Araghchi urges regional states to distance themselves from US

The “present” US President Donald Trump said Iran had given Washington was allowing several fuel tankers to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz, The Times of Israel reported, citing a senior Arab diplomat and a US official.

Trump said on Tuesday that Iran had given the United States a “present” worth a “tremendous amount of money,” without providing details, but described it as related to oil and gas and the strategic waterway.

The report cited an unnamed US official as saying that when Washington began passing along messages to Iran through mediators over the weekend in order to test whether a diplomatic off-ramp to the war was possible, it asked Tehran to make a gesture of goodwill.

In response, Iran agreed to allow a number of fuel tankers that weren't tied to the US or Israel through the Strait of Hormuz in order to help calm global markets, the report added citing an an unnamed Arab official.

The White House said on Wednesday that US Vice President JD Vance has been involved in national security discussions related to Iran throughout the entirety of the Trump administration.

“The vice president has been by the president’s side every step of the way, and any reporting otherwise is just completely false,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said intelligence indicates Iran’s enemies, backed by a regional country, are preparing an operation to occupy one of Iran’s islands.

“All enemy movements are under the surveillance of our armed forces,” Ghalibaf wrote in a post on X.

"If they take even a single step, the vital infrastructure of that regional country will be targeted by relentless attacks without limitation"

The White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt says Iran must accept the reality that it has been defeated, adding that Tehran should not “miscalculate again”

If Tehran fails to accept defeat, she added, the US will hit them harder.

When asked about potential candidates to lead Iran, Leavitt said President Trump would be looking for someone who no longer "chants Death to the United States."

A mass text message sent to mobile users in Iran promoted what it described as an “international campaign to reward the assassination of Trump,” according to screenshots of the message shared with Iran International.

The message urges recipients to register their support through a website and to confirm participation by sending a number via SMS. It also directs users to further information on the domestic platform Rubika.

The text included a link to the campaign's website that could not be accessed from outside Iran.

Tehran-based Didban Iran reported that the campaign has gained around 290,000 supporters, with total pledged amounts reaching $25 million.

The website says that these sums have not been collected and instead represent pledged amounts, according to the report.

A statement on the site said the campaign was launched following what it described as a jihad fatwa issued in response to the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, and that it aimed to fund a reward for the assassin of US President Donald Trump.