US, Iran to hold initial talks in Switzerland on Friday

Iranian military engineers defused a one-ton unexploded bomb in the western city of Sanandaj after recent airstrikes, the IRIGC-affiliated Tasnim News reported on Thursday.

The bomb had been left from US-Israeli strikes during the recent conflict and was defused by engineers from a demolition battalion, according to the report.

Residents who had evacuated homes in the danger zone were able to return after the operation, it added.

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Iran will pursue its understanding with the United States with “complete distrust” toward President Donald Trump and after taking all considerations into account, a member of Iran parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee said on Thursday.

Behnam Saeedi, a member of the committee’s presiding board, said the Islamic Republic would “never be optimistic” about the United States.

He said any action by Tehran would depend on Washington carrying out its commitments, adding that implementation of the understanding would proceed “step by step and reciprocally.”

Germany is deploying two ships to the Red Sea as it prepares for a possible military mission in the Strait of Hormuz, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Thursday.

“As we speak, our minesweeper Fulda and the supply ship Mosel are sailing through the Suez Canal towards the Red Sea,” Pistorius told reporters as he arrived for a meeting with NATO counterparts in Brussels.

Pistorius said any German participation in a minesweeping operation would require approval from Iran and Oman, and would also depend on developments in further talks between Iran and the United States.

Iran’s conservative Khorasan daily, which is close to chief negotiator and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warned Iranian officials against taking a joint photo or shaking hands with US officials at the expected signing of a memorandum of understanding in Switzerland.

The newspaper said US Vice President JD Vance, or even President Donald Trump, could travel to Switzerland for the signing ceremony, and warned that Washington was seeking such an image.

“The Iranian delegation’s protocol team must be careful from now,” it said, adding that officials must not agree to a “souvenir photo” with Americans or a handshake with Trump.

Ships have faced long delays and costly diversions to secure fuel as shortages linked to the Middle East crisis disrupt established energy supply routes, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing industry executives.

Vessels have been forced to wait up to nearly two weeks at major refueling hubs or sail hundreds of extra miles to find bunker fuel, the report said.

Shipping leaders warned that disruptions could continue even after the US and Iran reached a deal.