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Iran Military Official Says Renewed War with US ‘Likely’

A woman walks past an anti-US graffiti painted on the wall of the Tehran University on Enqelab-e-Eslami street in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP)
A woman walks past an anti-US graffiti painted on the wall of the Tehran University on Enqelab-e-Eslami street in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP)
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Iran Military Official Says Renewed War with US ‘Likely’

A woman walks past an anti-US graffiti painted on the wall of the Tehran University on Enqelab-e-Eslami street in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP)
A woman walks past an anti-US graffiti painted on the wall of the Tehran University on Enqelab-e-Eslami street in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP)

A senior Iranian military officer said on Saturday that renewed fighting between the US and Iran was "likely", hours after President Donald Trump said he was "not satisfied" with a new Iranian negotiating proposal.

Iran delivered the draft to mediator Pakistan on Thursday evening, state media reported without detailing its contents.

The war, launched by the United States and Israel in late February, has been on hold since April 8, with one failed round of peace talks having taken place in Pakistan since then.

"At this moment I'm not satisfied with what they're offering," Trump told reporters, blaming stalled talks on "tremendous discord" within Iran's leadership.

"Do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever -- or do we want to try and make a deal?" he added, saying he would "prefer not" to take the first option "on a human basis".

On Saturday morning, Mohammad Jafar Asadi, a senior figure in the Iranian military's central command, said "a renewed conflict between Iran and the United States is likely", in quotes published by Iran's Fars news agency.

"Evidence has shown that the United States is not committed to any promises or agreements," he added.

- 'Stuck in purgatory' -

Iran's judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on Friday that his country had "never shied away from negotiations", but added it would not accept an "imposition" of peace terms.

The White House has declined to provide details on the latest Iranian proposal, but news site Axios reported that US envoy Steve Witkoff had submitted amendments putting Tehran's nuclear program back on the negotiating table.

The changes reportedly include demands that Iran not move enriched uranium from bombed sites or resume activity there during talks.

News of the Iranian proposal briefly pushed oil prices down nearly five percent, though they remain about 50 percent above pre-war levels amid the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has maintained a stranglehold on the strait since the war began, choking off major flows of oil, gas and fertilizer to the world economy, while the United States has imposed a counter-blockade on Iranian ports.

Tehran resident Amir told Paris-based AFP journalists that the stalemate "feels like we are stuck in purgatory", and he expressed little hope for the Iranian proposal.

"This is all to waste time," he said, predicting the United States and Israel "will attack again".

Despite the ceasefire in the Gulf, fighting has continued in Lebanon, where Israel has carried out deadly strikes despite a separate truce with the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

Lebanon's health ministry said 13 people were killed in strikes in the south, including in the town of Habboush, where the Israeli military had issued an evacuation warning.

- 'Terminated' -

In Washington, lawmakers were wrestling with a legal dispute over whether Trump had breached a deadline to seek congressional approval for the war.

Administration officials argue that the ceasefire pauses a 60-day limit, after which congressional authorization would be required -- a claim disputed by opposition Democrats.

Trump faces growing domestic pressure, with inflation rising, no clear victory in sight and midterm elections approaching.

"There has been no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026," Trump said in letters to congressional leaders, adding that the hostilities "have terminated".

In Iran, the war's economic toll is deepening.

Washington has imposed new sanctions on three Iranian currency firms and warned others against paying a "toll" for safe passage through Hormuz, as demanded by Iran.

The US military says its blockade of Iranian ports has stopped $6 billion in Iranian oil exports, while inflation in Iran, already high before the war, has surged past 50 percent.

"For many people, paying rent and even buying food has become difficult, and some have nothing left at all," 28-year-old Iranian Mahyar told an AFP reporter based outside the country.

Supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Friday that "the owners of damaged businesses should avoid, as much as possible, layoffs and separation of their workforce".

He also threatened Iran's enemies with "economic and cultural" war.

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World

'We are Standing Firm,' Maduro Says in Photo Posts from Detention

(FILES) A motorcyclist rides past a mural of ousted Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro flashing the V sign, in Caracas, on May 14, 2026. (Photo by Federico PARRA / AFP)
(FILES) A motorcyclist rides past a mural of ousted Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro flashing the V sign, in Caracas, on May 14, 2026. (Photo by Federico PARRA / AFP)
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'We are Standing Firm,' Maduro Says in Photo Posts from Detention

(FILES) A motorcyclist rides past a mural of ousted Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro flashing the V sign, in Caracas, on May 14, 2026. (Photo by Federico PARRA / AFP)
(FILES) A motorcyclist rides past a mural of ousted Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro flashing the V sign, in Caracas, on May 14, 2026. (Photo by Federico PARRA / AFP)

Venezuela's deposed leader Nicolas Maduro said on social media Sunday that he was "standing firm" with photographs that appear to show him in the detention center where he has been held since his capture by US forces.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized in Caracas during a US military operation in January. They are being detained in a facility in Brooklyn, New York, on drug trafficking and firearms possession charges, which they deny, said AFP.

"I am sending these photos as a small gift to all my grandchildren, to the boys and girls, and to all the good people who love us," he wrote on the Telegram messaging service.

"I want you to know that we are standing firm, with our hearts full of your love," he added.

In the two photographs, Maduro is wearing a gray tracksuit and making peace signs with his hands. He appears to have lost considerable weight since his capture.

