Iran-US war latest: Trump denies offering Tehran sanctions relief to rein in its nuclear programme

Donald Trump has rejected reports that Washington had offered Tehran sanctions relief.

Trump dismissed reports that his administration had offered Iran access to frozen funds or sanctions concessions in exchange for nuclear commitments.

Both Axios and CNN cited US officials as saying the Trump administration was preparing to offer sanctions relief in exchange for “concrete” steps to rein in Iran’s nuclear programme.

“This is untrue. I offered them NOTHING,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump did confirm on Monday that US officials had spoken with mediators in New York, as he insisted the US will win its war in Iran “very soon”.

Speaking to reporters from the Oval Office, the US president promised the price of gas would come tumbling down after the war, adding he believed it would be over “quickly”.

“We’re going to ‌win, as far ‌as I’m concerned, it’s going to be ⁠one way or the other,” Mr Trump said. “It’s going to go pretty quickly.”

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran was prepared for a “doomsday” war with the US, while at the same time keeping channels for diplomacy open.

An Iranian appeals court has upheld a sentence of 74 lashes against singer Parastoo Ahmadi for performing without the mandatory hijab, her lawyers said.

Ahmadi, 29, performed in a sleeveless dress during a YouTube livestream in December 2024, prompting legal proceedings.

A court in Qom convicted her and eight members of her team on charges including “offending public decency” through “obscene and indecent material”.

Their appeal was “rejected” without a hearing, according to her lawyers.

One lawyer said: “In our view, holding the concert was not a crime at all,” while Amnesty International warned that “flogging constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, and violates the absolute prohibition on torture and other ill treatment”.

US and Iranian officials held separate talks with mediators on Monday in a renewed effort to end the seven-month war.

Further negotiations are expected to centre on an amended version of Iran’s seven-day proposal, which calls for an end to hostilities, the unfreezing of Iranian assets, sanctions relief and the lifting of the US blockade, in return for Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said: “If the Americans claim they are seeking an agreement or a peaceful solution, we have presented that solution,” while adding that “our conditions are ⁠clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent on these conditions being met”.

Trump had rejected Iran’s proposal but said further talks could take place this week.

An Israeli airstrike has killed Izz al-Din Al-Beik, the head of Hamas’s armed wing in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources.

Israeli prime minister ⁠Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister ⁠Israel Katz ‌said the Israeli military had targeted and killed ‌Beik, who ‌they said has been involved in ⁠the planning of attacks and recruitment of militants.

Medics and Hamas sources told Reuters that Beik was killed in an Israeli strike on an apartment building in Gaza City's Nasr neighbourhood around dawn on Tuesday.

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz slowed over the weekend, data showed on Monday, following attacks on tankers as US-Iran talks aimed at resolving the Middle East conflict stalled.

Five commodity vessels transited the strait on Saturday, while none were recorded on Sunday, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler. This compares with 31 vessels that crossed during the previous weekend.

Despite those figures, US secretary of state Marco Rubio has claimed the Strait is largely open.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the Strait of Hormuz remains largely open, with oil flows close to pre-war levels apart from Iranian oil, but warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an “unacceptable risk”.

He said Tehran could use nuclear weapons to “blackmail the world and to kill people”, potentially controlling the strait and energy supplies.

Rubio also criticised Iran’s leadership, saying: “Who calls the shots in Iran are radical Shia clerics with an apocalyptic vision of the future. They believe that it is a religious calling to trigger about the last days of the world, the apocalypse.”

He accused Iran of using money from sanctions relief and economic sales to build weapons and “export the revolution” rather than “improve the lives of the Iranian people”.

“They use the money to fund Hezbollah, they use the money to fund Hamas, they use the money to fund Shia militias in Iraq… they use the money to sponsor terrorism and assassination plots,” he said.

Five British men in their early 20s have been released on bail after being arrested near RAF Fairford over suspected terrorism and explosives offences.

British counterterrorism police said the investigation was ongoing and that they were examining possible links to Iran, Russia or non-state armed groups, including whether the suspects may have been acting as proxies for a foreign government.

Police have not publicly tied Iran to the arrests. Iran has categorically denied any involvement, calling the allegations “unfounded and malicious”, according to a statement by Iran’s embassy in London.

US president Donald Trump said the incident “might be” connected to Iran, while UK ministers warned of threats from Iran and its proxies.

British intelligence has issued a warning after finding Iranian spies have targeted dissidents with spyware that can enable tracking of their movements.

Dissidents, activists and journalists were targeted by state actors that impersonated their contacts on messaging apps to trick them into downloading spyware called Chosen Brick, the National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, warned.

The malware gave agents access to the person’s contacts, emails and social media messages as well as a device’s microphone and content on the screen.