptions are accurate,” Graham said. “I personally am a skeptic of the idea that Iran cannot be denied the ability to terrorize the Strait and the region cannot protect itself against Iranian military capability.”

Graham added it was “important we get this right.”

President Trump is scheduled to speak with leaders of Gulf countries and other nations on Saturday afternoon in a conference call, three sources told CBS News. 

The call is set to discuss the negotiations with Iran, according to U.S. officials familiar with the situation. 

Sources previously told CBS News that Mr. Trump is mulling proposals and has not yet made up his mind. A regional official told CBS News that some leaders do not know what option Mr. Trump is leaning toward.

Mr. Trump told CBS News earlier Saturday that if the U.S. and Iran do not come to an agreement, “we’re going to have a situation where no country will ever be hit as hard as they’re about to be hit.” 

Iran and the United States are “getting a lot closer” to finalizing an agreement between the two countries, President Trump told CBS News on Saturday.

Sources familiar with the negotiations told CBS News that the latest proposal includes a process to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the unfreezing of some Iranian assets held in foreign banks, and a continuation of negotiations. Mr. Trump declined to provide specifics about the agreement in his interview with CBS, but said that “every day it gets better and better.” 

Mr. Trump did say that he believes the final agreement will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, adding that he “wouldn’t even be talking about it” otherwise. Mr. Trump added that the agreement would also result in Iran’s enriched uranium being “satisfactorily handled.” 

Sources told CBS News that Mr. Trump is still mulling proposals and has not made up his mind yet. The sources said he is consulting with advisers and talking to foreign leaders, including leaders from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.  

“I will only sign a deal where we get everything we want,” Mr. Trump said. 

Read more here.

Iran said on Saturday that the nuclear issue was not part of an initial framework it was drafting to end the war with the United States.

“At this stage, we will not discuss the details of the nuclear issue… we have decided to prioritise an urgent issue for all of us: ending the war on all fronts including Lebanon,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told state television.

He added that the nuclear file will be “subject to separate discussions” at a later stage.

The latest round of discussions between Iranian leaders and Pakistani mediators was “short but highly productive,” according to the Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistani army.

“The engagements were held in a positive and constructive environment and contributed meaningfully towards the mediation process,” the ISPR said. “The intensive negotiations over the last twenty four hours have resulted in encouraging progress towards a final understanding.”

Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, who led the talks on Pakistan’s side, met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian; Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf; Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi; and Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni. Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who hasn’t been seen in public since his father was killed on the first day of strikes, was apparently not involved in the discussions.

No specific details were offered on what the negotiations entailed.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered comments on the negotiations with Iran before a formal dinner at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, on Saturday, but he didn’t offer much hope about the prospects for success. 

“There may be news later today. I don’t have news at this very moment, but there might be some news a little later today,” Rubio said, answering a question from reporters while entering the dinner at the Roosevelt House. “There may not be. I hope there will be, but I’m not sure yet.”

He reiterated that progress had been made, but then immediately tempered expectations.

“There’s been some progress done, some progress made, even as I speak to you now, there’s some work being done,” Rubio said. “There is a chance that, whether it’s later today, tomorrow, in a couple days, we may have something to say, but this issue needs to be solved, as the president said, one way or another.”

Rubio repeated President Trump’s criteria for a deal, including stopping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, reopening the Strait of Hormuz without tolls and turning over enriched uranium. 

“This problem will be solved, as the president’s made clear, one way or the other,” Rubio said. “We hope it’s done through the diplomatic route. That’s what we’re working on and perhaps there will be something to talk about on that topic while I’m here on this visit at some point.”

The U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has now hit the century mark.

There have now been 100 commercial ships either entering or leaving Iranian ports redirected by the blockade, the U.S. Central Command said on Saturday. The U.S. highlighted the 15,000 service members and 200 aircraft and 20 warships that have taken part in the operation since it began on April 13.

“Our service members are doing extraordinary work,” Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said in a statement. “They have been highly effective by executing the mission with precision and professionalism, allowing zero trade into and out of Iranian ports which has squeezed Iran economically.”

The U.S. also noted 25 humanitarian aid ships have been allowed to pass the blockade.

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, spoke to President Trump by phone on Saturday morning, according to the emir’s office, known as the Amiri Diwan.

The conversation took place a little after 7 a.m. Eastern time, according to the Amiri Diwan.

