Trump “low-keys” Iran; Netanyahu rejects BoP plan for Gaza; Ukraine kills 13 in strike targeting Russian refinery

Ukrainian rescuers work in the courtyard of a damaged building at the site of a Russian air attack in Odesa on August 9, 2026. Photo by Oleksandr Gimanov / AFP via Getty Images. Monday, August 10, 2026 – Trump on Iran: “We are low-keying it.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says no current negotiations with U.S., but Oman agreement is close. Iran issues six demands to open the Strait. WSJ: U.S. President Donald Trump hints he will end Iran war with Strait reopening. Vessel struck off the coast of Hormuz. U.S. sneaking millions of barrels of oil through southern Hormuz lane, official tells Axios. FT: U.S. blockade has halted Iranian exports of crude from Kharg Island. U.S. Vice President JD Vance says the U.S. is still “in the middle of the game” in war with Iran. Pentagon orders U.S. defense companies to speed up weapons production. Mohsen Rezaei appointed to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Saudi and Saudi-backed forces shell areas in Yemen’s Saada and Taiz. Yemen’s UAE-backed Southern Armed Forces claim drone strikes on Ansarallah. Fires reported at two major Saudi Aramco energy sites. Ansarallah launches assault on Red Sea port, killing seven. Oman works to contain oil spill near protected marine reserve. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally rejects U.S.-backed Gaza roadmap. Hamas reaffirms commitment to 15-point plan. Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov defends Israel, claims no troops beyond Yellow Line. Israeli attacks kill 13-year-old girl, wound several Palestinians across Gaza. Israeli attacks on Gaza over the weekend. Israel acknowledges death of Palestinian prisoner after two years. Israeli violations in Lebanon continue on Monday despite “ceasefire.” Israeli forces bombard southern Lebanon, demolish homes, and target workers over weekend. Senate confirms Todd Blanche as attorney general. Trump names Will Scharf as White House counsel. Rep. Max Miller defies party pressure, will stay in race despite abuse allegations. Rep. Ed Case defeats progressive challenger in Hawaii Democratic primary. Federal judges allow TPS termination for Myanmar, South Sudan migrants. Palestinian students and faculty sue Columbia University for discrimination. Ukrainian strike targeting refining plant kills 13 in Russia. U.S. backs Philippines in new South China Sea dispute. Mass graves discovered in Sudan. U.S. drone crashes in Djibouti. U.S. and Ecuador conduct joint operation. Attacks in Congo kill 21. THIS WEDNESDAY: RSVP for our live event on Israel's Lobby . Authors Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick join Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain live at 7pm ET, your questions answered on the spot. Paid subscriber exclusive. RSVP NOW-> This is Drop Site Daily, our free news recap We send it Monday – Friday Subscribe Iran Trump on Iran: “We are low-keying it”: President Donald Trump signaled Sunday that he is prepared to let economic pressure on Iran mount rather than launch a new military offensive, telling Axios the U.S. is “low-keying it.” “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money,” Trump said. Trump also pointed to oil prices falling to slightly above $75 a barrel as easing the war’s impact on U.S. consumers. “It will work out. It always works out. It’s like a chess game,” he said. Iran FM says no current negotiations with U.S., but Oman agreement is close: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that Tehran is not currently negotiating with the U.S., and negotiations would not resume until Washington ends its violations of the memorandum of understanding and compensates Iran for the commitments it breached. Araghchi did say, however, that the two sides continue to exchange messages through intermediaries, though he insisted that this is “not called negotiation.” On Saturday, Araghchi said that Iran and Oman are “very close” to an agreement on a new legal and navigational framework for the Strait of Hormuz, stressing again that an agreement with Oman would not fully reopen the Strait. Six demands to open the Strait: Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who served until this weekend as Supreme National Security Secretary, articulated Iran’s six demands to reopen the Strait, calling on the U.S. to end all threats to the country, permanently end “war and aggression” against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq, lift the U.S. blockade of Iran, remove its naval and air forces from the area, pay for damages caused by its attacks, lift sanctions on Iran, and unconditionally release its frozen assets. Iran’s terms, Axios noted on Sunday, were the prerequisite for a nuclear deal “until several weeks ago.” Now, they are the prerequisite for the Strait reopening. WSJ: Trump hints he will end Iran war with Strait reopening: U.S. President Donald Trump told aides he may walk away from the Iran war without a nuclear deal if Tehran fully reopens the Strait of Hormuz, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. Trump said he would lift the blockade if Iran fully reopens the strait, but disputes remain over other demands, including reparations, frozen assets, and waivers for Iranian oil exports, the report says. Vessel struck off the coast of Hormuz : A vessel was struck on Saturday by an unknown projectile near the Strait of Hormuz, 18 nautical miles east of Khasab, Oman, according to UK Maritime Trade Operations. The vessel and crew were reported safe, and there was no environmental damage. Oman’s Foreign Ministry condemned attacks on transiting vessels and warned about their potential to derail its ongoing negotiations with Iran over the Strait. U.S. sneaking millions of barrels of oil through southern Hormuz lane, official tells Axios: An unnamed U.S. official told Axios on Sunday that “around 8 million barrels of oil are going out of the Gulf every night” through Hormuz’s southern lane in coordination with the U.S. military. The reporting has not been independently confirmed. Far lower amounts of oil have been suggested by available tracking data, with the maritime tracking firm Kpler reporting a total of nearly 16.9 million barrels moving west-to-east through Hormuz from August 1 to August 7. FT: U.S. blockade has halted Iranian exports of crude from Kharg: Iran’s crude exports appear to have