Trump says Iran war will end ‘very soon’

“But of course, it remains an ongoing, complex and serious police investigation,” he told BBC. “We are working closely with our colleagues in the United States of America.”

Five British men in their 20s were arrested on suspicion of terrorism and explosives offenses after three white vans were found near the base.

Police recovered petrol but found no viable explosives, and all five suspects were later released on bail as the investigation continued.

The base is home to the US Air Force’s 501st Combat Support Wing and also serves as a forward operating site for Air Force Global Strike Command.

Fairford has supported major US military operations, including the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the 2003 invasion of Iraq and this year’s US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio subsequently said a foreign state was involved, without naming it, while President Donald Trump said the men had planned "big damage."

Iran has denied involvement. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said in July that bases used for attacks on Iranian territory could be considered legitimate targets.

Before Burnham’s remarks, British authorities had not publicly linked the incident to Iran, though counter-terrorism police said they were investigating possible foreign state involvement, including whether proxies may have been “knowingly or unknowingly working on behalf of a foreign state.”

Police said Tuesday that petrol, but no improvised explosive device, was found in the vans used by the men. They also defended releasing the suspects on bail after criticism, including from Trump.

The Times reported that one suspect called emergency services shortly before his arrest, with investigators considering whether the incident was surveillance, a “dry run” or an attempt to send a message to the British government.

Britain said in January that its services had tracked more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots over the previous year targeting dissidents, journalists and members of the Jewish community.

In June, 24 Western governments accused Iran’s IRGC intelligence apparatus, the Quds Force and Iran’s intelligence ministry of plotting attacks in Europe, North America and Australia, including against Iranian dissidents and Jewish and Israeli interests.

Informed sources described the section known as “Alef-Ta” as a place used for interrogations, holding prisoners before execution and, in some cases, applying additional pressure.

“Some prisoners put their faces close to the gap beneath the cell door so they can breathe,” one informed source said.

The ward holds some political prisoners alongside people accused of violent crimes and a number of clerics. Alireza Sepahi, a January protest detainee sentenced to death in the case known as the Alikhani case, has also been transferred there.

The Alikhani Square case stems from anti-government protests in Isfahan on January 8, during which authorities said four members of the security forces were killed.

Twelve protesters were sentenced to death, drawing concerns from rights groups and UN experts over due process and fair-trial standards. At least five had been executed by August, including Abolfazl Sepahi and Amirhossein Safari, who were publicly hanged in Alikhani Square on July 28.

Windowless cells

The section consists of rooms originally designed for solitary confinement, with each cell measuring about eight square meters.

The cells have no windows or adequate airflow and rely on a single ventilation fan that is sometimes switched off. Despite being designed for one person, several prisoners are sometimes held in the same cell, leaving insufficient room to sleep normally.

Prisoners receive two dirty blankets, while a shower and toilet without a separating door or wall occupy a significant portion of each cell. Using water further increases humidity inside the enclosed space.

Access to fresh air can be limited to about 15 minutes once a week. Prisoners are blindfolded and taken to the roof, where only the sky is visible.

Lights inside the cells remain on continuously. With no windows or clocks, prisoners can struggle to distinguish day from night. The central sewage system, which operates at around 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., can become one of the few indications of time.

Prisoners also have no access to phones, television, a prison shop or facilities for heating food. Sources said poor-quality food and the inability to reheat it have led to repeated cases of food poisoning.

'Cables and metal rods’

Prisoners can be removed from their cells for interrogation several times over a 24-hour period, sources said.

Sources described prisoners being beaten with cables and metal rods during interrogation and returning to their cells with injuries to their legs, mouths and teeth. Iran International also received accounts of interrogators pulling out prisoners’ fingernails.

Iran International reported on September 9, citing a judicial document, that 18 prisoners held at Dastgerd face charges connected to unrest and a fire in April that could carry the death penalty.

The response was reportedly delivered through Qatar and has been described as US “feedback” rather than acceptance or rejection of the Iranian plan.

Hardline voices have portrayed Washington’s position as evidence that further diplomacy is futile, while more pragmatic commentators argue that the fact the US responded at all shows negotiations remain alive.

President Donald Trump had publicly dismissed Iran’s proposal as insufficient. Iranian diplomats said reopening the Strait and lifting the naval blockade were discussed in indirect talks mediated by Qatar.

