Live Updates: Trump says U.S. keeping Iran war at "status quo" but warns American military "locked and loaded"

European Union nations have not made any commitments on bolstering security in the Red Sea, Italy's defense minister said Tuesday.

"I have yet to see anything concrete," Guido Crosetto told the Reuters news agency.

Crosetto in September called on the EU to boost security as part of its Aspides mission, the aim of which is to protect commercial shipping from coming under fire by Iran or its Yemeni allies, the Houthi rebels, in the Red Sea and surrounding waters.

The Houthis intensified attacks in the Red Sea, targeting Saudi-linked vessels over the summer, in response to Saudi Arabia's backing of Yemeni government forces in the country's decade-long civil war.

Crosetto told Reuters that despite the lack of progress, the EU's senior diplomat Kaja Kallas "fully understood" the importance of the request. In September she wrote to the 27 EU member states to ask them to boost their contributions to the initiative.

"About one-third of European operations depend on Italy's contribution," said Crosetto. "Other ‌countries, far larger than us, contribute much, much less."

"If it is right to invest in missions, then it is right that everyone contributes," he added.

Iran has rejected what it described as "baseless accusations" that it was behind a cyberattack targeting commercial refrigeration units in hundreds of grocery stores across France last month. 

The Iranian foreign ministry, in a statement on Tuesday, said it "strongly rejects the baseless accusations made by the French government against Iran concerning alleged involvement in sabotage activities in France."

Tehran claimed the allegations were "being made with the aim of diverting public opinion away from France's destructive policies in West Asia and the region surrounding Iran" and "an attempt to conceal its own weaknesses in governance, its inability to meet the demands of its people, and its shortcomings in addressing the country's energy crisis."

On Monday, the Paris Prosecutor's Office said investigators had evidence that Iran was behind the Oct. 11 hack, which spoiled tons of food and caused about 20 fires. It accused a cyber unit of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of carrying out the costly attack. 

The hack struck major supermarket chains, hitting "700 retail locations across France," according to the prosecutor's office. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that he saw no need to resume major combat operations against Iran because economic sanctions and other restrictions were working so effectively.

"The economic campaign [against Iran] is so devastating that right now there is no need for major combat operations," Rubio said after a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Paris. "That's what I told our allies here today."

President Trump "has concluded that for the time being there is no need for major combat operations because we are achieving the same objective by economic means," Rubio said.

But if Iran crosses "red lines," the "U.S. military stands ready," Rubio added, warning of a "terrible price" for Tehran.

European members of the G7 had pressed Rubio at the meeting in Paris to avoid any new escalation against Iran.

Mr. Trump said Monday the U.S. was keeping the Iran war at "status quo," but warned that American forces were "locked and loaded."

CBS/AFP

Iran's Houthi allies have denied targeting Saudi Arabia's East-West oil pipeline in the Medina region, saying they instead targeted the vital piece of infrastructure near the Saudi capital Riyadh.

The Saudi energy ministry said Monday that a "limited fire" had broken out on a section of the pipeline after it was targeted, saying there were no deaths or injuries.

In a post on X Tuesday, Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the group had struck "several pumping stations" along the pipeline in the Riyadh area, but added: "The Saudi enemy's latest false accusation – that we targeted the East-West pipeline in Medina – is a blatant and enormous lie."

The Saudis have accused the Houthis of targeting Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities in Islam, multiple times since the fighting between the two sides reignited in summer, which the Houthis have stringently denied.

An attack on the pipeline in September, which Saudi Arabia blamed on Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, put the pipeline out of action for several weeks.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, facing an impeachment effort by the soon to be-Democratically controlled U.S. Congress, repeated his frequent claim on Tuesday that the U.S. had won the war with Iran. Even as Tehran claimed four more ships were stopped by attacks, Hegseth declared the Strait of Hormuz under U.S. control.

"In Operation Epic Fury, by every measure, we achieved a historic MILITARY VICTORY," Hegseth said in remarks during a briefing that the Pentagon shared on social media.

"Their navy sunk. Their air force grounded. Their defense industrial base — gone. More than 80 percent of their nuclear industrial base — gone. Their military in ruin. The ironclad blockade, UNBROKEN," declared Hegseth, adding: "We control the Strait of Hormuz."