stopped due to the renewed U.S. naval blockade, with no tankers loading at Kharg Island for at least a week, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Kharg handles nearly 90% of Iranian crude exports and has been idle since July 31. Iran is still receiving revenue from earlier cargoes reaching Asia, including 26 Iranian-flagged tankers near Malaysia, but that income could dry up within weeks under a blockade. Empty tankers are also unable to return, while storage levels indicate Iran has begun cutting production, the report noted. Vance says the U.S. is still “in the middle of the game” in war with Iran: In a Sunday interview with Fox News, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said that the U.S. characterized the war with Iran as not presently near a resolution, saying that the U.S. was “in the middle of the game,” and that it intends to leverage its economic, military, and diplomatic advantages to “get the best outcome for the American people.” Vance said the administration’s immediate priority is “getting as much oil and gas out of the Middle East” as possible. He said Washington expects Gulf exports to return to prewar levels once the Strait reopens under a new agreement. He also claimed that Iran had told the U.S. it will neither impose tolls nor fire on commercial vessels, and that Iran is “hurting” and looking to get out of the conflict. Pentagon orders U.S. defense companies to speed up weapons production: The Pentagon issued a memo on Wednesday ordering U.S. defense companies to dramatically speed up the production and delivery of weapons and ammunition, as the five-month war with Iran depletes American arsenals. In the memo, Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg gave contractors a maximum of 21 days to submit plans to “drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules” for critical weapons. The U.S. has burned through much of its stockpile of long-range precision missiles in the war. The Post reported the military fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles in the first month of the conflict alone, faster than manufacturers can replace them, alarming some Pentagon officials. Mohsen Rezaei appointed to lead Iran’s Supreme National Security Council: Iran named former Revolutionary Guard commander Mohsen Rezaei as head of its Supreme National Security Council, according to state media. Rezaei replaces Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who was appointed after Ali Larijani was killed by an Israeli strike in March. Yemen Saudi and Saudi-backed forces shell areas in Saada and Taiz: Four civilians, including two children and two women, were wounded when artillery from Saudi-backed forces struck a home in Wadi Hansh in Taiz, Yemen on Saturday, according to an Ansarallah media official. Separately, Saudi artillery shelled Tabara village in Ghamr district of Saada governorate, Al-Masirah reported. Ansarallah-aligned governors in Hodeidah and Lahj urged residents to reject recruitment by Saudi-backed forces, warning them against becoming “fuel for the Saudi war.” Yemen’s UAE-backed Southern Armed Forces claim drone strikes on Ansarallah: The Emirates-backed southern Armed forces said Saturday they struck Ansarallah positions across three fronts in northern Dhale governorate. The Southern Armed Forces claimed “heavy losses” in personnel and equipment but provided no casualty figures. Fires reported at two major Saudi Aramco energy sites: Two fires were reported at two Saudi Aramco sites on Saturday. Satellite fire-monitoring data showed a major thermal event at the Berri Gas Plant near Jubail on the Gulf coast. The extent of damage and cause remain unclear. Separately, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry confirmed that a fire broke out at dawn at a facility belonging to Aramco’s Jizan refinery on the Red Sea coast. Aramco crews extinguished the blaze and no injuries were reported. Ansarallah claimed the attack. Ansarallah launches assault on Red Sea port, killing seven: Ansarallah struck the government-held Red Sea port of Al-Mokha on Yemen’s western coast with ballistic missiles and drones on Sunday. The “National Resistance Forces,” aligned with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, claimed four troops and three civilians were killed and 30 wounded, with a pier, buildings, and stored food damaged. Oman works to contain oil spill near protected marine reserve: Omani authorities are working to contain an oil spill covering around 390 square kilometers near the Hallaniyat Islands, more than a month after the tanker Caroline Bezengi, carrying roughly one million barrels of Russian oil, ran aground in waters off the country’s southern coast, according to Oman’s state news. The spill threatens environmentally sensitive areas, including coral reefs, turtle nesting grounds, and marine habitats around the Hallaniyat Islands marine reserve. The cause of the incident has not been determined, though British maritime security firm Vanguard previously reported explosions aboard the tanker off Yemen’s Mukalla coast on June 6 that caused flooding and disabled its main engines. Palestine Netanyahu formally rejects U.S.-backed Gaza roadmap: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally rejected a U.S.-backed 15-point Gaza roadmap announced by President Trump at the end of July, saying Israeli forces would not withdraw until Hamas was “fully disarmed” of heavy and light weapons. He said Israeli forces would continue military “operations” in Gaza against what Israel labels “threats” to its forces and civilians. Netanyahu also ruled out a Palestinian state in either the occupied West Bank or Gaza. “Unlike all those who lecture us, we do what needs to be done for Israel’s security, and we can and know how to stand our ground, even against our best friends when necessary,” Netanyahu said, in a reference to the U.S. Last week, Israeli ministers and security chiefs discussed resuming attacks on Gaza to signal that Israel rejects the U.S.-backed 15-point phase 2 roadmap accepted by Hamas, according to the Times of Israel. The report follows a lull in Israeli airstrikes over the past several days, though shootings by Israeli troops have continued, killing and wounding Palestinians. During the meeting, one minister reportedly described the roadmap as a “diplomatic October 7.” Hamas reaffirms commitment to 15-point plan: Hamas said in a Sunday statement that it remains committed