Trump weighs Iran options; Tehran signals Hormuz leverage

Some lawmakers, meanwhile, raised the prospect of withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and changing the country’s nuclear-weapons policy.

The developments highlighted the competing signals coming from Tehran as President Donald Trump’s administration weighed its next move in the nearly seven-month war. Trump returned to the White House from Camp David on Saturday evening, a day earlier than scheduled, without an official explanation.

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya joint military command said it had received information that Washington, with approval from some regional countries, was preparing at a meeting in Europe to resume action against Iran.

“Every US base and interest in the region, without restriction or consideration, will be targeted by sustained, effective and painful attacks,” the command said.

It also warned that regional states supporting an American attack would be treated as participants and “could no longer expect restraint or leniency from Iran’s powerful armed forces.”

US diplomatic missions in nine Middle Eastern countries have meanwhile urged Americans to exercise heightened vigilance, warning of possible rapid escalation, flight cancellations and airspace closures. The alerts said Iran and Tehran-aligned groups could target US interests or locations associated with Americans.

The US military has also said it is strengthening regional air defenses, forming a coalition attack-drone unit and working with partners to keep the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters open.

Iranian officials responded with renewed assertions of control over the strategic waterway. IRGC deputy commander Mostafa Izadi said the strait remained under the control of Iran’s armed forces, while lawmaker Mohsen Zanganeh said restrictions there could impose significant economic pressure on the United States and other countries.

“The Strait of Hormuz is in Iran’s hands,” Zanganeh said, arguing that disruption would raise energy and production costs in East Asia and affect US technology companies with manufacturing operations there.

Against the military threats, Ghalibaf rejected the idea that Iran must choose between war and diplomacy.

“We must fight rationally and forcefully, and negotiate at the appropriate time with authority and reason,” he told a virtual session of parliament on Sunday.

Ghalibaf criticized two positions within Iran’s political establishment. He said one advocated war without presenting a credible path toward ending it and rejected diplomacy at the risk of drawing Iran into an open-ended conflict. The other, he said, underestimated the country’s capabilities and promoted accepting the adversary’s unilateral demands.

The first approach would keep Iran in a state of permanent crisis, while the second would sacrifice national resources and dignity, Ghalibaf said.

His remarks followed comments by Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei, who said Tehran had sent Washington seven conditions for renewed negotiations. Rezaei told Al Jazeera that Iran was seeking an end to the war on all fronts, the release of frozen Iranian assets and an end to the US naval blockade.

Rezaei said Qatar had conveyed Iran’s terms and Tehran was awaiting Trump’s response. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also said Turkey and other countries had presented new proposals to Washington and Tehran.

The diplomatic signals were accompanied by increasingly explicit statements by lawmakers about Iran’s nuclear policy.

Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of parliament’s national security committee, said renewed negotiations with the United States would be meaningless and warned that Iran could reconsider its NPT membership if remaining in the treaty no longer served its national interests.

Azizi also threatened the International Atomic Energy Agency with “serious and regrettable responses” if it continued what he described as one-sided conduct.

Another lawmaker, Hosseinali Hajideligani, said remaining in the NPT brought Iran nothing but harm and urged parliament’s leadership to consider an urgent motion submitted by a group of lawmakers seeking withdrawal from the treaty.

“It is in our interest to withdraw from the NPT,” he said.

Tehran representative Kamran Ghazanfari went further, raising the possibility of a change in the country’s position on nuclear weapons if the survival of the Islamic Republic came under serious threat.

“If conditions change in such a way that we feel the existence of the Islamic Republic is seriously threatened, the leadership could take a position on nuclear weapons,” Ghazanfari said.

The comments stopped short of announcing a policy change. Rezaei said Saturday that Tehran remained committed to slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s fatwa prohibiting nuclear weapons and had not altered its doctrine, while adding: “We do not know what will happen in the future.”

The growing debate nevertheless marked a sharper public challenge to Iran’s longstanding declared nuclear position at a moment when military threats, maritime pressure and mediated diplomatic efforts were unfolding simultaneously.

