thousands of people gather in Enghelab Square for a pro-government demonstration after Iranian state media confirmed the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on March 1, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
(LONGDON) — The interim leadership council of Iran has been formed following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, Iranian state TV reported Sunday.
The interim leadership council will include Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, the head of the judiciary and Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, who was selected as the representative of the Guardian Council.
According to the Islamic Republic constitution, the Guardian Council consists of 12 members: six “faghihs,” or Islamic jurists, and six Muslim “experts” in various areas of law.
Watch ABC Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET for an ABC News special “Shockwaves: The Attack on Iran” to see the latest on the unfolding situation in the Middle East. Stream on Disney+ and Hulu.
Pezeshkian — who sources told ABC News was targeted in Saturday’s joint U.S.-Israel attack — resurfaced on Sunday on Iranian state TV. He said that the interim leadership council has started its work following the death of Khamenei.
In a taped video message broadcast on the Iranian state TV, Pezeshkian said that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic are “powerfully crushing the enemy’s bases.”
Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, Ali Larijani, appeared in a television interview in Iran on Sunday and commented on the death of Khamenei, saying, “The passing of a great personality has wounded the hearts of all of us.”
“Americans should know that by stabbing the hearts of the Iranian nation, their hearts will be stabbed,” Larijani said. “What they did in a cruel way towards the Iranian leadership has angered the people so much that they will never achieve their goals.”
He also said a temporary leadership council would be formed of the president, the head of the judiciary, and one of the jurists of the Guardian Council.
A spokesperson for the Guardian Council said, “The country’s constitution provides for the current situation and the leadership council will be in charge until the leadership is determined.”
According to the law, the leadership must be determined as soon as possible, given the war conditions. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said 40 Iranian commanders were also killed in Saturday’s attack that President Donald Trump described as a “massive and ongoing operation” against Iran and its Middle East proxies.
The IDF said the Israeli Air Force struck and eliminated seven members of the top Iranian security leadership who had gathered at several locations in Tehran.
Among those eliminated in the strikes was Abdolrahim Mousavi, who served as chief of staff of the armed forces, according to the IDF.
Mousavi served as one of the highest senior military ranking officials and was the successor of Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, who was killed in the opening strike of “Operation Rising Lion” in June 2025.
The majority of the highest-ranking senior military officials of the Iranian security leadership were also killed, the IDF said.
A plume of smoke rises after an explosion on February 28, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Dozens of students at an Iranian all-girls elementary school were among those killed during the U.S. and Israeli military strikes throughout the country Saturday morning, officials in Iran claimed.
The country’s leaders and state TV said 85 people who were at the Shajare Tayyiba Elementary School were dead, as of 10:40 a.m. ET, after the school in Minab was attacked.
At least 92 injuries related to the school attack were reported, according to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, which cited the local governor.
Iranian officials have not immediately said how many of the dead and wounded are children. Earlier in the morning, Iran’s state broadcaster, IRIB, reported shortly after that the death toll had risen to 57 school girls, with another 60 injured.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian blasted the United States and Israeli governments for the deaths and injuries in a statement Saturday carried by the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency.
“This barbaric act is another black page in the record of countless crimes committed by the aggressors against this land that will never be erased from the historical memory of our nation,” he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an X post that the school was “bombed in broad daylight, when packed with young pupils.”
A spokesman for U.S. Central Command said in a statement that it would look into the reports about the school being bombed but emphasized, “Unlike Iran, we have never — and will never — target civilians.”
“We take these reports seriously and are looking into them,” Capt. Tim Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesman, said in a statement. “The protection of civilians is of utmost importance, and we will continue to take all precautions available to minimize the risk of unintended harm.”
International law prohibits the deliberate targeting of schools and universities during armed conflicts.
The U.S. military has a rigorous targeting process using different forms of intelligence to ensure that any targets to be struck by bombs or missiles are, in fact, enemy targets and will not harm civilians or strike civilian targets.
Claims of civilian casualties are investigated as much as possible, although it may not be possible to do so in areas controlled by hostile forces.
