Iran and the United States remain at loggerheads over efforts to agree a permanent end to the war in the Gulf, according to a senior Iranian source who said there had been no progress in talks to revive the interim deal agreed in June and define a timeframe to implement it.
Israel and Lebanon have reportedly agreed on a shortlist of countries that could help oversee a future mechanism to verify Hezbollah's disarmament, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
Britain, Italy, Switzerland and Indonesia emerged as potential contributors during U.S.-mediated talks held in Rome last week. The proposed arrangement is linked to a June agreement that ties Israel's phased withdrawal from Lebanese territory to the disarmament of Hezbollah.
Under the plan being discussed, the countries could provide personnel, help design the verification framework, or contribute troops to monitor and participate in inspections aimed at confirming that Hezbollah has surrendered its weapons.
European stock markets closed lower Wednesday as uncertainty surrounding efforts to end the war in the Middle East outweighed relief from U.S. inflation data.
The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index declined 0.16 per cent to finish at 659.48 points.
Investors continued to monitor diplomatic efforts involving the U.S. and Iran, as the lack of progress toward an agreement and uncertainty about the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz kept geopolitical and energy-supply risks elevated.
The EU and 26 countries condemned Iran's executions of protesters in a joint statement, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Wednesday.
The countries called on Iran to listen to its people, take meaningful steps toward ensuring respect for human rights, immediately end use of the death penalty and release those arbitrarily detained.
A senior adviser to the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, told PBS in an interview that Iran could prolong its war with the United States until Donald Trump leaves office, arguing that a drawn-out conflict could strengthen Iran’s deterrence.
“One way is to prolong this war until we get to the next term of the presidency and cause attrition, so that if anyone else wants to attack Iran, they will know there is a cost.”
He claimed that Iran was currently winning the war and said the country had gained valuable experience in fighting the U.S. during the conflict: “The longer this war lasts, the more experience we gain. We had never seen a real war to gain real experience to learn how to fight with America. In these five months, we have learned how.” “We have also seen how the American military is weaker than what we perceived," Naqdi added.
Naqdi accused Washington of pursuing a “war without strategy,” saying U.S. objectives had changed repeatedly, including over Kharg Island and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking about attacks on vessels in Hormuz, Naqdi said ships could be targeted if Iran believed they were carrying supplies for its enemies. He also claimed Iran is producing more missiles than it uses and warned that the country could target U.S. economic interests worldwide if its missile supplies were exhausted: “If there comes a day when Iran has no more missiles left, that’s when we will be even more dangerous for America. Because America has thousands of economic interests throughout the world, and all of them can be easily destroyed.”
There have been no discussions between Iran and the U.S. about extending the ceasefire because from Tehran's perspective the deal had no start date, and therefore there was nothing to extend, a senior Iranian source said on Wednesday.
The individual said that the U.S. violated the memorandum of understanding 48 hours after it was reached and withdrew from the agreement a few days later, adding that one issue currently under discussion was the possibility of the U.S. returning to the agreement and defining a timeframe for implemening its commitments.
The International Energy Agency has warned that reopening the Strait of Hormuz is becoming increasingly urgent as global oil inventories decline rapidly amid ongoing disruptions.
Global oil inventories fell by 2.2 million barrels per day last month, with total stocks dropping below 7.9 billion barrels for the first time since April 2025. The IEA now expects the global oil market to face a deficit of 1.8 million barrels per day in the third quarter, more than twice its previous estimate.
The agency said oil stocks are being depleted faster than previously expected, reducing the buffers available to absorb further disruptions.
Global oil demand is now forecast to fall by 1.6 million barrels per day this year, while global supply is expected to decline by 4.3 million barrels per day to 102 million barrels, driven by disruptions in the Middle East and Russia.
Iran will join the New Development Bank, formerly known as BRICS Development Bank, according to Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati.
Iran, which is under international sanctions and has yet to reach a peace deal with the U.S. and Israel has explored and found alternative financial channels outside the dollar system.
By joining BRICS in 2024, it aimed to deepen economic ties among emerging economies and since then has made its goal clear to become a member and shareholder of the New Development Bank.
