Slain Iranian protester’s gravestone damaged as family faces pressure to say he was Basij

The United States is maintaining its maximum pressure policy on Iran to restrict the government’s funding for military and nuclear programs, while keeping all diplomatic options open, State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggott said on Thursday.

"Instead of funding water, food, energy infrastructure, the regime there has wasted their wealth on terrorist proxies, on a nuclear weapons program that was obliterated by the President," Pigott told News Max.

"We're seeing a maximum pressure policy from day one of this administration to deny the regime the revenues to do those malign activities. And we see a force posture in the region, as the Secretary said, in order to defend America's interests," he added.

President Donald Trump been presented with expanded military options against Iran, including potential commando raids on nuclear sites, strikes targeting leadership to enable regime change, and renewed attacks on ballistic missile forces, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

The options go beyond proposals put forward two weeks ago. The report said no action has been authorized.

President Donald Trump said the United States has held and is planning further discussions with Iran, as Washington deploys significant military assets to the region.

Asked whether he has been in talks with Iran or plans to speak with the country, Trump said: “I have had, and I am planning on it. We have a lot of very big, powerful ships sailing to Iran right now. It would be great if we didn’t have to use them.”

“Well, two things. Number one, no nuclear, and number two, stop killing protesters. They are killing them by the thousands. I stopped 837 hangings two weeks ago. But they are going to have to do something,” Trump said when asked about the message he was sending to Iran.

The United States declared a national emergency over what Washington described as threats posed by the Government of Cuba on Thursday, including its support for hostile states such as Iran, Russia and China and armed groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

"The Government of Cuba has taken extraordinary actions that harm and threaten the United States. The regime aligns itself with — and provides support for — numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States, including the Government of the Russian Federation (Russia), the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Government of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah," the statement said.

In the executive order, Trump said Cuba’s policies and practices constitute an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security and foreign policy.

The United States’ ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, said on Thursday that Iranian officials and their families should no longer be able to live in the United States while, he said, people in Iran face repression.

"The families of Iranian regime elites live lives of luxury in the U.S. while their people are massacred. Not any more!" Waltz posted on X.

The remarks followed a State Department announcement earlier that Washington had taken action to revoke the privilege of Iranian senior officials and their family members to be in the country, though no details were provided on how many people are affected or how the measure would be implemented.