The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, a non-profit that tracks military attacks on academic institutions, documented more than 6,000 attacks on schools, universities, students and education personnel worldwide between 2022 and 2023.
The group’s global research found that 10,000 students and education personnel were killed, injured, abducted or otherwise harmed during that time period.
People take shelter as Iran launched missiles and drones towards Israel following the US-Israeli attacks, in Jerusalem on February 28, 2026. (Photo by Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — In announcing the U.S. military strike on Iran, President Donald Trump went significantly beyond his previous justification of destroying the country’s nuclear program.
He’s now also calling for regime change — and encouraging the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow their government.
Three sources briefed on the attack told ABC News that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian were both targeted during the strikes.
But whether American bombing could help make regime change happen — without also deploying U.S. forces on the ground — was unclear, as was who might replace Iran’s current leaders.
“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” Trump announced in a video posted to his social media account early Saturday morning.
Speaking to what he called “the great, proud people of Iran,” he added, “I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.”
“When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations,” he said.
“For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want, so let’s see how you respond.” he said.
“America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach,” he said.
Shortly after, in a brief phone call with a Washington Post reporter, the president said that all he wants is “freedom for the people” of Iran.
In January, during widespread protests in Iran when thousands of Iranians were reported killed, Trump posted on social media, “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING — TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price.”
“HELP IS ON ITS WAY,” Trump added at the time, though he faced criticism for taking no further action at that point.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his own video statement Saturday echoed Trump’s call, saying the attack’s goal was “to remove the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran.”
Iran has claimed it is not pursuing a nuclear weapon and has the sovereign right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program for civilian purposes.
Imminent threat? Up to now, Trump has said he preferred a diplomatic solution and has not presented a clear justification for why strikes are needed now, since he has repeatedly insisted Iran’s nuclear program was “obliterated” in U.S. strikes he ordered last June — a claim he repeated at last week’s State of the Union address.
In making his new case for the strikes, the president is arguing attacks are warranted to “defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime” without providing clear evidence of that.
Trump also argued Iranian missiles could “soon” reach the U.S — but the president has provided no details.
Iran is “developing long range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas and could soon reach the American homeland,” he said.
Yet, according to a one-page document released by the Defense Intelligence Agency earlier this year, Iran is looking to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035.
Just a few days ago, after the president’s State of the Union address, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Iranian missiles could reach the United States “one day.”
“Clearly, they are headed in a pathway to one day being able to develop weapons that can reach the continental U.S. They already possess weapons that can reach much of Europe already now as we speak, and the ranges continue to grow every single year exponentially,” Rubio said.
Whether the Iranian missile threat was “imminent” — and whether Congress should vote on committing American troops to an extensive military operation — aimed at pursuing such a broad goal of regime change in Iran — will likely dominate the debate when lawmakers return to Washington this week.
A plume of smoke rises after an explosion on February 28, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump threatened “certain death” to elite forces in the Iranian regime and advised the country’s military to lay down their weapons as the United States and Israel launched attacks on the country early Saturday.
Announcing the “massive and ongoing operation” against Iran and its Middle East proxies, Trump promised immunity to members of “the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the police if they “lay down” their weapons now.
“So, lay down your arms. You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death,” Trump said in a video address released overnight.
To the people of Iran, Trump said, “The hour of your freedom is at hand.”
“When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take,” he added. “This will probably be your only chance for generations.”
Trump explained that among the reasons for launching the military operation is that the Iranian regime has failed to negotiate in good faith a deal in which they would agree to stop pursuing nuclear weapons.
Iran has stated numerous times that it doesn’t want nuclear weapons, but believes it has the right to use nuclear power for civilian purpose. It had also been part of a nuclear deal with the U.S., which Trump withdrew from during his first term.
Trump said Iran’s “menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the U.S.-Israel strikes on Saturday were “wholly unprovoked, illegal, and illegitimate.”
Trump did not specifically say what led his administration to believe the U.S. was in imminent danger.
In a sobering message to the American people, Trump said, “The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties.”
