France Summons Iranian Diplomat Over Detention Of Embassy Staff
France's Foreign Ministry summoned Iran's charge d'affaires on July 21 after two French Embassy staff members were detained by Iranian security services in Tehran, with one allegedly physically assaulted.
"France expects the Iranian authorities to shed full light on this incident, to bring those responsible to justice, and to guarantee the security of our premises and personnel, in accordance with their international obligations," the ministry said.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on July 20 that "two agents of the French Embassy in Iran were the target of an extremely serious act of intimidation by the Iranian security services, in blatant violation of the diplomatic immunities from which they benefit."
Barrot said the two staff members were "detained without reason for several hours" and "questioned," while "one of them was physically assaulted," before they were able to return to the French Embassy.
"This extremely serious and unacceptable violation of the integrity of our agents cannot remain without consequences," Barrot said, adding that he had conveyed the message to his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araqchi.
Statement Attributed to Iran's Supreme Leader Insists Lebanese Integrity, Hezbollah Safety Paramount In US Talks
A statement attributed to Iran's supreme leader stresses that preserving Lebanon's territorial integrity to be the "first condition" of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed with the United States.
The statement was circulated by Iranian state media and attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since the beginning of US-Israeli air strikes on February 28. Khamenei is the son of the previous supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and was reportedly severely injured in the same attack that killed his father.
The message -- addressed to leadership of the Hezbollah militant organization in Lebanon -- states that Iran considers "preserving Lebanon's territorial integrity and completely and unconditionally eliminating Israeli attacks" against Hezbollah the prime condition of the MOU.
Iran-backed Hezbollah, a militant group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon, is considered a terrorist organization by the US, while the European Union has blacklisted its armed wing but not its political branch.
The MOU was signed on June 17 by the presidents of Iran and the United States and includes a clause referring to the end of the conflict in Lebanon. Israel launched air and ground attacks against suspected Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon and in the suburbs of the capital, Beirut, after the militant group fired rockets into northern Israel.
The MOU has been on the verge of collapse following Iranian military attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, followed by new rounds of US attacks on Iran. The US has paused strikes the past two night, leading Tehran to say it was ending attacks on US Gulf allies.
Mojtaba Khamenei made clear prior to the signing of the MOU that he did not agree with the agreement and had placed the responsibility for it on Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian and other members of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda
Iran Says Ukraine Will Have To Answer For Hitting Its "Commercial Ship"
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi accused Ukraine of attacking a commercial vessel. In his post on X on July 26, Araqchi said a sailor died in the incident.
Earlier reports said the minister spoke to European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and strongly condemned the incident in the Caspian Sea.
Araqchi also said he discussed the situation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday, directly blaming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"What the freeloader (Zelenskyy) in Kyiv did CANNOT GO UNANSWERED," Araqchi wrote on X.
Ukrainian president said on July 25 that Kyiv's forces had carried out long-range strikes in the Caspian, hitting a Russian warship as well as vessels used to transport military cargo "with the participation of Iran."
Trump Pausing Iran Attacks To Give Talks 'Some Space,' Says US Envoy To UN
President Donald Trump has paused US attacks on Iran to allow space for diplomacy, US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told NBC News on July 26.
Trump "is keeping all options on the table," Waltz said. "What the president is doing right now, as we've seen all along, is giving the talks some space. Talks are ongoing. They're happening at every level from the more technical aspect of it, all the way to the highest levels of course."
His comments came after a weekend lull in fighting following 13 consecutive nights of US strikes.
Separately, a senior administration official said Trump had "always been clear that his preference is diplomacy" while warning Iran of the consequences "if they fail to come to the table in a serious way," Reuters reported.
Iran Says It Has Halted Attacks On Washington's Allies, As US Pauses Bombardment
- By RFE/RL
Tehran said it had halted retaliatory attacks against US allies in the Middle East as Washington refrained from attacking Iran for the second night in a row.
A top military official in Tehran, meanwhile, threatened to widen Iran’s attacks across the region, suggesting that Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen could step up attacks on Red Sea shipping traffic.
The overnight lull in attacks on July 26 came two days ahead of a key meeting scheduled in Washington between President Donald Trump and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
That July 28 visit falls exactly five months since US and Israeli forces launched a wide campaign of air strikes on Iranian targets.
Read more here
Houthis Say They Downed Saudi Surveillance Drone
Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on July 26 that they downed a Saudi Arabian drone over northwest Yemen.
A military spokesman said the group "successfully shot down a Turkish-made... armed reconnaissance drone belonging to the Saudi enemy while it was conducting hostile operations."
Saudi Arabia has not yet commented on the claim.
The Yemeni group had earlier claimed on July 25 that they fired a missile at the southern Saudi city of Jizan in retaliation for air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition on the Yemeni province of Hodeidah.
Riyadh said it had targeted sites threatening commercial shipping after the Yemeni rebels announced a blockade of Saudi shipping and claimed to have attacked vessels in the Red Sea earlier this week.
Saudi Arabia has backed Yemen's government against the Houthis since leading a military intervention in 2015, although cross-border hostilities have largely subsided in recent years.
With reporting by AFP
Iran Claims Progress Made In Talks With Oman On Strait Of Hormuz
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on July 26 that "progress" had been made in discussions between Tehran and Muscat, but did not provide any details.
His comments came after an Omani delegation that had travelled to Tehran for talks on the management of the Strait of Hormuz left Iran early on July 25.
Baghaei said "several rounds of discussions" had been held in Tehran between Iranian and Omani deputy foreign ministers in recent days, during which the two sides "exchanged views on shared principles and operational mechanisms for managing the safe passage of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz while respecting the sovereign rights of the two littoral states."