No details on the conversation were provided immediately, but Qatar has been an ally of the U.S. and has been regularly targeted by Iran with missile and drone attacks in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.

Qatari officials joined Pakistani mediators in Tehran this weekend in an attempt to broker a peace deal and end the conflict. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is visiting India, spoke to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the crisis in the Middle East on Saturday, specifically energy costs.

“The Secretary and Prime Minister discussed the current situation in the Middle East. The Secretary emphasized that the United States will not let Iran hold the global energy market hostage and affirmed that U.S. energy products have the potential to diversify India’s energy supply,” according to U.S. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott.

India is highly dependent on importing oil and gas from the Middle East. Only China imports more crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and 74% of all crude passing through the strait went to just four countries in the first quarter of 2025: China, India, Japan and South Korea. 

Rubio also invited Modi to visit the White House, on President Trump’s behalf. 

A readout from the Indian side has yet to be released. 

Pakistan’s army chief, a key negotiator in the U.S.-Iran peace talks, met with Iranian officials in Tehran Friday, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency.

Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and other Iranian officials “on the latest diplomatic efforts and initiatives to prevent escalation of tensions and end the war,” Tasnim said.

Reuters reported Friday that a Qatari delegation had also traveled to Tehran to engage in talks with the Iranian regime. In its own statement, Iran’s state-run ISNA news agency said the Qatari delegation had “joined the mediation efforts.”

Along with Pakistan, Qatar — a critical U.S. ally that hosts the largest American military base in the Middle East — has also served as an intermediary in peace negotiations. 

A four-week United Nations conference reviewing the treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons ended Friday without agreement as the U.S. and Iran sparred over Iran’s nuclear program.

Vietnam’s U.N. Ambassador Do Hung Viet, who chaired the conference, announced that there was no consensus among the 191 parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty on even a watered-down final document.

He told a news conference later that “no one blocked consensus.” But he said “a very important reason” for the failure to reach an outcome was a provision in the final draft that said Iran “can never seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons.”

It was the third failure in a row at a conference reviewing the NPT, considered the cornerstone of global nonproliferation and disarmament. At the last treaty review in August 2022, Russia blocked agreement on a final document over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and references to Moscow’s occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed regret at the failure when the “elevated risk posed by nuclear weapons demands urgent action,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. He appealed to all countries “to make full use of all available avenues of dialogue, diplomacy, and negotiation to reduce tensions, lower nuclear risks, and ultimately eliminate the nuclear threat.”

The U.S. and Iran have clashed since the opening of the review conference on April 27. The U.S. has accused Iran of showing “contempt” for its commitments under the treaty, while Iran has said U.S. and Israeli attacks on its nuclear facilities violated international law.

Iran is a party to the NPT, which requires countries to open all nuclear sites to inspection by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency. But Iran has not given inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency access to nuclear sites that were bombed by the U.S. last June.

The Trump administration was preparing Friday for a fresh round of military strikes against Iran, according to sources with direct knowledge of the planning, even as diplomacy continued. 

No final decision on strikes had been reached as of Friday afternoon.

“Circumstances pertaining to Government” are keeping President Trump from attending his son Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding this weekend, he said in a social media post. The president had planned to spend Memorial Day weekend at his golf property in New Jersey but will now return to the White House. 

Some members of the U.S. military and intelligence community canceled their plans for the Memorial Day weekend in anticipation of possible  strikes, several sources said. 

Defense and intelligence officials began updating recall rosters for U.S. installations overseas as tranches of troops stationed in the Middle East rotate out of theater, part of an effort to reduce the American military footprint in the region amid concern about possible Iranian retaliation.

Read more here. 

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed 10 people on Friday, including six rescuers and a child, as Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah continued to exchange fire despite a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

In a statement, the Lebanese ministry said “six people were martyred”, including two rescuers from the Risala Scouts association and a Syrian girl, in a strike on Deir Qanun al-Nahr village near the city of Tyre.

The association is linked with the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement.

An earlier strike on the southern town of Hanaway on Friday killed four rescuers from the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Committee, the ministry said.

Separately, the Israeli military said early on Friday morning that it had killed two people close to the border.

“IDF surveillance identified two armed individuals moving in a suspicious manner hundreds of meters from Israeli territory, in southern Lebanon,” it said in a Telegram post. “…Following their identification and continuous monitoring by the IDF, the armed individuals were struck and eliminated in an aerial strike.”

