TRUMP ON TRUTH SOCIAL:
Europe is desperate for Energy, and yet the United Kingdom refuses to open North Sea Oil, one of the greatest fields in the World. Tragic!!! Aberdeen should be booming. Norway sells its North Sea Oil to the U.K. at double the price. They are making a fortune. U.K., which is better situated on the North Sea for purposes of energy than Norway, should, DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!! It is absolutely crazy that they don’t… AND, NO MORE WINDMILLS! President DJT
SAUDI AL-HADATH NETWORK REPORTS, ACCORDING TO ITS SOURCES: INTENSIVE INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS ARE UNDERWAY THAT MAY LEAD TO AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF A CEASEFIRE BETWEEN ISRAEL AND LEBANON TOMORROW.
Air traffic data from Flightradar24 shows two Iranian flights, Iran04 and Iran05, en route to Pakistan ahead of talks with the United States in Islamabad on Saturday. It is not yet confirmed whether the planes are carrying Iranian negotiators, but the flight numbers are typically used for the planes transporting government officials.
Professor John Mearsheimer on Iran: Trump is desperate. We are playing a losing hand. This would destroy far more than a presidency. He knows this. He threatened extermination — because escalation failed. By evening, he backs off. He basically says: I concede defeat.
BREAKING: Trump has set a deadline of within days for European allies to commit concrete military support in the Strait of Hormuz, including warships, Der Spiegel reports.
NATO Secretary General Rutte informed European capitals after his White House meeting that political pledges made since the start of the war are no longer sufficient. Multiple European diplomats described the demand as an ultimatum.
Exclusive: Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister @SKhatibzadeh tells me for @itvnews the Strait of Hormuz is open to all civilian shipping and reports it is closed are wrong. However, due to mines as a consequence of the war, all vessels need to liaise with Iran to be guided along safe routes.
“Anybody who communicates with the Iranian authority has got permission to pass.”
Iran says it has presented an 8-point framework (described as part of a wider 10-point plan) to the American side through Pakistan as the basis for negotiations in Islamabad:
1. Organized passage through the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with Iranian armed forces
2. An end to the war against all components of the Resistance Axis
3. Withdrawal of all US combat forces from bases and deployment sites across the region
4. A safe-passage protocol for Hormuz that formally recognizes Iran’s control under the agreement
5. Full compensation payments to Iran based on official damage estimates
6. Lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions
7. Release of all Iranian assets frozen abroad
8. Final ratification through a binding UN Security Council decision
The statement says these principles will be the sole basis for two weeks of negotiations in Islamabad, while stressing that this does not yet mark the end of the war.