Al Jazeera

By Kristina Harazim and Adam Hancock

•     US President Donald Trump says he expects to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at next week’s APEC summit, where he plans to discuss “denuclearisation” and the war on Iran.
•     Earlier, he said the US’s latest blockade on Iran’s land supply routes is in effect, and that renewed strikes are “highly unlikely” if there is progress in talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

IRGC says ‘oil smuggling’ through Hormuz ‘has been completely stopped’

    An IRGC Navy official has told Iran’s IRIB state broadcaster that the flow of oil through the southern route in the Strait of Hormuz, where ship-to-ship transfers take place under US naval escort, “has been completely stopped”.

    “Following the destruction of enemy navigational aid systems on the southern rocks of the Strait of Hormuz, no offending vessel was able to enter the illegal passage last night, and the flow of oil smuggling through this passage was completely stopped,” the unnamed official was quoted as saying.

    There was no immediate comment from the US.

    Iran closed the waterway after the US and Israel launched their war, and has insisted that ships use a route it has designated there. Gulf countries have turned to ship-to-ship transfers under US naval escort to move oil and gas out of the waterway, prompting Iranian attacks on what it calls “offending ships”. Such attacks reached a record in October.

    Maritime data firms said Gulf oil exports surpassed pre-war levels that month as countries relied on ship-to-ship transfers and alternative routes across the region. But oil prices have remained high because these of the cost and risk of the Hormuz operations.

Araghchi says Americans ‘sick and tired’ of Israel dragging US into ‘forever wars’

    The Iranian foreign minister has reacted to Trump’s CBS News interview, in which the US president attributed the Republican Party’s election defeat in part to voters’ dislike of Israel.

    “POTUS clearly recognizes that the vast majority of Americans are disgusted with Israel. Strikingly, he seems confused about why that’s the case,” Araghchi wrote on X.

    He then offered his own explanation: “Americans are evidently sick and tired of Israel bamboozling US administrations into Forever Wars. They had enough. So has our region.”

What’s Iran’s two-day proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz

    Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has urged the US to accept Tehran’s two-day proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, warning that “hell will rain down” if new attacks occur.

    Speaking to Al Jazeera last month, Araghchi said the plan was developed with Qatari mediators and based on the seven-day plan Iran announced at the UN General Assembly in September.

    “On day one, the US implements a set of measures. On day two, the Hormuz Strait will reopen, and navigation will be restored to what it used to be,” he said.

    He said the Iranian demands include:

• Lifting the sanctions the US imposed on Iran after the collapse of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in July
• Reducing the US military presence in the region
• Reinstating the oil waivers granted in June as part of the MoU
• Releasing frozen Iranian funds, including those held in Qatar
• Formally recognising the new shipping route in the Strait of Hormuz worked out by Iran and Oman and closing all other routes
• Ending the war on all fronts, particularly Israel’s attacks on Lebanon

Palestinians dig with their bare hands to rescue people after sand cliff collapse

    As we’ve been reporting, at least five Palestinians, including four children, have been killed after a sand embankment collapsed onto tents sheltering displaced families in Gaza. With rescue equipment and emergency services unable to reach everyone, Palestinians were left to dig through the debris to find their loved ones.

    Mohammad Abdelal, displaced from Jabaliya, recounted digging with his bare hands to try and rescue people.

    “We worked to pull people out, using knives to cut through the blankets that cover them. We managed to rescue a child, then a second, a third, and a pregnant woman, followed by a young man,” he told the The Associated Press news agency.

    Hassan Ouda, displaced from Beit Hanoun, told AP that he witnessed a woman being rescued from the sand, although two of her children did not make it out.

    “We tried calling for ambulances, but no one could do anything due to the height of the mountain,” he said. “The men kept digging and pulled out this woman; we managed to rescue her, but her son passed away. we recovered the body of her daughter, who also passed away.”

Trump says he doesn’t ‘think there is any reason’ to escalate war on Iran

    The US president addressed the war on Iran with CBS News, in his first sit-down interview since his Republican Party’s election defeat.

•     Trump said voters “didn’t like the war” and “didn’t like the fact that gasoline went up”. He said there is also a “great dislike, incredibly, for Israel”.
•     He said he had confidence in his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, saying, “We’ve won two wars”.
•     He added that he is “not looking to” further escalate the war on Iran. “They have nothing. It [the nuclear material] is buried under thousands of tonnes of rock.”
•     Trump said “there’s been very little activity” at the alleged nuclear site at Iran’s Pickaxe mountain, but that “if we needed to do Pickaxe, which we don’t at this moment, we would have that done in one hour”.
•     He also insisted the Strait of Hormuz was “open”, with “ships going through”.
•     When asked about the cost of US naval escorts in the waterway, he said: “Those countries that we’ve protected are going to pay us back any and all costs that we’ve had for the war, ‘cause without us, they wouldn’t exist. Without us, Israel would not exist.”

What is the US military’s ‘Iron Gate’ task force

•     The new task force, established by Central Command (CENTCOM), aims to expand the US naval blockade of Iranian ports to cover Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea.
•     CENTCOM said the 20-person unit will prevent the “movement of advanced weapons systems, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials and illegal revenue streams across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea”.
•     Trump said on Sunday that the operation was in effect and that it “means nothing comes in by land”.
•     Iran’s IRGC has dismissed the latest blockade as “just a play on words”, with Spokesperson Hossein Mohebi saying the task force will fail to achieve its goals.
•     Iran shares a border with seven countries, totalling about 5,900km (3,660 miles).

Iran reverse-engineering captured US equipment, Iranian general says

    Brigadier General Ali Balali, an adviser to the IRGC’s Aerospace Force, has dismissed US and Israeli claims that Iran’s military has been weakened as “propaganda and psychological warfare”, saying Tehran’s capabilities have grown since the “40-day imposed war”.

    The Iranian armed forces now have significantly more resources and equipment, he said, and domestic arms production has increased.

    “Various pieces of equipment and a range of assets have been captured from the enemy, and [Iran’s] defence industry specialists are currently reverse-engineering them,” Balali said, according to Iran’s Press TV.

    He added that domestic production of defence equipment has also increased.

    “Unlike some countries that rely on foreign sources for their security, the Islamic Republic of Iran is not seeking imported security,” Balali said, pledging to continue domestic production.

    “The armed forces are ready and have their fingers on the trigger,” he said, adding that the weapons stockpiles needed to defend the country have been secured for many years. He warned that any miscalculation or hostile action would draw a “severe and devastating” response.

Trump to meet Qatar’s prime minister at White House

    The US president will be meeting Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani behind closed doors at the White House later today, according to the White House schedule.

    The meeting comes as Qatar continues to mediate between Washington and Tehran, conveying proposals and seeking to bridge differences over Iran’s nuclear programme and the terms for ending the conflict.

    An unnamed US official told Reuters that Vice President JD Vance is also scheduled to hold talks with Sheikh Mohammed.

    As we reported earlier, US Secretary of ⁠State Rubio said negotiations with Iran had not made progress and that he did not see an imminent breakthrough. Trump has, meanwhile, said he was “highly unlikely” to order new attacks on Iran as long as there was progress in the talks.