Trump Recently Edited Possible U.S. Iran Agreement, Including on Enriched Uranium and Strait of Hormuz, Source Says
By Frank Andrews, Alex Sundby, Joe Walsh, Tucker Reals, Khaled Wassef
What to know about the Iran war:
- There still appeared to be no decision from President Trump as of Sunday afternoon on whether he would sign off on a potential peace agreement with Iran. Mr. Trump had announced Friday he would be making a “final determination” on a possible deal following a meeting in the White House Situation Room.
- Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post the deal must see the Strait of Hormuz reopened, and Iran must work with the U.S. to have its highly enriched uranium “DESTROYED.” A source with knowledge of the negotiations said Mr. Trump had made somewhat significant changes to the U.S-Iran memorandum of understanding, with those edits focusing on the Strait of Hormuz and the removal of highly enriched uranium.
- The U.S. military disabled a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Oman that was allegedly trying to break through the American blockade of Iranian ports. The U.S. fired a Hellfire missile into the engine of the Gambian-flagged cargo vessel, U.S. Central Command reported.
Israel army says soldier killed in south Lebanon fighting
The Israeli army announced that one of its soldiers had been killed on Monday in fighting in southern Lebanon, bringing to 26 the number of Israeli military deaths since early March.
Staff Sgt. Adam Tzarfati, 20, “fell in combat in southern Lebanon,” the army said in a brief statement.
Twenty-six Israelis have been killed in all – 25 soldiers and one civilian contractor – since hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah resumed on March 2, when the Shiite militant group reopened the Israel-Lebanon front in support of Tehran, following U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Lebanon’s president says his country is facing “vicious and reprehensible Israeli aggression”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Monday that his country was facing “a vicious and reprehensible Israeli aggression” after Israel stepped up its offensive against Hezbollah with the capture of the medieval Beaufort Castle.
Aoun condemned the Israeli offensive in a post on X and pledged to “work to end the suffering of the Lebanese people, and people in the south (of Lebanon) in particular.”
The U.N. Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting on Lebanon on Monday, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the castle’s seizure marked a “dramatic shift” in the fighting.
Trump calls on critics of his Iran war strategy to stop “chirping”
President Trump took to his Truth Social platform at 1:02 a.m. EDT Monday to both criticize and reassure critics of his handling of efforts to extend the Iran war ceasefire.
“Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us,” he wrote. “But don’t the Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans, understand that it is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively “chirping,” at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever. Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end – It always does!”
U.S. launches more “self-defense strikes” on Iranian radar and drone sites, CENTCOM says
The U.S. military launched “self-defense strikes” targeting Iranian radar sites and command and control sites for drones over the weekend, U.S. Central Command said Sunday.
“The measured and deliberate strikes occurred on Saturday and Sunday in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a U.S. MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters,” CENTCOM said. “U.S. fighter aircraft swiftly responded by eliminating Iranian air defenses, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters.”
The U.S. strikes targeted sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island, CENTCOM said.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said early Monday local time that it had targeted an airbase it claimed the U.S. had used to launch attacks on a telecoms tower on Siri Island, state media reported, although the IRGC did not specify which base it was referring to or where it was located.
Kuwait meanwhile said its air defenses had opened fire early Monday morning to intercept incoming drone and missile fire. The Guard’s statement was probably referring to the attack on Kuwait.
Trump’s edits to potential Iran agreement focused on Strait of Hormuz, enriched uranium, source says
President Trump’s edits to the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding included somewhat significant changes related to the Strait of Hormuz and the removal of highly enriched uranium, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations.
The broad strokes of the memorandum include a 60-day cessation of violence, along with clauses that call for reopening the strait and a framework to reopen negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.
Multiple sources told CBS that the arrangement also involves the potential of waivers or sanctions relief to Iran that could allow it to access billions in frozen assets depending on the progress of the diplomacy.
Mediators led by Pakistan are handling the back-and-forth between Washington and Tehran. Details of each exchange are limited. Mr. Trump had said Friday that he would make a final determination on the deal that day, but then further edits were sent to Iran. Mr. Trump told Lara Trump in an interview taped Thursday that he was in “no hurry” to make a deal.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Axios was the first to report Mr. Trump’s requested edits to the memorandum.
U.S. service members, contractors injured in missile strike on Kuwaiti base, U.S. official says
Four U.S. service members and three contractors suffered minor injuries related to an Iranian ballistic missile strike on a Kuwaiti air base last week, a U.S. official told CBS News.
All seven returned to duty within 24 hours, the official said.