Although the photographs emerged Sunday, camera data indicates they were taken on June 25, a day after twin deadly earthquakes killed more than 6,500 people and caused widespread destruction in northern Venezuela.

"We will remain strong, calm and confident: God is with us. God will provide. Venezuela will rise again," he concluded.

The authenticity of the photos could not be verified by AFP.

AFP attempted to contact the detention center to find out if the photos were authentic and had been authorized, but did not receive a response immediately.

The message was posted two days after his successor, interim President Delcy Rodriguez, announced a "historic" oil agreement allowing the United States to operate oil fields in Venezuela.

Rodriguez is governing under intense pressure from Washington and says she has "chosen the path of diplomacy" with the United States because she wants Venezuela to become an "energy powerhouse."

Maduro does not have access to newspapers or the internet in prison, but he is allowed to speak by telephone with his family and lawyers for approximately 300 minutes a month, with a maximum of 15 minutes per call, according to a source close to the former leader.

His son, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, says his father is in good shape and spends his time studying the Bible.

Maduro and his wife's trial in the United States will begin on June 1, 2027, a federal court in New York announced in late July.

World

Spanish PM Says Disinformation on Ceuta Crisis Was Spread by Russia, Israel

Migrants wait outside the Loma Colmenar temporary migrant shelter in Ceuta, Spain, 31 August 2026. (EPA)
Migrants wait outside the Loma Colmenar temporary migrant shelter in Ceuta, Spain, 31 August 2026. (EPA)
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Spanish PM Says Disinformation on Ceuta Crisis Was Spread by Russia, Israel

Migrants wait outside the Loma Colmenar temporary migrant shelter in Ceuta, Spain, 31 August 2026. (EPA)
Migrants wait outside the Loma Colmenar temporary migrant shelter in Ceuta, Spain, 31 August 2026. (EPA)

Russia and Israel both spread and amplified disinformation related to the mass entry of migrants into Spain's North ‌African ‌enclave of ‌Ceuta ⁠last month, Prime Minister ⁠Pedro Sanchez said on Monday, citing research by the European ⁠Union's foreign service ‌EEAS.

Sanchez ‌said it ‌was "evident" that the ‌two countries had used the crisis to criticize ‌the Spanish government, as they were at ⁠odds ⁠with Madrid over its position on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

He ruled out any responsibility on the part of the Moroccan authorities in the incident.

"No intelligence service with which the Spanish government normally cooperates sheds any doubt, or rather, suggests any doubt, about the involvement in one way or another of the Moroccan authorities," he told Cadena Ser radio.

World

Leaders of China, Russia and India are Among Heads of State Meeting to Counter US Influence

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, gestures while speaking to Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Sept. 16, 2022. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, gestures while speaking to Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Sept. 16, 2022. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
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Leaders of China, Russia and India are Among Heads of State Meeting to Counter US Influence

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, gestures while speaking to Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Sept. 16, 2022. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, gestures while speaking to Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Sept. 16, 2022. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

The leaders of China, Russia and India are among the heads of state gathering in Kyrgyzstan this week for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a group billed as a counterweight to US global influence.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are scheduled to attend the events in Bishkek, the capital of the Central Asian nation, The Associated Press said.

Multiple one-on-one meetings are scheduled on the sidelines, including one between Putin and Xi on Monday, as well as talks between the Russian leader and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday, the day of the official SCO sessions.

Russia, now 4½ years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and Iran, six months into a war with the United States and Israel, see the summit as an important platform to strengthen their relations with non-Western partners.

The SCO was founded in 2001 by China, Russia and four Central Asian states as a security forum. Over the past quarter-century, it has grown in size and influence, although its goals and programs remain vague and its brand recognition low.

It now includes 10 nations: Russia, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Many other countries have the status of “dialogue partners."

Along with Russia, China has presented the SCO as an alternative to Western-aligned organizations like the G7, and in recent years has wanted to expand the scope and influence of the organization, pledging development and financial assistance.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last week that the organization has successfully “explored a new path for regional cooperation.” Beijing has consistently promoted the idea of an alternative world order with Russia’s support.

Summit attendees have significant disagreements

For many SCO members, the summit will be an opportunity to show that they maintain strong ties on the global stage despite souring relations with the West.

The organization is not a unified political or military bloc, however, and analysts note that its members have significant disagreements and their own distinct interests.

For countries such as India, however, experts say the summit is likely to be more about optics and strategic signaling than substantive outcomes.

The forum is heavily influenced by China and includes Pakistan as a member — both of which are rivals for India.

Dinakar Peri, a fellow in security studies at Carnegie India, said the SCO gives India a seat at the table in a region increasingly shaped by competition among the larger powers, allowing it to protect its interests, track shifting geopolitical currents and project itself as a reliable stakeholder.

“While it may not entirely shape the agenda, it gives New Delhi a first-hand view of the region and allows it to hedge its position with others,” Peri said.

Türkiye, which holds partner status within the SCO, also seeks to use the platform to strengthen its position in the region.

It views SCO membership as part of a balanced foreign policy that seeks to maintain its traditional ties with the West as a part of NATO, while strengthening its influence in Eurasia.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who brought his country into the SCO as a “dialogue partner” in 2012, has repeatedly stated that he wants Türkiye to become a permanent member. While Türkiye has close trade ties with the European Union under a 1995 trade deal, its EU membership bid has stalled for more than 25 years.