US-Iran war Live Updates: Trump suggests Cuba as ‘little stop’ after Iran

Politico is reporting the US could cancel a missile deal with ally Germany.

The news outlet said the Pentagon feared Russia could construe the Tomahawk missile sale as an “escalation”.

The initial deal was made during the Biden administration.

The US has also drawn down troop numbers in Germany recently after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Iran was “humiliating” Trump’s negotiators.

The missile gap opening in the US arsenal following the attack in Iran could also be a factor.

But Politico says the decision has provoked some alarm in Germany, who fear they’ll be left without crucial defences.

The UN nuclear watchdog has not been able to inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities since the outbreak of the war, meaning the nation’s actual nuclear stocks remain a mystery.

A report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, shared with Associated Press, said the body was unable to carry out its responsibilities, with Tehran refusing to allow inspectors in.

The IAEA said it “cannot provide any information on the current size, composition or whereabouts of the stockpile of enriched uranium in Iran or whether Iran has suspended all enrichment-related activities”.

Israel’s incursion in southern Lebanon emerges as an increasingly obdurate obstacle in the path of peace, after an Iranian military commander demanded Israeli troops leave the country entirely.

The IDF has taken control of a strip of southern Lebanon, pushing further north than they have in decades, declaring it is in pursuit of Hezbollah.

Both the Israeli and the internationally recognised Lebanese government share an aim to at least disarm the Iran-backed militant group.

But despite a ceasefire between the two countries being recently agreed on, exchanges of fire have continued as Hezbollah refused to abide by the terms.

Now, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force has demanded Israel retreat entirely, casting further clouds over the ongoing US-Iran negotiation process.

“The minimum demand of the resistance is the retreat of the usurping regime (Israel) to the point it held before the 40-day war,” General Esmail Qaani said in a statement online.

Republicans - at least some of them - continue to show off a new desire to push back against President Donald Trump.

Congress just approved a major bill that would deliver billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, including funds for arms purchases.

Heavy sanctions were also levied on significant Russian people and organisations such as banks and oil companies.

More than a dozen Republicans “crossed the floor” (to use an Australianism) to vote alongside Democrats in approving the bill, which the White House and House Speaker Mike Johnson had opposed.

It’s the first major Ukraine-related bill of Trump’s second term, but its fate in the US Senate is uncertain.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sent Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a surprise letter, urging the Russian leader to agree to a ceasefire along the current front and a face-to-face meeting to settle the ongoing war.

In the letter, Zelenskyy said Russian troops were struggling on the ground and that if Putin pressed ahead, he would be “fighting for (his) own survival”.

“It is a fact of Russian history that you know well: when Russia grows tired, change comes,” Zelenskyy wrote.

A Kremlin aide told global media Putin would be briefed on the latter, and invited Zelenskyy to visit the Russian leader in Russia at any time.

Donald Trump appears to have fallen asleep again at another Oval Office event, even as people standing right next to him were sleeping.

At the event to announce a billion-dollar cash injection to the coal industry, the president’s eyes grew heavy as other men around him spoke.

As he sat at his desk, lingering blinks became prolonged periods of time with his eyes closed.

Read the full article here.

A new poll reportedly shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s support is dropping in northern Israel.

A poll from Israel’s Hebrew University, shared exclusively with Reuters, showed northern Israelis were turning their backs on the Likud party Netanyahu heads up.

Why? They want him to be harder on Lebanon.

It’s a stance that may be surprising to the governments of western allies of Israel who have censured the Netanyahu government’s military actions in recent years.

Northern Israel is the region most at risk of missile attacks from Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Lebanese figures show more than 7500 people have been killed since October 2023, when the latest round of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began. The Lebanese government does not distinguish between civilians, soldiers, or militants in its death tolls.

Northern Israelis want Netanyahu to intensify the IDF’s actions in Lebanon against Hezbollah, despite a ceasefire having recently been agreed, Reuters reported.

They also resent Trump’s influence over the Israeli government.

A Greek shipping magnate has said he is willing to pay tolls to Iran for passage of his vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.

Evangelos Marinakis told a trade conference in Athens this week paying a transit fee was less costly having the key waterway remain shut, reports the Financial Times.

The billionaire, who owns 150 commercial ships as well as the football clubs Nottingham Forest and Olympiacos, said the money earned from the toll fee could help rebuild Iran.

“For me, it is better to pay a fee of $US100,000 [$140,000] or $US200,000, depending on the size of the cargo or the size of the vessel, than to have all this hassle,”  Marinakis  said.

In negotiations with Iran, the US has fought any move by the regime towards a transit fee in the strait.

Trump says he’d be “honoured” to meet new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, but only under the right circumstances.

He was somewhat self-contradictory on the matter.

“I don’t want to meet. But if I did meet, I’d be honoured to meet him. I’d like to see if we make a deal, but if we make a deal, it’s possible that I would meet him,” he said.

He said some had suggested such a meeting could take place in the US but he hadn’t “really heard too much about it”.

“I would say I’m not his favourite person, but with that being said, he’s probably a professional,” Trump said.

“In some circles, he has a very good reputation, actually.”

Khamenei has been in seclusion since the death of his father in an airstrike early in the war.

It’s been reported he was badly injured in the same airstrike, and undergoing surgery.