Trump Insists Iran Cannot Have Nuclear Weapon

President Donald Trump has insisted that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon as strikes have spread across the Middle East. The US leader appeared to backtrack from an earlier threat of massive strikes and said that discussions had been going well. They are talking to us right now. They’d love to make a deal. I don’t think they’re ready to. I don’t think it’s time yet, but I’m willing to listen, he said in remarks at the White House on Friday.

Conflict has spread across the Middle East as Yemen’s Houthi rebel group and Saudi Arabia exchanged strikes overnight. The Houthis claimed responsibility for an attack on the southern Saudi city of Jizan after targets in the Yemeni port city of Hodeida and a nearby island were hit by Saudi on Friday. Accusing Riyadh of a dangerous escalation, they had warned the attacks would not go unanswered.

The Houthis have threatened a maritime blockade in the Red Sea, impacting Saudi shipping. The US and Israel deny committing war crimes. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson has hit out at the European Union’s Kaja Kallas after she expressed concerns about human rights in the country. On Saturday, Esmail Baghaei, wrote in a post on X: Kaja Kalals speaks of the European Union’s human rights concerns regarding Iran.

The Iranian army said it had attacked US military equipment depots at Al-Adiri, officially named Camp Buehring, in northern Kuwait, and the positions of US troops at Camp Arifjan and at Camp Doha, near Kuwait City. In the early evening, Kuwait said its air defences were intercepting hostile targets launched from Iran. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had significantly damaged a surveillance tower used by the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.

The Houthi attacks forced several other tankers to turn around and head north through the Suez Canal, which would be a much longer route to Asia, by sailing around Africa. Still, half of the 18 ships exiting Bab el-Mandeb on Thursday were carrying crude oil, including two Chinese supertankers, while the number of tankers crossing through the Strait of Hormuz fell to just one, the lowest since 7 May.

Sources said Pakistan was exploring a path towards resuming stalled talks between the US and Iran to end the war, after China initiated a push. Exploratory discussions took place during a visit by Iran’s interior minister Eskandar Momeni to Islamabad this week — his second in the last 10 days, three Pakistani sources said.