Iran launched a ballistic missile towards Kuwait at 10:17 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, CENTCOM had previously said. The missile was intercepted by Kuwaiti forces. Kuwait also reported drone and missile attacks on Thursday morning.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Thursday that it had targeted an American base in retaliation for U.S. strikes on the southern part of the country, though it did not specify where that base was. The U.S. described its strikes as defensive.
Netanyahu says capturing Lebanese castle marks “dramatic shift” in campaign
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to push deeper into Lebanon after his military took over the medieval castle of Beaufort on Sunday, calling it a “dramatic shift” in the campaign against Hezbollah.
Israeli forces used the Beaufort castle, also known as Qalaat al-Chakif, as a base during their previous two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000.
In a video statement released hours after the military took Beaufort, Netanyahu said “we have returned united, determined and stronger than ever”.
“Now my directive is to deepen and expand our hold in places that were under Hezbollah’s control. The capture of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic shift in the policy we are leading.”
The push to Beaufort came as the Israeli military issued a sweeping evacuation order to areas south of the Zahrani River, north of the Litani and around 25 miles from the border. It said it was targeting “Hezbollah infrastructure in Tyre and several additional areas in southern Lebanon” as Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported a series of strikes on the area.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had accused Israel on Saturday of pursuing a “scorched-earth policy and collective punishment” in the south, urging a halt to the fighting.
France said on Sunday it requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, alarmed by Israel’s “ever-deeper occupation of Lebanese territory.”
Mediators continue to discuss U.S.-Iran proposal
Mediators are continuing to discuss a memorandum of understanding between Iran and the U.S. as of Sunday morning.
President Trump made edits to the memorandum on Friday, according to a source with knowledge. The edited proposal was then sent back to Tehran for approval. A response has not yet been shared.
This is the third round of edits that the president has made to the U.S. proposal, which has been passed back and forth to Tehran through mediators. That process is led by Pakistan. The source indicated the U.S. changes were somewhat significant though details were not immediately available. There is no immediate deadline.
Israeli troops capture strategic mountain and Crusader castle in Lebanon
Israeli troops have captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon in the deepest incursion into the country in more than a quarter-century, the military said Sunday.
The capture of Beaufort castle, near the city of Nabatiyeh, came after days of airstrikes and intense fighting in nearby villages where Israeli troops fought Hezbollah members in the rugged area.
The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, posted photographs on X showing Israeli troops walking outside the castle, and Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that they raised an Israeli flag over the castle. Israeli troops previously captured the castle in 1982 and held it until they withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.
“Twenty six years after the withdrawal from the security zone in Lebanon, the Israeli flag has returned to fly on the peaks that overlook the Galilee towns,” Katz said Sunday at a memorial ceremony for Israeli soldiers killed in its previous occupation of southern Lebanon.
Katz said Israel intends to hold the castle as its troops work to destroy thousands more homes that he says were used by Hezbollah and other military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
Hegseth returns from defense summit in Singapore
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth returned early Sunday to Washington after speaking at the Shangri-La defense conference in Singapore.
Hegseth did not mention the Iran war or the conflict in Ukraine in his speech, but underscored the Trump administration’s insistence that allies increase defense spending, saying “we need partners, not protectorates.”
He lauded several countries in Asia for their efforts, while reiterating criticism of European allies, without naming names, who he suggested got “distracted by empty globalist rhetoric about the rules-based international order.”
“Our partners in Asia have long understood that the bedrock of a durable partnership is not based on idealistic values but on the concrete alignment of national interests,” he said.
“When our interests diverge, we adjust pragmatically, without the drama or the moralizing,” he added. “I think Western Europe might take note — this is a mindset we fully embrace.”
Trump says he’s in “no hurry” to make a deal, and says Iran has agreed to “no nuclear weapons”
In an interview with Lara Trump that aired Saturday, Mr. Trump said he was in “no hurry” to make a deal with Iran because “there’s no deal that’s good enough.”
“I’d like to say I’m in a hurry, because you know what, gasoline prices are going to come tumbling down, but if you’re going to be in a hurry, you’re not going to make a good deal,” Mr. Trump said. “And slowly but surely we’re getting, I think, what we want, and if we don’t get what we want, we’re going to end it a different way.”
Mr. Trump said “the one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons,” adding that Iran has “agreed to that, and it was very interesting.”
Mr. Trump said the U.S. is “close” to a deal, “otherwise we just start up with the Department of War, as we call it, and it’s been very successful.”
The interview with Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, was taped Thursday. Since then, he said he would be making a “final determination” on the peace proposal.
Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-vance-ceasefire-strait-of-hormuz-deal-close/
