U.S. and Iran close to a "peace arrangement or a deal," Pakistan says

Three Pakistani citizens were killed in an attack by Houthi rebels on a vessel in the Red Sea, the South Asian nation's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"Three Pakistani nationals have lost their lives and one has sustained injuries in the incident," minister Ishaq Dar posted on X, a day after Yemen's coastguard confirmed Houthi strikes on a vessel killed at least six people off the country's coast.

The price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard for oil, was up 0.9% at $89.67 early Wednesday. U.S. benchmark crude oil picked up 0.9% to $83.98.

Higher oil prices increase inflation, and they have sent the average cost for a gallon of regular gasoline to $4.01, according to AAA. That's up from less than $3.14 a year ago.

President Trump told reporters Tuesday that he followed the direction of the Secret Service when he secretly switched planes prior to taking off from Turkey last month after attending the NATO summit.

"It's only up to the Secret Service," Mr. Trump said in response to a question from CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes on the incident. "I just follow what they'd like to do, so I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say."

CBS News previously reported that on the tarmac of Ankara's airport on July 8, the president was secretly moved from Air Force One to another jet via an airport catering truck because U.S. intelligence had learned of a credible plot by Iran and its proxies to fire a missile at the plane Mr. Trump was departing Turkey from.

Asked by reporters Tuesday about the nature of the threat, Mr. Trump responded, "I guess there was a threat out there. I didn't really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats."

A former head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency on Tuesday claimed its spies had visited Iran's Fordo nuclear site "many times" in the past in order to better understand the facility.

"We toured the Fordow nuclear site many times to understand the site," Yossi Cohen, who led the Mossad between 2015 and 2021, said during a conference of local authorities on Tuesday, Israeli media reported.

Cohen, who is close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, didn't elaborate on when exactly the visits took place or who made them.

In June last year, Israel launched a war against Iran with the stated goal of degrading its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which it said posed an "existential threat." 

The United States military briefly joined Israel during the 12-day conflict, and used its advanced aircraft to bomb three Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. The U.S. alerted Israel ahead of the strikes, White House officials told CBS News at the time.

According to Israeli media, Cohen said, "The bombing of the site by the Americans was the fulfillment of all my dreams."

Iran's nuclear program has long been a major point of contention between it and the West, including in negotiations aimed at ending the current war that Israel and the U.S. launched against it in February.

Iran had rapidly increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in recent years. As of mid-June 2025, before U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities, Iran had enriched roughly 972 pounds, or more than 440 kilograms, of uranium up to 60% purity, according to estimates from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Tehran has denied that it is seeking to produce a nuclear bomb.

CBS/AFP

An American military helicopter struck a Panama-flagged vessel after it tried to bypass the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, U.S. Central Command said.

It was unclear if there were casualties from the attack after a U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles into the Vela Nova's engine room, according to CENTCOM. The ship's civilian crew allegedly ignored repeated warnings from U.S. forces as they attempted to transit the Gulf of Oman. 

"The ship is no longer transiting to Iran in violation of the U.S. blockade, which remains in full effect," CENTCOM said.

As of Tuesday, CENTCOM said it has disabled three non-compliant vessels, boarded two and redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting to run the U.S. blockade.

There have been some significant appointments from Iran's new — and still unseen — Supreme Leader,  Mojtaba Khamenei, as he continues to reshape the country's military and national security leadership.

Six senior military leaders were appointed in total, including Ali Abdollahi, who replaced Abdolrahim Mousavi as chief of staff of the armed forces.

Mohsen Rezaei has been appointed secretary of Iran's national security council, the Supreme National Security Council, or SNSC, on which he will also serve as a representative for Khamenei. Rezaei is one of the most experienced figures in the Islamic Republic's security establishment. He commanded the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, which is a branch of the Iranian military, for 16 years, including during much of the Iran-Iraq war.

Ahmad Vahidi,  another IRGC veteran and former Quds Force commander who previously served as both interior and defense minister, has also now been formally appointed commander-in-chief of the IRGC. He had already been serving in the role following the killing of Iranian military officer Mohammad Pakpour. 

Taken together, the appointments may signal the new supreme leader's move from succession to consolidation, as he places some of the Islamic Republic's most experienced military and security figures into key institutions that would manage both another confrontation and any eventual negotiations. They also suggest a tightening of coordination between the IRGC, the rest of the military and the country's broader national security apparatus, which is new.

