live Trump Rules Out Use Of Nuclear Weapons Against Iran

Iran has condemned the United Arab Emirate’s arrest of alleged Iran-linked suspects accused by Abu Dhabi of plotting terrorist acts.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the detentions had been carried out on “baseless pretexts” and he urged the UAE to respect detainees’ rights and avoid retaliation.

UAE authorities said those being held had sought to recruit Emiratis and channel funds to suspicious foreign entities.

The dispute reflects worsening Iran-UAE relations since regional conflict conflict in the Middle East began on February 28 when the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran.

Iran accuses Persian Gulf states of aiding US attacks, claims they deny, while Gulf governments have been intensifying crackdowns on cells with alleged links to Iran and Hezbollah -- an Tehran-backed militant group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon and which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, while the European Union has blacklisted its armed wing.

With reporting by AFP

US President Donald Trump said he does not want to extend a temporary cease-fire with Iran, which is due to expire on April 22, as Washington waits to see if talks with Tehran will proceed.

Speaking in a live phone interview with CNBC on April 21, Trump said the United States was in a strong negotiating position and would end up with what he ⁠called a "great deal" when the two sides finally meet.

Talks were expected to be held on April 21 but Iran has yet to say officially it would participate. US Vice President JD Vance is said to be ready to depart Washington "soon," according to officials, though there was no exact timing for his departure. When asked by CNBC if he would extend the current two-week cease-fire that is about to end, Trump said: "I ‌don't want to do that. We don't have that much time."

He also warned that "I expect to ⁠be bombing because I ‌think that's a better attitude to go in with."

Pakistan, which has acted as a mediator in the peace process, urged ⁠both the ‌United States and Iran ⁠to extend their truce, but reports from several media outlets say Tehran is weighing its options while waiting to see if its conditions, including an end to the US military's blockade of Iranian ports, and a recognition of its right to enrich uranium, would be met.

Read more here.

The US Department of Defense announced that its military forces had boarded a sanctioned ship called the M/T Tifani without incident in South Asian waters on the night of April 20.

"We will pursue global maritime enforcement efforts to disrupt illicit networks and interdict sanctioned vessels providing material support to Iran -- anywhere they operate," the Pentagon statement said. "International waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels," it added, saying the defense department "will continue to deny illicit actors and their vessels freedom of maneuver in the maritime domain."

Along with this statement, the US Department of Defense released images of military helicopters flying over an oil tanker and military helicopters landing onboard.

This is the second ship the United States has seized and taken control of since imposing a naval blockade on Iran on April 19.

The Islamic republic has called the naval blockade and ship seizure a "violation of the cease-fire."

Arsenio Dominguez, head of the United Nations' maritime agency, warned on April 21 of the plight of thousands of sailors stranded due to the severe disruption in the Strait of Hormuz amid the US-Israeli war with Iran.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) reported that around 20,000 seafarers and 2,000 ships are stranded after shipping was disrupted in the strategic waterway, through which around one-fifth of the world's crude and liquefied natural gas normally transits.

Addressing a maritime conference in Singapore on April 21, Dominguez said stranded sailors are suffering from stress and fatigue.

"We need to know everything that they're going through," he said, urging shipping companies to find a way to provide mental health and other support to the stranded crews.

He said some countries have set up helplines for sailors, while others have been providing them with provisions.

Shipping remains mostly blocked in the strait as the United States and Iran both warned they were ready for war, as the deadline on a cease-fire was set to expire on April 22.

With reporting by AFP

The Iran Human Rights Organization (IHRNGO) has reported widespread arrests of Iranian citizens during the war with the United States and Israel, stating that at least 3,646 people have been arrested across the country since the start of the conflict.

According to the Norway-based human rights organization, "Since the start of the war on 28 February, Islamic Republic authorities have announced the arrests of over 2,000 people."

According to this report, at least 767 of these arrests occurred after a temporary cease-fire began between Iran and the United States on April 8, and among those arrested are at least 111 civil and political activists, including human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh.

The report also notes that in many cases, the status and location of detainees remain unclear and families are unaware of their fate. This echoes broader concerns from rights groups about enforced disappearances during wartime repression.