The bank was set up in 2015 by Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects. Other countries that later joined include the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and most recently, Uzbekistan.
Four crew members were killed in an attack by Iran-backed Houthis on a cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Tuesday, Yemen's transport ministry said, while the U.S. military said it struck a container ship attempting to sail toward an Iranian port.
Two Yemeni rescuers from an anti-Houthi military group were also killed in the Bab el-Mandeb attack, Yemen's Coast Guard said.
The fatalities aboard the Egyptian-owned Tihamah, if confirmed, would mark the first deaths in a Houthi strike on shipping since the Iran war began on 28 February.
Later in the day, the Houthis confirmed they attacked a ship in the Bab el-Mandeb, which they said was carrying Saudi military equipment but did not name the ship.
The Saudi Center for International Communication did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The number of vessels tracked in the Strait of Hormuz fell to a one-week low of eight on Tuesday as shipping operators continued to avoid the key waterway amid ongoing hostilities in the Middle East, according to Kpler data.
The figure was down from a 10-day average of around 12 vessels, with only one ship, a coal carrier, exiting the strait. The seven vessels entering the waterway all used the Iranian route. Separate LSEG data recorded 11 transits on Tuesday, down from 14 the previous day.
Before Iran closed the strait following U.S.-Israeli attacks that began on 28 February, around 130 to 140 vessels typically passed through the waterway each day.
Meanwhile, traffic through the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea rose to 30 vessels on Tuesday, above its 10-day average of 25, according to Kpler.
Oil reached $90 a barrel for the first time in two weeks on Tuesday, before fallling back down.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, increased 1.6 per cent to touch $90 a barrel before settling at just under $89. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, surged 1.8 percent to slightly more than $83 a barrel.
Concerns about an extended standoff between Iran and the U.S. were contributing to fears of higher inflation, Deutsche Bank analysts noted in a research comment.
The U.S. has "total control" of the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday in remarks to reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
“We have total control over the Hormuz strait right now. They don't have control. We have total control. We own it,” he said.
Trump added that he didn't have confidence in the words of Iran's leaders.
“I don't trust Iran. [...] I'm the last person to trust Iran,” Trump said.
On Tuesday, Mohsen Rezaee, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said the Strait of Hormuz would "not reopen" while the U.S. maintained its naval blockade on the country.
Writing on X, Rezaee added that Washington must also end the war, release Iranian assets and agree to a regional ceasefire.
The Supreme National Security Council is Iran's highest decision-making body, responsible for coordinating the country's defence, intelligence and foreign policy.
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Four people were killed, including a child, in Ukrainian strikes on the Russian port city of Novorossiysk overnight, according to the governor of the Krasnodar region. Ukraine's drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, said Russian military ships were destroyed in the attacks.
A TV channel was struck during a live broadcast on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as Russian strikes on Kyiv killed at least three people, the city's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Meanwhile, drones hit civilian infrastructure in Russia's southwestern Saratov region.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) allegedly launched two ballistic missile attacks against a U.S. Navy warship over the past two days.
Wildfires have broken out in Türkiye’s Antalya province, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate as strong winds fuelled the flames.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Wednesday they attacked two U.S. vessels and eight oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, calling the strikes a response to a U.S. attack on five Iranian tankers.
Saudi Arabia is now facing pressure from both ends of the Arabian Peninsula. While the crisis around the Strait of Hormuz is disrupting Gulf shipping and energy flows, fighting has intensified in western Yemen, bringing the Houthis back into direct confrontation with the kingdom.
Iran has warned it will retaliate against any future U.S. attacks, saying American energy interests and infrastructure across the Gulf could become targets in a further escalation of the conflict.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday that the United States must recognise that the “rules of the game” in its war against Iran had changed “before it is too late”, a day after Washington struck several Iranian tankers in the Gulf.
An Iranian tanker was hit by U.S. forces on Saturday near Iran's key oil export hub, Kharg Island, in the Gulf, the semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim reported.
U.S. efforts to squeeze Iran’s economy through an oil blockade and sanctions are becoming increasingly difficult for Tehran to withstand, according to three senior Iranian sources. Washington is escalating pressure in hopes of securing concessions in future negotiations.
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