US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a 30- to 60-day ceasefire with Iran could come within days, potentially reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lowering energy prices.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has privately urged the Trump administration to find an “off-ramp” from the war and raised doubts about further escalation, CNN reported.
Iran and Oman are discussing a 60-day temporary shipping arrangement in Hormuz while negotiations continue on a permanent reopening and a broader nuclear agreement.
Tehran is seeking to bar US warships from the Strait of Hormuz, while Washington has told mediators it will accept neither Iranian restrictions nor tolls on shipping.
The US says it could lift its blockade of Iranian ports once commercial shipping resumes without impediments, with any easing tied to Tehran fulfilling its commitments.
Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a mutual-defense pact as wider regional tensions persisted, including Houthi attacks, fighting in Yemen and threats involving Iran-backed Iraqi militias.
The IRGC in Iran's Isfahan province said controlled explosions could be heard in parts of southern Isfahan on Saturday.
The explosions may be heard around the area of Baharestan and its surroundings, the IRGC's provincial public relations office said, without providing further details.
Iran's leaders believe control of the Strait of Hormuz gives Tehran growing leverage over Washington and could eventually force the US to accept a new arrangement for the strategic waterway, the Associated Press reported on Saturday.
Tehran is betting that higher energy prices, pressure on US weapons stockpiles and domestic opposition to the war will make a prolonged confrontation increasingly costly for President Donald Trump, according to the report.
The hardline Kayhan newspaper criticized the new defense pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan on Saturday, questioning whether Islamabad could continue to serve as a credible mediator between Iran and the United States.
Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari argued that Pakistan’s participation in the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, under which an armed attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all three, was incompatible with its mediation role.
He also pointed to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s praise of Donald Trump and Pakistan’s participation in a separate regional initiative focused on security in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab as evidence, in his view, that Islamabad was moving closer to governments confronting Iran and the Houthis.
Shariatmadari portrayed both initiatives as ultimately directed against Iran and its regional allies, though officials from Turkey and Saudi Arabia have said the Mecca agreement is defensive and is not aimed at any specific country.
The pact has also prompted debate inside Iran over its military significance. Hesameddin Ashena, an adviser in former president Hassan Rouhani’s administration, said the agreement could alter the regional rules of conflict by reducing the effectiveness of threats against Persian Gulf states and increasing the possibility that Turkey and Pakistan could become involved if Saudi Arabia were attacked.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis launched ballistic missiles and drones at displacement camps and residential neighborhoods in Marib on Friday, killing two people and wounding 14, state news agency SABA reported, citing local authorities.
Yemen’s army said early Saturday it had responded against Houthi forces on several fronts and warned it would take further military action if its units were attacked again.
The exchange marked a sharp escalation after years in which large-scale fighting between the Houthis and forces of Yemen’s internationally recognized government had largely subsided. At least 30 government troops were killed a day earlier in attacks on military camps in Marib and Hadramawt, according to government sources.
UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg warned Friday that the latest attacks, together with renewed Houthi strikes on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, had left Yemen at its greatest risk of renewed large-scale conflict since the UN-brokered truce in 2022.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement carried by Iranian official media on Friday that foreign media acknowledged President Donald Trump’s “defeat” in the war against Iran, crediting what it called the efforts of “revolutionary media” for the outcome.
“World media, acknowledging Washington’s failure to defeat the Islamic Republic, are clearly speaking of Trump’s ‘defeat’ and ‘self-created trap’ in the war against Iran, and are even admitting that the agreements reached were nothing more than an ‘American surrender document’ in the face of the realities on the ground and Iran’s negotiating power,” IRGC said in the statement.
The IRGC said the US and Israel failed to achieve their stated goals despite military and media operations, and described recent agreements as an “American surrender” to Iran’s military strength and negotiating power.
US Representative Joe Wilson said on Friday he supported the Senate’s bipartisan passage of the Lindsey Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 and called for the bill to pass the House.
“Grateful for the overwhelming, bipartisan Senate passage of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. Senator Graham was a patriot, and this legislation serves as a testament of his tireless efforts to achieve Peace Through Strength,” he posted on X.
“Courageous champions of Ukraine are the inspiration for world support to achieve victory by defeating war criminal Putin who shamefully seeks to rebuild the failed Soviet Union. Any nation supplying Putin’s perversions must pay. Thank you POTUS for your support. I look forward to this bill passing the House,” Wilson added.
Iranian officials are seeking to bar US Navy warships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz as part of negotiations on an agreement to reopen the waterway, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the talks.
US officials told mediators that Washington will not accept Iranian restrictions or tolls on shipping through the strait. The draft agreement would temporarily establish an inbound lane near Iran and an outbound lane near Oman, while the Trump administration would lift its blockade on Iranian ports if Tehran opened the waterway without impediments, according to the report.
A US official familiar with negotiations confirmed that a temporary shipping route discussed between Iran and Oman would be limited to 60 days, during which negotiators would work on a long-term deal to fully open the Strait of Hormuz and continue talks on a nuclear agreement, ABC News reported on Friday.
Iranian officials have said the deal would establish new shipping routes allowing commercial vessels to enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through an outbound lane controlled by Oman, the report said. The US official cautioned that nothing is final until it is publicly announced.
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