As Iran and U.S. appear near a deal, Israel ramps up war in Lebanon

Speaking on the sidelines of a security forum in Russia's capital, the Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Bagheri Kani, said indirect negotiations with Washington continued, but he renewed the regime's insistence that the issue of its enriched uranium stockpile wasn't yet on the agenda.

"This issue is not on the agenda of the negotiations," he said when asked about the roughly 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium that international monitors believe is still buried under one of Iran's badly damaged nuclear facilities, according to Russian news agency TASS.

President Trump had previously claimed Iran was ready to hand what he refers to as its "nuclear dust" over to the U.S., but on Monday he said the regime could dispose of its highly-enriched uranium inside the country, or "at another acceptable location."

A senior Trump administration official said over the weekend that Iran had agreed in principle to dispose of its highly-enriched uranium during the negotiations but that officials were still working through details of a mechanism for its disposal.

An official with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Wednesday that a renewal of the war with the United States was unlikely, but he warned that Iran stood ready to defend itself against any new attack.

"The possibility of war is low because of the enemy's weakness; the armed forces are lying in wait with full magazines," Mohammad Akbarzadeh, the deputy political chief of the IRGC's naval force, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is linked with the guard.

"Do not doubt that we will turn the area from Chabahar to Mahshahr into a graveyard for aggressors," he said, referring to locations at either end of Iran's lengthy southern coast in the Persian Gulf. 

President Trump will meet with his Cabinet on Wednesday at a precarious moment for talks aimed at ending the war with Iran, just days after insisting his administration and Tehran had "largely negotiated" a settlement but with the negotiations still in a state of flux.

As he prepares to huddle with his top aides, Mr. Trump is projecting confidence that he's closing in on a deal that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide him a credible argument that Iran's nuclear capability has been diminished enough to declare victory, winding down a conflict that's been politically unpopular for Republicans.

But as things stand, he also risks finding closure to his war of choice comes with an unsatisfactory ending.

The emerging deal puts off many critical issues to be resolved later and has already exposed the president to fierce criticism — even from some of his own supporters — that Iran's hardline leaders will emerge from the conflict battered but emboldened. It all comes to a head just as the midterm elections to determine control of Congress come into focus and as Republicans worry that rising costs and fuel prices are darkening the American electorate's mood.

Talks were further complicated after U.S. forces carried out what the Pentagon called "defensive" strikes on missile launch sites and mine-laying boats in southern Iran on Monday. The U.S. said it acted with "restraint" in light of the weekslong ceasefire, while Iran decried the action as a sign of "bad faith and unreliability."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that talks with Iran on reopening the strait and extending the ceasefire — a period that the administration says could be used to hash out the finer details of a nuclear agreement — will take several more days. "He's either going to make a good deal or no deal," Rubio told reporters.

Ten Indian sailors, detained in Iran in July on an oil tanker, have been released after "sustained diplomatic engagement," India's shipping authorities said late Tuesday.

The sailors on the MV Harbour Phoenix were "detained, arrested and imprisoned in Iran following the vessel's interception near Jask Port in July 2025," India's Directorate General of Shipping said in a statement.

"The seafarers have now been released and reunited safely," the shipping authority said. "…Necessary arrangements are being coordinated for the earliest return of the crew members to India."

New Delhi and Tehran have long-standing diplomatic and energy ties, but India also balances that with close links to the United States and Israel.

Iranian forces regularly announce the interception of ships it says are illegally transporting fuel in the Gulf.

India has pursued a policy of quiet diplomacy and minimal public comment during negotiations for the release of the sailors. It did not give further details on the reason for their arrest or about the vessel, which ship tracking sites list as a Palau-flagged oil products tanker.

India has one of the world's largest merchant navy workforces, with thousands of Indian sailors operating in Gulf shipping lanes.

Lebanon said Israeli strikes on the country's south killed 31 people on Tuesday, as Israel said it was intensifying attacks despite a fragile truce in its war with the militant group Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it faced Israeli troops entering the southern town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, as the Israeli military said it was expanding its ground operations.

In a statement, the Lebanese health ministry said 31 people, including at least four children and three women, were killed in attacks and 40 wounded. 

Fourteen were killed in Burj al-Shamali near Tyre, five in Kawthariyat al-Riz, four in Habbush, six in Maarakeh and two in Salaa, the health ministry said.

An Agence France-Presse correspondent in the southern city of Nabatieh reported airstrikes following an unprecedented warning on the city and saw plumes of smoke rising from various locations within it.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said one of the strikes hit the vicinity of a public hospital, causing "significant damage to the hospital's departments."

The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for at least 50 southern and eastern towns and villages on Tuesday, including Nabatieh.

An Israeli military official told AFP that troops had begun operating beyond the Israel-announced "Yellow Line" in south Lebanon, which runs six miles deep inside Lebanese territory.