All of the embattled defense chief's assertions have been disputed by Iran, where officials claimed only a month ago that the Islamic Republic's weapons production capacity had increased by 250% since the war began, with help from Russia and China.

The commander of the U.S. military's Central Command said he had flown over the Strait of Hormuz in October and seen no Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels, and he declared U.S.-protected shipping lanes through the vital waterway "free and clear." But Iran has continued to claim daily attacks on commercial vessels that use those shipping lanes, both with missiles and sea mines.

On Iran's nuclear program, much of it was seriously damaged a year before the U.S. and Israel launched the current war, when they carried out a series of previous strikes in June 2025. U.N. experts believe Iran still has about 972 pounds of 60% enriched uranium, a short step away from the 90% enrichment levels needed for high-yield military warheads, but that it is likely buried under one of the facilities damaged in 2025.  

Iran has not, after more than eight months of war, agreed to any renewed monitoring of its nuclear program, or to the removal of its highly-enriched uranium, as part of any potential peace deal.

A top Iranian security official claimed late Monday that the U.S. has been "wrecked" by its war against Iran and declared it time for the Trump administration to "surrender" and accept Tehran's terms to end the conflict.

Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, said on X that the U.S. must accept the seven conditions Iran has repeatedly laid out as its core terms for any peace deal.

"The war on Iran has already wrecked the U.S. government. But Washington flails like a desperate gambler. FOLD YOUR HAND. STOP manufacturing FAKE NEWS about imaginary talks. Stop denying the West Asian NEW ORDER," he wrote. "Time to SURRENDER to the seven conditions Iran has repeatedly set out."

President Trump told reporters in Washington on Monday that he believed the war with Iran "militarily, is effectively over," suggesting that, for now, he is not prepared to resume airstrikes.

Iran's longstanding demands, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed this week as "unacceptable," include an end to the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and vessels, an end to fighting on all fronts, including Israel's war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil and gas sales and release of Iranian state funds held abroad, war reparations and other measures.

CBS/AFP

The European Union said Tuesday that it was ready to mount a fast and "united response" after France blamed Iran for a cyberattack that targeted hundreds of grocery stores in the country last month.

"We acknowledge that France has attributed this to Iran. Pending discussions with member states, we, as the European Union, stand ready to come with a swift and united response," EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni said.

The Paris prosecutor's office said Monday that French officials believed a cyber unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had carried out the Oct. 11 hacks that caused temperatures in refrigeration units at some 700 grocery stores to surge, wasting tons of food and causing about 20 fires.

CBS/AFP

Multiple explosions were heard over Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh early Tuesday, as the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis said it shot down a missile targeting the city, which has suffered weeks of disruptive attacks.

Journalists working for the French news agency AFP heard several blasts as residents received a cell phone alert urging them to shelter from an "aerial threat." The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a ballistic missile.

"Air defenses intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi militia towards Riyadh," the coalition posted on X.

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has faced near-daily Houthi strikes since early October, including attacks that killed 20 people and closed Riyadh's airport for two weeks.

CBS/AFP

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed Tuesday that two more oil tankers attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz were "halted by powerful explosions and left burning."

The IRGC said in a statement that one of the vessels struck a naval mine, while the other was under the protection of U.S. fighter jets when it "suffered an incident and was brought to a halt at its location amid a massive fire."

Both Iran and the U.S. have been attacking ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz for weeks, accusing the vessels of breaching their respective restrictions on access to the waterway. 

The IRGC said the tankers affected Tuesday had been traveling through what Tehran considers unauthorized shipping lanes close to Oman's coast in the southern part of the vital waterway, which the U.S. insists are safe and open. 

Iran has warned repeatedly that the southern route is "unsafe" and that all vessels working with the U.S. "will meet the same fate."

The price of oil continued its more than week-long downward trend Tuesday, as markets appeared optimistic that a return to a full-scale U.S. war with Iran was not imminent.

The price of Brent crude, the international standard, hovered around $90 per barrel Tuesday morning after briefly dropping below the price point for the first time since the end of August. 

U.S. benchmark crude oil was down 2.2% to $84.94 per barrel.

The fall in global oil prices has come as President Trump makes repeated comments signalling hope for a diplomatic resolution to the war with Iran.

