Gargash says '50-50' chance of US-Iran agreement on Hormuz strait, Pakistan seeks breakthrough in peace talks

The Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) has confirmed that private school fees in Dubai will remain unchanged for the 2026–27 academic year, following a leadership directive aimed at supporting families and ensuring stability in the education sector.

The announcement comes alongside Dubai’s Dh1.5 billion second economic incentives package, which raises total support measures to Dh2.5 billion and includes 33 initiatives across key sectors, including education.

As part of the package, private schools and early childhood centres will receive financial relief measures such as deferred licence fees, exemption from fines, and additional support from the Knowledge Fund Establishment, including rent relief and fee flexibility.

Further measures include suspended penalties, frozen rent increases at renewal, and deferred payments, all designed to strengthen operational stability across Dubai’s private education sector while supporting both institutions and families. Read more

Iran’s Foreign Minister held talks with Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Friday to discuss proposals aimed at ending the ongoing US-Israeli war, according to Iranian media reports cited by Reuters.

The meeting in Tehran followed earlier discussions where Naqvi had delivered the latest US message in ongoing negotiations. Iranian outlets Tasnim and ISNA reported that he is playing a facilitation role to bridge communication gaps and support efforts toward a potential framework to end the conflict and address key disputes.

The talks come as tensions persist between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s uranium stockpile and conditions surrounding the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping route.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said no country should accept a “tolling system” in the Strait of Hormuz, raising concerns over Iran’s reported moves to impose commercial shipping levies in the strategic waterway.

Speaking in Helsingborg, Sweden, Rubio said freedom of navigation remains a key priority for the international community and a central issue in ongoing diplomatic discussions.

He accused Tehran of attempting to formalise maritime restrictions by seeking regional support for transit fees, including efforts to bring other countries on board.

“There is not a country in the world that should accept that,” Rubio said, warning against legitimising any such measures in international shipping lanes.

Israeli military strikes have hit several areas in southern Lebanon’s Tyre district, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

The reported air raids targeted the villages of Al-Hanniye, Tebnine, Al-Qlailah and Debaal. No immediate reports of casualties were confirmed, the agency said.

The developments come amid ongoing tensions in the region, with further details yet to be officially verified.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) welcomes the decision of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Maritime Safety Committee (MSC), to adopt a resolution during its 111th session, that was proposed by the UAE and co-sponsored by many member States.

Through the resolution, Member States have expressed grave concern of Iran’s use of drones, missiles and sea mines in and around the Strait of Hormuz, and the serious threat posed to safe navigation and seafarers. To date, Iran’s egregious attacks have resulted in the death of at least eleven seafarers and more than 20,000 seafarers stranded.

The resolution also stresses the critical importance of maintaining the freedom of navigation of commercial ships in the Arabian Sea and Sea of Oman, and the right of transit passage in one of the worlds' most critical international waterways. To that end, it encourages States to take coordinated steps to contribute to the safe navigation of commercial and merchant vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

The US and Iran have just a "50-50" chance of reaching an agreement that would free up the Strait of Hormuz, a senior UAE official said on Friday.

Presidential adviser Anwar Gargash urged Tehran not to overplay its hand in the stop-start negotiations during the Middle East war's fragile ceasefire.

Iranian officials "have missed a lot of chances over the years because there's a tendency to overestimate their cards", Gargash told the GLOBSEC Forum in Prague.

"I hope they don't do that this time."

The UAE, which hosts US military facilities, was targeted by about 3,300 drones and missiles during 40 days of war from February 28 onwards, Gargash said, with only around four per cent getting through.

He said the Iran-blockaded Hormuz, which normally carries a fifth of global oil production, must go back to normal, and cautioned against an inconclusive ceasefire.

"Negotiations just to reach a ceasefire and sow the seeds for further conflict in the future is not what we're seeking," he said.

"And I think that the Strait of Hormuz clearly has to go back to the status quo and this should be an international waterway."

With US negotiators focusing on Iran's potential development of an atomic weapon, Gargash said: "The Iranian nuclear program was our second or third worry, now it's our first worry."

"We see that Iran is capable of using any weapon that it has in its hands, which is what we learned," he added.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that troop shifts by Washington in Europe were not aimed at punishing allies for a lack of support over Iran.