The dispute in Tehran is increasingly about what it should do next.

Jame Jam, affiliated with state television, published an op-ed Wednesday by hardliner Abbas Salimi-Namin titled “America’s Fear of Admitting Defeat Against Iran.”

Salimi-Namin argued that Washington’s resistance to the seven-point plan, rooted in the earlier Islamabad talks, reflected the White House’s unwillingness to acknowledge that framework as a strategic setback.

US policymakers, he wrote, still cling to the prospect of delivering a “crippling blow” to Iran and fear the domestic political cost of acknowledging failure more than continued escalation.

Kayhan went considerably further.

Editor-in-chief Hossein Shariatmadari portrayed US demands for verifiable nuclear concessions as evidence that Washington never intended to negotiate in good faith.

He argued that linking freer navigation through the Strait to nuclear concessions was an attempt to strip Iran of its principal leverage while maintaining US economic and military pressure.

Kayhan criticized what it described as the Foreign Ministry’s excessive “patience” and called for non-attributable maritime interdictions, deployment of coastal anti-ship batteries and expanded targeting of Western-escorted vessels.

Global energy markets, it argued, must face an “unbearable cost” before Washington lifts its blockade.

The moderate daily Sharq offered an almost opposite prescription.

In a commentary, Ahmad Zeidabadi argued that despite the rigidity of the US response, Washington’s decision to send detailed feedback through Qatar showed that a diplomatic off-ramp remained open.

He urged the government to preserve the Qatari channel and proposed a two-stage approach under which Iran could offer targeted technical assurances, including temporary IAEA monitoring protocols, in return for an immediate, phased easing of restrictions on commercial transit under the Islamabad memorandum.

Zeidabadi rejected calls for military escalation, warning that abandoning shuttle diplomacy as restrictions on Iranian aviation and banking intensify would push the country towards deeper economic and civilian isolation.

The contrasting reactions show how Washington’s response has shifted the argument in Tehran from whether diplomacy should continue to what price Iran should be prepared to pay for it.

Jame Jam occupies a space somewhere between the positions represented by Kayhan and Sharq: deeply skeptical of Washington’s intentions, but portraying the impasse as a product of US reluctance to acknowledge Iran’s leverage rather than as grounds for immediately abandoning negotiations.

With an actual US response now before Tehran, those competing interpretations are no longer arguments about a hypothetical deal. They are becoming arguments over how Iran should answer.

At a University of Michigan town hall, Iman Dashti said his cousin had been pursued through the streets over her hijab and his uncle sentenced to death and given 50 lashes under the Islamic Republic, before asking whether El-Sayed stood “unequivocally against the IRGC.”

El-Sayed responded that he would “always stand with movements for freedom and democracy” and later told Dashti, “I want freedom and democracy for the people of Iran, no question,” while stressing that political change should come from Iranians themselves rather than through US-led regime change.

He did not directly answer Dashti’s question about whether he stood unequivocally against the IRGC.

Dashti told Iran International he shares El-Sayed’s opposition to US-imposed regime change, but said that was never the question he was asking.

“I never asked about regime change. I never asked about his stance on the war,” Dashti said. “I asked him about the people.”

“I wanted to hear from him. I wanted to hear that he stood with us, I really did want to,” he said. “If Abdul were to win, at least we’d have an advocate for the Persian people, for the American people in the US Senate.”

El-Sayed’s campaign has defended his response.

“As he noted in his response, Abdul will always stand with movements for freedom and democracy and he condemns government anti-free speech violence,” campaign spokesperson Roxie Richner told Fox News.

The campaign also reiterated El-Sayed’s opposition to US-funded regime-change wars.

Iran International separately contacted El-Sayed’s campaign seeking an interview or written response about the exchange and his position on the IRGC but did not receive a response before publication.

Threats after the exchange

Dashti said the atmosphere inside the town hall became tense, with audience members applauding when El-Sayed rejected US-led regime change, a position Dashti said he agreed with.

“The tension was very high in that room,” he said. “You could cut it with a knife.”

Since the exchange spread online, Dashti says he has received threats and that his friends and family have been targeted.

