China says priority is to avoid renewed war, maintain ceasefire momentum

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said on Wednesday that any agreement between the United States and Iran to end their war must include detailed measures to verify Tehran’s nuclear activities.

“Iran has a very ambitious, wide nuclear program, so all of that will require the presence of IAEA inspectors,” Grossi told reporters.

“Otherwise, you will not have an agreement. You will have an illusion of an agreement,” he added.

Grossi said any deal on Iran’s nuclear program would require “very detailed verification mechanisms.”

His comments come as US President Donald Trump has signaled a possible second round of talks with Iran in the coming days after an initial meeting in Pakistan failed to produce an agreement.

Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of Iran’s hardline Kayhan newspaper, questioned why Americans do not remove US President Donald Trump and suggested “physical elimination” of him in a published commentary.

“Why don’t you remove Trump and physically eliminate him to rid yourselves of this disgrace?” he wrote in the article.

“Are you citizens of the United States or slaves of Israel?” he added.

Kayhan is widely seen as reflecting the views of Iran’s hardline establishment.

The killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several top military commanders in US-Israeli strikes would be avenged, a senior Iranian lawmaker said on Wednesday.

“This revenge will be carried out at an appropriate time and place, with careful planning, and our enemies should expect to pay a heavy price for their actions,” said Ali Nikzad, deputy speaker of parliament.

He added that uranium enrichment was solely for “peaceful purposes,” calling it Iran’s “absolute right and a clear red line,” that remains non-negotiable.

The MP also said the Islamic Republic would continue to stand with allied forces in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

The locations monitored were in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Bahrain and Djibouti, and included US military bases as well as some infrastructure, the report said.

The satellite, known as TEE-01B, was acquired by the aerospace force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards in late 2024 after it was launched from China.

“This satellite is clearly being used for military purposes, as it is being run by the IRGC’s Aerospace Force and not Iran’s civilian space program,” Nicole Grajewski, an expert on Iran at Sciences Po university, told the Financial Times.

Time-stamped coordinate lists, satellite imagery and orbital analysis showed Iranian commanders used the satellite to monitor key US military sites. The images were taken in March before and after drone and missile strikes on those locations.

“Iran really needs this foreign-provided capability during this war, as it allows the IRGC to identify targets ahead of time and check the success of its strikes,” Grajewski added.

The report said the satellite took images of Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, among other locations, on March 13, 14 and 15, and on March 14, US President Donald Trump said US aircraft at the base had been hit, with five Air Force refueling planes damaged.

China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday rejected the report as untrue.

“Recently, some forces have fabricated rumors and sought to link them to China,” the ministry said in a statement to Reuters.

“China firmly opposes such practices driven by ulterior motives,” it added.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he was not considering extending the ceasefire with Iran because he did not think it would be necessary.

“I think you’re going to be watching an amazing two days ahead,” Trump was quoted as saying by an ABC News journalist.

Asked whether the war would end with a deal or with Iran’s capabilities having been destroyed, Trump said either outcome was possible but that an agreement would be better.

“It could end either way, but I think a deal is preferable because then they can rebuild,” he said.

The US president also said Iran now had a different leadership and the radicals were gone.

“If I weren’t president, the world would be torn to pieces,” he said.