"The United States continues to have global commitments that it needs to meet in terms of our force deployment, and that constantly requires us to reexamine where we put troops. This is not a punitive thing, it's just something that's ongoing," Rubio told reporters ahead of talks in Sweden with his NATO counterparts.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that President Donald Trump's "disappointment" with America's allies over a lack of support in the Iran war would need to be "addressed".

"The president's views, frankly disappointment, at some of our NATO allies and their response to our operations in the Middle East - they're well documented - that will have to be addressed, that won't be solved or addressed today," Rubio said before meeting his alliance counterparts in Sweden.

An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed six people on Friday, including two rescuers and a child, the Lebanese health ministry said, despite a fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

In a statement, the ministry said that "six people were martyred" including two rescuers from the Risala Scouts association, one of them also working as a freelance photographer, and a Syrian girl in a strike on Deir Qanun al-Nahr village. The association is linked with the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement.

An earlier strike on the southern town of Hanaway on Friday also killed four rescuers from the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Committee, the ministry said.

Poland's foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski thanked President Donald Trump on Friday for announcing that 5,000 US troops would head to Poland, after an earlier planned deployment was called off.

"I want to thank President Trump for his announcement that the rotation, the presence of American troops in Poland will be maintained more or less at previous levels," Sikorski told reporters ahead of talks in Sweden with his NATO counterparts.

Iran's foreign ministry on Friday condemned what it called "illegal" US sanctions on Tehran's ambassador-designate to Lebanon, according to a ministry statement.

The ministry "strongly condemned the illegal and unjustified action by the US Treasury Department in sanctioning Mohammad Reza Raouf Sheibani, Iran's designated ambassador to Beirut," the statement said.

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on Hezbollah-linked individuals as well as the Iranian diplomat over Lebanon-related activities.

The foreign ministry described the move as "another example of the rogue behaviour and disregard of the US ruling establishment for the fundamental principles of international law and the United Nations Charter".

Lebanon had declared Sheibani persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country in March, but it is not known whether he ever departed from Beirut.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) likely intervened in the foreign exchange market on Friday, four traders told Reuters, shoring up a currency that has hit record lows over the last couple of weeks.

The rupee jumped following the intervention, rising to a peak of 95.99 per US dollar, up from its intra-day low of 96.30 hit in early trading.

RBI had intervened firmly in the FX market on Thursday as well, traders said.

The central bank's presence in the market again on Friday likely signals discomfort with one-way rupee weakness seen in recent sessions, a trader at a Mumbai based bank said.

NATO chief Mark Rutte Friday welcomed President Donald Trump's announcement that 5,000 US troops would head to Poland, after an earlier planned deployment was called off amid pressure for Europe to fend for itself.

"Of course, I welcome the announcement," the secretary general told reporters ahead of a meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Sweden, adding that NATO "military commanders are working through all the details".

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, currently in Iran as part of ongoing mediation efforts, has met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency.

During the meeting, both sides reportedly reviewed the latest proposals aimed at ending the conflict and narrowing differences between the United States and Iran, particularly on remaining points of disagreement, the report said.

The discussions come amid continued diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions and advance negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on his latest mission to assuage nervous U.S. allies in Europe about the Trump administration's intentions with NATO or at least put a friendlier face on whipsawing changes and uncertainty about American troop reductions.

Rubio will attend a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Sweden on Friday - the same day senior Pentagon officials are expected to brief the 32-nation alliance on plans for the U.S. military's commitment to European defense at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels.

The meeting of diplomats, which precedes a NATO leaders' summit in Turkey in July, comes amid great uncertainty over how the war in Iran will play out and whether stalled U.S. efforts to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict will resume. Resentment also still simmers on the continent over President Donald Trump's criticism of allies and his interest in taking over Greenland, a territory of NATO ally Denmark.

The Israeli military carried out an airstrike in south Lebanon, killing two people it said on Friday were armed and "moving in a suspicious manner" in an area where it is fighting Hezbollah.

Israel and the Iran-backed group have been regularly trading fire in the country's south despite a ceasefire, which was extended by Israeli and Lebanese authorities last week.

"A short while ago, IDF surveillance identified two armed individuals moving in a suspicious manner hundreds of meters from Israeli territory, in southern Lebanon," the Israeli military posted on Telegram.