“That often happens in war. But we’re doing this not for now, we’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission,” Trump said.
He said that after the U.S. targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities last year in limited strikes, the regime continued to rebuild its nuclear program.
“They rejected every opportunity to remove their nuclear ambitions and we can’t take it anymore,” Trump said.
He said Iran was developing long-range missiles with the capability of threatening U.S. allies in Europe and U.S. troops stationed overseas and “could soon reach the American homeland.”
Trump said the operation intends to “prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.”
“We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated,” Trump said. “We are going to annihilate their Navy. We’re going to ensure that the region’s terror proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces.”
ABC News contributor Steve Ganyard, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel and former deputy assistant secretary of state, said it appears the U.S. operation in Iran will be a “dayslong” effort.
“I think the real point here in what the president is saying, this could be a long-term effort,” Ganyard said. “This isn’t just a pinprick. They are going after missile sites. They’re going after nuclear sites. The president did mention naval sites.”
Ganyard said that it appears the U.S. military has a list of widespread targets not seen in previous attacks, such as “Operation Midnight Hammer” that targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025.
“The U.S. is hitting things that Iran could do to effect the rest of the world, which include nuclear sites, missile sites, the [Iranian] Navy that may be able to close the very strategic waters that could effect the global economy,” Ganyard said.
Smoke rises after Iran carried out a missile strike on the main headquarters of the U.S. Navyâs 5th Fleet in Manama in retaliation against US-Israeli attacks, in Bahrain February 28, 2026. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The massive strikes conducted by the U.S. and Israel on Saturday — dubbed “Operation Epic Fury” by American forces — have been in the works over the past several “months leading up to the attack,” according to Israel officials.
In the first IDF statement following the attack on Iran, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said that “the strike included an attack on dozens of military targets.”
The statement also highlighted what appears to be the IDF’s close cooperation with United States across months of planning. The United States has not yet mentioned anything about the planning of the operation or how long it has been in the works for.
“In the months leading up to the attack, close joint planning was carried out between the IDF and the U.S. Army, which enabled the broad attack to be carried out with maximum synchronization and coordination between the armies,” the IDF said.
“The Iranian regime has not abandoned its plan to destroy Israel,” the statement continued. “The IDF has recognized that the regime has continued its attempts to fortify, protect, and conceal its nuclear programs, along with restoring the missile production process.
“The regime has continued to finance, train, and arm its proxies based within the borders of the State of Israel,” the IDF said. “These are actions that constitute an existential threat to the State of Israel, and threaten the Middle East and the entire world.”
The strikes involved a mix of U.S. aircraft and Tomahawk cruise missiles fired by U.S. Navy ships in the region, according to a U.S. official.
There are currently an estimated 35,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in the Middle East at the moment.
The U.S. already has large military bases in the region, with Al Udeid in Qatar being the largest with around 10,000 personnel. Close by in Bahrain, there are about 3,200 personnel and dependents stationed at the Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters.
There are also an estimated 1,000 U.S. troops in Syria, even as they prepare to draw down and leave the country, as well as another 2,500 troops in Iraq now mostly located in Erbil to the north.
The U.S. also has dozens more fighter jets in the Middle East than there were in mid-January.
An aircraft carrier — the USS Gerald R. Ford — along with up to four destroyers may soon join the 12 Navy ships already in the region, that includes the USS Abraham Lincoln.
In response, Iran immediately accused the U.S. of violating “all international laws and during negotiations.”
“Now is the time to defend the homeland and confront the enemy’s military aggression,” a statement released from the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday. “Just as we were ready for negotiations, we have been more prepared than ever for defense. The armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will respond to the aggressors with authority.”
A screen grab from a video released on U.S. President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account shows Donald Trump making statements regarding combat operations on Iran on February 28, 2026 in Pal Beach, Florida, United States. (Photo by US President Trump Via Truth Social/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON and NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump said that the U.S. military has begun “major combat operations” in Iran and calling on the Iranian people to rise up and seize the opportunity for regime change.
“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” Trump said in a video statement on Truth Social early Saturday morning.
