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Iran Says to Discuss Hormuz with Gulf States in Oman on Monday

US and Iran flags are seen in this illustration taken June 18, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
US and Iran flags are seen in this illustration taken June 18, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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Iran Says to Discuss Hormuz with Gulf States in Oman on Monday

US and Iran flags are seen in this illustration taken June 18, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
US and Iran flags are seen in this illustration taken June 18, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Iran's foreign ministry said the country would meet with Gulf states in Oman on Monday to discuss the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which the Islamic republic has blockaded during the Middle East war.

"This meeting is intended to promote better understanding among the countries of the region and help strengthen shared regional security," the ministry said in a statement on Friday.

"Iraq and other littoral Persian Gulf states" will participate, it added, AFP reported.

Iran has been at war since February 28, when US-Israeli strikes killed its supreme leader.

Iran retaliated with attacks across the region and blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of world oil supplies previously flowed.

More than six months into the Middle East war, the blockade continues to drive up oil prices, which soared past $100 a barrel this week.

Oman and Iran, which both border the Strait of Hormuz, have been discussing for several weeks how the crucial waterway will be managed in the future.

The strait was free to transit before the war, but Iran now requires vessels to obtain permission and is considering a mechanism to impose service fees.

Ships that do not comply are regularly targeted by Iranian strikes, while the United States periodically bombs the Iranian coastline to challenge the Islamic republic's control of the strait.

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World

Trump Says US May Need to Strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain

US President Donald Trump speaks as members of professional police and firefighters' organizations eat lunch in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC., USA, 15 October 2026. EPA/TOM BRENNER / POOL
US President Donald Trump speaks as members of professional police and firefighters' organizations eat lunch in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC., USA, 15 October 2026. EPA/TOM BRENNER / POOL
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Trump Says US May Need to Strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain

US President Donald Trump speaks as members of professional police and firefighters' organizations eat lunch in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC., USA, 15 October 2026. EPA/TOM BRENNER / POOL
US President Donald Trump speaks as members of professional police and firefighters' organizations eat lunch in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC., USA, 15 October 2026. EPA/TOM BRENNER / POOL

President Donald Trump said the US may have to target Pickaxe Mountain, a site linked to Iran's nuclear program, as he aims to ensure Tehran does not get a nuclear weapon.

In an interview with Newsmax on Thursday night, Trump also said he would not use a nuclear weapon in the war on Iran, which began in February ⁠with US-Israeli strikes.

⁠Trump said the US wanted to make sure Iran will never have a nuclear weapon "because if they had it, they would use it."

"Their nuclear is buried under millions of tons of mountain. ⁠Now we're looking at Pickaxe Mountain. We may have to go there. We'll take a shot at that one. We'll knock it out fast," Trump told the news outlet.

Pickaxe Mountain is a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Tehran's main nuclear sites.

The US president said there was no need to use a ⁠nuclear bomb ⁠in Iran. "I wouldn't use nuclear. We don't have to."

Trump reiterated he was not considering using US ground troops in Iran.

Trump did not say if he had authorized the use of GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, also known as the "mother of all bombs," against Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites. He did say the MOAB bomb was not a nuclear bomb.

World

Trump's New Press Secretary Admits Failing Bar Exam

President Donald Trump speaks to the reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Washington, as White House press secretary Katie Zacharia looks on. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump speaks to the reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Washington, as White House press secretary Katie Zacharia looks on. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
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Trump's New Press Secretary Admits Failing Bar Exam

President Donald Trump speaks to the reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Washington, as White House press secretary Katie Zacharia looks on. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump speaks to the reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Washington, as White House press secretary Katie Zacharia looks on. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia acknowledged on Thursday that she had failed the bar exam, a prerequisite for practicing law in the United States, as her credentials face scrutiny.

Zacharia has described herself as a lawyer during television appearances and on social media, and listed herself as general counsel of a California-based conservative nonprofit.

But the legal credentials of the press secretary, who President Donald Trump appointed last week, were called into question after she gave an inconclusive answer about where she had passed the bar exam.

The 41-year-old graduated from Pepperdine University's law school in 2011, but obtaining a law degree does not automatically qualify someone to practice law.

In a Fox News interview on Thursday, host Sean Hannity asked Zacharia: "You took the bar exam, but you didn't pass the bar exam, correct?"

"Yes," she responded.

In a separate interview with conservative media outlet Real America's Voice on Thursday, Zacharia said she had registered to take the bar exam but was "distracted and overwhelmed" by plans to move to China with her husband.

"The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn't need the bar in China," AFP quoted her as saying.

Foreign nationals cannot sit China's bar exam, although they can undertake certain legal work at Chinese law firms.

Hannity later asked Zacharia if she had ever taken the bar exam a second time, to which she said: "I did not."

"I had four kids in six years," she said. "It was never my intent to go into the practice of law."

Zacharia said on Real America's Voice that "many people in the field" had assured her that she could "label myself a lawyer," given her law degree and experience in business law gained in China, where she worked at a Beijing law firm.

She added that she could "provide legal analysis, not legal advice."

"I was very careful how I executed this."

The Campaign for Accountability, a political ethics organization, called on Wednesday for the California Bar Association to launch an investigation.

"In California, calling yourself a lawyer without a license isn't puffery; it's a crime," the organization said in a press release.

Zacharia held her first White House press briefing on Tuesday with an unusually short press conference, answering questions from only three journalists.

She succeeded Karoline Leavitt, a loyal Trump supporter and often combative press secretary, who stepped down in August to care for her young children.

World

Teen Sentenced to 20 Years for UK Murder Plot Tied to Iran-linked Group

A red double-decker bus rides past as a Union Jack flag flutters on the Victoria Tower at the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, October 15, 2026. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
A red double-decker bus rides past as a Union Jack flag flutters on the Victoria Tower at the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, October 15, 2026. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
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Teen Sentenced to 20 Years for UK Murder Plot Tied to Iran-linked Group

A red double-decker bus rides past as a Union Jack flag flutters on the Victoria Tower at the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, October 15, 2026. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
A red double-decker bus rides past as a Union Jack flag flutters on the Victoria Tower at the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, October 15, 2026. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes

A Norwegian teenager who planned to commit murder in Britain after being recruited by a Swedish organized crime group linked to the Iranian government was on Friday sentenced to 20 years' detention.

Johannes Natland, now 19, was arrested in a hotel room in Huddersfield, northern England, in March ⁠2025 with two ⁠firearms and ammunition in his possession.

Natland was recruited by the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish organized crime group used by the Iranian state and sanctioned by ⁠both Britain and the United States, prosecutors said.

He admitted possessing a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and ammunition, but denied conspiracy to murder and claimed he did not intend to carry out the plan.

But he was convicted in July after a retrial ⁠and ⁠was sentenced at London's Woolwich Crown Court to detention for 20 years.

Natland was the latest young adult to stand trial in Britain and elsewhere over serious criminal acts allegedly carried out after being recruited online for money, often as an unwitting proxy for a foreign state.