File photo : Iran reportedly enriched about 970 lbs (440 kg) of Uranium at 60 % enough to make more than 10 nuclear bombs when further enriched to 90 % . Nuclear power plants require 3 to 5% enrichment -REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
HERE IS THE LATEST –
- The U.N. nuclear watchdog is “increasingly concerned” about Iran refusing its inspectors access to an underground uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan, where highly enriched uranium is thought to be buried, according to Reuters.
- Iran’s chief negotiator told Al Jazeera Thursday that U.S. officials asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to facilitate negotiations between Washington and Tehran. The White House has not responded directly to the report.
- “We don’t need a deal with Iran,” President Trump declared Thursday, ordering Vice President JD Vance to focus on domestic politics instead. Hours earlier, Mr. Trump had again claimed victoryin the war, but acknowledged it wasn’t over, saying it was “just a question of when we want to end it.”
- Oil prices swing back and forth, wholesale inflation remains high due to diesel costs
Oil prices swung a day after President Trump said the U.S. didn’t “need a deal with Iran” even as the conflict in the Middle East drags on.
Brent crude, the international standard, initially jumped early Friday before easing. It was mostly unchanged at $95.89 a barrel at 2 p.m. ET. It was trading near $72 per barrel in late February before the Iran war began.
Rising energy prices because of the U.S. war with Iran have been fueling inflation. Household budgets are getting squeezed directly by higher gasoline costs, but pricier gas and diesel raise costs for anything that is shipped. Prices for everything from food to clothing have been rising.
The latest wholesale inflation report released Friday also shows food prices and other costs gaining ground, despite some easing for energy costs.
Turkey and Qatar reach a mutual defense agreement
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani signed a mutual defense agreement Friday in Istanbul, according to Erdogan’s office.
In a statement posted on X, the office said the two sides would continue working together to prevent the resurgence of war in the Gulf region and “persuade the parties to resolve their problems through diplomacy.”
There were no further details on the defense agreement between the countries, which already share deep military ties.
The deal follows a joint defense agreement signed between Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in August in which the three nations pledged to treat an attack on one as an attack on all. Qatar, in its readout of the deal, praised that defense pact and said this one would carry similar weight.
“(The deal has the) aim of strengthening collective defense and promoting regional security and stability, and a unified stance in confronting any external armed attack targeting either party or both of them,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on X.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has signaled an openness to other regional countries joining the pact, including Egypt.
Even though Turkey and the Saudis agreed to the defense pact, Turkey has not yet become involved militarily in defending Saudi Arabia from attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen. Qatar repeatedly came under fire from Iranian attacks during the opening weeks of the U.S.- and Israeli-led war.
Iran claims to shoot down U.S. MQ-1 “Predator” drone
The Iranian military claimed it shot down a U.S. MQ-1 “Predator” drone near Kuhestak, a city on the coast of the Strait of Hormuz, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.
The Iranian news outlet shared photos of the supposed downed drone. The U.S. military did not immediately comment on whether one of its drones was shot down.
The Iranian army said its new air defense system was responsible for shooting it down. There have been several confirmed and more claimed shoot-downs of Predator drones in Iran throughout the war.
“We will not hesitate for a moment in safeguarding and defending the territorial integrity, maritime borders and interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Army Public Relations Office said in a statement.
Oil supply surpasses demand for first time since start of war, report says
There was good news in the International Energy Agency’s monthly oil report for the first time in awhile: Oil supplies are surpassing demand.
“The oil market is showing tentative signs of rebalancing, with global oil supplies surpassing demand for the first time since the outbreak of the war in Iran,” the IEA said in its November report. “Observed oil inventories rose by 52 (million barrels), or 1.7 (million barrels per day), in October as Gulf exports recovered much faster than global oil demand.”
The war is still having its effects on the oil market, but the report noted positive movement there as well.
“Despite continued attacks on tankers, Gulf oil exports, excluding Oman, reached 18.4 mb/d last month, 26% below pre-war levels,” it said. “The recent increase was led by crude, with flows rising to 15 mb/d, equivalent to 82% of pre-war levels in October.”
The good news should continue, the report said.
“Our November supply and demand balances suggest that the global oil market will return to a surplus in 4Q26, with a more substantial build in 2027,” it said, before adding the caveat, “As always, downside risks to the forecast persist, as attacks on shipping undermine maritime security, which is pivotal to a sustained recovery.”
Much of the increased oil coming out of the Gulf is doing so under U.S. military protection, even as Iran has increased its attacks on oil tankers exiting through the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. is facilitating ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman, but it is a costly, and for now indefinite, process.