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it had targeted Israeli troops and positions inside Lebanon and in northern Israel near the border.

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, suggested on Friday that the U.S. should not pursue a deal with Iran and instead resume military action, adding, “We must finish what we started.”

Wicker, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, said Friday on X that President Trump is being “ill advised to pursue a deal that would not be worth the paper it is written on.”

“Our commander-in-chief needs to allow America’s skilled armed forces to finish the destruction of Iran’s conventional military capabilities and reopen the strait,” Wicker said.

“Further pursuit of an agreement with Iran’s Islamist regime risks a perception of weakness,” he said. “We must finish what we started. It is past time for action.”

Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir arrived in Tehran on Friday, according to ISPR, the media wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

Munir, who has been a key mediator between Iran and the U.S., is expected to meet with senior Iranian officials to discuss issues including the ongoing, indirect Iran-U.S. negotiations that his country has helped to broker.

He was welcomed by Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni. 

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva has warned the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights about the humanitarian impact of the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports, the Iranian government said Friday in a post on X.

Ali Bahreini told Volker Türk, of Austria, that the blockade violates international law and threatens access to essential goods, medicine and healthcare, Iran said.

The U.S. blockade has been in effect since mid-April. U.S. forces have redirected nearly 100 vessels as it continues to enforce it, according to CENTCOM. 

Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed 10 people on Friday including six paramedics and a Syrian girl, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

The first strike hit the village of Hanouiyeh, killing four paramedics working for Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Association and wounding two others including one paramedic, the ministry said.

Another strike Friday on the village of Deir Qanoun al Nahr in the coastal Tyre province killed six people, including a Syrian child and two paramedics from the Al-Rissala Scouts Association, a paramedic group affiliated with Hezbollah’s ally, the Amal movement, the ministry said. Six other people were injured, including three paramedics and a Syrian woman.

The health ministry said the two attacks violated international law.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment. It has previously accused Hezbollah of using ambulances as cover for militant activities, without offering evidence.

Attacks by Israel and Hezbollah have continued despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Lebanon’s health ministry reported earlier Friday that more than 3,100 people have been killed in Israeli attacks and more than 9,430 people have been wounded. 

Wall Street stocks rose early Friday, extending a strong period for equities propelled by optimism over corporate earnings and the prospects of a resolution to the Middle East war.

Oil prices edged higher while U.S. Treasury bond yields retreated.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.7% at 50,643.74.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.6% to 7,492.84, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.4 % to 26,413.65.

Major U.S. indices have been on a tear since late March, riding higher on a strong first-quarter earnings season and expectations that the U.S.-Israel war against Iran will end and oil prices will retreat.

Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare pointed to reports suggesting the Iran situation “leans more in favor of diplomacy than military action,” while noting that unresolved sticking points include a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

“When a peace deal is struck, there is a prevailing expectation that the higher rates and the higher energy prices will fade from the headline view and create an added rationale to keep this bull market running,” O’Hare said. 

Europeans can expect oil and gas prices to remain above what they were before the war for at least until the end of 2027, with prices of other goods also following an upward trajectory, European Union officials said Friday.

Higher energy prices are primarily responsible for driving inflation to a forecast 3.1% for this year and 2.4% for 2027, EU Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said. That’s significantly higher than the earlier forecast for this year of 1.9%.

“We expect that this energy inflation will gradually also trickle down to different sectors of the economy,” Dombrovskis said after a meeting of the 21-member eurozone’s finance ministers, who make up the Eurogroup.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said that even if the conflict in the Middle East ended now, “lagging effects” would keep the prices of goods elevated.

“And it’s probably a fact that price levels will be higher at the end of this crisis, when we see the end of the crisis,” Lagarde said.

She said the ECB would take “all the necessary measures” to keep price stability at 2% by paying close attention to the aftereffects of the initial economic shock brought on by the energy price hike. She also pointed to how much oil the EU holds in reserve to meet possible demand. 

More than 3,100 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Lebanon since March 2, Lebanon’s health ministry said Friday.

The death toll rose to 3,111, while the number of people injured climbed to 9,432, according to the ministry.

Attacks by both Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have continued despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel announced in mid-April. Hezbollah has rejected the ceasefire.

