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Grossi Wants to Meet with Iran’s Pezeshkian ‘at Earliest Convenience’

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
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Grossi Wants to Meet with Iran’s Pezeshkian ‘at Earliest Convenience’

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi announced he intends to visit Tehran through a letter he addressed to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iranian Mehr Agency reported that Grossi sent a congratulatory message to the Iranian president-elect, which stated: “I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to you on your election win as President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“Cooperation between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been at the focal attention of the international circles for many years. I am confident that, together, we will be able to make decisive progress on this crucial matter.”

“To that effect, I wish to express my readiness to travel to Iran to meet with you at the earliest convenience,” Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted Grossi as saying.

The meeting – should it take place - will be the first for Pezeshkian, who had pledged during his election campaign to be open to the West to resolve outstanding issues through dialogue.

Last week, American and Israeli officials told the Axios news site that Washington sent a secret warning to Tehran last month regarding its fears of Iranian research and development activities that might be used to produce nuclear weapons.

In May, Grossi expressed his dissatisfaction with the course of the talks he held over two days in Iran in an effort to resolve outstanding matters.

Since the death of the former Iranian president, Ibrahim Raisi, the IAEA chief refrained from raising the Iranian nuclear file, while European sources said that Tehran had asked to “freeze discussions” until the internal situation was arranged and a new president was elected.

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World

‘Massive’ Russian Missile, Drone Attack on Kyiv Kills 8

People walk on a field as smoke rises at the site of a Russian strike near Kyiv, Ukraine, 31 August 2026, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
People walk on a field as smoke rises at the site of a Russian strike near Kyiv, Ukraine, 31 August 2026, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
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‘Massive’ Russian Missile, Drone Attack on Kyiv Kills 8

People walk on a field as smoke rises at the site of a Russian strike near Kyiv, Ukraine, 31 August 2026, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
People walk on a field as smoke rises at the site of a Russian strike near Kyiv, Ukraine, 31 August 2026, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)

A "massive" Russian attack killed at least eight people in Kyiv overnight, including seven at a railways depot, officials said Tuesday, as Moscow pressed its air campaign on the Ukrainian capital and surrounding areas.

The strikes came as children were set to return to school after summer holidays and as authorities tightened security measures following weeks of intensified Russian attacks on the capital.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said eight people were killed and five wounded, including two children, in the overnight bombardment, which included ballistic missiles and drones.

Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, chief executive of Ukrainian Railways, said a missile hit a railway depot and other railway facilities in Kyiv.

"The ballistic strike took the lives of 7 people, 6 of whom were our employees," he said, adding that another railway worker had been hospitalized.

Pertsovskyi said the attack caused "extensive destruction", including the complete destruction of a workshop, while fires continued to burn at some sites.

One person was killed in strikes in Boryspil, east of Kyiv, regional officials said.

Russia's defense ministry said its forces had carried out a "massive strike" using long-range weapons and attack drones.

It said the attack targeted military-industrial and fuel and energy facilities in Kyiv and the surrounding region.

The ministry also said it had struck infrastructure in the southern Odesa region and the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk.

"Kyiv region came under a massive attack by Russian missiles and strike drones tonight," Kyiv regional military administration chief Tymur Tkachenko said on Telegram.

AFP journalists in the capital heard around a dozen loud explosions and saw flashes in sky early Tuesday moments after the air force warned of incoming ballistic missiles.

The Ukrainian air force had warned that the threat of "ballistic weapons and other means of attack against Kyiv and the region remains in effect", and urged residents to remain in shelters.

Ukrainian children return to school on Tuesday, and the Kyiv regional military administration has warned there must be no large events in areas with a high level of risk.

Kyiv and its surrounding areas have come under sustained pressure from Russian drone attacks in recent weeks, with jet-powered drones adding to the threat and triggering as many as a dozen air-raid alerts a day.

One weekend attack on an ammunition depot killed 38 people in the capital's suburbs.