The “massive” operation comes as the U.S. has been trying to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear and missile programs and hours after Trump said he was “not happy with the negotiation.”
And it comes amid questions about the potential justification for a U.S. strike on Iran since Trump has said the Iranian nuclear weapons program was “obliterated” in a U.S. strike last year.
“Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted “death to America” and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the United States, our troops and the innocent people in many, many countries,” Trump said.
The military operation against Iran was a preemptive joint attack by the United States and Israel and could last several days, U.S. officials said, with potential targets including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military sites, government buildings, Iranian intelligence assets and defense installations.
“Iran is the world’s number one state sponsor of terror and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested,” Trump said. “It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon. I will say it again. They can never have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump, who campaigned on a message of keeping the U.S. out of foreign entanglements, gravely suggested that “the lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties.”
“That often happens in war. But we are doing this not for now, we are doing this for the future and it is a noble mission,” Trump continued.
At the end of his message, Trump called on the Iranian people to seize this opportunity for regime change.
“Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand,” Trump said.
He added, “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
Appearing to speak to the Iranian people, Trump said: “No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want, so let’s see how you respond. America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.”
Meanwhile, some Democratic members of Congress have begun demanding answers.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D.-FL) said on social media that he is “formally requesting” that the State Department and Department of War “fully brief Congress on the rapidly evolving situation in Iran.”
Senator Ruben Gallego (D.-Ariz.), a Marine veteran, also posted on X, saying “I lost friends in Iraq to an illegal war. Young working-class kids should not pay the ultimate price for regime change and a war that hasn’t been explained or justified to the American people.”
Loaded cargo containers at the Torkham Border Terminal, along with vehicles carrying migrants bound for Afghanistan, are forced to turn back toward the Pak-Afghan Highway on the second day of clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan at the Torkham crossing in Pakistan on February 27, 2026. (Hijrat Ali/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Tensions remain high as Pakistan and Afghanistan exchange airstrikes over the last 24 hours with Pakistan’s defense minister calling it “open war.”
“Any further provocations by the Taliban regime, or attempts by any terrorist group to undermine the security and welfare of the people of Pakistan, will be met with a measured, decisive and befitting response,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Friday.
Casualties have been reported on both sides, with each side claiming larger enemy losses.
Pakistan claims the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan is providing support for terror groups that have carried out attacks inside Pakistan.
“Pakistan’s actions were undertaken in exercise of its right to self-defense and to ensure the safety and security of its citizens, as well as that of the wider region and beyond,” the statement said.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, said Afghanistan’s soil will not be used against any country and highlighted its fight against ISIS as evidence of its commitment to regional security.
Mujahid described Pakistan’s conflict with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as an internal issue that predates the current Afghan government, arguing it is unreasonable to blame Afghanistan for a long-running domestic conflict.
Despite the tensions, Mujahid said the Islamic Emirate prefers resolving disputes through dialogue and understanding, emphasizing that its actions have been in self-defense and that it remains open to peaceful negotiations.
ABC News’ Habibullah Khan and Aleen Agha contributed to this report.
Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, takes part in the Munich Security Conference. (Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Russian forces could recover their pre-war capabilities within three to five years in the event of a peace deal in Ukraine, according to Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chair of the NATO Military Committee and the principal military adviser to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
“They will be busy on that battlefield for as long as is necessary — we hope very, very shortly that it will come to a point. Right after that, I think that they will rebuild,” Dragone told ABC News during an interview on the sidelines of the Chatham House think tank’s Security and Defense 2026 event in London on Wednesday.
“We are expecting a strong, resilient — because they demonstrate that now they are resilient — conventional force,” Dragone said of the Russian military NATO is preparing to face down along its eastern flank in the years and decades to come.
This week marked the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, a so-called “special military operation” — in the words of the Kremlin — that Russian officials expected to succeed within days.
The opening stages of the war were characterized by Russian tactical and strategic failures, ultimately prompting Russian forces to abandon swaths of territory captured in the north, northeast and south of the country.
