US President Donald Trump said Sunday that further strikes on Iran were unlikely if negotiations produced a strong agreement, even as fresh explosions in southern Iran and attacks on shipping near the Strait of Hormuz underscored the risk of renewed fighting.
In a telephone interview with CNN, Trump said it was “highly unlikely” that another attack would be necessary if Iran agreed to a strong deal. He nevertheless warned that the United States had identified potential infrastructure targets, including 38 bridges that he said could be destroyed within an hour if fighting resumed.
The US and Israeli militaries had prepared for the possibility of renewed strikes against Iran over the weekend, but Trump ultimately issued no order to attack, The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday, citing two sources.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with senior security officials Friday, while two diplomatic sources told the newspaper that Trump had given Vice President JD Vance and other senior administration officials “a few days” to reach an agreement with Tehran.
The comments came amid Qatar's efforts to mediate between Washington and Tehran. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran had submitted a nuclear proposal through Doha, but further discussions depended on Washington meeting Iranian demands, including sanctions relief, access to frozen assets and war reparations. The United States insists that nuclear issues be addressed in initial talks.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that mediators had been inactive for several days following the US midterm elections and that more time was needed before diplomatic efforts could resume.
He also reiterated Tehran's proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days if its conditions were met, including an end to hostilities on all fronts, warning of military retaliation if Washington chose renewed war.
Explosions and maritime confrontation
The diplomatic uncertainty coincided with a series of explosions reported along Iran's southern coast, where the Strait of Hormuz remains a focal point of the confrontation.
Iranian media reported four explosions on Qeshm Island and further blasts in Bandar Abbas on Sunday, following reports of explosions around Qeshm, Jask and Sirik on Saturday.
The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency reported Sunday that a projectile fired by US forces had struck Qeshm, but the claim could not be independently verified.
Earlier, Tasnim had reported that two missiles struck the island during Saturday's incidents, while Iranian state television said officials had not confirmed missile strikes on Iranian territory and suggested that some explosions might be related to Iranian military activity.
Washington had previously acknowledged limited strikes against Iranian air defenses on Qeshm on November 2, describing the operation as a defensive response to Iranian surface-to-air missile activity against US assets.
The confrontation has also continued at sea, where Washington and Tehran are imposing competing restrictions on commercial shipping.
The IRGC said two oil tankers had caught fire after striking mines while attempting to pass through what it called an unauthorized route in the Strait of Hormuz. The semi-official Fars news agency separately reported that a third tanker had suffered an explosion and caught fire. The claims could not be independently verified.
Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported Sunday that a tanker had been struck by an unidentified projectile while sailing out of the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday. Another tanker caught fire near Khasab, Oman, prompting its crew to evacuate. It was unclear whether these incidents were connected to those reported by Iran.
The shipping incidents came alongside a US operation Saturday in which American forces said they disabled a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Oman after its crew ignored repeated warnings and attempted to breach Washington's naval blockade of Iran.
The US military said an aircraft fired precision munitions at the stern of the St. Kitts-flagged M/V Huda, disabling the vessel.
Washington is also seeking to extend its restrictions beyond maritime routes. US Central Command announced Task Force Iron Gate, an initiative intended to disrupt the movement of advanced weapons, dual-use technology, sanctioned materials and illicit revenue through Iran's land borders and the Caspian Sea.
Trump said Sunday that the task force was operating at full strength and claimed the naval blockade had severely restricted the movement of goods into and out of Iran. The IRGC dismissed the initiative, saying efforts to isolate Iran through its land borders would fail.
Regional attacks deepen the disruption
Regional tensions also intensified Sunday as the Saudi-led coalition said its air defenses had intercepted two ballistic missiles and two cruise missiles launched by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis toward Riyadh and other parts of the kingdom.
Falling debris damaged an administrative building belonging to Saudi Aramco in Riyadh's financial district, although Saudi authorities reported no casualties. The Houthis said they had targeted Saudi oil and other facilities, while Saudi officials did not establish a direct link between the interceptions and the damage to the building.
In Iraq, an explosive-laden drone struck the Khor Mor gas field in the Kurdistan Region's Sulaymaniyah province, causing a fire and prompting a suspension of production. The regional electricity ministry said nearly 2,800 megawatts of electricity generation had been lost from the grid. Responsibility for the attack remained unclear.
The attacks added to the regional disruption caused by the confrontation, particularly to energy supplies and infrastructure, while Washington and Tehran remained divided over the terms of a settlement.
