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Ceasefire, strikes, and leverage
The U.S. and Iran are locked in a widening standoff as Israel launched new strikes in southern Lebanon after agreeing to extend the current ceasefire between the countries by 45 days after two days of talks in Washington, D.C.
“The U.S., not Iran, is in control of the Strait of Hormuz”
President Trump declared that "The U.S., not Iran, is in control of the Strait of Hormuz," adding, "We wiped out their armed forces, essentially."
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said his country "cannot trust the Americans at all" and Iran is "trying to maintain" the "shaky" ceasefire "to give diplomacy a chance."
The CBS News report also said the USS Gerald R. Ford returned home to Virginia after an 11-month deployment, with the warship and two accompanying destroyers docking at Naval Station Norfolk on Saturday morning with about 5,000 soldiers aboard.
In the same reporting, the U.S. State Department announced Lebanon and Israel had agreed to extend their ceasefire for another 45 days, while the Israel Defense Forces said it struck approximately 100 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon beginning Friday despite the ceasefire.
Tehran sees stalled talks
Tehran media coverage framed the impasse with Washington after President Donald Trump’s visit to China as growing frustration, with insiders voicing concern that diplomacy has stalled and more confrontation may lie ahead.
Hamid Reza Taraghi, a senior figure in the traditional conservative Islamic Coalition Party, said no real negotiations are currently taking place between Tehran and Washington and told Khabar Online that "The prolonged limbo" is worsening economic pressures inside Iran.
The Arab Weekly also quoted Rob Malley, a former Iran negotiator in the Obama and Biden administrations, saying, "That inevitably gets in the way of reaching a reasonable deal because no government, not just Iran’s, can afford to be viewed as having capitulated."
In the same CBS News reporting, an Iranian official said Saturday that the country would soon unveil its plan to allow some traffic through the strait, for a fee, as the U.S. insisted it controls the Strait of Hormuz.
The Arab Weekly added that White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales defended Trump’s diplomatic approach, insisting that the Iranians were showing increasing "desperation" for an agreement.
War calculus and next steps
CNN’s report said Trump returned to Washington after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Beijing summit on May 14-15, with no concrete results on the Iranian nuclear program or shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, and faced a split inside his administration between those who favor war and those who insist on diplomacy.
“If he wants to help, that's great, but we don't need it.”
The report quoted Trump telling Fox News that his Chinese counterpart "wants to help," adding, "If he wants to help, that's great, but we don't need it."
CNN said many administration officials wanted to know the fate of the talks between Trump and Xi before determining the path and scenarios for the next steps on the Iran file, with some Defense Department officials pushing for targeted strikes to increase pressure on Iran.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelley told CNN that Trump has all options at his disposal, while adding that his preferred option is always diplomacy and that "the United States possesses the maximum degrees of pressure and leverage over the regime."
The Arab Weekly reported that Trump dismissed the latest peace proposal from Iranian officials as a "piece of garbage," as the standoff continued and the crisis stretched into an 11-week-old period.