“Their capabilities were way below what we expected at the very beginning,” Dragone said. “But in four years, they reconstituted. They lost a lot of soldiers, but they are able to reconstitute, rebuild and recruit again,” the NATO commander continued. “They are a force which is experienced and trying to modernize as much as they can.”
Four years on, Russia is still struggling to make significant gains and is — according to a mix of Ukrainian, Western and independent analysis — sustaining massive casualties.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to frame Moscow’s grinding advance as inevitable, and demanded that Kyiv cede the entire eastern Donbas — made up of Luhansk and Donetsk regions — as part of any future peace deal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his foreign backers, though, have challenged the characterization, pointing to Russia’s slow progress, mounting casualties and apparent economic strains.
Asked whether one side has the upper hand, Dragone said Russia is making “small gains on the terrain compared to the losses. In November-December, they had 35,000 casualties. This means that for one kilometer, they are losing thousands” of troops killed and badly wounded, Dragone said.
“This is something that they can handle — I don’t know up to when,” he continued. “That’s something that their system allows them to do.”
“They are not winning, except for these small gains,” Dragone said. “It’s an oxymoron to call something a ‘special military operation’ that lasts for five years. It’s nonsense, from the very beginning.”
“They will not be able, at this pace, to conquer the whole of Donbas, for example, by the end of this year,” Dragone said. “They are fighting this attrition war that is not leading anybody anywhere. And this is why it should be time that they sit and they start to find a negotiated solution.”
Moscow says different, though the glacial pace of its invasion is evident. Daily, the Defense Ministry in Moscow claims to have captured new settlements, villages and towns in the so-called “grey zone” all along the 750-mile line of contact. In December, Putin again claimed that his troops were “advancing on all fronts.”
The Kremlin appears fully committed to its war, marshalling the national economy onto war footing and further tightening its authoritarian grip on Russian society.
Moscow’s war-focused economic strategy “means something,” Dragone said. “More than 40% of the national budget is for the war,” he added. “Probably they will keep the war economy even after the war ends, just to rebuild this as soon as possible.”
Russia may seek to generate a military force of “150% of what they had when they invaded Ukraine, because from their point of view, they have to cope with their counterpart, which is NATO,” Dragone said. In the meantime, the admiral added, “They are testing us, of course. In these four years, they have been testing us on our reaction times, how we are able to respond.”
Dragone also acknowledged that Russia is already engaged in a hybrid war against its NATO adversaries. Allied leaders have accused Moscow of a wide range of surveillance, sabotage, assassination and other operations within NATO borders. Meanwhile, Russian drones and missiles targeting Ukraine have also violated the airspace of allied nations.
“We have been reacting” to the hybrid threat, Dragone said, noting that NATO nations have moral, ethical and legal “restraints” that do not bind Moscow.
“This is an unfair confrontation that we need to be ready to face. And this is what we could call a handicap situation, but that’s something that we want to be in place,” he added, stressing that the alliance should not seek to shed such restraints.
“They are more aggressive,” Dragone said. “We are reacting. Our reactions are appropriate. The issue is that we are a defensive alliance, so that’s our mindset.”
Asked whether NATO has been too hesitant, the admiral said such strategic decisions are made at the political level. “It’s up to them to tell us, give us the political direction, what effect they want to have — and we will be the ones who will produce this effect.”
Growing NATO-Russia tensions have, at times, prompted nuclear threats from Moscow. This week, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) accused Kyiv — without providing proof — of trying to obtain nuclear weapons with the assistance of the U.K. and France. Ukraine quickly denied the allegation.
Dmitry Medvedev — the former Russian president and prime minister now serving on the country’s Security Council — then threatened a “symmetrical response” from Russia using “any type of weapon, including non-strategic nuclear weapons.”
Dragone said that, though NATO remains “concerned” about Russia’s nuclear capabilities, “nothing has changed.”
The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier docks at Souda Bay on Crete Island, Greece on February 24, 2026. (Stefanos Rapanis/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Officials from Iran and the United States opened high-stakes negotiations in Geneva on Thursday, a third round of nuclear talks that are arriving amid heightened tensions and that could prove pivotal in President Donald Trump’s decision about whether to order a military intervention.