The strait remains central to both the military confrontation and diplomatic negotiations. With Iranian forces continuing to enforce their own shipping restrictions and Washington expanding its blockade, Trump's willingness to avoid further strikes has yet to resolve the dispute over access to the waterway.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned ships against cooperating with US forces after reporting three tankers on fire in the Strait of Hormuz, while Houthis targeted Saudi Arabia and Israel warned of unfinished operations against Iran on Sunday.
The Revolutionary Guards said three oil tankers caught fire after taking what they described as an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Guards linked the fires to vessels disabling their navigation and identification systems and cooperating with US forces, warning that ships defying transit rules and accompanying the US military would face similar consequences.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations center separately reported that a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile while sailing outbound through the strait on Saturday. All crew members were safe, and no environmental damage was reported.
UKMTO also received a report of another tanker catching fire near Oman's Musandam Peninsula, prompting the evacuation of its crew. Authorities were investigating both reports.
Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia
Saudi-led coalition forces intercepted two ballistic missiles launched toward Riyadh by Yemen's Houthis, followed by two cruise missiles targeting Riyadh and southern Saudi Arabia, according to coalition statements.
The coalition also reported intercepting a Houthi drone aimed at the kingdom's southern region.
Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry said falling debris damaged an Aramco administrative building in Riyadh without causing casualties. Reuters reported that windows were blown out across several floors of the building.
A separate tower in Riyadh's King Abdullah Financial District was also damaged by a projectile, Reuters reported, citing witnesses and people briefed on the matter.
The Houthis later announced that they had targeted King Khalid International Airport, Saudi Aramco oil storage tanks and a financial center in the Saudi capital.
Israel warns Iran over nuclear activities
Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said the country's mission against Iran's nuclear threat was not yet complete, maintaining that Tehran was renewing efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.
"Regarding Iran, the mission is not yet complete," Katz said at a memorial ceremony for soldiers killed in Operation Kadesh.
Katz also warned Hezbollah against joining a possible Iranian attack on Israel, saying the group would face a severe military response and lose additional territory.
Iranian military officials issued warnings of their own.
An adviser to the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace force said Iran had sufficient weapons reserves to defend itself for years and was continuing to reverse-engineer foreign military equipment.
Ali Balali warned that any move by Iran's adversaries would trigger a "devastating response," adding that the country's armed forces had "their fingers on the trigger."
Separately, Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi dismissed a new US initiative to restrict overland routes used to transfer weapons and sanctioned goods.
Mohebi said Task Force Iron Gate, established by US Central Command, would fail to isolate Iran from its neighbors.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Saturday that restrictions on the range of the country's ballistic missiles had been lifted, raising the prospect of strikes against targets farther afield if US or Israeli attacks resume.
Iran has long maintained that it voluntarily restricted the range of its ballistic missiles to 2,000 kilometres (about 1,200 miles), sufficient to reach Israel and US military installations across much of the Middle East.
Referring to a recent directive from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei to respond to threats with “no geographical limits,” IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said: “That restriction has been lifted for us.”
He did not say whether Iran had developed or deployed missiles capable of exceeding its previously declared range limit, saying only that the country's capabilities should be demonstrated in practice, not through public statements.
Ali Bilali, an adviser to the commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, said Saturday that Iran's missiles had a range of about 2,000 kilometres and were capable of precision strikes.
The question of whether Iran possesses longer-range weapons gained prominence during the war in March, when US and British officials said two ballistic missiles had been launched towards Diego Garcia, a joint American-British military base in the Indian Ocean nearly 4,000 kilometres from Iranian territory.
British Defence Secretary John Healey said one fell short and the other was intercepted before reaching its target. Iran denied responsibility for the attempted strike.
Iran's ballistic missile programme has repeatedly featured in US demands for restrictions on Tehran's military capabilities, although it appears to have receded from more recent diplomatic proposals, which have focused primarily on the nuclear programme.
Missiles are central to Iran's military deterrence, especially after two rounds of war that severely degraded its air defences and other conventional capabilities.
Regional powers, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, press for a negotiated settlement between Tehran and Washington, seeking to avert another round of fighting that could threaten their security, disrupt energy supplies and inflict further economic damage across the region.
Speaking at a news conference marking the IRGC's Aerospace Week, Mohebbi said the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had previously directed the military to halt increases in missile range at certain times and authorised extensions at others.
He also claimed that the Guards had moved missile and drone production underground during the wars with Israel and the United States, allowing manufacturing to continue despite bombardment.
“Any point from which we sense a serious threat against our country can become our target,” Mohebbi said, warning that further attacks on Iran would carry a heavy price for its adversaries.