The alleged Houthi strikes that left at least six people dead aboard a cargo vessel off Yemen are the first known deaths from Houthi attacks on shipping in the region, since the latest bout of fighting in the country began. 

The deadly incident in the Bab el-Mandeb strait came amid Houthi attacks on the government-held port city of Mokha on the Red Sea and other areas of the country, which killed dozens of government troops and civilians since last week, according to the Yemeni military.

The strikes are part of an escalation by the Houthis against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom's shipping in the Red Sea.

The Houthi attacks could reignite Yemen's civil war following a 2022 truce, and open a new front in the Middle East war.

Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the Houthis' chief negotiator and spokesperson, accused Saudi Arabia in a social media post of exploiting the ceasefire to tighten an air and sea blockade it imposed in 2015.

He said the Houthis are open for negotiations but any settlement must include lifting the blockade.

CBS/AP

Iran is rejecting comments by President Trump, saying that since Iran is seeking compensation as part of any peace talks, he'll demand the same.

The Trump administration is hoping that months of bombing have pushed Iran's economy to a breaking point that will force its leadership to cave to demands to end its nuclear program and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil and natural gas tankers.

The president on Monday said that since Iran is seeking compensation as part of any peace talks, he now intends to demand the same for the U.S. side. It's part of a larger pivot this weekend by Trump to argue that Iran is now on the cusp of financially collapsing, even though it has already endured decades of financial sanctions, which are often a longer-term strategy rather than an immediate tool of warfare that can halt a conflict.

The shift comes as U.S. stockpiles of key weapons have dwindled and as stop-start talks seem again to have stalled. But Trump insists the pressure can lead to a breakthrough.

At least six people were killed in alleged strikes by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on a cargo vessel Tuesday near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, off Yemen's southern coast, the country's coast guard said Tuesday. The latest death toll was slightly higher than one given earlier in the day by Yemen's Saudi-backed transport ministry, which said at least four had been killed.

The strikes are the latest in a number of deadly attacks against shipping in the entrance to the Red Sea since the Houthis announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia last month.

The coast guard from Yemen's internationally recognized government said four sailors aboard the cargo vessel — identified as the Tihamah — were among the dead along with two members of the forces deployed during a rescue mission to evacuate the ship.

The initial salvo targeting the ship "caused a fire to break out aboard the vessel and inflicted extensive damage, in addition to causing deaths and injuries among its crew, including three Pakistani nationals and one Indonesian national killed," the coast guard said in a statement.  

A second strike targeted the vessel as rescue workers carried out a mission to evacuate the ship.

"The attack struck the site of the rescue operation and resulted in deaths and injuries among the forces participating in the response operation," the coast guard added, saying 10 people were injured over the course of the strikes.

The statement came hours after the Yemen government's transport ministry accused the Houthis of launching the strikes that hit the vessel, which arrived in Mokhata, Yemen, on Aug. 8 and didn't broadcast a signal until the night of Aug. 10, according to maritime tracking records reviewed by CBS News.

CBS/AFP

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei ordered on Monday the merger of the Central Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters and the General Staff of the Armed Forces, bringing together two main pillars of the country's defense command structure.

In his decree appointing Maj. Gen. Abdollahi as chief of staff of the armed forces, Khamenei set the merger as a key objective "expected to be fully realized."

Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters was established in February 1984 to create a joint command between the Army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 

The General Command of the Armed Forces was established in 1989 to provide overall coordination of the armed forces.

The IRGC's Telegram channel reported Tuesday that the need to merge the two structures became more prominent following the deaths of Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of general staff, and Maj. Gens. Rashid and Shadmani, commanders of Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters, during the 12-day war.

The report added that the objective is to reduce the distance between the "staff" and the "battlefield."

"In new wars, which involve the air, missile, drone, cyber and intelligence domains, speed of decision-making and coordination among the sectors is vital," it said.

The merger has been described within Iran as one of the most significant changes to the command structure of the country's armed forces since the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq War.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters on Tuesday that his country had "astonished the whole world" in the war against the United States and Israel, proving "that it is a tough and invincible power."

"Our armed forces made tremendous sacrifices and managed to incapacitate and defeat what was ostensibly the largest army in the world. This is not a slogan; it is a reality that the entire world is acknowledging," Araghchi said.

"In the recent war, it was the Islamic Republic of Iran that proved itself to the world and demonstrated that it is a resilient and invincible power," he said. "I have heard this repeatedly from foreign ministers and officials from other countries: 'You Iranians have achieved something extraordinary.' Those are their exact words. You astonished the entire world."