He has not ruled out the possibility of more U.S. strikes, but told CBS' 60 Minutes in an interview aired Sunday that he did not see "any reason" to escalate the war at present. 

Mr. Trump then said on Monday, after meeting the prime minister of Qatar, who has been a key mediator between the two sides, that the war "militarily, is effectively over," and that he believed there was "positive momentum" toward a deal to end the eight-month conflict.

He called a resumption of U.S. strikes "highly unlikely," but said the U.S. remained "locked and loaded" should circumstances on the ground change.

CBS/AP

President Trump expressed hope that the U.S. and Iran can make a deal.

"Look, Iran, I hope we're going to be able to make a deal with them," Mr. Trump said during an impromptu news conference. "But nothing's going to happen. And if we have to, we'll take very serious. We are so loaded."

The average price of a gallon of gas could drop below $4 as soon as Tuesday, the first time prices at the pump have been that low since July.

As of Monday, AAA lists the national average price for a gallon of regular gas at $4.0093. That's down over 36 cents from a month ago and 16 cents from a week ago.

Diesel prices have not fallen as fast, dropping only about 10 cents in the last month and remaining about $2.44 a gallon higher than a year ago. But diesel is down from its all-time high set on Sept. 22.

The relative status quo in the Iran war has kept gas prices from spiking, and investor optimism that the midterm election results will mean an end to the conflict has pushed the price of U.S. crude oil below $90 a barrel.

Prices traditionally decline in the fall and winter because of a switch to the less expensive winter-blend gasoline and Americans are generally driving less. At the same time, refinery maintenance season is ending, so capacity and production increases, and more supply becomes available.

President Trump said Monday the U.S. was keeping the Iran war at "status quo" but warned that American forces were "locked and loaded."

"Iran, militarily, is effectively over. We're just keeping it the status quo. And we're doing that really at the behest of countries that are their neighbors," Mr. Trump told reporters.

Mr. Trump also warned that the U.S. was "fully locked and loaded with the best equipment ever made" if the situation were to change.

"We don't think there's going to be any reason to use it however," Mr. Trump said.

Updated articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were introduced on the House floor Monday, restarting a two-day clock for GOP leaders to schedule a vote.

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky had introduced articles of impeachment against the defense secretary in September. House GOP leaders recessed the chamber early, pushing off a vote on the issue until November. Massie introduced a new resolution to comply with parliamentary procedure, according to a source familiar with the effort.

In a 34-page impeachment resolution with eight articles, Massie accused Hegseth of high crimes and misdemeanors. Three articles accuse him of abusing the powers of the Department of Defense by waging war against Iran without congressional authorization.

Read more here.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he's not worried about a vote on articles of impeachment that could happen in the House as early as this week.

"We're not worried about that," Hegseth told reporters Monday.

He said he planned to hold a news conference on the impeachment effort Tuesday morning.

Read more here.

A tanker that was ablaze in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday was attacked, a British naval agency said Monday.

In a post on X, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said that military authorities had reported the vessel was on fire, forcing the crew to evacuate, and that it had reclassified the incident as an attack.

The incident took place 8 nautical miles north of Khasab, Oman.

UKMTO did not give any details on the potential perpetrator or the vessel.

Meanwhile, Iran's state broadcaster IRIB said Monday that four tankers had been halted in the Strait of Hormuz over the preceding 24 hours. In a post on X, IRIB said the ships were "brought to a standstill," without offering any further detail.

Both Iran and the U.S. have attacked ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz that they consider to be breaching their respective restrictions on the waterway.

Saudi Arabia's crucial East-West Crude Oil Pipeline has been targeted again, the kingdom's energy ministry said Monday. In a post on X, the ministry said a "limited fire" broke out on a section of the pipeline in the Medina region, and that no deaths or injuries were reported.

There was also "no disruption to the pipeline's operations," the statement added.

An attack on the pipeline in September, which Saudi Arabia blamed on Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, put the pipeline out of action for several weeks.

Saudi authorities did not say who they suspected to have carried out Monday's attack on the pipeline.

Saudi Arabia is the top crude oil producer in the world besides the United States, and it has used the East-West pipeline as a vital workaround to export its products given insecurity for tankers in the Persian Gulf amid the U.S. war with Iran.