“The United States, if it wants to extricate itself from the predicament it has created, must accept Iran’s rights and conditions,” Rezaei wrote on X, saying the seven demands had been communicated to Washington.

He did not spell out all seven in the post. Earlier Saturday, however, Rezaei told Al Jazeera that Tehran was demanding an end to the war “on all fronts,” the release of frozen Iranian assets and an end to the US naval blockade as conditions for a settlement.

He said a Qatari mediator had conveyed Iran’s terms to Washington and that Tehran was awaiting Trump’s response.

Iran and the United States have remained engaged in indirect diplomacy throughout months of fighting and since the collapse of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding.

The memorandum, signed in June after Pakistan-hosted talks, was intended to halt the fighting and pave the way for a broader agreement. Both sides later accused the other of violations, and it expired in August without producing a lasting settlement.

Trump told Axios on Thursday that he had a “big decision” coming over whether to resume large-scale attacks on Iran, while saying Tehran remained in direct contact with Washington and wanted a deal. He is due to discuss the war with leaders of six Persian Gulf states in New York next week.

Pakistan, another key intermediary, is sending Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to Tehran on Sunday. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the visit was focused on bilateral ties and previous agreements between the two countries and that he was not aware of any specific US message or proposal due to be conveyed.

Baghaei acknowledged Pakistan’s continuing mediation role, saying it was natural for Islamabad to pursue diplomatic efforts, but said he had no information about any particular initiative attached to the visit.

Rezaei meanwhile struck a harder military tone, saying Iran had changed its strategy toward Washington after the United States withdrew from the memorandum. He said Tehran had recently tested an anti-ship missile near a US aircraft carrier and claimed Iran was better prepared to confront American air attacks after identifying weaknesses in the US military.

Nuclear pressure

On nuclear policy, Rezaei said Tehran remained committed to the late supreme leader’s fatwa against nuclear weapons and had not changed its nuclear doctrine, though he added that “we do not know what will happen in the future.”

He said Israeli and US actions already provided grounds for Iran to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but Tehran had not made such a decision and any move would depend on Washington’s conduct.

Last month, Rezaei suggested Tehran could reconsider its longstanding rejection of nuclear weapons, arguing that US attacks on Iran have strengthened the case for acquiring an atomic bomb as a deterrent.

Rezaei told the state TV Washington had demonstrated that adherence to the global nuclear non-proliferation system offered countries little protection from military attack.

Saudi-Yemen escalation

In his Saturday interview, Rezaei also said Iran wanted the fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen to end and believed the Yemeni side also sought an agreement with Riyadh.

Hours earlier, an air attack struck a jet-fuel storage facility at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, marking the first direct assault on the Saudi capital in months, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Houthis later claimed two operations using missiles and drones, saying they struck “sensitive and important” targets in Riyadh and Saudi Aramco facilities in Yanbu. Military spokesman Yahya Saree did not explicitly identify the airport as a target.

Taraneh Rahimi, 20, is being held alongside her twin sister Romina at Dowlatabad Prison in Isfahan. Their cousin, Masoud Nourmohammadi, told Iran International’s Eye for Iran that Taraneh’s condition has deteriorated as her lawyers race to appeal her death sentence.

“Taraneh could not walk,” Nourmohammadi said. “The (hospital) doctor says you have to go to the hospital and be hospitalized and get an MRI to see what’s going on with your leg because it is in bad shape,” he said.

Nourmohammadi said the doctor considered the treatment urgent, but prison authorities refused to allow Taraneh to leave for hospital.

Her family also purchased medical equipment and medication for her and brought the supplies to the prison, he said, but authorities did not allow them to reach her.

The allegations come days after Nourmohammadi told Iran International that prison authorities had stopped providing Taraneh with food, forcing her to rely on leftovers shared by other prisoners.

“They stopped giving Taraneh food a few days back,” he said. “They ask her to use other people’s leftovers and eat those. Who does that?”