Israel’s prime minister and his Mossad chief planned an operation against Iran on the eve of Israel's October 27 election, over the objections of other security chiefs, and dropped it after a mistake by an Israeli operative tipped off Washington, Channel 12 reported on Friday.
The report, which the channel said was unsourced and broadcast under military censorship, did not describe the operation. It said other senior figures in the security establishment opposed it because it could cause an escalation and force the election to be postponed, but that planning went ahead until the United States learned of it and moved to stop it.
The Prime Minister's Office denied the report: "The prime minister himself clarified in real time that an attack before the Israeli elections was not on the agenda."
The account follows a run of reports in the week of the vote. On October 25, two days before the election, Channel 12 reported an "unprecedented confrontation" between Benjamin Netanyahuand the military chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, over an instruction for unspecified action involving Iran, with Zamir demanding further deliberations and signed legal authorization.
Iran International carried that report at the time. The next day Channels 12 and 13 reported that Zamir was the only security chief to oppose the action, and the New York Times reported, citing three senior defense officials, that Netanyahu had "sought for weeks to orchestrate a new airstrike on Iran" and was blocked by Zamir.
CNN reported that Netanyahu had asked President Donald Trump to approve a joint strike before the election and that Trump refused.
Netanyahu called the October 25 report "nonsense," saying in the same interview that he had "instructed the IDF and Mossad to topple the regime" in Iran. Former prime minister Ehud Barak said on Thursday that Netanyahu had planned "a provocation" via the Mossad "behind the back of the IDF chief of staff."
Friday's report came as Qatari-mediated talks between Washington and Tehran continued. Channel 12 reported this week that Netanyahu had urged Trump to resume the war immediately after Tuesday's US midterm elections, and that Trump wanted to give the talks more time.
"We're talking to Iran," Trump told reporters on Friday. "We haven't lost a soldier in six or seven months."
Iranian commentators are divided over JD Vance's remarks on the political costs of the war with Iran, with some seeing evidence of tensions within the Trump administration and others warning that he may be trying to lure Tehran into a disadvantageous deal.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Vance identified ending the war and reassessing relations with Israel among the priorities of voters who supported Donald Trump in 2024 but switched to Democrats in Tuesday's midterm elections.
Iran's parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, quoted Vance's post to challenge the Trump administration's approach to the war and its relationship with Israel.
Iranian media have since offered differing interpretations of Vance's intentions and his influence over US policy.
The analytical website Vana News said the vice president's remarks highlighted differences in how senior US officials assessed the costs and future of the war, but cautioned against interpreting them as evidence of an irreconcilable rift.
“Differences in perspective do not necessarily mean a breakdown in political cooperation or an irreconcilable conflict between the president and his deputy,” Vana News wrote, adding that it remained unclear whether such differences would affect Washington's policy decisions.
‘Self-interest’
Mohsen Zahedi-Movahed, a retired diplomat and international affairs analyst, was more emphatic.
“Vance's admission that the war was the first reason voters were angry with Republicans is extremely important. How will Trump respond? The divide they wanted to create among Iranian leaders has now come back to haunt them!” he wrote on X.
Ali Nasri, a pro-government commentator, argued that Vance's apparent differences with Trump over Israel predated the Republican election defeat.
“[Vance realised] that his own political future and the survival of the entire America First movement depend on distancing himself from Israel and ending the war with Iran,” Nasri wrote on X. “We paid a heavy price to reach this position of strength,” he added.
‘Prelude to war’
But Parisa Nasr, a hardline journalist, warned against interpreting Vance's remarks as an encouraging sign, describing them as “another episode in Vance's double game.”
She accused Vance of pursuing an electoral and geopolitical manoeuvre designed to appeal to American voters while encouraging Iranian officials who favour an agreement with Washington.
Nasr also linked the remarks to mediation efforts by Qatar and Pakistan, warning that Tehran could be drawn into an agreement that would leave it vulnerable to renewed conflict.
“Even if it leads to an immediate asymmetric agreement, it is a prelude to the next war and poses a very serious danger,” she wrote.
Diplomacy continues
Asked on Wednesday whether he agreed that the war had contributed to the Republicans' defeat, Trump said it was “largely true” but defended his decision to attack Iran, insisting that military action was necessary to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
The debate over Vance's intentions comes against the backdrop of a letter he sent in late October to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, to which Tehran has not formally responded.
According to US media reports, Vance called for the immediate start of comprehensive negotiations, including on Iran's nuclear programme, and expressed his readiness to lead the American delegation in talks with Iranian officials.