French officials believe Iran was behind nationwide cyberattacks on commercial refrigeration in October, the Paris Prosecutor's office said Monday, accusing a cyber unit of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of carrying out the costly hacks. 

The Oct. 11 hacking attack struck major supermarket chains across the country, hitting "700 retail locations across France," according to the prosecutor's office, which said the attack caused "significant food spoilage and triggered roughly twenty fires" as the temperatures in refrigeration units shot up.

The attacks on the French grocery store chains were followed weeks later by similar hacks affecting refrigerators and freezers at supermarkets in Belgium, Luxembourg and Sweden. 

In August, refrigeration outages at six U.S. military bases sparked an ongoing investigation by the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division, Thomas Hamilton, a public affairs officer for the department, told CBS News.

Read more here.

A senior official from the United Arab Emirates said Monday that the U.S.-Iran war was unlikely to be decisively settled for a "long period."

Dr. Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the president and a senior figure within the administration of the United Arab Emirates, said Iran was facing "one of the most serious challenges" in its history, with an ailing economy, pressure on its leadership and a "fundamental dispute" with the U.S. and international community over its nuclear capabilities.

"These factors make a comprehensive political settlement difficult," he said, referring to the ongoing war. "We should therefore prepare for a long period of uncertainty in which neither a decisive resolution nor a stable regional order can be taken for granted."

The UAE always opposed the war, he added in his remarks at the Abu Dhabi Strategic Debate event on Monday, according to a transcript provided by the Emirati foreign ministry. 

"Our assessment was guided by a fundamental understanding of the region. Wars begin through deliberate decisions, but their consequences rarely remain within the calculations of those who initiate them," he said.

Gargash said it was "perhaps too early to fully assess the impact of the U.S. midterm elections on Washington's approach toward Iran," and added that the UAE would "reinforce efforts to pursue diplomatic solutions that can ensure lasting peace and stability in the Gulf."

Authorities in the city of Khor Fakkan closed a beach Monday after an oil spill was found along the coastline of the United Arab Emirates city, which is only about 20 miles south of the Strait of Hormuz. 

Reuters cited a notice posted by municipal authorities on social media announcing the closure, without providing any further details. 

Numerous oil tankers and other commercial vessels have been attacked and disabled during the war by both Iran and the United States, each claiming to act in enforcement of their respective restrictions on the key shipping lanes of the Strait.

Most of the ships that have been hit by missiles or sea mines in the southern waters of the strait, in or near shipping lanes close to the Omani and UAE coasts, have been struck by Iran. Tehran rejects the southern routes endorsed by the U.S., warning ships against using the lanes and demanding that they instead transit the strait via northern routes closer to its coast.

Syria's foreign minister said Monday that his country has no troops deployed in Yemen and is not planning to send any. His remarks came several days after Yemeni sources told the French news agency AFP that Syrian soldiers were in Yemen and Saudi Arabia to support the Saudi-backed coalition fighting Iran's Houthi rebel allies.

"There is no deployment of troops to Yemen nor is there a plan for such deployment in the near future," Asaad al-Shaibani said at a Monday news conference.

AFP quoted Yemeni officials on Friday as saying thousands of Syrian troops were set to deploy to both countries, and that some were already there. The report cited an agreement reportedly reached during a meeting last week between Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. 

CBS/AFP 

The United Nations' international nuclear watchdog agency carried out an inspection of an Iranian nuclear site, the country's foreign ministry spokesperson said Monday.

Esmaeil Baqaei told Iranian journalists that the International Atomic Energy Agency conducted an inspection "a few days ago" in the city of Bushehr, which is home to the country's only civilian nuclear power plant.

President Trump has previously said he launched the war alongside Israel in February to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Tehran, for its part, has repeatedly insisted it only uses nuclear materials for civilian purposes such as energy generation and medical work.

Iran suspended IAEA inspections at all of its facilities in the wake of June 2025 strikes on many sites by the U.S. and Israel.

Last week the U.S. military's Central Command announced a reward of up to $20 million for information about Iran's nuclear program. 

Iran's state broadcaster IRIB said Monday that four tankers had been "halted" in the Strait of Hormuz over the preceding 24 hours. In a post on X, IRIB said the ships were "brought to a standstill," without offering any further detail.