“Since that day, people have threatened me, doxxed my friends, even harassed my family,” he said in a video posted after the town hall.

Dashti told Iran International the past several days had been anxious but said the hostile reaction had also been accompanied by considerable support.

“For every negative comment I’ve gotten, for every negative sort of threat, I’ve gotten a lot of beautiful positive messages,” he said.

Scrutiny of Dashti’s politics

The attention has also brought scrutiny of Dashti’s own politics. He describes himself as a “proud Christian conservative,” belongs to the College Republicans and has previously met Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee running against El-Sayed in November.

Dashti said he does not work for Rogers and was not sent to the town hall on behalf of his campaign.

“Am I a Zionist plant? Do I work for the Rogers campaign?” he said in his follow-up video, recounting accusations circulating online. “I don’t work for anyone. I’m just a Persian student and my family was hunted in the streets of Iran.”

The son of Iranian immigrants, Dashti said he sees speaking about repression in Iran as a way of advocating for people who cannot freely do so themselves.

“The least I can do is give a voice to the people who literally don’t have a voice,” he said. “I love my people, my heritage. It’s a beautiful, beautiful culture.”

Washington designated the IRGC a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2019. The force is a central part of the Islamic Republic’s security apparatus and has been involved in suppressing anti-government protests.

Dashti said the criticism has not deterred him from continuing to raise the issue during the remaining weeks of the Senate campaign.

“I’m going to keep going, whether that means showing up at future events, mobilizing friends,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi received US feedback on Iran’s seven-day proposal during talks with Qatari mediators in Doha on Tuesday night, Reuters reported, citing an official briefed on the talks.

The main disagreement concerns the sequencing of the plan rather than its elements, the official said. The proposal outlines a seven-day process to build trust and return to an enhanced version of a memorandum of understanding reached by Iran and the United States in June.

Araghchi presented the US proposal at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting and briefed ministers on his trip to New York, including Iran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, government spokesperson said.

• 

  Iran’s shrinking air links raise costs, strain regional ties

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said Iran would eventually “give up,” but suggested that point had not yet been reached.

Tanker struck in Strait of Hormuz

The diplomatic exchanges came with shipping risks persisting in the waterway at the center of the negotiations.

A tanker heading into the Strait of Hormuz was struck by an unknown projectile, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said, citing a verified source. Authorities were investigating the strike.

Separately, the Revolutionary Guards described near-daily confrontations with vessels in the strait. Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi said Iranian forces were targeting ships every 24 hours but had received no US response for some time.

The disruption has also affected neighboring Iraq. Parliament speaker Haibat al-Halbousi said Iran had given Iraqi tankers no exemption from restrictions on navigation through Hormuz.

• 

  UAE outmaneuvers Iran’s Hormuz strategy, state TV analysts say

Iran expands military and civilian preparations

Beyond the strait, Iranian officials described efforts to strengthen the country’s military capabilities and prepare civilian infrastructure for further conflict.

Iran is rapidly expanding its missile, drone and air defense capabilities, deputy Revolutionary Guards commander Mostafa Izadi said.

“We are present in the Strait of Hormuz with strength. We are rapidly expanding our missile, drone and air defense capabilities,” Izadi said.

Iran will also hold drills covering schools, hospitals, banks, mobile phone operators, airports, ports, bridges, roads and aviation networks to prepare civilian infrastructure for wartime threats, Passive Defense Organization chief Gholamreza Jalali said.

Jalali said Iran had prepared for possible attacks on the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities before the war and conducted drills for such scenarios.

Two January protesters executed

Away from the military confrontation and negotiations, Iran carried out two more executions stemming from the January protests.

Ali Hemmati and Majid Nikandish were executed over demonstrations in Mashhad, with the judiciary accusing them of involvement in the deaths of four security personnel.

The judiciary said the two participated in protests in the city’s Tabarsi district on January 8 and accused them of attacking security personnel, setting buildings on fire and damaging public property.

• 

  Iran says awaiting US response on Hormuz proposal

Sources previously told Iran International that Nikandish was tortured and forced to confess after his arrest and transfer to Vakilabad Prison.

Wednesday thus brought movement in indirect diplomacy with Washington without an end to confrontations in Hormuz, while Iranian authorities prepared for further conflict and continued executions stemming from January’s protests.