Treasury Secretary Bessent on death threats: “F**k the Iranian leadership”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent came out swinging against Iran in the wake of death threats that have caused him to move to a military base for added security.
“F**k the Iranian leadership,” Bessent told CNBC on Friday. “I’m not going to be cowered that they have initiated death threats against me. The other members of the Cabinet are not going to be cowered. And it means what we are doing with Operation Economic Outcast is working.”
“The IRGC, they’re like a dangerous, cornered animal,” he added.
Bessent has come under added threats since the start of a ramped-up sanctions campaign called Operation Economic Outcast in late August, dubbed at the time as “economic D-Day.”
Bessent also said the military action undertaken by President Trump was “100% … worth it.”
“President Trump took action that had been needed for 47 years, and we’ll get on the other side of this,” Bessent told CNBC. “Now, President Trump doesn’t think we need a deal, and we’re just going to keep squeezing them.”
Earlier this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there was no need to restart military operations in Iran since the economic sanctions were working so well.
Lebanese army says it seized arms and ammunition in Beirut Hezbollah stronghold
The Lebanese army said on Friday it seized “a large quantity of weapons and military ammunition” during a raid in Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as a stronghold of the Hezbollah .
One suspect was detained in the Msharafieh neighborhood during the “targeted security operation,” which came following “the monitoring and close tracking of weapons transfers and trafficking,” the Lebanese Armed Forces said.
The army did not say who owned the seized weapons, but added that law enforcement officials had launched an investigation.
The army rarely announces such raids in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital.
Hezbollah pulled Lebanon into the war with Iran on March 2 in support of its Iranian patrons, prompting massive Israeli airstrikes and a subsequent ground invasion of southern Lebanon before an agreement to end the conflict was reached in June, though sporadic fighting has continued.
Israel has said Lebanon ’s efforts to disarm the Iran backed group were encouraging but insufficient, and that Hezbollah was rearming faster than it was being disarmed.
In a separate operation earlier this month, the Lebanese army said it apprehended six wanted individuals, including Syrian nationals, for trafficking drugs and possessing weapons in a Hezbollah stronghold in the east of the country.
The Lebanese soldiers also seized “a large quantity of weapons,” including RPGs, along with “equipment and raw materials used in drug manufacturing,” the statement read.
U.S. rejects Iranian claim to have hit early warning radar station in Bahrain, says drones intercepted
The U.S. military on Friday denied a claim by Iranian forces to have destroyed a U.S. early-warning radar installation in Bahrain, acknowledging that Iran had launched two attack drones at the small Persian Gulf nation, but saying “both were shot down by U.S. forces.”
The claim, attributed to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was published earlier Friday by various Iranian state media outlets, along with an image said to show the damaged radar station.
In its “Fact Check” post on social media, the U.S. Central Command said there were no injuries or damage caused by the interception of the Iranian drones.
Iran had peppered Bahrain and most other U.S. Gulf allies with daily rocket and drone strikes earlier in the war, but far fewer attacks have been reported since the summer, when major hostilities ended.
U.N. nuclear watchdog “increasingly concerned” about Iran refusing access to underground uranium facility
The United Nations nuclear watchdog agency is “increasingly concerned” about its lack of access to an underground Iranian uranium enrichment facility that Tehran has acknowledged exists, but refused to allow inspectors to visit, according to Reuters.
“The Agency does not know IFEP’s exact location, status for safeguards purposes or whether it contains nuclear material,” Reuters quoted the International Atomic Energy Agency as saying in a quarterly report to member states, referring to the Isfahan Fuel Enrichment Plant (IFEP).
The IAEA asked Iran to allow inspectors to visit the IFEP in February, but Tehran refused, telling the U.N. agency that “conditions resulting from acts of aggression and the continuation of threats have created a situation in which the normal implementation of safeguards is legally untenable and materially impracticable.”
The refusal came after the U.S. and Israel pummeled Iranian nuclear sites, including Isfahan, with a wave of missile strikes in June 2025.
The IAEA said in a September report that, since then, it had observed, in satellite imagery, “regular vehicular activity around the entrance to the tunnel complex at Isfahan,” where the agency believes some of the Iran’s roughly 970-pound highly-enriched uranium stockpile is believed to have been buried by the June 2025 missile strikes.
“In light of this activity,” the IAEA said it requested in February that Iran give inspectors access “as soon as possible,” but Tehran has continued to refuse, the nuclear watchdog agency says, citing the attacks on its territory.
CBS
