Last UpdateMay 19, 2026, 11:26 AM EDT

President Donald Trump halted a planned “major attack” on Iran on Tuesday in pursuit of a possible peace deal, but warned the U.S. remains poised to strike if negotiations fail. The standoff continues as Iran holds onto its nuclear weapons aspirations and Washington presses for guarantees that Tehran will not develop a nuclear weapon.

Covered by: Eric Mack

THE LATEST LIVE

• President Donald Trump’s stern warnings have brought a temporary halt to “major attack” Tuesday on Iran.
• The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz remains, but oil prices are falling on anticipation of peace progress.
• Trump vows to quickly give go-ahead on Iran strikes if the regime will not relent on giving up nuclear weapons aspirations.

10PostsNewestOldest

5 hours ago

PINNED

G7 finance chiefs call for reopening Strait of Hormuz, warn on global imbalances

Reopening the Strait of Hormuz is imperative, G7 finance ministers said Tuesday, underscoring the economic stakes of disruption in one of the world’s most important energy corridors.

In a joint statement, the finance chiefs from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States said they remained committed to stable energy markets and urged countries to avoid arbitrary export restrictions.

Keeping Hormuz open and energy markets stable is a priority not only for the region, but for the broader global economy, the Group of Seven allies stressed as President Donald Trump pushes Iran toward peace and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Posted by Eric Mack

2 hours ago

Trump: ‘I’m not going to let the world be blown up on my watch; it’s not going to happen’

President Donald Trump remains resolute in his Iran war goal objective being achieved: “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”

“Whether it’s popular or not popular, I have to do it — because I’m not going to let the world be blown up on my watch,” Trump told reporters in a media scrum at the site of the White House ballroom construction Tuesday. “It’s not going to happen.”

Trump bashed Democrat obstruction attempts in trying to stop him.

“I’m in the middle of a negotiation – I’m saying you cannot have a nuclear weapon – and it comes over the wire that the Democrats want to stop Trump from further negotiations,” Trump said. “They want to stop Trump from, if he has to, giving them another slap. 

“They want to have a nuclear weapon to blow up the Middle East and to blow up, frankly, the world. It’s not going to happen.”

Posted by Eric Mack

BREAKING NEWS2 hours ago

Trump says China’s Xi promised not to send weapons to Iran

President Donald Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping personally promised him that Beijing would not send weapons to Iran, as Trump warned Tehran still had some ability to retaliate despite what he described as devastating U.S. strikes on Iran’s military.

“President Xi has promised me that he’s not sending any weapons to Iran,” Trump told reporters during a White House ballroom construction huddle with reporters. 

“That’s a beautiful promise. I take him at his word. I appreciate it.”

Trump said Iran’s ability to hit back had been badly damaged, claiming its missiles were “82% gone” and that U.S. strikes had crippled its weapons production.

“Their capacity to build this [is] very little right now because we hit, you know, we hit all of their manufacturing areas,” Trump said. “Same thing with drones, largely gone, but they still have a little capacity. Yeah, not much, but they have a little. Their navy is completely gone. Their air force is completely gone.”

Trump said he and Xi had “an amazing time” during his China visit and suggested Beijing shared U.S. concerns about keeping oil lanes open. 

“He gets 40% of his oil” from the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said of Xi. “He’s not sending oil boats and, you know, tankers in with 20 destroyers alongside of them. You know, he wants it open, like me. I want it open and we’ll get it open.”

Posted by Eric Mack

BREAKING NEWS2 hours ago

Trump: ‘We may have to give ’em another big hit’

President Donald Trump issued another urgent warning for Iran’s delay tactics Tuesday from the White House ballroom construction site.

“They’re begging to make a deal,” Trump told reporters during a question-and-answer session. 

“I hope we don’t have to do the one, but we may have to give them another big hit. 

“I’m not sure yet. You’ll know very soon.”

Trump has paused Tuesday’s plan for a “major attack” on Iran.

“I was an hour away” from striking Iran on Tuesday, Trump continued. 

“It would have been happening right now.”

Posted by Eric Mack

BREAKING NEWS3 hours ago

CENCOM Commander Cooper: Strait of Hormuz blockade has ‘turned away 88 ships’

Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told House lawmakers that a U.S.-led maritime blockade of Iran has effectively stopped trade in and out of Iranian ports, saying Tuesday that 88 ships have been turned away as part of a pressure campaign tied to ongoing negotiations.

“The ceasefire continues,” Cooper said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Middle East posture for CENTCOM and AFRICOM. “And consistent with the president’s direction, we’ve established a highly effective maritime blockade of Iran.”

Cooper said the operation has produced “zero trade into Iranian ports and zero trade out of Iranian ports,” arguing that the blockade is “squeezing Iran economically and creating powerful leverage for the ongoing negotiations.”

Cooper described the blockade as both an enforcement measure during the ceasefire and a tool designed to increase economic pressure on Tehran.

“To date, we’ve turned away 88 ships,” Cooper told the committee.

Posted by Eric Mack

BREAKING NEWS3 hours ago

Treasury Secretary Bessent: ‘No money for terror’ must come with ‘no room for excuses’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered a forceful message Tuesday: cutting off terrorist financing must remain central to U.S. national security strategy.

