عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Trump Holds Situation Room Meeting on Iran, Officials Say 

People walk at the Tehran Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
People walk at the Tehran Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
TT
TT

Trump Holds Situation Room Meeting on Iran, Officials Say 

People walk at the Tehran Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
People walk at the Tehran Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

President Donald Trump met with his top national security aides on Tuesday to discuss Iran's nuclear program ahead of a second meeting between US and Iranian officials on Saturday, sources said.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff is to meet his Iranian counterpart on Saturday, a session currently scheduled to be held in Oman. Trump spoke to the sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, about Oman's mediation role between Washington and Tehran.

A White House official confirmed the White House Situation Room meeting on Iran and said the location was not unusual since Trump gets briefed there regularly to take advantage of the chamber's secure setting.

A second source briefed on the meeting said Trump and his top aides discussed the Iran talks and next steps. US officials have been working on a framework for a potential nuclear deal.

Trump has threatened military action against Iran if it does not give up its nuclear program while also stressing the need for diplomacy and negotiations.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Trump's bottom line in the talks, which included an initial session last Saturday, is he wanted to use negotiations to ensure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.

Trump and the Omani leader also discussed ongoing US operations against Yemen's Houthis, she said.

"The maximum pressure campaign on Iran continues," Leavitt said at a press briefing. "The president has made it clear he wants to see dialogue and discussion with Iran, while making his directive about Iran never being able to obtain a nuclear weapon quite clear."

She added that he had "emphasized" this directive during the call with Sultan Haitham.

Both sides described last weekend's US-Iran talks in Oman as positive.

Trump has restored a "maximum pressure" campaign on Tehran since February, after he ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran.

Iran's nuclear program has leaped forward since then. The two countries held indirect talks during former President Joe Biden's term but made little, if any progress.

Iran's clerical rulers have publicly said that demands such as dismantling the country's peaceful nuclear program or its conventional missile capabilities were off the table.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Man Charged with Threatening to Kill US Vice President

US Vice President JD Vance and US second lady Usha Vance watch the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the San Siro stadium in Milan, northern Italy, on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
US Vice President JD Vance and US second lady Usha Vance watch the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the San Siro stadium in Milan, northern Italy, on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
TT
TT

Man Charged with Threatening to Kill US Vice President

US Vice President JD Vance and US second lady Usha Vance watch the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the San Siro stadium in Milan, northern Italy, on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
US Vice President JD Vance and US second lady Usha Vance watch the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the San Siro stadium in Milan, northern Italy, on February 6, 2026. (AFP)

A federal grand jury charged a 33-year-old man with threatening to kill US Vice President JD Vance during his visit to Ohio in January, the Justice Department said on Friday.

Shannon Mathre, a resident of Toledo, Ohio, is accused of "making a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon" the vice president, the department said in a statement.

Mathre reportedly said he was "going to find out where he (the vice president) is going to be and use my M14 automatic gun and kill him," according to the statement. It did not say where he made the comment.

US Secret Service agents arrested Mathre on Friday.

The threat is the latest reported incident involving Vance.

Vance said in early January "a crazy person" had tried to break into his Ohio home by hammering on the windows. The vice president and his family were not home at the time, and a 26-year-old man was taken into custody, according to US media reports.

The Justice Department said on Friday it found "multiple digital files of child sexual abuse materials" in Mathre's possession while investigating the alleged threat against Vance.

Mathre made his initial court appearance before a US Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Ohio on Friday.

He is in custody pending a detention hearing on February 11, the Justice Department said.

World

Iran’s FM Criticizes Israel After Nuclear Talks with US

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on as he speaks during the 17th edition of the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha on February 7, 2026. (AFP)
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on as he speaks during the 17th edition of the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha on February 7, 2026. (AFP)
TT
TT

Iran’s FM Criticizes Israel After Nuclear Talks with US

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on as he speaks during the 17th edition of the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha on February 7, 2026. (AFP)
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on as he speaks during the 17th edition of the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha on February 7, 2026. (AFP)

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday criticized what he said was a "doctrine of domination" that allows Israel to expand its military arsenal while pressuring other countries in the region to disarm.

His remarks came a day after renewed nuclear talks with Washington, with previous talks collapsing when Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran last June that triggered a 12-day war.

Araghchi was speaking at the Al Jazeera Forum conference in Qatar but made no reference to Friday's talks with the United States.

"Israel's expansionist project requires that neighboring countries be weakened: militarily, technologically, economically and socially," Araghchi said.

"Under this project Israel is free to expand its military arsenal without limits ... Yet other countries are demanded to disarm. Others are pressured to reduce defensive capacity. Others are punished for scientific progress," he added.

