The U.S. military on Wednesday (May 27, 2026) conducted its second defensive strike this week against Iran after officials said they observed aggressive activity from the Iranian military.

Two U.S. officials told The Associated Press that U.S. military forces shot down four Iranian drones and struck a base that was about to launch a fifth drone after determining they posed a threat to the Strait of Hormuz.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive military operations.

President Donald Trump asserted on Wednesday (May 27, 2026) that Iran is “negotiating on fumes” and insisted that November’s midterm elections will not make him rush into a deal to end the nearly three-month-old conflict that has spurred unease across the global economy.

Speaking at the start of a Cabinet meeting, Mr. Trump expressed confidence that a deal is near. Over the weekend, he even declared that his administration and Tehran had “largely negotiated” a settlement, though the talks are still in flux.

The President is looking for a settlement that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide him with a credible argument that Iran’s nuclear capability has been diminished enough to declare victory, winding down a conflict that has been politically unpopular for Republicans.

But as things stand, Mr. Trump also risks finding that closure to his war of choice comes with an unsatisfactory ending.

The emerging deal puts off many critical issues to be resolved later and has already exposed the Republican president to fierce criticism — even from some of his own supporters — that Iran’s hard-line leaders will emerge from the conflict battered but emboldened. It all comes to a head just as the midterm elections to determine control of Congress come into focus, and as Republicans worry that rising costs and fuel prices are darkening the American electorate’s mood.

But Mr. Trump on Wednesday (May 27, 2026) dismissed the idea that the upcoming elections would shape his Iran strategy.

“They thought they were gonna outwait me. You know, ‘We’ll outwait him. He’s got the midterms,'” Mr. Trump said. “I don’t care about the midterms.”

Mr. Trump acknowledged there is still work to do, but he spoke with a measure of certainty that the two sides would get there.

“They want very much to make a deal,” Mr. Trump said. “So far, they haven’t gotten there. We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be — either that or we’ll have to just finish the job.”

Talks were further complicated after U.S. forces carried out what the Pentagon called “defensive” strikes on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran on Monday (May 25, 2026). The US said it acted with “restraint” in light of the weekslong ceasefire, while Iran decried the action as a sign of “bad faith and unreliability”.

Iran vowed at the United Nations on Monday (March 16, 2026) that it would not submit to “lawless aggression”, and said its citizens were in “grave danger” from U.S. and Israeli strikes.

At the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where countries were discussing the rights situation in Iran — notably following its deadly crackdown on protesters in recent months — Tehran said the focus instead should be on the war in West Asia.

“The most urgent and fundamental human rights issue concerning Iran is the imminent threat to the lives of 90 million people whose lives are in immediate and grave danger under the shadow of reckless military aggression,” said Ali Bahreini, Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva.

He called it “an aggression that is carried out by some of the most lawless and unscrupulous actors on the international stage”.

Mr. Bahreini said that if such “reckless militarism” was met with indifference, “Iran will most certainly not be the last country to suffer such treatment”.

On February 28, the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran, that has seen the Islamic republic retaliate against multiple countries in the West Asia.

Iranian cultural heritage under attack

During a session on Iran’s record, Mr. Bahreini urged the UN’s top rights body to instead discuss the Iranian cultural heritage under “indiscriminate” attack and “the innocent children massacred at their school desks”.

United States and Israel conducted a deadly missile attack on a school in the southern city of Minab. Washington has said it is investigating the incident. AFP does not have access to the site.

The ambassador said more than 1,300 people had been killed in Iran and more than 7,000 injured since the U.S.-Israeli strikes began.

“Under such circumstances, what exactly is Iran expected to do?” he asked, stating: “Iran is not a nation that submits to coercion, intimidation or lawless aggression.”

‘Wounded protesters arrested’

The six Gulf Cooperation Council countries, plus Jordan, condemned Iran’s attacks on their territories, saying they endangered regional security and civilian lives, and “cannot be justified under any pretext”.

The UN Human Rights Council was holding an interactive dialogue between nations and the council’s special rapporteur on rights in Iran and its fact-finding mission on the country.

Special rapporteur Mai Sato said Tehran’s deadly crackdown on the nationwide protests that began on December 28, in which “over 7,000 deaths have been reported by civil society”, followed a “pattern of persecution” that long predated the uprising.

“What was new and what has left a profound impression on me was the violation of medical neutrality,” she said.

“Hospitals were raided. Wounded protesters arrested from their beds. Medical professionals assaulted and arrested. A state directive instructing hospitals to provide information on injured protesters.

“The result was a healthcare system in which the injured feared seeking treatment more than the injuries themselves, and the act of saving life criminalised.”

She said that the U.S.-Israeli strikes “remain unlawful, no matter the assumed or stated objectives of those strikes”.

She said her mandate exists for the people of Iran, and whether perpetrators are Iranian or foreign, “the people harmed are the same”.

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran has said the war in the West Asia is likely to result in worsening institutionalised domestic repression of Iranian citizens.