‘If you don’t confess, we’re going to rape your sister’

The new allegations come as lawyers for the twins have finally been given access to their case file after months of waiting, according to Nourmohammadi.

He said the lawyers found no substantive evidence tying Taraneh or Romina to violence during the January protests and are now preparing an appeal.

“Their consensus is that there’s no evidence against those two girls in the case,” he said. “The only thing that is left … is basically their confession.”

The family says those confessions were obtained through torture and threats of sexual violence.

“They told Taraneh, ‘If you don’t confess, we’re going to rape your sister in front of you,’” Nourmohammadi said.

He said lawyers are also filing a complaint over the alleged torture and sexual abuse of the sisters while in custody.

Human Rights Watch and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran have documented allegations of torture, coerced confessions and serious due-process violations involving defendants in the Shohada Square case.

Taraneh and Romina were among 16 defendants prosecuted over events surrounding protests in Isfahan in January. Ten of the defendants, including Taraneh, received death sentences, while Romina was sentenced to decades in prison.

The defendants faced charges including moharebeh, or “waging war against God,” destruction of public property, assembly and collusion against national security and propaganda against the state.

Rights groups have said none of the 16 defendants was charged with murder, despite prosecutors linking the case to incidents in which two people died.

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‘A few days left’ to appeal

Nourmohammadi said the family believes only days remain in the formal window for lawyers to appeal Taraneh’s death sentence, adding that the family remains deeply concerned that authorities could move more quickly.

“You never know with that regime,” he said. “Anything can happen. It’s unpredictable.”

The sisters were 19 when security forces arrested them separately on January 24, weeks after they joined demonstrations around Isfahan’s Shohada Square. They have since turned 20 in prison.

Before her arrest, Taraneh was an equestrian and horse trainer. She had previously undergone surgery on her leg following a riding injury, according to her family.

Nourmohammadi alleges interrogators knew about the injury and deliberately targeted the same leg during torture.

When the twins’ mother was eventually permitted to see her daughters after roughly three months without knowing where they were being held, Nourmohammadi said Taraneh was already limping.

He said she also had broken fingers and knuckles and alleged that both sisters had lost much of their hair after being dragged between cells by their hair.

‘She wanted a life for her kids’

The twins’ mother raised Taraneh and Romina as a single parent.

For roughly three months after their arrests, she did not know where her daughters were being held. Family members searched hospitals, courthouses and prisons, at times waiting outside detention facilities seeking information.

When their mother was eventually allowed to see them, Nourmohammadi said the twins had swollen faces, bruises and significant hair loss.

After Taraneh was sentenced to death, he said his aunt was so devastated that she has barely been able to speak.

Instead, she wrote a message about raising her daughters and working to give them a future.

“She was a single mom. She worked really hard for her kids,” Nourmohammadi said. “She wanted a life for her kids. She didn’t want a prison or execution and a rope around their neck.”

Democratic lawmakers have increasingly portrayed the war not simply as a foreign-policy dispute but as a contributor to the cost-of-living pressures weighing on American households.

“There’s no plan. No strategy,” Representative Jason Crow of Colorado said. “The President started a war with Iran that he doesn’t know how to win or get us out of. Americans are paying the price every day.”

The argument comes as disruptions to oil supplies and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have pushed energy prices sharply higher, making gasoline an increasingly prominent political issue ahead of the November elections.

Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut sought to connect those costs directly to the war, saying commuters were paying nearly $1 million more a day for gasoline than in July.

“This is a crisis that is only beginning,” she said. “We are about to enter a winter where millions of Americans will experience the disastrous effects of Trump’s illegal war in Iran.”

Public opinion suggests widespread concern over both the war and energy costs.

A Marquette Law School national poll conducted September 2-9 found that 80% of adults said gasoline prices had risen over the previous six months, including 55% who said they had risen “a lot.”