The White House previously said it would accept nothing short of a full stop for Tehran’s uranium enrichment efforts. Trump in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night warned that Iran sought to restart that program after the United States “obliterated” it in strikes on the nation in June.
The White House in recent weeks ordered a major U.S. military buildup in the Middle East, as Trump has weighed options for possible strikes against Iran.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Iran poses a “very great threat” to the United States, but added that the president would prefer to deal with Tehran through diplomacy. He also said Tehran appeared to be attempting to restart its nuclear program.
“You can see them always trying to rebuild elements of it,” Rubio told reporters during his trip to St. Kitts and Nevis. “They’re not enriching right now, but they’re trying to get to the point where they ultimately can.”
Officials from Oman are facilitating the indirect talks in Switzerland. The White House’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are representing the United States.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said early on Thursday that Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, arrived in Switzerland on Wednesday evening and met with Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, his Omani counterpart.
Araghchi during that meeting “stressed that the success of the negotiations depends on the seriousness of the other side and its avoidance of contradictory behavior and positions,” according to Iran.
Questions remained about the current state of Iran’s nuclear program, despite Trump saying it had been “obliterated” in June. Senior Israeli officials told ABC News in July that some enriched uranium may have survived the powerful U.S. strikes. Washington maintains that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons, a claim that Tehran has denied.
Araghchi on Tuesday appeared to agree with the White House’s efforts to stop it from building a nuclear weapon, but stopped short of saying there would be no future enrichment of any kind.
“Our fundamental convictions are crystal clear: Iran will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon; neither will we Iranians ever forgo our right to harness the dividends of peaceful nuclear technology for our people,” Araghchi said in a social media post.
Witkoff in an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News said that Tehran was “probably a week away from having industrial-grade, bomb-making material, and that’s really dangerous.”
Witkoff and Kushner have been given an extensive remit by the White House, which has also tapped them as lead negotiators for other high-stakes talks, including those related to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
That approach has drawn some criticism, including from Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican of North Carolina, who said on Wednesday that it was “suspect” that “the same two people” would have the time to effectively manage the workload.
“It’s just not the way to project steady, strong leadership which the world needs from the United States on these very dangerous hot spots,” Tillis said.
Iran has a “positive outlook” on the talks and hopes to “move beyond this ‘neither war nor peace’ situation,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in public remarks in Farsi on Wednesday in Sari, Iran.
“Hopefully, we can move beyond this ‘neither war nor peace’ situation,” he added. “If that happens, we will then be able to remove obstacles from our path much more easily.”
The Cuban flag waves outside of the Embassy of Cuba in Washington, DC on October 3, 2017, in Washington, DC. The U.S. orders on Tuesday the expulsion of 15 Cuban Diplomats from the Washington DC Embassy. (Photo by Olivier Douliery/Getty Images)
(CUBA) — Four people on a speedboat were killed and another six injured in a “confrontation” near Cuba’s coast after those on board the United States-registered vessel opened fire on Cuban troops, according to the Cuban Ministry of the Interior.
As Border Guard troops approached the boat for identification after it was detected in Cuban waters, those on board the speedboat “opened fire,” injuring the commander of the Cuban vessel, the ministry said.
“As a consequence of the confrontation, as of the time of this report, four aggressors on the foreign vessel were killed and six were injured,” the ministry said in a statement released by the Cuban Embassy in the United States.
Those injured were evacuated and received medical assistance, it said.
The speedboat was registered in Florida, according to the ministry. It approached Wednesday morning about 1 nautical mile northeast of the El Pino channel, in Cayo Falcones in the Villa Clara province, the ministry said.
When reached for comment, the U.S. Coast Guard, White House and other related agencies referred ABC News to the State Department.
“In the face of current challenges, Cuba reaffirms its determination to protect its territorial waters, based on the principle that national defense is a fundamental pillar of the Cuban State in safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability in the region,” the Cuban Ministry of the Interior said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
