August 9, 2026

Middle East

Daily Beast - Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine is reportedly quietly working toward an exit from Donald Trump’s Iran war, even as the president appears to believe more air strikes could force a deal.

 NBC News - Israel will not accept the 15-point plan from President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

“I want to clarify this: Israel rejects the 15-point document. I have heard people saying, ‘You didn’t say that.’ So here I am saying it again,” he told a Cabinet meeting. “The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed,” he added.

Trump, who last month touted a breakthrough in his Gaza peace plan, said Hamas has agreed to lay down its arms. However, the Board of Peace’s proposal calls for a phased Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza alongside the disarmament of Hamas.

The Guardian - Iran has issued tough new demands for reopening the strait of Hormuz, while the United Arab Emirates said one of its ships was targeted by an Iranian missile, as a deal to open the strategic waterway remained out of reach on Saturday.

Iran’s politburo-like body known as the supreme national security council said the strait of Hormuz will not open until the United States “corrects its behaviour”, and its state broadcaster published a statement from the council’s secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The US must never threaten Iran again, the statement said, and must permanently end the war with Iran and its armed allies in the region. The US must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its military from the area. It also must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.

There was no immediate comment from the US, which has wanted an acceptable deal on the strait before ending the blockade. According to the interim deal signed in June, a schedule to end sanctions and a plan for compensation would be part of the final deal, and negotiations would address frozen assets.


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