Lebanon and Israel have engaged in peace talks in Washington, with a fourth round expected to be held in June. Hezbollah opposes those talks and has refused to surrender its weapons as the Lebanese government demands.

Lebanon is forming a military delegation for security talks with Israel at the Pentagon on May 29 — a step that was agreed in the latest round of direct talks earlier this month.

European Union nations moved Friday toward imposing sanctions on Iranian officials and others responsible for blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the E.U. said.

Deeming the blockade “contrary to international law,” E.U. governments took a technical step to extend the scope of its existing Iran sanctions regime allowing for more individuals to be targeted under it.

“The E.U. will now be able to introduce further restrictive measures in response to Iran’s actions undermining the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” the European Council representing E.U. nations said.

Brussels’ punitive measures on Iran previously targeted the country’s military support for Russia in its war against Ukraine and for armed groups across the Middle East. The European Union has also imposed sanctions over human rights violations in the country.

The E.U. did not immediately name any individual or entities that would be targeted by the new sanctions, consisting of travel bans and asset freezes.

E.U. citizens and companies will also be banned from making funds, financial assets or other economic resources available to those listed. 

Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, who has been a key mediator between Iran and the U.S., departed Friday for a visit to Tehran, security sources told CBS News.

Military officials said Munir was expected to hold meetings with senior Iranian officials to discuss key regional and international issues, including the ongoing, indirect Iran-U.S. negotiations Pakistan has helped to broker.

Pakistan’s efforts toward a diplomatic resolution to the war launched jointly by the U.S. and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28 have ramped up this week, with the Trump administration currently awaiting a reply from Tehran to its latest proposal for a peace deal.

Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has held meetings already this week in Tehran with senior leadership.

A senior Pakistani official in Islamabad told CBS News on Friday that Naqvi’s meetings had enabled the negotiations to progress “in an important direction,” which is why Munir was coming to join the efforts.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced very cautious optimism earlier Friday, telling reporters, “I don’t want to exaggerate it, but there’s been a little bit of movement, and that’s good.” 

U.S. forces have redirected 97 commercial vessels since the start of the military blockade of Iranian ports and ships associated with the country, U.S. Central Command said Friday. 

The U.S. military has disabled another four vessels since the blockade was imposed in mid-April, according to CENTCOM.

The U.S. military has offered continuous updates on the number of ships it has redirected, with slight upticks reported daily as it reiterates it is continuing to impose the blockade and “ensure compliance.”

The U.S. decision to sanction Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon is “unlawful and shameless,” Iran said Friday.

The U.S. announced sanctions Thursday against a group of Hezbollah-affiliated parliamentarians, state security officials, and allies of the militant group, including the Iranian ambassador, for allegedly seeking to preserve the Iranian-backed group’s influence over Lebanese state institutions and obstruct disarmament efforts.

It was the first time Washington has sanctioned sitting Lebanese state security officials, one from the country’s General Security agency and the other a military intelligence officer, both of whom the U.S. Treasury accused of providing Hezbollah with “illicit support” and intelligence during the ongoing conflict.

Iran’s foreign affairs ministry said Friday that the sanctioning of the country’s envoy in Beirut, Mohammad Reza Shaibani, was “yet another example of the lawlessness and disregard of the American ruling establishment for the established principles of international law.”

It also condemned the sanctioning of the Hezbollah representatives.

The U.S. announcement, which, for the first time included a serving Lebanese army officer, came as pressure mounts on Beirut to take more decisive action to disarm Hezbollah, among Iran’s most powerful proxy groups in the region.

Speaking to reporters Friday in Sweden after meetings with NATO allies, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. and its partners must “have a Plan B” to fall back on if Iran refuses to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. 

Rubio said he raised the point with NATO allies and that while a plan B wouldn’t entail NATO as a whole, it could include some allies with interests in the strait — nations Rubio said “have to start thinking” about what to do if Iran refuses to cooperate.

“We all would love to see an agreement with Iran in which the straits are open and they abandon their nuclear ambitions and so forth, their nuclear weapons ambitions. That’s what we would all hope for. And that’s what we’re going to continue to work on, and that’s what work is ongoing, even as I speak to you now in that regard,” Rubio said. 

“But, we also have to have a Plan B, and Plan B is — what if Iran refuses to open the straits? What if Iran decides, ‘We refuse to open the straits, we’re going to own the straits, and we’re going to charge tolls for it?’ Okay, at that point, something has to be done about it.”  