Only 20% approved of Trump’s handling of gasoline prices, while 80% disapproved. On Iran, 26% approved of his handling of the conflict and 73% disapproved, while 79% said the war had not been worth its cost.

Trump has continued to defend his approach while suggesting an end to the conflict may be approaching. He said this week that Iran wanted an agreement and that “hopefully we're toward the end of the war,” though negotiations remain stalled.

Vice President JD Vance has argued that ending US involvement could itself carry severe economic consequences, saying this week that leaving the region while Iran continued attacking shipping would risk a worldwide energy crisis.

Democrats, however, are increasingly trying to make the economic consequences of the war part of their argument to voters.

Representative Ro Khanna of California on Friday introduced what he called the Illegal War Refund Act, proposing $1,700 payments to taxpayers funded from the Defense Department budget.

“Trump’s illegal war in Iran has cost Americans in food and gas prices an estimated $230 billion,” Khanna said. “Today, I introduced the Illegal War Refund Act to put that money back in the pockets of Americans.”

The conflict continues more than six months after US and Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28. The US naval blockade has sharply restricted Iranian oil exports, while attacks on shipping and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz have added pressure to global energy markets.

For Democrats, the prolonged war abroad and higher prices at home are increasingly becoming a single argument as the midterms approach.

“We are ashamed that the public’s income does not cover their expenses, especially for wage earners,” First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said Thursday. “You cannot increase salaries by 20% when inflation is running above 60–70%.”

Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani has disclosed a roughly 310-trillion-toman shortfall in expected tax revenues during the first half of the current year, while the head of the Food and Drug Administration says medicine prices have risen roughly 103% this year.

President Masoud Pezeshkian has offered an equally stark assessment of the public mood, invoking the 2019 fuel-price protests as a warning against imposing further economic pressure.

“People are now on the edge; if I impose another pressure, they may fall off,” he said.

The warning has not prevented the government from doubling the gasoline price for high-volume consumers, highlighting the difficult choices facing Tehran as it tries to contain household pressure while confronting the economic costs of war.

The household squeeze

The free-market dollar has traded at around 2.30–2.33 million rials this week, with the Iranian currency losing roughly 44% of its value against the dollar over the past six months.

Food and beverage inflation has officially exceeded 127% year on year, contributing to a sharp contraction in consumption of protein, dairy products and legumes among urban working-class households.

State-run ILNA has published unusually blunt reports on the cost of living, including unofficial bread-price increases in Tehran, families cutting meat from their diets and rents doubling.

The financial daily Donya-ye Eghtesad has warned of signs of a “new inflationary regime” in which persistent price rises are shaping contracts, expectations and everyday economic decisions, making confidence in the rial increasingly difficult to restore.

The approaching academic year provides another measure of the squeeze.

According to Donya-ye Eghtesad, equipping a single primary or secondary-school student with basic uniforms, a schoolbag, shoes and stationery now costs between 150 million and 200 million rials.

A basic pack of notebooks that cost around 3.5 million rials last year now costs approximately 15 million, forcing some lower-income families to reuse old school supplies.

War adds to the strain

Iranian oil exports have reportedly fallen from around 2 million barrels per day before the war to approximately 220,000–255,000 barrels per day in August, sharply reducing one of Tehran’s principal sources of foreign currency.

The Economy Ministry has established an “Economic War Headquarters” as officials increasingly frame the economic crisis as part of the broader confrontation with Washington. But falling oil revenues leave the government with fewer resources to cushion households against rising prices and a weakening currency.

Oil-industry workers have staged weekly Monday protests over pay and taxes at offshore platforms and in Assaluyeh, while nurses demonstrated in Kermanshah on September 8 over unpaid wages.

Accounts in Iranian media offer a more immediate picture of the pressure behind such discontent: street vendors struggling with higher rents, households going months without eating meat and parents weighing school expenses against basic food costs.

The combination of high inflation, declining purchasing power and sharply reduced oil revenues leaves Tehran with increasingly limited room to ask households to absorb further economic costs from the war.