Iran has refused to back down on demands that the U.S. end its blockade of Iranian ports, lift sanctions on the Islamic Republic and fulfill other conditions before Tehran will consider reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran effectively closed the strait after Israel and the U.S. attacked the country on Feb. 28. Attacks on the key waterway — through which roughly one-fifth of the world's traded oil supplies passed before the war — and uncertainty around its future have kept energy prices a major focus of U.S. politics ahead of November's midterm elections.

CBS/AP

Wall Street stocks were mixed early Tuesday as Treasury yields and oil prices eased ahead of key U.S. inflation data.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4% at 54,193.86.

The broad-based S&P 500 was unchanged at 7,752.26, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.3% to 26,523.91.

Major U.S. indices dipped Monday as oil prices shot higher on escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran over efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

But oil prices edged lower on Tuesday.

This week's inflation reports will serve as inputs to the Federal Reserve on possible interest rate changes at meetings in September and later in the year.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran on Tuesday afternoon for talks.

He also spoke to Iran's Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni, state broadcaster IRIB reported.

Pakistan's defense minister told Bloomberg in Islamabad on Tuesday that the U.S. and Iran are close to "some sort of an arrangement."

"Things are shaping up again in favor of a peace arrangement or a deal," he said. "The signals in the last two three days are that we are close to some sort of an arrangement."

A Houthi missile attack on a commercial vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb strait Tuesday killed four crew members and wounded four others, according to Yemen's Saudi-backed transport ministry.

The ship, the Tihamah, which was carrying food supplies, was struck by three ballistic missiles, causing a fire and damage to the vessel, the ministry said. Three Pakistanis and one Indonesian were killed. One member of the rescue team was also wounded, according to the ministry.

The ministry said another missile was fired at the vessel as rescue teams attempted to reach the crew and evacuate the wounded.

Maritime tracking records reviewed by CBS News show the vessel arrived in Mokhata, Yemen, on Aug. 8 and didn't broadcast a signal until the night of Aug. 10.

A Saudi drone has targeted Yemen's Saada governorate, the Iranian-backed Houthis said Tuesday.

The Houthi media center said in a post on X that a Saudi drone dropped two shells on the Ghor al-Mashwat area in Yemen's northeastern Saada governorate, which is under Houthi control.

No further details were given.

Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told Bloomberg news in Islamabad on Tuesday that the U.S. and Iran are close to "some sort of an arrangement."

"Things are shaping up again in favor of a peace arrangement or a deal," he said. "The signals in the last two three days are that we are close to some sort of an arrangement."

Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Raza Naqvi has arrived in Tehran for talks with Iranian officials, Iran's semi-official MEHR news agency reported Tuesday.

Pakistan has been mediating between the U.S. and Iran throughout the conflict, alongside Oman and Qatar, to try to bring the two sides to some sort of lasting peace agreement.

A cargo vessel was hit by a projectile near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the coast of southern Yemen, causing an unspecified number of casualties, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported on Tuesday.

"It has been reported that a cargo vessel in the southern Red Sea has been hit by an unknown projectile resulting in casualties," the British military agency said in a statement.

Separately, Greek maritime firm Marisks issued a security alert Tuesday saying a Saudi-owned commercial vessel had "reportedly been struck by a missile" while transiting the Bab el-Mandeb.

"Initial reports indicate three crew fatalities – two Pakistani and one Indonesian national," wrote Marisks, without specifying where the reports were coming from.

It is not clear whether the incidents that UKMTO and Marisks issued alerts about were the same. 

CBS/AFP

An Israeli attack on southern Lebanon wounded two people on Tuesday and damaged an ambulance, the Lebanese health ministry said, condemning the "continued targeting" of rescuers.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the strike targeted a vehicle in the southern city of Nabatieh, with the health ministry reporting two wounded.

The ministry said the Israeli military struck again when rescuers from the Risala Scouts Association, linked to the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement, came to the scene, damaging the ambulance.

"The ministry reiterates its condemnation of the enemy's continued targeting of rescue teams, which constitutes an unacceptable violation of international humanitarian law and all international norms," the health ministry said.

Lebanon's civil defence meanwhile said that its personnel were targeted by an Israeli drone strike while they were trying to extinguish a bushfire, also in the Nabatieh area.

No one was wounded, but the incident forced them to leave.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran.