"IHRNGO expresses deep concern regarding the safety of detainees under wartime conditions and warns of a further intensification of repression in the coming weeks," the organization said.

The report also states that, given the widespread Internet outage, the actual number of arrests could be higher.

According to the report, the highest number of verified arrests was reported in the provinces of West Azerbaijan with 25 cases, Tehran with 17 cases, and Kurdistan with 15 cases, respectively.

Mahmoud Amiry-Moghaddam, director of IHRNGO, stated: "The widespread wave of arrests in recent weeks, particularly the detention of civil activists during wartime, once again demonstrates that the Islamic republic views the Iranian people as the primary threat to its survival."

He has also previously emphasized that "the immediate release of all political, civil society, and human rights activists …should be one of the main conditions of any agreement with the Islamic republic."

The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said any potential agreement signed by Iran and the United States will not be successful without the involvement of the UN nuclear watchdog.

"Without verification, any agreement is not an agreement, but rather an illusion of agreement or a promise that you don't know whether it will be kept," Grossi said in an interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph.

Stating that the IAEA knows Iran's nuclear facilities "very well," he added: "We are the only ones who can guarantee absolute impartiality in our work."

Regarding a possible US–Iran agreement, Grossi said it could involve "diluting some of Iran's enriched uranium and sending the rest to a third country."

He also described any potential US operation to enter Iran and collect remaining uranium as highly complex.

"I don't doubt for a moment that the United States has the military capabilities to do this, but I'm just saying that it's a very delicate thing to manage, to master, to maneuver," he said.

US President Donald Trump has recently spoken about US forces removing "nuclear dust" from Iran, saying such an operation could be carried out in cooperation with the Iranian government.

Since the bombing of nuclear facilities during the 12-day war between in Israel and Iran in July 2025, Iran has restricted full access for IAEA inspectors and reduced cooperation with the watchdog.

Grossi also warned that ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East could spark a broader nuclear arms race involving up to 20 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Poland, Turkey, South Korea, and Japan.

"There's talk of friendly proliferation," he said. "All of this worries me because I believe a world with 20 nuclear-armed states would be very dangerous."

The Iranian-flagged container ship Touska, which was seized by US forces on April 19, was likely carrying items Washington considers dual-use, meaning goods with possible civilian and military applications, maritime security sources told Reuters on April 20.

The vessel, part of the sanctioned company Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), was boarded off Iran's Chabahar port in the Gulf of Oman.

US Central Command said the crew failed to comply with repeated warnings over six hours and that the vessel was violating a US maritime blockade.

Sources said initial assessments suggested the ship was carrying dual-use cargo after a voyage from Asia. They did not specify the items involved. One source said the vessel had previously transported similar goods.

Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who is also Iran's lead negotiator, said that Iran is "prepared to reveal new cards" in the war with the United States and Israel.

"[US President Donald] Trump, by imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire, seeks to turn this negotiating table -- in his own imagination -- into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering," Qalibaf wrote on X late on April 20.

"We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield," he added.

The leaders of the United States, Israel and Russia are seeking to impose a new "predatory" world order while most countries are too cowardly to stop them, rights group Amnesty International said April 21.

Launching the global group's annual report in London, Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard condemned Trump, Putin and Netanyahu as "predators."

The report on "reflections on human rights in 2025/26," and features a statement by Callamard on "voracious predators stalked through our global commons, hulking hunters plundering unjust trophies. Political leaders like Trump, Putin and Netanyahu, among many others, carried out their conquests for economic and political domination through destruction, suppression and violence on a massive scale."

"The 1948 adoptions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Convention, and the many other normative instruments debated and adopted over the subsequent 80 years, are no illusion," Callamard said. "They are tangible manifestations of a post-world war order founded on a multilateral system of equal states, rooted in universal human rights, and dedicated to non-recurrence of atrocities."

"We all know that the system’s promise remains unfulfilled, but it is not for the promise-breaker to declare that promise a fantasy," she added.

To read the full Amnesty International statement, click here.

We are now closing the live blog for the day. We'll be back tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. Central European time to cover the latest events across the Middle East.