live Trump Says Iran Cease-Fire On 'Life Support'

WASHINGTON -- Former senior US diplomat Gordon Gray, who served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs under President George W. Bush, says indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran are likely to continue despite what he described as significant pain and pressure on both sides.

The latest exchange comes after Tehran reportedly sent a proposal via Pakistan seeking an end to military operations across the region, sanctions relief, and guarantees for maritime security, including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

President Donald Trump responded on May 10 by rejecting the Iranian position, while signaling continued frustration with the slow pace of diplomacy.

RFE/RL spoke with Gray, who also served as US ambassador to Tunisia and deputy chief of mission in Egypt and now is a professor of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, about the latest state of Iran peace talks.

To read the full interview, click here.

An Iranian man has been executed on allegations of spying for the United States and Israel, reported Mizan, the judiciary's official news outlet.

Mizan identified the man as Erfan Shakourzadeh, 29, who worked at a scientific organization ‌involved in satellite activities, saying he was allegedly transferring classified satellite-related scientific data after being recruited through a research project.

The outlet claimed Shakourzadeh had contacts with both US and Israeli intelligence services at different stages and shared sensitive data.

Iran's satellite program has long been viewed by Western governments as potentially linked to the development of ballistic missile technology. The report provided no specific details about the circumstances of his arrest or when the execution took place.

Human rights organizations said Shakourzadeh was a master's student in aerospace engineering at the Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran.

They also reported that he was arrested in 2024, held in solitary confinement, and subjected to forced confessions, with his death sentence recently upheld by Iran's Supreme Court.

The case is part of a broader pattern of executions and security-related prosecutions in Iran, often involving espionage or anti-state accusations.

Rights groups say Iran ranks among the world's top executors, second only to China, and estimate that at least 1,639 people were executed in the country in 2025.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, Reuters, and AFP

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

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump is expected to press Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Iran during their upcoming summit in Beijing, with senior US officials highlighting Washington’s concerns about China’s economic and technological ties to Tehran.

Trump is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on May 13 in the evening and will meet Xi on May 14 and May 15 before departing China, Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said during a White House press call previewing the trip.

Speaking on the call, a senior administration official said Trump and Xi had discussed Iran “multiple times” previously and that the issue would again feature prominently during the meetings.

“The [US] president has spoken multiple times with General Secretary Xi Jinping about the topic of Iran,” the official said, adding that Washington remained concerned about “the revenue that China provides” to Tehran, as well as the transfer of dual-use goods, industrial components, and the possibility of weapons-related exports.

The official said recent US sanctions targeting Iran-related activity would likely be part of the discussions in Beijing.

Asked whether Trump would seek additional Chinese pressure on Tehran amid unresolved nuclear negotiations, a senior official said the president had raised the issue before and was expected to do so again during the summit: “I would expect the president to apply pressure.”

The White House also rejected suggestions that tensions surrounding Iran should prevent Trump from traveling to China. “I don’t think he has the luxury to focus on just one sort of issue for weeks and weeks on end,” one senior official said.

The official noted that the administration had postponed the trip roughly six weeks earlier during what was described as a more active phase of the Iran situation, but said circumstances had since changed and the White House was now proceeding with the visit.

“I think the question would be, 'Why wouldn’t he go on this trip at this point?'” the official said.

Jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has been transferred to a hospital in Tehran, her foundation said on May 10, amid reports that she is "on the brink of death" due to harsh prison conditions.

The foundation said Mohammadi had been granted a temporary suspension of her sentence in exchange for the payment of a substantial bond.

Mohammadi, 54, had been undergoing treatment in a hospital in the northwestern city of Zanjan, where she had been imprisoned.

Her lawyer, Mostafa Nili said she is now being treated at Tehran's Pars Hospital by her own medical team.

Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, who lives in Paris, on May 9 said her condition remained critical and that she had suffered a severe drop in blood pressure and was struggling to speak.

On May 2, her brother Hamidreza Mohammadi told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that she was on the "brink of death."

"She is dying," Hamidreza said. "Because of the harsh conditions of prison and the damage that has been done to her, she is on the brink of death. The responsibility for Narges's life, and the lives of all prisoners, rests directly with [judicial authorities and the security apparatus]."

The rights activist was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for women's rights in Iran.

She has spent much of the last decade behind bars as a result of her work and in, December 2025, was arrested again during a memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

Following her arrest, she was given a new prison sentence of 7 ½ years, and is being held in Zanjan prison, some 330 kilometers west of the capital, Tehran.