Israel responded with heavy air strikes and a ground invasion that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,300 people.

While violence has significantly decreased since the signing of a U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding in June and a framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel days later, Beirut still reports intermittent Israeli strikes and demolitions.

The Israel-Lebanon deal involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region.

Hezbollah rejects the deal and refuses to disarm. It has called negotiations with Israel "appeasement."

CBS/AFP

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels renewed their attacks Tuesday on government-controlled areas in Yemen as ongoing violence threatened to reignite the country's civil war and raised fears over new threats to shipping lanes.

Yemen's military said the rebels targeted both the port city of Mokha on the Red Sea coast and the central province of Marib with missiles and drones, but did not provide further details.

The Houthis struck Marib and the eastern province of Hadramout last week, killing dozens of government troops and civilians. They hit Mokha with missiles and drones over the weekend and killed at least seven people, including three troops, according to the Yemeni military.

Mokha is a main port under Yemen's internationally recognized government and has been renovated to handle shipping to avoid the Houthi-held port of Hodeida.

The strikes came as part of a recent escalation by the Houthis against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the internationally recognized Yemeni government, and the kingdom's shipping in the Red Sea.

With the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down by Iran, there has been a renewed focus on the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait at Yemen's southern tip, which is an alternate route for Saudi Arabia to ship its oil to open oceans.

The Houthi attacks could reignite Yemen's civil war after a four-year hiatus following a 2022 truce, and open a new front in the Middle East war.

CBS/AP

Oil prices extended a strong rally Tuesday as hopes for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz faded, fanning fresh inflation fears and ramping up bets on at least one U.S. interest rate hike this year.

Crude has surged more than 10% over the past week, with the United States and Iran appearing no closer to a deal on the crucial waterway despite upbeat comments from the White House earlier in the month.

In the latest blow to a possible ceasefire, President Trump said Monday he would seek compensation from Iran for damage caused by the conflict as part of any peace negotiations, citing attacks and killings stretching back decades allegedly backed or perpetrated by Tehran.

On Monday, both main crude contracts jumped around 5%. They rose more than 2% on Tuesday, with Brent edging back toward $90 a barrel.

"In the absence of any positive headlines on negotiations to reopen the strait, pressure on oil prices has been upward," wrote Jason Wong at Bank of New Zealand.

And Stephen Innes, global strategist at Quintex Intel, said: "In effect, both sides are trying to weaponize the oil barrel without firing another shot. Washington is trying to choke Iran's ability to get its crude out while Tehran is squeezing the artery through which everybody else's crude gets through.

"It is quite the game of chicken."

The prospect of oil prices remaining elevated for the time being has revived concerns over inflation and boosted the chances of interest rate increases in the U.S.

CBS/AFP

Shortly before Air Force One took off from Turkey at the end of last month's NATO summit, President Trump secretly slipped away from the presidential jet and was whisked to another plane with the help of an airport catering truck, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the matter.

The ruse was employed because the U.S. had learned of a threat from Iran and its allied proxies. U.S. intelligence had detected a credible plot to fire a missile at the plane Mr. Trump was on as he left the Turkish capital of Ankara, CBS News reported exclusively.

The president had expressed awareness of the risks posed by the U.S.-Iran war, calling himself Iran's "number one target" during the NATO summit.

Read more here.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for the price of oil, was unchanged at $87.72 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude also was flat at $82.13 a barrel, after surging 5% on Monday.

The price swung between $72 and $102 last month as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach an agreement that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Middle East again to deliver crude worldwide.

After Iran made compensation for war damage one of its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump responded with his own demand for compensation Monday.

"I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts," Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

The president said the families of the 17 U.S. sailors killed in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen as well as "thousands of others killed in combat" should be included.

He also said Iran should pay "the families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent protesters that Iran has killed over the last 50 years, not to mention the 52,000 that have been killed in the last five months."

Mr. Trump said he's instructed his representatives "to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations."

President Trump told reporters Monday the U.S. controls the Strait of Hormuz, calling the U.S. naval blockade on Iran a "steel wall."

"The only one that has control of the Strait of Hormuz right now is the United States Navy. We have a blockade that's been infallible," Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

The president said some ships are transiting through the narrow waterway through which around 20% of the world's oil supply passed before the war began on Feb. 28. 

Iran has previously mirrored those claims, insisting it controls the waterway and occasionally attacking ships that attempt the crossing. Mr. Trump added that Iran "can make trouble, but they're broke."