He said he’d “raised that point today” and “got a lot of nods” from other NATO foreign ministers. 

He reiterated, however, the Trump administration’s stance that the U.S. doesn’t need help reopening the strait or clearing it of sea mines, but said the administration would welcome allies’ help. 

“We don’t need their help, but they’re willing to do it,” he said. 

So far America’s NATO allies, led by the U.K. and France, have begun efforts to build a military coalition that can help ensure safe maritime traffic through the strait, but said such operations will only begin once hostilities in the Iran war are over.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Friday that he was “not aware of any visit right now” when asked about reports by Iranian state media since Thursday that Army chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, a key mediator between Iran and the U.S., was expected in Tehran.

“I am sure this will be announced in due course, if it is to be announced. I can neither confirm nor deny it now,” Abdrabi said.

“As regards the details of any agreement, our consistent position on this matter is that we do not talk of specifics. As a mediator and as a facilitator, it is the inherent ingredient of our mandate that we remain quiet on the individual positions and the process — also not ascribe any adjective to the process i.e. fast, slow, medium,” said Adrabi, adding that he would “stick to this consistent position.”

Pakistan has served as the primary intermediary between Washington and Tehran during the war, and it has pushed hard to get the two sides back around a negotiating table this week.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier Friday that there had been “slight progress” in the indirect negotiations, but he acknowledged lingering differences and stressed that he did not “want to exaggerate it.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, who was named Friday by the regime as the new spokesman for the Islamic Republic’s negotiating team, insisted that his country is not seeking “concessions” from the U.S. to end the war, but “simply demanding our rights.”

“We want our rights to be restored. For the past five decades, we have been under what they themselves call ‘crippling sanctions.’ These sanctions have been imposed under various pretexts, mainly what they call the ‘Iranian nuclear threat,’ while in reality there is no nuclear threat from Iran against any actor in the region or the world,” said Baqaei.

He reiterated Iran’s demands for a deal to end the war, which was launched jointly by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28, including an “end of the United States’ criminal actions against the Iranian people; sanctions must be lifted, and Iran’s frozen assets must be released and returned to the country.”

Baqaei also said the U.S. “must take steps to end” its blockade of Iranian ports and vessels as part of any peace deal, calling it “completely contrary to international law.” 

Four paramedics were killed Friday in an Israeli strike “targeting an ambulance center,” according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

The strike hit the town of Hanawieh in the south of the country, the ministry said, without providing further details.

According to the United Nations’ World Health Organization, there have been 169 attacks on healthcare workers and facilities in Lebanon since Israel ramped up its attacks in the country on March 2. 

Israel launched a blistering wave of airstrikes across Lebanon after Iranian-backed Hezbollah started firing rockets across the Israel-Lebanon border in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Since that first wave, the airstrikes have continued and Israel has also sent forces over the border to occupy a significant portion of southern Lebanon.

Israeli officials insist the operations only target Hezbollah militants and infrastructure in Lebanon, but Lebanon’s health ministry says more than 3,000 people have been killed, many of them women and children, and more than 1 million people displaced from their homes.

The WHO says 116 medical workers have been among those killed in the Israeli strikes.

Israel and Lebanon signed a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in mid-April, but Israel and Hezbollah have continued fighting despite the agreement, which the Iranian-backed group and Israel have accused each other of violating almost daily.

Iranian state media claimed Friday that 35 vessels had transited the Strait of Hormuz over the past 24 hours in coordination with Iran’s naval forces.

The vessels included oil tankers, container ships and other commercial vessels, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency,  which said they had all transited the vital waterway after obtaining authorization from the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

CBS News could not confirm the number of ships that transited the Strait, but open source tracking data shows they remain far below their pre-war levels of about 138 per day. 

On Thursday, the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Center said traffic through the narrow waterway remained significantly reduced over the previous 48 hours, with 13 vessels confirmed to have made the trip. The U.K. military agency said there was significant interference being seen with the automatic identification systems used to track vessels. 

Lloyd’s List Intelligence put the number of transits last week at just 26, but it also noted that a cluster of 18 “shadow fleet” tankers – part of Iran’s network of oil and other energy transport ships used to circumvent U.S. sanctions. Lloyds said the vessels were stopped off the coasts of  Oman, and Pakistan much further east, outside the U.S. Navy’s blockade line. 

