Trump expects talks with Iran to resume this week after rejecting proposal

Follow updates on the war in the Middle East for Monday, September 28, here. See earlier developments below.

President Trump on Sunday said he hasn't ruled out more military strikes on Iran before the midterm elections in November.

Asked by Fox News' Aishah Hasnie if strikes in the coming weeks were still an option, Mr. Trump replied: "I don't want to say that. I don't want to say that. I mean, it's possible, but I just don't want to say that."

As he has several times in recent months, Mr. Trump predicted the war would end soon and that "the oil will go down way down to what it was before the war, and the key is Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. That's the key to the whole thing."

President Trump said Sunday he expects talks with Iran to resume in the coming week, a day after he rejected a truce proposal put forward by Tehran.

"They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make," Mr. Trump told Axios in a phone interview on Sunday. "It is what we would have maybe agreed to a year ago."

Iran said Friday it had submitted a proposal to the U.S. to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but Mr. Trump rejected it, asserting that Iranian leaders wanted the deal because "they are losing so badly."

"They overplayed their hand," Mr. Trump told Axios.

The president said resuming strikes against Iran is not off the table, saying "I am always thinking about it."

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran has not been notified of Mr. Trump's refusal of the proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking from New York, Araghchi told NBC that Iran is "fully prepared for the war to be resumed."

He added, however: "At the same time, we stand ready for diplomacy. It is up to President Trump to choose."

Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, said President Trump's "threat to annihilate Iran is nonsensical," while warning about the power Iran could wield over the midterm elections.

"He's been trying that for six months now, and he's not wrong — we sank their navy, we destroyed a lot of their planes — but, you know, the Iranians have, for six months, sustained the very worst that we and the Israelis can throw at them," Himes said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." "Unless the president wants to start sort of killing civilians in cities, we've shown what we can do, and the Iranians have shown that they can sustain that."

Himes argued that, "The Iranians now, in some sense, control what happens on election day."

"If the Iranian regime wants to make sure that Mike Lawler loses in New York-17, or that Ashley Hinson is not a senator in the Midwest, they will call their friends the Houthis and say, 'Fire five missiles at five ships,' or they'll fire a couple of missiles or drones at ships in the Strait of Hormuz," he said.

Himes continued, "Oil goes up to $120 a barrel, diesel, already at record highs, goes to $8 a gallon, and guess what? Mike Lawler and Ashley Hinson lose their elections, right?"

"The Iranians are not stupid people. They've been negotiating literally for thousands of years, and they understand that they now have a massive impact on what happens in November simply because they control the flow of oil and fertilizer and other stuff out of the strait," Himes said. "So, do you think they're giving up that position before the election? Of course, they're not."

Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said that Iran's proposed plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart talks was "not a serious offer."

"The president's not Bambi's baby brother. He turned it down," Kennedy said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sunday. "We need to continue doing what we're doing — the sanctions, the blockade."

"The truth is, if you're fair-minded at all, Iran is a sucking chest wound, and the world is safer for it," Kennedy said. "Now there's just one problem: the strait is at least partially closed, and it's affected the price of oil. And oil's in everything, including gasoline, and it's painful as hell."

Kennedy said, "We've got to either figure out a way to settle this thing, to get the strait open, or to escalate," though he noted that he would not support sending in troops.

A Saudi airstrike on Taiz in southwest Yemen killed seven people and wounded dozens more, Houthi media reported on Sunday.

The Iran-backed Houthis' Al-Masirah TV channel said the strike killed seven and wounded 40 in a central marketplace in Taiz, minutes after reporting that a Saudi fighter jet had targeted the area.

Fighting intensified in September as the Houthis launched a lightning offensive that saw them seize Yemen's entire Red Sea coast, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital shipping lane.

The Houthis have in parallel launched a blockade on Saudi energy exports, already choked off by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Despite Saudi backing, Yemen's government forces have been unable to repel the latest Houthi offensive.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that they seized an American submarine drone in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has blockaded in the months-long Middle East war.

"Through a coordinated, complex operation involving intelligence oversight and electronic warfare, IRGC naval forces' personnel successfully captured an advanced unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) belonging to the terrorist U.S. military," the IRGC naval forces said in a statement, according to state TV.

They added that the drone was "operating in the Strait of Hormuz for espionage purposes", identifying the model as a Remus 600 autonomous underwater vehicle that was "now in the hands of the force's specialists for data recovery".

