- US President Donald Trump announced that countries that do business with Iran will face a 25 percent tariff when doing business with the US, after saying last night that he is looking at a number of “very strong” options to hit Iran for its handling of the protests.
- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that Iran is ready to engage in nuclear talks with the US, “provided that it is without threats or dictates”.
- Araghchi also told Al Jazeera Arabic: “If Washington wants to test the military option it has tested before, we are ready for it,” referring to US bombings carried out on three nuclear sites in Iran in June 2025.
- White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that Iran is sending a different message to Trump behind closed doors, and that Trump is willing to use military force against Iran.
- Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei took to social media to congratulate the participants of today’s pro-state rallies in Tehran, attendance at which numbered in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands.
- Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s governing AK Party, warned that foreign intervention in Iran could worsen the country’s crisis.
- President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, has prohibited all Iranian diplomats and “any other representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran” from parliament premises.
- Iran continues to be cut off from the internet, with the blackout reaching more than 100 hours, according to global internet connectivity monitor NetBlocks.
‘US-Israeli action could target Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities’
We have more from Jamal Abdi, the president of the National Iranian American Council. Negotiations between the US and Iran will likely revolve around Iran’s enrichment programme, which Iran has not committed to forgoing, and which represents Trump’s “red line” on Iran, Abdi said.
But there have also been hints from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel would like to destroy Iran’s ability to produce ballistic missiles, making that another likely topic for negotiations, Abdi said.
If Trump went ahead with military strikes, it’s possible that “this human rights lens” would provide cover “for the US and potentially Israel… to go after ballistic missile facilities”.