Trump says Iran’s leadership is gripped by infighting and confusion

Donald Trump canceled a planned trip by US negotiators to Pakistan for talks on Iran, Fox News reported.

The report adds fresh uncertainty to diplomacy that had already appeared in doubt after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Islamabad on Saturday following meetings with Pakistani officials, before any US-Iran session was confirmed.

Iran had also said Araghchi had no plan to meet US officials in Pakistan.

Kamran Khansari-Nia, head of exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi’s office, said in a video posted on the office’s X account that the prince’s security team was independently reviewing all aspects of the Berlin incident and reassessing protection protocols for public events.

He said that during foreign trips, especially in European countries, responsibility for security lies with the police of the host country, and that in this case protection had been the responsibility of German and Berlin police.

Khansari-Nia also said the liquid used in the incident caused no physical harm and that Prince Reza Pahlavi was in full health.

The incident took place on Thursday after Pahlavi’s meetings with German lawmakers and a press conference in Berlin, when he was splashed with red liquid as he left the federal press conference building.

At least two sanctioned ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz from Friday night into Saturday morning, according to MarineTraffic data analyzed by NBC News.

One of them, the tanker Ocean Jet, is on the US sanctions list over its alleged role in facilitating and financing the clandestine sale of Iranian drones. Another, the Curacao-flagged Lumina Ocean, has been under US sanctions since December and is classified by Washington as part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” of petroleum tankers.

NBC’s analysis also said an Iranian cargo ship moved through the strait close to Iran’s coastline.

Alongside those vessels, four cargo ships, an Omani passenger ferry and a Russian pleasure yacht were also tracked in the waterway on Friday and Saturday. The Russian yacht, Nord, had left Dubai on Friday and passed through Hormuz on Saturday on a route south of Larak Island.

Iranian media reported that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Islamabad after meeting Pakistani officials.

He is expected to travel next to Oman and Russia.

Iranian officials had earlier said Araghchi had no plan to meet US officials in Pakistan.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that his priority remained the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, after TotalEnergies chief Patrick Pouyanne warned that a prolonged Iran war could trigger global energy shortages.

Speaking in Athens alongside Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Macron said the aim was to restore freedom of navigation through the strait in line with international law and without tolls, so that conditions could gradually return to normal in the coming days and weeks.

His remarks came a day after Pouyanne said the world could face energy scarcity if the conflict continued for another two or three months, warning that roughly 20% of global oil and gas supply normally passes through Hormuz and could not be stranded without major consequences.

Macron also said geopolitical panic could itself fuel shortages. More than a dozen countries have said they are ready to join a France- and Britain-led mission to protect shipping in the waterway when conditions allow.

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