HERE IS THE LATEST:
- Iranian officials and state media said Wednesday that the U.S. had responded to Tehran’s recent proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and the phased reopening of the Strait of Hormuz with a counterproposal, which the government is now considering.
- President Trump said later Wednesday that he has a decision to make on Iran, telling reporters, “We blow them up or make a deal. But the time is coming. It’s going to end very soon, one way or another.”
- Despite the ongoing indirect talks between the two sides, a spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said Tuesday the only way the seven-month war with the U.S. will end is if Washington admits defeat and U.S. forces leave the region.
Trump says he has a decision to make on Iran: “We blow them up or make a deal”
Asked by reporters Wednesday how he plans to deal with Iranian officials he has repeatedly described as “crazy,” President Trump offered: “Maybe you blow them up.”
“We have to make that decision: We blow them up or make a deal,” the president said. “But the time is coming. It’s going to end very soon, one way or another.”
Mr. Trump’s plans for Iran remain unclear. He has said repeatedly in recent weeks that he is weighing whether to escalate the war or cut a deal with Iran.
Saudi music festival postponed
A music festival in Saudi Arabia announced in an email to ticket holders Wednesday it was being postponed, becoming the latest entertainment event to be nixed amid the ongoing Middle East war.
“We know we said we’d see you at Soundstorm this year, so this isn’t the update we wanted to share. With regret, Soundstorm ’26 will be postponed,” read the email from the organizers of MDLBEAST Soundstorm festival.
The announcement to cancel the December festival comes a month after an upcoming UAE concert by singer Christina Aguilera and a separate Abu Dhabi festival featuring Shakira were both canceled.
Bruno Mars, DJ Khaled and Cardi B are among the most popular international artists to have performed during past iterations of the Soundstorm festival in the Saudi capital. The lineup for this year’s festival had not yet been announced.
Bahrain joins U.S.-led joint drone task force
Bahrain, a regular target of attacks by Iran in the wake of the Israeli- and U.S.-launched war, has joined the U.S.-led multinational drone task force, U.S. Central Command said Wednesday.
“We’re excited to welcome Bahrain to Task Force Falcon Strike after the kingdom affirmed its commitment to join CENTCOM in building the world’s first multinational attack drone unit,” Central Command Cmdr. Adam Cooper said in a statement. “Bahrain is a steadfast partner in strengthening regional security and stability.”
Task Force Falcon Strike was launched in August to advance one-way drone development in the Middle East. At the time of the launch, the U.S. said it and other regional partners would “employ one-way attack drones consisting of unmanned systems from above, on, and below the sea.”
It is unclear whether other countries have joined the unit prior to Bahrain.
Bahrain has come under fire from Iran regularly since the war began. On the first day of the war, Iran targeted the headquarters for the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. While no one was killed, the base suffered severe damage.
Iran also targeted Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa Air Base, which houses U.S. troops, and several civilian buildings throughout March and April. The attacks have gradually declined in recent months.
Egypt says Suez Canal lost $20 billion since the Oct 2023 Hamas attack on Israel
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi says the Suez Canal has lost a cumulative $20 billion in revenue since the Hamas-led attack on Israel unleashed the war in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, and because of maritime navigation disruptions from the Middle East conflict.
During a televised meeting on Tuesday with Cabinet members, top military leaders and local governors, el-Sissi blamed the government’s tight budget and little spending on education and health on the volatile geopolitical situation that led to increases in food and energy prices.
“Does that affect us? Of course it does affect us severely,” el-Sissi said.
Traffic was significantly disrupted after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels began targeting vessels heading to Israel through the Suez Canal after the start of the war in Gaza. Since then, traffic has remained between 60% and 70% below prewar levels, according to a July report by the Oxford Economics research firm.
Oil and fuel exports near prewar level with alternate routes, data firm says
Alternate export routes and a U.S.-protected route through the Strait of Hormuz have helped restore oil and fuel exports from the Gulf to near prewar levels, according to figures from data firm Kpler.
Exports through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal — along with a pipeline to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman and a U.S.-protected route that guides tankers at night — have been a key workaround after the threat of Iranian attacks disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Kpler said during a Tuesday podcast.
About 21.8 million barrels per day of crude and fuel products made from crude are being shipped weekly, on average, compared to the prewar baseline of 23.3 million barrels per day, Kpler said.
“We are getting closer to the norm, we are not at pre-conflict levels, but we are getting close to there,” said Matt Smith, Kpler’s director of commodity research.
Still, the workarounds are time consuming and expensive.
U.K. believes Iran “played a part” in incident near RAF Fairford base used by U.S. forces, prime minister says
The British government believes Iran “played a part” in the incident over the weekend at the RAF Fairford air base in England, which has been used by U.S. warplanes carrying out strikes on Iran, U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Wednesday.
Burnham’s remarks to the BBC were the first confirmation by the British government of its assessment of the incident, which saw five men — all British nationals in their mid-20s — arrested near RAF Fairford early Sunday morning on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act. They were all released on bail the following day, however, even though the police had the right to hold them for up to 14 days under U.K. counterterrorism laws.
Their quick release drew criticism from President Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But it also prompted questions in the U.K. as to whether the authorities had overreacted.
Iran-backed Iraqi militias say they do not plan to disarm as U.S. leaves
As was widely expected Iraqi armed factions backed by Tehran said Wednesday they were “not bound by any timeline or agreement” to surrender their weapons to the state, as the government seeks to disarm them under mounting U.S. pressure.
A military spokesman for Kataeb Hezbollah, Jaafar al-Husseini, said at an event to celebrate the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces that the factions had been in talks on “regulating” their weapons but “have not yet received a response from the Iraqi government.”
“Based on this, the Islamic Resistance declares that it is not bound by any timetable or agreement that any governmental or political party has spoken of or may speak of,” al-Husseini said.
The U.S. military announced on Wednesday it had officially pulled out of Iraq after 12 years fighting the Islamic State. The U.S. and Iraqi government had agreed to a pullout by Sept. 30 and began the process over recent months.
The militias in Iraq have launched attacks on other Gulf countries in the wake of the U.S. and Israeli launching war on Iran in February. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia launched joint strikes on those militias in late July.
CBS