Instead of heading into the Gulf of Oman, which leads to the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf beyond, they appeared to be considering options to avoid U.S. interdiction, Lloyds said.

Data from MarineTraffic.com showed at least one tanker Friday off the coast of Duqm, Oman, which had previously transited the strait during the war. The Cook Islands-flagged asphalt/bitumen tanker Pushpak appeared to reach the area Saturday and was at anchor along with a number of other tankers.

Iran has said repeatedly that it is working with Oman — as the two nations with coastlines in the strait — to create a new mechanism for vessels to coordinate passage.

Lebanon’s military said Friday its soldiers were loyal, after the U.S. announced sanctions that included, for the first time, an army officer accused of sharing information with the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.

In a statement, the army said it “affirms that all officers and members of the military institution are performing their national duties with utmost professionalism, responsibility, and discipline, in accordance with the decisions and directives issued by the army command.”

It emphasized “the loyalty of military personnel is solely to the military institution and the nation, and that they are committed to fulfilling their national duties without any other considerations or pressures,” adding that it had not been informed of the U.S. sanctions beforehand.

The Trump administration announced sanctions Thursday against what it called nine Hezbollah-linked individuals in Lebanon, including Army Colonel Samir Hamadi, and Khattar Nasser Eldin, an officer with another state security service.

The U.S. said Hamadi and Nasser Eldin had “shared important intelligence” with Hezbollah over the past year.

It marked the first time Lebanese officers have been sanctioned by the United States.

Hezbollah on Thursday condemned the sanctions, calling them “an attempt to intimidate the free Lebanese people in order to bolster the Zionist aggression against our country.”

Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire on April 17, but Israel has continued to launch strikes, carry out demolitions and issue evacuation orders in southern Lebanon, saying it is targeting Hezbollah, which has also kept up attacks and described the ceasefire as “appeasement.”

CBS/AFP

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that it “would be lamentable” if a United Nations Security Council resolution on the Strait of Hormuz didn’t pass, adding: “Let’s see if the United Nations still works.”

The draft resolution, tabled by Bahrain, calls on Iran to immediately stop its attacks and threats against vessels in the strait and to end attacks on Persian Gulf states. It also addresses the placement of sea mines in the vital waterway, and Iran’s efforts to impose tolls on commercial ships using the strait.

Speaking to journalists ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Sweden, Rubio said the draft resolution had “the highest number of co-sponsors of any resolution ever” at the council, the UN body tasked with maintaining peace and security through legally binding resolutions. 

“Unfortunately, a couple of countries on the Security Council are thinking about vetoing it,” he added. “That would be lamentable.”

A similar resolution, also tabled by Bahrain, was vetoed last month by China and Russia, which, like the U.S. and the council’s two other permanent members, can unilaterally block a measure.

“We are doing everything we can though to achieve the sort of global consensus that’s necessary to prevent this from happening,” said Rubio. “Let’s see if the United Nations still works.”

He said “almost every country represented here today” had co-sponsored the resolution, “and if they haven’t, I’m sure they soon will because I don’t know of anyone in the world … that should be in favor of a tolling system in an international waterway.”

Iran’s Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told reporters in early May that the draft was “deeply flawed, and one-sided.”

Saeid argued the solution to the crisis in the strait is a permanent end to the U.S.-Israeli war with his country, and the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and vessels.

Rubio said “there is not a country in the world that should accept” Iran’s effort to “create a tolling system” to charge commercial vessels a fee to transit the Strait of Hormuz. 

The narrow waterway – through which about a fifth of the global oil supply typically passed prior to the U.S. and Israel launching their joint war with Iran — was open to all ships until the conflict began. Tehran has said it is working in conjunction with Oman, the other nation with a coastline in the strait, “to develop a mechanism” to ensure “transit through the Strait of Hormuz is conducted in the safest possible manner.”

Oman has not confirmed the nature of any coordination with Iran on such a new system.

Rubio said Tehran was “trying to convince Oman” to join “in this tolling system in an international waterway.”

“That’s just not acceptable. It can’t happen,” Rubio said of any Iranian bid to impose regularized demands for payment for ships’ passage. “If that were to happen in the Straits of Hormuz, it will happen in five other places around the world.” 

