Iran has given the Trump administration a proposal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart talks over ending the broader war within seven days, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday, according to the Washington Post.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said it was up to the United States to choose when the Iran war will end, when asked whether the conflict could conclude by the end of the year, Reuters reported. Efforts to rekindle talks are running into resistance from major Persian Gulf oil producers that have swung against any accommodation of Tehran, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.
Colombia announced Thursday that it has severed diplomatic relations with Iran, joining a growing number of US partners in Latin America taking action against Tehran, according to Arutz Sheva. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Araghchi in a meeting that Britain will "not tolerate intimidation, threats or hostile activity on UK soil" from groups linked to his country, Sky News reported.
In the Arabian Peninsula, the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said Thursday it had shot down six ballistic missiles fired by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, in what appeared to be one of the largest cross-border attacks by the group since its conflict with Saudi Arabia spiraled back into war, the New York Times reported. Saudi Arabia's top religious authority called on soldiers in the kingdom to be ready to lay down their lives to fight the Iran-backed Houthis until the group is ousted from power, Reuters reported.
President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that France plans to send troops to Saudi Arabia to help protect a refinery and crude oil pipeline in the Red Sea port of Yanbu, ramping up France's military efforts to contain the impact of the Iran war, the Wall Street Journal reported. An air defence system operated by Greek military personnel in Saudi Arabia intercepted a ballistic missile and a drone Thursday in the wider Yanbu region, Greek security sources told Reuters.
President Trump's meeting with China's Xi Jinping started with an extravagant welcome ceremony and continued with a glitzy state dinner by candlelight, as Washington and Beijing look to ease tensions over the war in Iran, artificial intelligence and trade, according to the Wall Street Journal. The two leaders agreed during their Washington meeting to support each other in hosting the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting and the G20 summit in 2026, Xinhua news agency reported.
Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine's capital Kyiv and its northeast killed eight people Thursday in attacks that included a maternity hospital and a farm, officials said, according to Reuters. The Kremlin said Thursday that no decision had been taken yet on a possible December summit between Russian and US Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, and that it was too early to talk about the agenda for such a meeting.
North Korea said Friday that South Korea would become a "decisive target" for collective retaliation if it served as a central hub in a US-led collective defence system, state media KCNA reported. North Korea's foreign ministry on Thursday rejected an international statement urging it to halt nuclear tests, with a spokesperson calling it "a grave political provocation against our state" by "hostile forces," according to Reuters.