"Following their identification and continuous monitoring by the IDF, the armed individuals were struck and eliminated in an aerial strike," the post said.

NATO's European members will look to sound out US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on troop cuts by Washington Friday, as they seek to smooth over President Donald Trump's ire ahead of a July summit.

The meeting of alliance foreign ministers in the Swedish city of Helsingborg comes after the US leader lashed out at Europe over its response to his war on Iran - and threatened he could consider quitting NATO.

One of the goals in Helsingborg "is to see whether we've turned the page or not ahead of the Ankara summit," a European diplomat said.

Judging by Rubio's comments as he set off for the talks - denouncing NATO for failing to weigh in behind Trump on Iran - the answer appears far from clear.

The US president is "not asking them to send their fighter jets in. But they refuse to do anything," the US top diplomat told reporters. "We were very upset about that."

Japan's inflation slowed more than expected in April, government data showed Friday, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi considers further measures to drive down costs linked to the Middle East war.

The year-on-year rise in "core" consumer prices, which excludes volatile fresh food, eased to 1.4 percent from 1.8 percent in March.

The figure was lower than market expectations of 1.7 percent, but analysts warn inflation will likely pick up in the coming months.

April consumer prices slowed partly thanks to expanded subsidies for high school tuition and a slowdown in price rises of some foods such as rice, according to the internal affairs ministry.

Gasoline prices also fell in April after the government began an emergency subsidy programme the previous month, the ministry said.

Trump and his administration have said for weeks that the U.S. is reducing the American military footprint in Europe by about 5,000 troops.

U.S. officials confirmed last week that about 4,000 service members were no longer deploying to Poland.

Trump's latest social media announcement made Thursday raises more uncertainty for European allies that have been blindsided by the changes.

"Based on the successful Election of the now President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, who I was proud to Endorse, and our relationship with him, I am pleased to announce that the United States will be sending an additional 5,000 Troops to Poland," Trump said on Truth Social.

Republicans struggled Thursday to find the votes to dismiss legislation that would compel President Donald Trump to withdraw from the war with Iran, delaying planned votes on the matter into June.

The House had scheduled a vote on a war powers resolution, brought by Democrats, that would rein in Trump's military campaign. But as it became clear that Republicans would not have the numbers to defeat the bill, GOP leaders declined to hold a vote on it. It was the latest sign of the slipping support in Congress for a war that Trump launched more than two months ago without congressional approval.

Republicans in the Senate are also working to ensure they have the votes to dismiss another war powers resolution that advanced to a final vote earlier this week, when four GOP senators supported the resolution and three others were absent from the vote.

The actions by congressional leaders showed Republicans are struggling to maintain political backing for Trump's handling of the war. Rank-and-file Republicans are increasingly willing to defy the president over the conflict.

Venezuela's president will travel to India next week to discuss selling oil, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, an unusual announcement of a foreign leader's travel that shows the new US influence over Caracas.

Rubio mentioned the trip by interim President Delcy Rodriguez, in power since US forces deposed Nicolas Maduro in January, as the top US diplomat left on his own trip that will take him to India starting Saturday.

Oil prices rose in Asian trading Friday after stronger US fuel demand data, thinning US strategic petroleum reserves and ongoing concerns over supply disruptions in key producing regions supported the market, while natural gas edged lower. As of 10:18 am Tokyo time, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained $1.75, or 1.82%, to $98.10/barrel. Brent crude rose $2.38, or 2.32%, to $105/barrel. Market sentiment was buoyed by expectations of tighter crude supplies heading into the Northern Hemisphere summer driving season, with traders also monitoring geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and production risks affecting global exports. Murban crude, the benchmark grade traded in Abu Dhabi, fell $1.07, or 1.04%, to $102.2 a barrel, diverging from gains in U.S. and Brent contracts.

The United States and Iran are engaged in "instense" indirect talks aimed at developing a framework for a possible agreement, Iran's ISNA News Agency reported.

According to the report, the two sides are currently exchanging messages and draft texts.

German prosecutors charged two men Thursday with planning to kill a prominent pro-Israel public figure and spying on Jews on behalf of Iranian secret services. Danish national Ali S. is charged with espionage, attempted murder, attempted arson and sabotage, prosecutors in Karlsruhe said. His alleged Afghan complice, Tawab M., is accused of attempted murder.