Both Iran and the U.S. have attacked ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz that they consider to be breaching their respective restrictions on the waterway. 

Iran demands that all commercial vessels coordinate with its security forces to use shipping lanes in the north of the strait, close to its shores, and it has launched missiles at some it accuses of using southern routes that the U.S. insists are safe and open. Iranian authorities have claimed multiple times in recent weeks that ships using the southern routes have hit sea mines, causing fires. 

The U.S. insists the southern routes are safe and open despite the ongoing attacks on ships using them, while American forces have attacked some commercial vessels accused of violating the U.S. military blockade of Iran's ports and vessels, intended to prevent the regime's sale of oil and gas.

On Saturday, U.S. Central Command said it disabled a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Oman, just east of the strait, after the crew "ignored repeated warnings and attempted to violate the naval blockade against Iran multiple times."

The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell 2% early Monday morning to $96.38 per barrel, continuing a downward trend seen for more than a week as markets appeared to take hope from President Trump casting doubt on a return to full-scale war with Iran. 

U.S. benchmark crude also fell, down 1.5% early Monday to $89.56 per barrel.

Oil prices have been up significantly since the U.S. and Israel launched the war with Iran, and Iran responded by attacking and threatening commercial ships in the key energy supply routes of the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz. They remain about 50% higher than a year ago, before the war began, but down from highs seen during the peak of fighting, when Brent crude soared to near $120 a barrel.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said Monday that Tehran's proposal to reduce the implementation period for a possible peace deal with the U.S. to two days from the previous seven was a "sign of goodwill."

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told Iranian journalists that any deal with the U.S. must include the core conditions both sides agreed to under the previous, so-called Islamabad agreement in June. That deal called for the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Iran as well as the U.S. naval blockade of Iran's ports, unfreezing Iranian assets and a ceasefire on all fronts in the Middle East.

"If the other side is genuinely even minimally serious, Iran can fulfill its own commitments within two days," he added. "We have already demonstrated that we are serious about fulfilling our commitments."

The previous ceasefire fell apart after several weeks, as Iran declared the continuation of the U.S. naval blockade a violation of its terms. 

On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed the likelihood of an imminent deal with Iran, calling Tehran's demands "unacceptable." 

The Trump administration has been pushing for Iran to agree to conditions on its nuclear program as part of an initial peace agreement, but Tehran has long insisted discussion on the topic can begin only after fighting and threats cease.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio tempered expectations of an imminent deal between Iran and the U.S. late Sunday.

Before departing to Paris for a G7 meeting, Rubio said the two sides are not "at the verge of a breakthrough," while reiterating the president prefers a diplomatic solution.

"Right now, it hasn't been very productive because the Iranian demands are simply not just unacceptable," Rubio told reporters.

He said he expects G7 allies to have a lot of questions about the conflict and next steps.

CBS/AFP

President Trump is to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at the White House on Monday.

Qatar has been one of the key mediators in indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran aimed at reaching a deal to end the conflict.

According to sources cited by Axios, Al Thani, who is one of the key mediators in those talks, is looking to Mr. Trump to allow more time for diplomacy.

President Trump said in an interview aired on Sunday that he sees no reason to escalate the war on Iran and that he is "not looking" to do so.

"Well, I'm not looking to. I don't think there's any reason to," Mr. Trump told 60 Minutes when asked whether he was planning to intensify the war.

However, the president emphatically defended his decision to start the conflict in late February, while recognizing there have been negative impacts in the meantime.

"I think, historically, this will be a very good decision," Mr. Trump said. "Is it a good decision for today and tomorrow? Maybe not."

The president cited Iran's nuclear program as the main reason for starting the war, adding that he had done "what's right for our country."

See more from Mr. Trump's 60 Minutes interview and read the full transcript here.

President Trump said Sunday that the new U.S. military task force to extend the Iran naval blockade "is in full force and effect."

"Task Force Iron Gate is in full force and effect in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Coupled with history's greatest Naval Blockade, very little gets into, or out of, Iran!" Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Task Force Iron Gate is aimed at extending the success of the naval blockade to overland routes of trade, U.S. Central Command announced Saturday.

The group will be tasked with preventing military technology and illegal revenue streams from entering or exiting Iranian borders, including via the Caspian Sea, but it was unclear if any military force would be brought to bear.