US President Donald Trump wrote on social media on May 10 that Tehran's response to the latest US peace proposal was "totally unacceptable," without saying in the terse statement what the terms were or what his next steps might be.

"I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called “Representatives.” I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!" he wrote on Truth Social.

The posting came shortly after Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency laid out what it said were the terms of Tehran’s response, saying demands include the lifting of long-standing sanctions against Iran, the end of the US naval blockade, and guarantees against further attacks.

Tasnim, which is close to the hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reported that Tehran’s proposal called for an end to fighting on “all fronts,” including Lebanon as well as in Iran.

Following Trump's rejection, Iranian state media reported that the Iranian demands also included the need for the US to pay compensation for war damages and that Tehran's control of the Strait of Hormuz be officially recognized.

State media also said that accepting the US proposal would amount to "surrender" for Iran.

Earlier in the day, Trump had angrily lashed out at his predecessors for their policies toward Iran, saying the Middle East nation for 47 years “has been ‘tapping’ us along, keeping us waiting, killing our people with their roadside bombs, destroying protests, and recently wiping out 42,000 innocent, unarmed protestors, and laughing at our now GREAT AGAIN Country.”

Many reports have suggested the US plan is set out in a one-page memorandum that called for an end to fighting and the unblocking of the Strait of Hormuz but which left other key issues -- including Iran’s right to enrich uranium -- until later.

Read the full story here.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on May 10 that Iran's enriched uranium must be "taken out" before any peace agreement with Tehran.

"It's not over, because there's still nuclear material -- enriched uranium -- that has to be taken out of Iran. There's still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled," Netanyahu said to CBS.

"You go in and you take it out," he added, saying US President Donald Trump had a similar position. "I'm not going to talk about military means, but the president, what President Trump has said to me -- 'I want to go in there.'"

While the statement was in contrast to Trump's public position, in which he has been vocal about his willingness to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict, the US president issued a threatening statement on his social media platform later on the same day.

"Iranians have been 'tapping' us along, keeping us waiting, killing our people with their roadside bombs, destroying protests, and recently wiping out 42,000 innocent, unarmed protestors, and laughing at our now GREAT AGAIN Country," Trump said in his Truth Social post.

"They will be laughing no longer!" he added.

The issue of Iran's nuclear ambitions has long been central to the resolution of the conflict between Iran and the United States.

However, in its latest peace proposal sent to Tehran earlier in the week, Washington has reportedly excluded the issue, postponing negotiations over it to after peace takes effect.

US President Donald Trump said that American military operations against Iran may not be over, suggesting the United States could still target additional sites if necessary.

In an interview with journalist Sharyl Attkisson broadcast on May 10, Trump was asked whether combat operations involving Iran had concluded.

"No, I didn't say that," Trump said. "I said they were defeated, but that doesn't mean they're done. We could go in for another two weeks and hit every single target."

Trump added that US and Israeli strikes had already hit "probably 70 percent" of the intended targets.

"We have other targets that we could conceivably hit," he said. "But even if we don't, it will take years for them to rebuild."

The remarks come amid ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the war between Tehran and Washington.

Trump also addressed Iran's enriched uranium stockpiles, saying the United States was monitoring the sites closely.

"We have it under surveillance," he said, adding that US space-based monitoring capabilities were tracking activity around the facilities.

Iran has repeatedly rejected proposals that would require it to transfer its stockpile of enriched uranium to the United States.

On May 10, Iranian state media said that Tehran had submitted a response to the latest US proposal to end the war, but details were not announced.

Iran's response to the latest US proposal to reach an agreement to end the war has been sent to Pakistan as a mediator in the negotiations, the country's official news agency, IRNA, reported on May 10.

"According to the proposed plan, at this stage the negotiations will focus on ending the war in the region," IRNA wrote.

Iran's state media later said that Tehran's proposal focuses on ending all fronts of the war, especially Lebanon.

This comes while US President Donald Trump reiterated on May 6 that the United States plans to take control of Iran's enriched uranium.

Axios and Reuters reported on the same day that Washington and Tehran were close to a "one-page memorandum of understanding" to end the war.

Reuters reported that the memorandum did not even mention the suspension of Iran's nuclear activities or the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps since the first US-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28.

The Wall Street Journal reported that in the US proposal, however, Tehran must prove it is not seeking nuclear weapons and must dismantle the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan facilities, halt underground nuclear activity, and agree to halt enrichment for 20 years.