Parents across Riyadh received emails from schools on Sunday announcing a last-minute plan to shift to remote learning for a week, according to messages seen by AFP.

"We have just been informed by Saudi authorities that schools must remain closed all week," read two separate messages seen by Agence France-Presse news agency.

There was no official reason given but the move comes amid heightened tensions in the Gulf and near-daily attacks aimed at Saudi Arabia by Iran-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen.

Iran on Sunday insisted on its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, despite President Trump's rejection of the proposal.

Iran's plan called for a cessation of all hostilities in the Middle East, including in Lebanon, according to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and fulfilling conditions in the ceasefire deal that fell apart months ago.

Araghchi said on Sunday that the Iranians "saw the first reaction from the U.S. president, but so far, nothing has been conveyed to us by the mediators".

"We are waiting for the mediators to convey the definitive positions to us, and we will make a decision based on them," the foreign minister added.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Saturday that he had sent envoys around the world to pressure countries to economically isolate Iran, hailing new restrictions targeting the country's airlines and banks.

"At my direction, teams were dispatched across the globe to engage with countries and demand action against the Iranian regime," Bessent said on X. "These efforts are delivering results."

Bessent noted that Turkey and Oman have halted incoming flights from private carrier Mahan Air, while the United Arab Emirates has stopped all flights by Iranian airlines.

Dubai, the UAE's commercial hub, is a major destination for Iran's carriers, with multiple daily flights, a large Iranian community and close business links.

Bessent also highlighted new banking restrictions.

On Wednesday, the UAE central bank blocked transactions to and from Iran by branches of Iran's Bank Melli, accusing it of violating laws on money laundering, terrorism and arms proliferation.

Last week, Turkey revoked the license of Iran's Bank Mellat, a semi-private financial entity that has been subject to Western sanctions for years.

Last month, Bessent announced what he called Operation Economic Outcast, a plan designed to use economic pressure on Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war.

The operation expanded the categories for secondary sanctions on entities and countries that transact with Tehran, and also introduced new sanctions across a variety of sectors, including digital assets, gold, aviation, technology and shipping.

Bessent said at the time that any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran "will be removed from the U.S. dollar system."

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi called at the United Nations Saturday for "self-restraint" from all sides in the Middle East war, while stressing that Muscat was ready to mediate.

"We call upon all parties concerned to settle their outstanding disputes through pursuing a policy of self-restraint and foresight, and through engaging in dialog to reach consensual, political solutions and sustainable understandings for the benefit of all," Albusaidi said, addressing world leaders gathered in New York.

"Oman once again reaffirms its steadfast commitment to continuing its efforts aimed at safeguarding navigation in the Strait of Hormuz ... We also call upon all parties to cooperate with Oman in these efforts."

Oman sits across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, and ships seeking to skirt Tehran's restrictions have recently been taking a route that hugs the Omani coast.

Saudi Arabia warned U.N. members Saturday that attempts to block Middle East waterways are a threat to global energy security and demanded the international community do more to defend freedom of navigation.

"The international community has been absent from assuming its responsibilities in confronting all that threatens international peace and security," Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan told the United Nations General Assembly.

"The kingdom stresses the importance of guaranteeing the protection of freedom of navigation in all international waterways, foremost among them the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden," he said.

The minister further demanded the return of conditions in the Strait of Hormuz to what they were before Feb. 28, without imposing any fees or taxes.

"The kingdom rejects any party's use of these vital passages as a tool for pressure, threat, or harm to the interests of states, in a manner consistent with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions," he said.

Bin Farhan was speaking shortly after President Trump had rejected an Iranian proposal of a deal to reopen Hormuz, in exchange for — among other conditions — a Middle East ceasefire and the release of frozen Iranian assets.

Reopening the Strait of Hormuz has been the focal point of much of the negotiations, but the Saudis have been facing increased difficulties transporting oil due to the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen effectively closing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern exit to the Red Sea, through targeting Saudi-flagged tankers and attacks on the East-West pipeline through inland Saudi Arabia.

As the world deals with decreasing oil supplies and increasing prices, President Trump asked his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to increase petroleum production in his country, according to the White House.

The White House provided a fact sheet following Mr. Trump's meeting with Xi for a state visit this week that highlights "President Trump urged President Xi to increase production of refined petroleum products to stabilize global supply."

The war with Iran, and its spread to Saudi Arabia, has tightened global energy supplies even as the U.S. has worked to escort tankers out of the Persian Gulf. Mr. Trump said earlier Saturday that 29 vessels had been guided out of the Strait of Hormuz under military supervision.