“If we are serious about ‘no money for terror,’ then there must also be ‘no room for excuses,’” Bessent said in his opening statement at the No Money for Terror conference in Paris, France.

Bessent framed sanctions not as “acts of aggression,” but as President Donald Trump‘s “instruments of peace” designed to change behavior, disrupt illicit networks, and prevent terror groups from accessing the money that sustains them.

“The United States is hardly alone in facing the scourge of terrorism, especially from Iran,” Bessent said. “Yet, too often, we seem to be alone in our resolve to thwart it. 

“As President Trump brings renewed vigor and focus to this fight, crushing the threat of terrorism compels all of you to step up and join us in rooting out the financing that sustains it — from shell companies that are embedded within Europe, to shadow banking networks that lurk across the Middle East, and drug cartels across the Western Hemisphere. 

“For at their core, sanctions are not acts of aggression, they are instruments of peace. Their purpose is not to condemn nations or people to indefinite isolation, but to create the conditions that can hasten a change in behavior.”

Posted by Eric Mack

3 hours ago

Retired vice admiral on Iran standoff: Trump has ‘time on his hands’

President Donald Trump is holding the stronger hand in the standoff with Iran, according to retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward, arguing the White House has both the military leverage and the time to force Tehran into concessions.

“The president has time on his hands. He controls the narrative. He controls the strike capabilities,” Harward told co-hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on Tuesday morning. “I don’t see it as negotiations. It really is capitulation.”

Harward said Trump has made clear Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon” or the material needed to build one, while also demanding that Tehran keep the Strait of Hormuz open to free commerce.

“He can take his time, let the blockade and the economic sanctions continue to erode the economy of Iran,” he continued. “All those things work in his favor, and he can strike whenever he wants to.”

“When you talk about resilience, the IRGC, the entity that controls the country, may have resilience, but the Iranian people are suffering miserably.”

Trump is meeting with his National Security Councilon Tuesday, but peace or war is in the hands of the leftovers of the IRGC leadership, ultimately, he concluded.

“At the end of the day, the real center of gravity is the IRGC,” he said.

“We’re going to have to need a government in Iran that not only hands over the nuclear material, stops threatening the Straits of Hormuz, but quits exporting the Islamic revolution throughout the region.”

Posted by Eric Mack

5 hours ago

Strait of Hormuz blockade remains, but oil prices fall on anticipation of peace progress

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday there were no special arrangements in place for the export of energy products, but that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz had added complexity to supply chains in the region.

Oil prices did fall Tuesday, with global benchmark Brent crude dropping 1.5%, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had paused a planned attack on Iran to allow for negotiations to end the war in the Middle East.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent extended a sanctions waiver by 30 days to allow “energy-vulnerable” countries to continue purchasing Russian seaborne oil.

In the U.S., a record 9.9 million barrels were drawn from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve last week, Energy Department data showed, bringing stockpiles down to about 374 million barrels, the lowest point since July 2024.

U.S. crude inventories are expected to fall about 3.4 million barrels in the week to May 15 in weekly data from the Energy Information Administration due out Wednesday.

Trump has long promised oil prices will fall quicklyonce Iran and the U.S. come to peace and the Strait of Hormuz allows blocked tankers to finally move.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Posted by Eric Mack

BREAKING NEWS6 hours ago

Explosions heard on Iran’s Qeshm Island for neutralization of unexploded munition

Explosions were heard Tuesday on Iran’s Qeshm Island, according to Iranian state-linked media, prompting initial uncertainty before reports the blasts were tied to the neutralization of unexploded munition.

Iran’s Mehr news agency first reported that explosions had been heard on the island. A subsequent report by Tasnim, citing an official, said the explosions were caused by the neutralizing of unexploded munition. President Donald Trump remains ready to trigger a restart to military operations.

Qeshm Island sits in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically sensitive waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Details remained limited, and Iranian officials had not issued a broader public statement on the incident as of the initial reports.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Posted by Eric Mack

6 hours ago

Trump holds off on planned Iran strike as Gulf allies push for more time on talks

President Donald Trump said Monday he is delaying a planned military strike on Iran after Gulf allies urged him to give negotiations more time, saying there is a “very good chance” of reaching a deal to end the war without renewed U.S. attacks.

“We were getting ready to do a very major attack[Tuesday], and I put it off for a little while — hopefully maybe forever,” Trump said, “because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran, and we’ll see what they amount to.”

“There seems to be a very good chance that they can work something out,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “If we can do that without bombing the hell out of them, I’d be very happy.”

The announcement marked the latest shift in Trump’s handling of the fragile ceasefire reached in mid-April. For weeks, the president has warned Iran that fighting could resume if it did not accept a deal, while repeatedly setting deadlines and then backing away from them. 

Over the weekend, Trump warned that “the Clock is Ticking” and said Iran needed to move “FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them.”

Trump first disclosed the pause in a social media post Monday, saying he had ordered the U.S. military to be ready “to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice” if an acceptable deal is not reached.

He later told reporters that Gulf allies, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, asked him to delay the strike by two to three days because they believe talks with Iran are close to producing an agreement.

Trump called the delay a “very positive development,” though he acknowledged past moments when diplomacy appeared close to succeeding before collapsing.

“But this is a little bit different,” Trump said.

This Associated Press contributed to this report.

Posted by Eric Mack