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Hope for progress after U.S., Iran hold first shuttle talks in months

admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 11:22:00 +0000

The first shuttle talks between the United States and Iran for months raised hopes on Wednesday (September 23, 2026) that the ‌adversaries could make some progress towards ending the West Asia war, although neither side spelled out any change in their positions.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner communicated ⁠through mediators on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, the first such contacts since an interim ceasefire agreement collapsed in July.

“Steve and Jared had a very productive meeting today with mediators of Iran, merely mediators. Let’s see what happens with that,” U.S. President Donald ‌Trump said. “They’ve been mediated for a while, but I think there’s a lot of momentum for them to make a deal. It’s what we’re hearing from everybody.”

Earlier, Mr. Trump had told the UN General Assembly in ‌a speech that he had to decide whether to make a deal with Iran or “annihilate” the country. Iran’s President ‌Masoud ⁠Pezeshkian was due to address the gathering on Wednesday (September 23, 2026).

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Tehran had engaged ⁠with the United States through a Qatari mediator in New York and conveyed conditions, including an end to the war on all fronts and a halt to U.S. “acts of aggression”.

Some Iranian state media had earlier reported that Mr. Araghchi and Mr. Witkoff had met, but Iranian officials clarified to Reuters that this was not face-to-face. Mr. Araghchi met the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh ‌Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who has been one of the main mediators at previous talks.

Oil prices hold at two-week low

The diplomatic opening helped keep oil prices near two-week lows, with Brent crude now holding just below the $100-a-barrel threshold it had shot through this month, after Houthi fighters in Yemen launched a major offensive and fired into Saudi Arabia.

The war, ‌launched by Mr. Trump in February alongside Israel as “Operation Epic Fury”, has lasted nearly seven months, killing thousands of people, disrupting global energy supplies and spreading to other countries in the region — first to Lebanon and more recently to Yemen.

Mr. Trump repeated previous assertions that the war could end around the time of November’s ⁠U.S. midterm elections, though he has not explained why.

Since diplomacy broke off in July, the sides have repeatedly exchanged fire, although Mr. Trump has held back from a full-blown resumption of strikes after receiving advice from his military commanders that munitions were running low.

An interim agreement ‌reached in June and signed by Mr. Trump and Mr. Pezeshkian would have given Iran its main demands — lifting financial sanctions and unfreezing assets in return for talks on limiting its nuclear programme.

But that deal unravelled within weeks over shipping rules in the Strait of Hormuz, conduit for a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas before the war. Iran wants to exert greater control of the strait and collect fees from ships that use it, which Washington rejects.

Despite near-daily attacks on tankers, traffic through the strait has gradually increased in recent weeks. Oil producers have paid shipping companies fees worth as much as a quarter of a cargo’s ‌value to switch off transponders, navigate the route and transfer crude to other vessels beyond the strait.

Exports from the United Arab Emirates have already recovered to pre-war levels, and Saudi Arabia has sold 60 million barrels of Gulf oil for both this month and next, to be delivered beyond the strait off the coast of Oman, a big increase from ⁠August.

Even so, disruption continues to squeeze global energy markets. About a third of Gulf oil is estimated to be missing from global ⁠supplies. Shortages have particularly hit refined products such as diesel, causing inflation, pushing up interest rates and hurting Mr. Trump’s Republicans ahead of the elections.

The risk of further disruption has increased since the Iran-backed Houthis advanced in Yemen this ‌month, threatening traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, an alternative export route used by Saudi Arabia.

Washington, for its part, has imposed a blockade on Iranian ports, deepening Iran’s economic crisis. Iranian officials say they are willing to endure the blockade to achieve their goals, and will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until it is lifted.

Published – September 23, 2026 04:52 pm IST

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Iran agreed secret shoulder-fired missile deal with Russia, says media report

admin — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 01:29:00 +0000

Representative images.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphotos

Iran agreed a secret $589 million arms deal with Russia to acquire thousands ‌of advanced shoulder-fired missiles, the Financial Times reported on Sunday (February 22, 2026).