A senior Iranian official argued in a news article published on Thursday that Iran, as a coastal nation of the waterway, was within its rights to impose new restrictions on ships using the Strait of Hormuz due to a “fundamental change of circumstances” brought about by the U.S.-Israeli war launched almost three months ago.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the U.S. was still waiting for Iran to respond to the Trump administration’s latest terms for a potential peace deal, which were conveyed this week via Pakistani mediators. Tehran confirmed Thursday that it was considering the proposal.

“We await word on those conversations that are ongoing. There’s been some slight progress,” Rubio told reporters in Sweden, where he is attending a NATO summit. “I don’t want to exaggerate it, but there’s been a little bit of movement, and that’s good.”

“The fundamentals remain the same,” he said of the latest U.S. offer. “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. It just cannot. This regime can never have nuclear weapons, and to achieve that, we’re gonna have to address the issue of enrichment. We’re gonna have to address the issue of the highly enriched uranium. And then added to this, of course, is the issue of the strait.”

The acting secretary of the U.S. Navy said Thursday that arm sales to Taiwan had been put on “pause” to ensure that the American military had sufficient munitions for its Iran operations.

Asked at a congressional hearing about the stalled $14 billion weapons purchase by Taiwan, Acting Secretary Hung Cao said that “right now we’re doing a pause in order to make sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury — which we have plenty.”

“But, we’re just making sure we have everything, then the foreign military sales will continue when the administration deems necessary.”

The State Department and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Cao’s remarks.

President Trump hasn’t committed to following through with the sale, raising concerns over his commitment to support for Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.

CBS/AFP

Republicans struggled Thursday to find the votes to dismiss legislation that would compel President Trump to withdraw from the war with Iran, delaying planned votes on the matter into June.

The House had scheduled a vote on a war powers resolution, brought by Democrats, that would rein in Trump’s military campaign. But as it became clear that Republicans would not have the numbers to defeat the bill, GOP leaders declined to hold a vote on it. It was the latest sign of the slipping support in Congress for the war that Mr. Trump launched more than two months ago without congressional approval.

“We had the votes without question and they knew it, and as a result they’re playing a political game,” said Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks, who sponsored the bill.

“The Republican-controlled House continues to behave like a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Trump administration,” House Democratic leaders said in a joint statement. “Republicans cowardly pulled a scheduled vote on a War Powers Resolution—legislation that would have passed with bipartisan support and required the President to end the conflict in the Middle East.”

Republicans in the Senate are also working to ensure they have the votes to dismiss another war powers resolution that advanced to a final vote earlier this week, when four GOP senators supported the resolution and three others were absent from the vote.

The actions by congressional leaders showed Republicans are struggling to maintain political backing for Mr. Trump’s handling of the war. Rank-and-file Republicans are increasingly willing to defy the president over the conflict.

House Republican Leader Steve Scalise told reporters that the vote was delayed to give lawmakers who were absent a chance to vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson did not answer questions from reporters as he exited the House chamber. 

CBS/AP

The Israeli military says it carried out an airstrike in south Lebanon Friday that killed two people who were armed and “moving in a suspicious manner” in an area where it’s fighting Hezbollah.

Israel and the Iran-backed group have been regularly trading fire in the country’s south despite a ceasefire that was extended by Israeli and Lebanese authorities last week.

“A short while ago, IDF surveillance identified two armed individuals moving in a suspicious manner hundreds of meters from Israeli territory, in southern Lebanon,” the Israeli military posted on Telegram.

“Following their identification and continuous monitoring by the IDF, the armed individuals were struck and eliminated in an aerial strike,” the post said.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported overnight strikes in the southern Tyre district killed four and wounded two medics at an Islamic Health Committee site.

Since an Israel-Lebanon truce began on April 17, Israel has continued to launch strikes, carry out demolitions and issue evacuation orders in south Lebanon, saying it is targeting Hezbollah, which has also kept up attacks.  

Iraq’s prime minister condemned alleged attacks launched from within its borders on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE said on Tuesday a drone that hit a nuclear plant was launched from within Iraq, while the Saudis said they intercepted three drones entering their airspace from Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi said Thursday the country was renewing its “condemnation and renunciation” of the attacks and pledged a joint investigation of both strikes with the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

“We express our rejection of the use of Iraqi territory or airspace as a launching ground for attacks against brotherly and friendly states, and reaffirm Iraq’s role as a meeting point for shared interests,” Al-Zaidi said on X.

There are several Iran-backed militias operating in Iraqi territory separate from the Iraqi government.