US crude oil inventories fell sharply while emergency petroleum reserves dropped to their lowest level in nearly two years, according to new government data, as the war involving Iran continues to disrupt one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints.

The latest figures from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed commercial crude inventories declined by 7.9 million barrels for the week ending May 15, far exceeding analyst expectations for a smaller drawdown.

At the same time, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR — America’s emergency crude stockpile — fell by another 9.9 million barrels, marking the eighth consecutive week of declines. The drop pushed the reserve to its lowest level since July 2024.

The inventory declines come amid escalating energy market disruptions tied to the Iran conflict.

Iran has restarted parts of its drone production and is rebuilding its military-industrial base faster than US intelligence agencies expected, according to intelligence assessments cited in recent reports.

This has raised concerns that Tehran could again threaten US allies in the Middle East if fighting resumes.

The assessment, first reported by CNN and cited by Reuters, said Iran resumed some drone manufacturing during a six-week ceasefire that began in early April after intense US-Israeli strikes targeted Iranian missile sites, defence facilities and military infrastructure.

US officials familiar with intelligence findings reportedly concluded that Tehran’s recovery effort is moving “much faster” than early Pentagon estimates, though an independent verification of the assessment is not immediately possible, Reuters reported.

US President Donald Trump said the United States is currently engaged in negotiations with Iran, but insisted the outcome would prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“Right now, we’re negotiating, and we’ll see, but we’re going to get it one way or the other. They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.

When asked by a reporter whether Iran could keep its highly enriched uranium, Trump replied: “No. We will get it. We don’t need it. We don’t want it. We’ll probably destroy it after we get it — but we’re not going to let them have it.”

Trump said the US is reviewing Iran’s proposal to impose tolls on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Asked about the idea, Trump told reporters: “We’re looking at it.”

He claimed the United States maintains “total control” of the strategic waterway through a naval blockade.

“We have total control of the Strait of Hormuz, as you know, with our blockade. The blockade has been 100 percent effective. Nobody has been able to get through it; it’s like a steel wall,” Trump said.

“We want it free, we don’t want tolls. It’s international, it’s an international waterway,” he added.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there are “some good signs” that a deal between Washington and Tehran could be reached, while cautioning against being overly optimistic.

Speaking to reporters, Rubio said Pakistani officials would be travelling to Tehran on Thursday, adding: “So hopefully that will advance this further.”

He said US President Donald Trump’s “preference is to do a good deal,” adding that this has “always been his preference.”

“If we can get a good deal done, that would be great,” Rubio said.

“But if we can’t get a good deal, the president has been clear – he has other options. I’m not going to elaborate on what those are, but everybody knows what those are.”

Rubio added: “There are some good signs, but we understand … I don’t want to be overly optimistic, as well, so let’s see what happens over the next few days.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said 31 vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz over the past 24 hours.

In a statement carried by Iran’s Tasnim news agency, the IRGC said the ships, including oil tankers, container ships and other commercial vessels, transited the waterway' with the coordination and security of the IRGC Navy.'

Day 83: Trump rejects tolls in Hormuz: 'We want it free'

Day 82: Trump says US-Iran talks are ‘right on the borderline’

Day 81: Iran’s position 'unclear', deal 'uncertain': VP Vance

Day 80: Trump says 'holding off on attack on Iran tomorrow'

Day 79: Trump says 'clock is ticking' for Iran

Day 78: Iran plans new Strait of Hormuz toll system

Day 77: Israel and Lebanon extend ceasefire by 45 days: US

Day 76: World leaders call for security in Strait of Hormuz

Day 75: Trump arrives in Beijing for summit with Xi

Day 74: Iran signals potential 90% Uranium enrichment

Day 73: Trump calls Iranian response 'totally unacceptable'

Day 72: 'As of today, Tehran’s restraint is over': Iran official

Day 71: Iran keeps US waiting on response to peace plan

Day 70: US fires on Iran tankers as talks hang in balance

Day 69: Iran creates agency to control shipping at the Strait of Hormuz

Day 68: Trump threatens 'higher level' bombing of Iran if deal not agreed

Day 67: 'Project Freedom' paused 'for a short period': Trump

Day 66: UAE intercepts 12 ballistic missiles, 3 cruise missiles, 4 drones