The agreement, signed in Moscow ⁠in December, commits Russia to deliver 500 man-portable “Verba” launch units and 2,500 “9M336” missiles over three years, the ‌FT said, citing leaked Russian documents seen by the FT and several people ‌familiar with the deal.

Reuters could not immediately ‌verify ⁠the report.

Under the deal the deliveries ⁠are scheduled in three tranches, running from 2027 through 2029, the FT said.

The deal was negotiated between Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport ‌and the Moscow representative of Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), the FT said.

Tehran formally requested the systems last ‌July, according to a contract seen by the FT. In June last year, U.S. forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear ⁠sites as the country joined Israel’s military campaign against Iran.

President Donald Trump said Iran’s key nuclear ‌facilities were destroyed in the attack. However, according to a preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment at the time, the U.S. airstrikes did not destroy Iran’s nuclear capability and only set it back by a few months.

Iranian officials have repeatedly ‌said Tehran had recovered from the damage incurred during the war and that its capabilities are better than ever.

Russia has a strategic ⁠partnership treaty with Iran, although it does not include ⁠a mutual defence clause. Earlier in February, a Russian naval corvette conducted manoeuvres ‌with the Iranian navy in the Gulf of Oman this week, according to Russia’s Defence Ministry.

Published – February 23, 2026 06:59 am IST

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Second flight of Iranian deportees, carrying 55, has left U.S.: Iran

admin — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 08:09:00 +0000

Representational image only. File
| Photo Credit: AP

“A second flight carrying Iranians deported from the United States has left America,” Iranian officials said, as Washington reportedly planned to send hundreds of prisoners back to the Islamic Republic.

The deportations come as tensions remain high between Iran and the U.S. after America bombed Iranian nuclear sites during Tehran’s 12-day war with Israel in June.

Iran seizes tanker in Strait of Hormuz, U.S. official says; tensions remain high in region

Activists abroad also have expressed concern about deportees returning to Iran, whose theocracy has been cracking down on intellectuals and executing prisoners at a rate unseen in decades.

A report published on Monday (December 8, 2025) by the Mizan news agency, the official mouthpiece of the Iran’s judiciary, quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry official Mojtaba Shasti Karimi acknowledging the deportation of 55 Iranians.

Iran says no access to bombed nuclear sites without IAEA deal

“These individuals announced their willingness for return following continuation of anti-immigration and discriminative policy against foreign nationals particularly Iranians by the United States,” Mr. Karimi reportedly said.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei also said on Sunday (December 7, 2025) there were plans for 55 Iranians to return to the Islamic Republic. Based on the U.S. claims, “the Iranians were repatriated because of legal reasons and breach of immigration regulations,” Mr. Baghaei said.

The U.S. government did not immediately acknowledge the deportation flight and it wasn’t clear whether the plane had arrived yet in Tehran. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press onMonday (December 8, 2025).

The deportations represent a collision of a top priority of President Donald Trump — targeting illegal immigration — against a decades-long practice by the U.S. of welcoming Iranian dissidents, exiles and others since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In September, Iranian officials acknowledged as many as 400 Iranians could be returned under the Trump administration policy. That month, the first such flight arrived in Tehran.

In the lead up to and after the 1979 revolution, a large number of Iranians fled to the U.S. In the decades since, the U.S. had been sensitive in allowing those fleeing from Iran over religious, sexual or political persecution to seek residency.

Iran has maintained only those facing criminal charges face prosecution, while others can travel freely. However, Tehran has detained Westerns and others with ties abroad in the past to be exchanged in prisoner swaps.

Iran has criticised Washington for hosting dissidents and others in the past. The U.S. federal prosecutors have accused Iran of hiring hitmen to target dissidents as well in America.

Published – December 08, 2025 01:39 pm IST

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