Rezaei said on October 31 that he had read the letter, delivered through Qatar, but had not yet responded. He described its tone as different from previous communications from Washington, calling it “a good sign” that demonstrated Iran had consolidated its power.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei struck a more cautious note on November 2, saying Tehran would judge Washington by its actions rather than the tone of its letters.
Ships linked to Iran looped, loitered and went dark over undersea internet cables in the Gulf of Oman in the weeks after Tehran threatened the region’s digital infrastructure, the Financial Times reported on Friday. One of them had been boarded by US Marines in May.
At least four vessels tracked by the maritime analytics firm Windward took unusual routes and lingered over cable corridors off Oman in October, the FT said. Three were tankers under US sanctions. The fourth was a small Iranian fishing boat with no known owner.
The ships sailed normally “until they reached a specific cable corridor, and only then slowed, looped, turned back, loitered or went dark,” Windward told the newspaper. That behavior “fits the profile of mapping the cable routes, or placing charges or mines on them while dark,” it said.
The most striking case is Celestial Sea, an Iran-flagged products tanker sanctioned by the United States last year and boarded by US Marines in the Gulf of Oman in May on suspicion of trying to run the American blockade.
On October 14 it drifted in a loop for more than four hours beside the 2Africa cable, which will connect Persian Gulf states to Europe and the east coast of Africa, according to Windward’s October 29 report, on which the FT’s story is based. The next day it switched off its transponder inside the 2Africa and Bay of Bengal Gateway corridors off Sohar. It stayed dark for 86 hours and reappeared nine nautical miles away, made a U-turn over the second cable and anchored. It was empty the whole time.
A second sanctioned tanker, a gas carrier loaded with about half a million barrels of Iranian LPG, left the same anchorage for Malaysia on October 23. Ten hours out, it slowed over 2Africa, turned 180 degrees back toward Oman and went dark. Five days later it had not reappeared. A loaded ship with a buyer waiting has no cargo reason to do that, Windward said.
The third, a crude tanker operated by Iran’s state tanker company, loitered at under one knot for about ten days in Iranian waters between Jask and Chabahar, within a few miles of four cable routes, switching off its tracking repeatedly, once for 33 hours.
The fourth vessel is the odd one. A 34-meter Iranian fishing-support boat whose beneficial owner has been unknown since last year drifted at under half a knot along the Europe India Gateway and Transworld cables between October 21 and 26, in waters it had never entered in two years of tracking. Then it sailed north into Iranian waters and went dark.
Fishing in Iranian waters requires a state license, Windward noted, and the Revolutionary Guards’ navy has organized fishermen and their boats into a naval Basij that its commander has called a shadow navy. Iran has used civilian hulls as intelligence platforms before: the cargo ships Saviz and Behshad fed targeting data to the Houthis off Yemen, and on October 6 US forces destroyed an Iranian-linked dhow in the Gulf of Oman that CENTCOM said was watching American warships.
The ships’ movements tracked a run of Iranian warnings. On October 12 Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said “data centers and artificial intelligence facilities will be destroyed” if the war resumes. On October 19 the Guards’ spokesman, Hossein Mohebbi, said seven cables ran under the Strait of Hormuz and that “new targets and new weapons shall be unveiled.” On October 21 the Guards’ political deputy, Yadollah Javani, said the cables would be hit in retaliation for attacks on Iranian infrastructure.
Two days later, two senior Iranian security officials told Iran International that Tehran had detailed plans to target the cables if the United States and Israel attacked again, and would try to prevent repairs to prolong any outage. That was the day the gas carrier turned around.
Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar depend entirely on cables under the strait for their international connectivity, the FT reported, citing TeleGeography. The cables’ owners include Meta, Vodafone, Orange, AT&T, Verizon, BT and China Mobile.
Masha Kotkin of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told the FT that damage would slow financial transactions and disrupt cloud computing in Persian Gulf states that are betting on digital business to diversify from oil. Threats alone had already halted construction on several cable projects, she said.
Iran International reported last month that the strait carries less than one percent of the world’s international bandwidth and that the main Europe-Asia routes run through the Red Sea, so an attack would hurt Iran’s neighbors far more than the global internet.
The experts the FT consulted held back from conclusions. Sidharth Kaushal of the Royal United Services Institute said the maneuvers could be coincidence but that “Iran might be trying to demonstrate its capacity to damage undersea infrastructure if there is a war.” Jon Pentreath, a retired Royal Navy rear admiral, said almost any vessel could be fitted to lay mines. Celestial Sea’s owner did not respond to the FT.
Three of the four ships were still dark when Windward published. Where they reappear, it said, will show whether the cables were the destination or a stop on the way.
