President Trump said negotiations with Iran are set to begin Monday after announcing Saturday night that he canceled a pending attack on Iran. The United States and Israel had been planning what would have been one of the harshest bombing campaigns to date against energy infrastructure targets in Iran, multiple sources previously told CBS News. Mr.
Trump said it would have been "the biggest attack since World War II." The president said on social media that the deal being discussed that led him to call off the strikes would "include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran's nuclear threat." Iran's defense minister said on X that the country was "neither surprised nor passive" and remained on alert. Mr. Trump said Sunday he decided to hold off on the fresh strikes after Gulf allies Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates urged him to.
Iran on Monday executed two men found guilty of spying for Israel, the judiciary said, the latest in a wave of hangings over alleged espionage. Since the start of the war with Israel and the United States in February, Tehran has ramped up executions, with many of the convicts accused of spying for Israeli intelligence. "Omid Behzad and Pouria Safvat were hanged this morning for transmitting the coordinates of sensitive military and security sites to Mossad agents," said Mizan, the media outlet for Iran's judiciary, referring to Israel's foreign intelligence service.
It didn't specify when the two were arrested or when they went on trial, but said they were convicted of "espionage and collaboration with the Zionist regime." "They helped the intelligence services achieve their objectives by providing them with information on military and security centers during the war," Mizan added. Iran is the world's second-most prolific executioner after China, according to rights groups including Amnesty International. Tehran executed at least 1,639 people last year, a record high since 1989, according to Iran Human Rights, a non-governmental organization based in Norway, and Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), which is headquartered in Paris.
Amnesty has denounced what it says has been the "escalation" in executions by Iran. https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-of-hormuz-kuwait-jordan-air-base/#post-update-244fed28 link copied Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz "will in no way return to the status it was before February 28th," the day the war started. On a call with Iranian state TV, he added that Iran is discussing shipping through the strait with Oman, on the other side of Hormuz, but that there's no current talk about reopening the crucial waterway.
President Trump has announced halts to strikes on Iran on several occasions since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, only for things to unravel and fighting to resume again. Iran's defense minister said on X that the country was "neither surprised nor passive" following Mr.
Trump's announcement that he had called off new strikes on Iran and said the Islamic Republic remains alert in the face of concrete threats from the U.S. While Iran's leaders appear united in a war strategy signaling strength and endurance, a struggle for control seems to be brewing within the theocracy's leadership between those who oppose all negotiations with the U.S. and others who count on military pressure to win at the negotiating table.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-of-hormuz-kuwait-jordan-air-base/#post-update-96db6073 link copied President Trump said Sunday that negotiations with Iran are set to begin Monday afternoon. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Mr. Trump elaborated on the decision to hold off attacks on Iran and again said it would have been the "biggest attacks since World War II." "It would have been disastrous for them and they didn't want us to do it," he said.
"The deal is imminent, having to do with the Hormuz Strait and also, ultimately, the denuclearization of Iran." The president confirmed he spoke with Saudi Arabia's crown prince who, according to Mr. Trump, told the president he'd prefer to make a deal with Iran. https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-of-hormuz-kuwait-jordan-air-base/#post-update-0c8b33f2 link copied A regional official says the proposal announced by President Trump over the weekend calls for the U.S.
and Iran to return to negotiations and continue working out many of the issues that have stymied prior progress on the deal. The official, who is involved in the mediation efforts, said the proposal calls for reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and halting attacks across the region, including by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq on the Arab Gulf countries and Jordan. The U.S., in exchange, will end its naval blockade on Iran and allow Tehran to export its oil as stated in the tentative ceasefire deal, he said.
No deal has been reached yet, but mediation efforts are underway, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media. https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-of-hormuz-kuwait-jordan-air-base/#post-update-7c9fd990 link copied In his first month on the job, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised it "would be the most transparent administration ever," offering a sharp contrast with the previous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that critics said had been shrouded in secrecy and misleading public statements. Now, as the American-led war against Iran enters its sixth month, the administration is offering the public less information about the conflict and its direction, even as the costs continue to mount.
More than 50,000 American troops remain deployed in the Middle East. Some 18 U.S. service members are dead, and hundreds more are injured or wounded.
Mr. Trump has launched several efforts at diplomacy with Iran, most recently this weekend. And Congress has been asked to approve another $67 billion to cover the costs of the campaign.
Yet Pentagon press briefings to reporters and the public have largely disappeared — the last one was in early May. https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-of-hormuz-kuwait-jordan-air-base/#post-update-b6e4b55f link copied Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio said the administration "could be sharing more with Congress," amid the conflict with Iran.
"I don't think anybody's satisfied with the level of information that we're receiving," Turner said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." Turner noted that it's a "dynamic conflict." But he said, "I think also that that's true even as the administration is looking to its review of, both in Europe, the conflict in Iran, the issues with Ukraine." "Across the board, both have registered that the Pentagon needs to be sharing more information," Turner said. https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-of-hormuz-kuwait-jordan-air-base/#post-update-c23aacbe link copied Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said that the Trump administration is "flailing" in its war with Iran, while urging the president to use a different tack to find a way out five months after the conflict began.
"They're stuck, they're responsible for this, and the president is the one that has to try to figure out a way out of this," Kelly said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." Kelly also voiced concerns about the Pentagon's funding requests, as the Trump administration pushes for $67 billion in supplemental funding and a broader $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2027. He said while he's going to "make sure the troops have what they need to defend themselves and defend the United States," the Pentagon needs to pursue a "reasonable approach." https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-of-hormuz-kuwait-jordan-air-base/#post-update-f3bf89fa link copied In a phone...