Both sides have escalated long-range strikes in recent months, targeting infrastructure such as warehouses, businesses, and oil and port facilities, as well as ships, increasing civilian casualties.

Ukraine faces a shortage of interceptor missiles, particularly US-made Patriot systems used against ballistic threats.

World

Iran President Says Tehran Would ‘Immediately’ Reciprocate if US Returns to June Deal

Pedestrians walk past a wall mural along a street in downtown of Tehran on August 31, 2026. (AFP)
Pedestrians walk past a wall mural along a street in downtown of Tehran on August 31, 2026. (AFP)
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Iran President Says Tehran Would ‘Immediately’ Reciprocate if US Returns to June Deal

Pedestrians walk past a wall mural along a street in downtown of Tehran on August 31, 2026. (AFP)
Pedestrians walk past a wall mural along a street in downtown of Tehran on August 31, 2026. (AFP)

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday that Tehran would "immediately" reciprocate if the United States returned to a June deal aimed at ending their war.

"I state explicitly that if the United States returns to its commitments under the aforementioned memorandum of understanding, Iran will immediately take reciprocal action," Pezeshkian said at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan, according to the website of the Iranian presidency.

World

Report: Trump Considering Limited Strikes Against Iran in the Strait of Hormuz

US President Donald Trump, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at his side, speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on a flight from Dover, Delaware, to Miami, Florida, US, March 7, 2026. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at his side, speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on a flight from Dover, Delaware, to Miami, Florida, US, March 7, 2026. (Reuters)
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Report: Trump Considering Limited Strikes Against Iran in the Strait of Hormuz

US President Donald Trump, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at his side, speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on a flight from Dover, Delaware, to Miami, Florida, US, March 7, 2026. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at his side, speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on a flight from Dover, Delaware, to Miami, Florida, US, March 7, 2026. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump and his senior aides have been considering launching limited strikes in the Strait of Hormuz to prevent Iran from reconstituting its radar and missile capabilities to attack ships, three US officials told Axios.

One official said the idea behind the plan is to reduce the risk of Iranian attacks on oil tankers, US Navy ships and Air Force aircraft — to “mow the lawn,” as this person put it.

The plan was developed over the past week by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) and supported by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who sent it to the White House several days ago, US officials said.

The officials said that last week the White House was leaning against approving the strikes to avoid escalating with Iran.

But Iran's ballistic missile attacks on US bases in Jordan on Sunday could change Trump's mind.

A US official told Axios that in recent days Iran launched an anti-aircraft missile toward a US F-35 fighter jet that was providing cover to ships in the strait.

While the missile didn't come close enough to be a threat, it was a signal that Iran is trying to reconstitute its military capacity, according to the US official.

CENTCOM told Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine and the White House in recent days that the military might need to strike Iran periodically in order to keep moving dozens of oil tankers out of the Gulf relatively safely every day.

The Axios report came after the US and Iran exchanged attacks in the first flare-up in violence since late July.

US forces struck two Iranian launchers on Iran's Larak Island on Sunday, a US official said, after “Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz.”

Three people were killed in the attack, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported. The state-affiliated Nournews said two of them had been identified as members of the Revolutionary Guards Navy.

Larak is a small island in the strait near the strategic Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. The Strait of Hormuz, which normally handles a fifth of global crude oil and gas shipments, has been effectively blocked since the start of the war.

In a statement, the US Central Command said ⁠it had taken “limited, precise” action against minelaying forces of Iran's Revolutionary Guards that posed an “imminent threat” in the strait. It gave no details.

On Monday, Trump told Fox News that the US would hit Iran hard in retaliation for Tehran targeting US forces in Jordan.

“We're going to hit them hard,” Trump said. “There will be a response.”

A senior Iranian source to Reuters, “For every US attack on Iran, Tehran will respond dozens of times more forcefully, and no target in the region is beyond our reach.”