US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Marine One as he departs the White House for Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, en route to Fort Myers, Florida, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, October 23, 2026. REUTERS
US President Donald Trump ruled out immediate military strikes against Iran on Sunday, stating that Washington has no plans to launch attacks.
“Would I tell you that? But the answer is no. There will not be a strike,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a campaign rally in Michigan, when asked whether military action against Iran could occur as soon as Sunday.
The remarks follow statements earlier Sunday in which Trump presented an ultimatum regarding Tehran, questioning whether Washington should finalize a diplomatic agreement or pursue total military destruction against Iran.
“Do I make a deal with them, or do I finish them off? That’s the only question,” Trump told Fox News, framing future action as a binary choice between diplomacy and escalated military operations.
Asserting that American forces exert full maritime dominance over the Gulf transit corridor, Trump said: “Remember, we now control the Hormuz Strait. They get nothing. Yes, we get everything.” He maintained that commercial activity through the chokepoint exceeds pre-war levels, calling the US Navy’s enforcement of the blockade on Iranian ports and shipping “unbelievable.”
Trump on Saturday suggested Washington could launch fresh military strikes or secure a comprehensive accord, questioning whether Tehran would honour potential commitments while asserting that either outcome delivers an American victory.
Control over the Strait of Hormuz remains a central friction point in the Iran war, which erupted in late February following joint US-Israeli strikes, despite a ceasefire and a memorandum to conclude a final peace deal.
Region must move towards complete absence of foreign forces to achieve peace, stability: Araghchi
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday stressed that the region must move towards complete absence of foreign forces to achieve peace and stability.
The remarks come amid mounting US and Israeli threats of renewed attacks on Iran, as President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington “may do another little Epic Fury,” referring to the US-Israeli campaign on Iran that began on February 28.
In a speech at the Foreign Ministry, Araghchi stated that “to achieve peace and stability, our region must move towards the complete absence of foreign forces.”
IRAN’s Foreign Minister Araghchi:
The only way for regional peace and stability is the peaceful coexistence of regional countries without foreign interference, and we are ready to cooperate with all regional countries, especially the #Persian_Gulf.— IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) (@iribnews_irib) October 25, 2026
He further stated that a potential resumption of war with Israel and the United States would not change Tehran’s position.
“Recently, there has been talk of a new war, but I am already thinking about the post-war period. Whether there is war or not, our policies remain the same,” said Araghchi during a televised event in Tehran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran’s policies will remain unchanged whether war resumes or not, warning that renewed US or Israeli military attacks will produce the same results as previous confrontations. pic.twitter.com/AcynjmoBqC
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) October 25, 2026
“They have already done so twice and have seen the results. If they want to try again, they know they will achieve no different outcome from those of the past.”
“The current war has changed everything. We must accept that new realities are taking hold. Shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz will no longer be the same, and the management of the strait will no longer be the same,” Araghchi noted.
An April 8 ceasefire between Iran and the United States put an end to the most intense fighting, apart from sporadic exchanges of fire in and around the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global energy supplies.
These military flare-ups have lulled in recent weeks.
Tehran has claimed control over the strait since the outbreak of the US-Israel war on Iran and has regularly targeted vessels that attempt to cross without its authorisation — moves strongly opposed by Washington and countries in the region.
In response, the US has been maintaining a naval counter-blockade on Iranian ports.
In June, Iran agreed with the United States to a memorandum of understanding laying out a pathway to a permanent settlement of the conflict, only for the deal to later unravel as each side accused the other of violating it.
Tehran has since called for a return to the accord to end the conflict.
Iran’s army claims it shot down US drone over southern Iran
Iran’s army claimed on Sunday that its air defence forces shot down and destroyed a US Lucas-type drone over the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
Citing the military’s public relations department, the agency said the drone was destroyed “by the fire of the Air Defence Force’s systems, under the country’s integrated air defence network.”
The reported incident came after US President Donald Trump said Saturday that Washington could strike Iran as soon as Sunday or reach a “big, beautiful” agreement with Tehran, amid reports that he was considering renewed attacks on the country.
Ghalibaf warns of response ‘beyond enemy’s imagination’ to any violation of Iran’s territory
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that any violation of the country’s territorial integrity would trigger a response “beyond the enemy’s imagination”, saying Iran would not be deterred by threats of all-out war or assassination, Press TV reported.
Addressing the opening of a parliamentary session on Sunday, he said: “We will not be intimidated, and we are ready to deliver a response beyond the enemy’s imagination to any violation of the territorial integrity of our great Iran.”
“Threats of an all-out war or assassination will not force the Iranian nation to back down from its rights and interests,” he added.
Trump says he has to ‘stop’ killing Iranian leaders to know who US is negotiating with
US president said on Saturday that he needs to stop killing Iranian leaders to determine who the US is negotiating with, while reiterating his position that Iran must never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
“I gotta stop” killing Iranian leaders, Trump told a campaign rally in Georgia, “because I gotta figure out who the hell we’re negotiating with.”
“They don’t have any airplanes, no ships, no anything, no leaders. Level one leader is gone, level two leader is gone,” he said, reiterating his account of the US destruction of Iran’s military and leadership.
Trump also defended his 2018 decision to terminate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, reached under then-President Barack Obama, saying it had been done at a critical moment to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“I terminated one of the worst deals ever made, Barack Hussein Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or as some people call it, the Iran nuclear deal, which was a road to a nuclear weapon for Iran. I terminated it, luckily, just in time,” he said.
“We obliterated Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity with Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury,” he said, referring to military operations in 2025 and then this February to May.
“We defeated them militarily, financially, and otherwise. We have to make sure that they never, ever have a nuclear weapon,” Trump added.
Trump says US could strike Iran ‘tomorrow’ or reach ‘big, beautiful’ deal
Trump on Saturday said Washington could strike Iran as soon as “tomorrow,” or reach a “big, beautiful” agreement with Tehran, amid reports that he’s weighing renewed attacks on the Islamic Republic.
“We’re thinking about doing it, and maybe tomorrow,” Trump told reporters when asked how far along he was in considering a possible attack.
“Do you really think I’m going to tell you if I’m going to do it?” he added.
Trump said Iran could still avoid further military action by reaching an agreement with the US, noting that “they want to make a deal, but the problem is, will they hold the deal?”
Trump argued that his goal was to prevent Iran from eventually developing a nuclear weapon, saying an earlier US operation involving B-2 bombers would not have been enough to guarantee a lasting outcome.
“I’ve got to make it permanent,” he said. “That’s the only reason I’m doing it.”
The president also claimed that oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz had increased compared with before the war began, without providing figures during his remarks.
He offered no firm decision on what comes next, instead presenting both military action and negotiations as possible outcomes.
“I may have to finish it off, or maybe they’ll make a deal,” Trump said. “But I’m not sure. Either way, we win.”
Iran has ramped up efforts to target US personnel, intelligence memo warns
Iran has ramped up efforts to target US personnel, and lethal plots by Tehran against American citizens have reached “advanced stages”, a senior intelligence official in the Trump administration warned in a memo seen by Reuters.
The alert from Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton came after Washington scaled back staffing at its mission in Saudi Arabia earlier this week in response to intensified attacks by Houthi forces.
Those attacks on one front of the nearly eight-month-old regional conflict triggered by the Iran war have coincided with a rise in attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier this month, sources told Reuters Iran was preparing a more forceful response if the United States resumes large-scale military attacks on its territory.
“Specifically, through various channels, we have received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target US personnel,” Clayton wrote to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a message dated October 23.
“The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against US citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries,” he added.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe was also copied in on the unclassified memo, which was first reported by Axios.