He added, however, that "there has been no change in the status of navigation through the strait at present."
Iran and Oman are the two states bordering the narrowest part of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies normally passes.
Shortly after the outbreak of the war with the United States and Israel in February, Iran effectively halted most traffic through the strait by launching attacks on international shipping. The move has disrupted global energy markets and made reopening the crucial waterway a key focus of subsequent negotiations.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda
Araqchi Calls Kallas After Ukrainian Strike In Caspian Sea
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has spoken by phone with European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and strongly condemned what Tehran claims was a Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea.
He also called on the UN Security Council, the European Union, and the international community to respond and to hold the "perpetrators and supporters of this attack" accountable.
Iran said the Ukrainian strike resulted in an explosion that killed one sailor and injured another. The claim could not be independently verified.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on July 25 that Kyiv's forces had carried out long-range strikes in the Caspian, hitting a Russian warship as well as vessels used to transport military cargo "with the participation of Iran."
Kyiv and the West have long condemned Iran for providing Iranian-designed drones to Russia for use against Ukrainian forces following the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukraine has offered its expertise in drone interception to countries in the Middle East that have been targets of Iranian strikes.
Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency also reported that, following Ukraine's attack on vessels in the Caspian Sea, Ukraine's acting chargé d'affaires in Tehran was summoned on the evening of July 25 by Iranian Assistant Foreign Minister Manouchehr Moradi.
According to the report, the Ukrainian diplomat was informed of Iran's "strong levels of protest" and told that the Islamic republic "will not leave this action unanswered."
With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda
US Calls On Iran To Halt Executions
US Assistant Secretary of State Riley Barnes has condemned the Iranian government's "executions of its own citizens," describing the victims as "brave young Iranians who dared to raise their voices."
He also called for the release of all political prisoners and urged Tehran to stop executing people for peacefully exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms, adding: "The world is watching."
Rights groups say Tehran has executed more than 50 people on charges linked to nationwide anti-government protests in January since war broke out with the United States and Israel at the end of February as authorities try to keep a lid on any anger building over the conflict.
Iran has executed at least 422 people since the start of 2026, according to the Iran Human Rights group.
Tehran Summons Ukrainian Envoy After Strike On Iranian Vessel In Caspian As Tensions Rise
The Foreign Ministry in Tehran has summoned Ukraine's envoy to issue a protest over what it labeled a "hostile and criminal" attack after it accused Kyiv of striking an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea.
Manouchehr Moradi, an assistant foreign minister, conveyed to Kyiv's charge d'affaires Iran's "strong levels of protest" and vowed that the Islamic republic "will not leave this action unanswered," according to the Tasnim state-controlled news agency.
Iran said the Ukrainian strike resulted in an explosion that killed one sailor and injured another. The claim could not be independently verified.
The strike and diplomatic move further raised tensions between the two countries even as violence flared elsewhere in the Middle East war that began with US-Israeli air strikes on Iran at the end of February.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on July 25 said Kyiv's forces had hit a Russian warship and vessels used for transporting Iranian-linked military cargo in the Caspian Sea.
Ukraine had achieved "very good results" in overnight long-range strikes in the Caspian, including against vessels used to transport military cargo "with the participation of Iran," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
Kyiv and the West have long condemned Iran for providing Iranian-designed drones to Russia for use against Ukrainian forces following the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Kyiv has offered its expertise in drone interception to countries in the Middle East that have been targets of Iranian strikes.
Zelenskyy, in later remarks on July 25, said his intelligence services had since early July detected "active Russian satellite surveillance of the Gulf states and US military facilities located there. These images subsequently appear in Iran."
"At the same time, there is a clear correlation between Russia’s satellite imagery of these sites and Iranian strikes -- both before the attacks, in preparation for them, and afterward, to assess the damage inflicted," Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy claimed that on July 19-20 alone, Russian satellite observation had included four air bases: two of them in Bahrain, one in Jordan, and one in Kuwait -- all US Arab allies in the Middle East.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda and Reuters
Amid Overall Lull In Attacks, US Boards Tanker As Part Of Iran Port Blockade
The United States continued to enforce the blockade of Iranian ports on July 25, with the military saying its forces boarded a Comoros-flagged tanker in the Arabian Sea as part of a "verification" process, even as other US military action appears to have paused.
"Earlier today, US forces completed a verification boarding aboard Comoros-flagged M/T Charminar in the Arabian Sea, and the tanker is now continuing its journey," US Central Command (CENTCOM) it said on X.
The statement said that as of July 25, CENTCOM forces had since the reinstatement of the blockade redirected 12 commercial vessels trying to run the blockade, disabled two vessels that didn't comply, and boarded two others to ensure total compliance.
It added that CENTCOM forces disabled Mozambique-flagged M/T Lavine in the Gulf of Oman on July 24, after the crew attempted to violate the blockade multiple times and ignored repeated warnings.
"The ship is no longer transiting to Iran," it said.
US forces for the first time in two weeks did not launch overnight attacks on Iranian sites on July 24-25. As of 3 a.m. Iran time on July 26, CENTCOM had not announced new attacks.
Asked about the pause, a senior administration official was quoted by Reuters as saying Trump "has always been clear that his preference is diplomacy, but he has shown Iran what will happen if they fail to come to the table in a serious way.”
CENTCOM has stated that the attacks on Iranian sites is largely designed to prevent Tehran from attacking shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
The New York Times, citing two people briefed on the matter, reported that Trump has decided, for now, to back off earlier plans to restart major attacks on Iran.
According to the report Trump and other officials are concerned about expanding the conflict, depleting defense stockpiles, angering Gulf Arab allies, and further exacerbating global energy shortages.