But the supply of oil and natural gas have still suffered compared to prewar levels. And the revived fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi-backed Yemeni government has now led to the closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi-flagged oil tankers.

Brent crude, the international standard, closed the week at $104 a barrel, the same as it began the week, despite rising to $108 on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia is ready to help stabilize the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Gulf region, as the U.S.-Iran conflict drags on.

"We need trust in the relationships between the Gulf states, the Arab states and Iran. We need stable regional architecture," Lavrov told leaders Saturday at the U.N. General Assembly.

"Russia, together with other responsible states, stands ready to constructively contribute to stabilizing this strategically important region."

Lavrov did not elaborate on how Russia would provide assistance to end the conflict spreading across the Middle East.

Russia has long been an ally of Iran. Iran provided Shahed drones to Russia for its own invasion of Ukraine. Russia in turn has reportedly assisted Iran with satellite coordination to target U.S. forces in the region.

The Israeli army destroyed an alleged Hezbollah weapons storage facility in southern Lebanon on Saturday.

"Earlier today (Saturday), the IDF struck a weapons storage facility belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the Sejoud area of southern Lebanon," the IDF said in a statement. "The strike was carried out to remove a threat: the facility stored weapons that were used to target IDF soldiers operating in the Security Zone."

The so-called "security zone" is an area of southern Lebanon set up by Israel that reaches about 6 or 7 miles into the country from the northern Israeli border.

Israel and Hezbollah have signed several short-term ceasefires, mostly recently in late June, but they have all been punctuated by violations from both sides. Deals signed between Israel and the Lebanese government, including the trilateral agreement brokered by the U.S., have each been rejected by Hezbollah.

President Trump has rejected the latest proposal from Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in seven days and launch in-depth negotiations to end the war.

"I'm rejecting their deal," Mr. Trump told reporters while leaving the White House on Saturday to travel to Tennessee. "They want to make a deal where they open the strait immediately because they are losing so badly. You don't see that in the fake news. We're winning tremendously, we have total control of the Hormuz Strait, massive amounts of oil are coming out of the Hormuz Strait, last night we had 29 ships come out."

"They want to make a deal," he continued. "I think that's fine, I like making a deal too. But that deal [they offered] would not be acceptable."

Both the U.S. and Iran had expressed optimism over talks held in New York during the U.N. General Assembly, though they were short on details of what was discussed. Mr. Trump did not attend the talks directly, but his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff were involved in the negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

The deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was reportedly similar to the Islamabad memorandum signed in June, including ending the blockade, allowing Iranian oil sales and halting fighting in every Middle East theater. The U.S. disputed Iran's interpretation of the MOU over who controlled traffic in the strait and the deal fell apart by July.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had told CBS News' Margaret Brennan on Friday that his country was standing at the ready to implement the new deal.

"If this message reaches the president of the United States, or the interviewers and those involved in the discussions, naturally the process will begin from the very day they accept it," he said.

China pushed back against the United States in its speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday, saying sovereignty of countries in the Gulf should be respected.

Vice President Han Zheng did not mention the U.S. by name in his remarks.

The comments stood in sharp contrast to the friendship on display earlier this week at the White House, where President Trump feted Chinese leader Xi Jinping with military flyovers and at a lavish state dinner.

"Major countries should have special responsibilities for safeguarding international peace and security, and they should take the lead in complying with the rules, upholding rule of law, and doing what's right," Han said.

"China holds that the sovereignty and security of countries in the Middle East, including the Gulf, should be respected," he added.

Trump warned Xi against providing support to Iran during the Washington talks and received assurances that China would not do so, the U.S. ambassador to China said on Friday.

The warning followed reports Beijing had supplied Iran with shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers and Tehran had found ways to evade sanctions on its oil sales with Chinese help.

Iran will not resort to violence in order to counter harsh sanctions against its airline industry imposed by the United States, according to Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as told to semi-official ISNA news agency.

Rezaei issued a statement on steps Iran will take to address the sanctions after it was reported on Friday, based on comments by an adviser to the country's supreme leader, that Iran would shut down airspace in the Middle East through military action.

He said Iran would not respond with military retaliation as was falsely reported.

"Negotiations between Iran and the countries concerned to lift some of the illegally imposed air restrictions are being pursued and followed up seriously," according to a statement.