"This is a doctrine of domination."

During the 12-day war Israel targeted senior Iranian military officials, nuclear scientists and sites as well as residential areas, with the US later launching its own attacks on key nuclear facilities.

Iran responded at the time with drone and missile attacks on Israel, as well as by targeting the largest US military base in the Middle East, located in Qatar.

On Friday, Araghchi led the Iranian delegation in indirect nuclear talks with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in Muscat.

The top Iranian diplomat later described the atmosphere as having been "very positive", while US President Donald Trump said the talks were "very good," with both sides agreeing to proceed with further negotiations.

The talks followed threats from Washington and its recent deployment of an aircraft carrier group to the region following Iran's deadly crackdown on anti-government protests last month.

The United States has sought to address Iran's ballistic missile program and its support for militant groups in the region -- issues which Israel has pushed to include in the talks, according to media reports.

Tehran has repeatedly rejected expanding the scope of negotiations beyond the nuclear issue.

World

Trump Refuses to Apologize for Video Depicting Obama and Wife as Apes

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump see off former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama as they depart following Trump's inauguration at the Capitol in Washington, US January 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump see off former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama as they depart following Trump's inauguration at the Capitol in Washington, US January 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
TT
TT

Trump Refuses to Apologize for Video Depicting Obama and Wife as Apes

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump see off former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama as they depart following Trump's inauguration at the Capitol in Washington, US January 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump see off former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama as they depart following Trump's inauguration at the Capitol in Washington, US January 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

President Donald Trump’s racist social media post featuring former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle was deleted Friday after a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats who criticized the video as offensive.

Trump said later Friday that he won't apologize for the post: “I didn't make a mistake,” he said.

The Republican president’s Thursday night post was blamed on a staffer after widespread backlash, from civil rights leaders to veteran Republican senators, for its treatment of the nation’s first Black president and first lady. A rare admission of a misstep by the White House, the deletion came hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed “fake outrage” over the post. After calls for its removal — including by Republicans — the White House said a staffer had posted the video erroneously.

The post was part of a flurry of overnight activity on Trump's Truth Social account that amplified his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite courts around the country and Trump's first-term attorney general finding no evidence of systemic fraud.

Trump has a record of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas and of using incendiary, sometimes racist, rhetoric — from feeding the lie that Obama was not a native-born US citizen to crude generalizations about majority-Black countries.

The post came in the first week of Black History Month and days after a Trump proclamation cited “the contributions of black Americans to our national greatness” and “the American principles of liberty, justice, and equality.”

An Obama spokeswoman said the former president, a Democrat, had no response.

‘An internet meme’

Nearly all of the 62-second clip appears to be from a conservative video alleging deliberate tampering with voting machines in battleground states as 2020 votes were tallied. At the 60-second mark is a quick scene of two jungle primates, with the Obamas’ smiling faces imposed on them.

Those frames originated from a separate video, previously circulated by an influential conservative meme maker. It shows Trump as “King of the Jungle” and depicts Democratic leaders as animals, including Joe Biden, who is white, as a jungle primate eating a banana.

“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” Leavitt said by text.

Disney's 1994 feature film that Leavitt referenced is set on the savannah, not in the jungle, and it does not include great apes.

“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt added.

By noon, the post had been taken down, with responsibility placed on a Trump subordinate.

Trump, answering questions from reporters accompanying him Friday night aboard Air Force One, said the video was about fraudulent elections and that he liked what he saw.

“I liked the beginning. I saw it and just passed it on, and I guess probably nobody reviewed the end of it,” he said.

Asked if he condemned the video's racism, Trump said, “Of course I do.”

The White House explanation raises questions about control of Trump’s social media account, which he's used to levy import taxes, threaten military action, make other announcements and intimidate political rivals. The president often signs his name or initials after policy posts.

The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry about how posts are vetted and when the public can know when Trump himself is posting.

Mark Burns, a pastor and a prominent Trump supporter who is Black, said Friday on X that he'd spoken “directly” with Trump and that he recommended to the president that he fire the staffer who posted the video and publicly condemn what happened.

“He knows this is wrong, offensive, and unacceptable,” Burns posted.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., told The Associated Press she does “not buy the White House's commentary.”

Condemnation across the political spectrum Trump and White House social media accounts frequently repost memes and artificial intelligence-generated videos. As Leavitt did Friday, Trump allies typically cast them as humorous.

This time, condemnations flowed from across the spectrum — along with demands for an apology that doesn't appear to be coming.