'We blow them up or make a deal': Trump says US war with Iran will end 'very soon'

Hardline Iranian lawmaker Hamid Rasaei has become the first sitting MP to be imprisoned during his term, sparking a fierce backlash from ultraconservatives against Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei.

The 10-month sentence, handed down by the Special Clerical Court over a 2024 newspaper article accusing Ghalibaf of "manipulating parliamentary documents", has deepened divisions within Iran’s ruling conservative faction at a time of heightened debate over negotiations with the US, the UK-based Iran International reported

Rasaei, a Tehran MP elected in 2023 and managing director of the hardline weekly 9 Dey before his parliamentary term, was convicted of “publishing falsehoods with intent to harm others” over a January 2024 article headlined “Ghalibaf’s Manipulation of Parliamentary Documents”.

The complaint was filed by Ghalibaf in early 2024, before Rasaei took his seat in parliament, and was adjudicated by the Special Court of Clergy because Rasaei is a cleric.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his delegation to leave New York after US-Iran talks stalled, Axios reported, citing two US sources.

The US mission to the UN told Iran’s mission Monday that the delegation should depart immediately. Araghchi left several hours later and flew to Doha. However, Axios said he had already been scheduled to leave Monday night.

The White House had hoped for progress, but talks reached an impasse as Qatar continued mediating between Washington and Tehran.

US President Donald Trump said more information would emerge about why Britain released on bail five men arrested over a suspected plot against RAF Fairford, a base used by US forces in strikes on Iran.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there are “strong indications” Iran played a role, while stressing the investigation is ongoing. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected the claim on X, arguing the suspects’ release undermined the allegation. Police said petrol was found in the men’s vans but no explosives, the BBC reported.

The growing use of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite-internet service could deal the “final nail in the coffin” to Iran’s ability to control cyberspace, Deputy Communications Minister Mohammad Hafez Hakami said.

Hakami said Iranian authorities have relied on progressively tougher restrictions during past unrest — from blocking individual platforms in 2017 to cutting nationwide internet access in 2019, restricting major platforms after the 2022 protests, and disconnecting the network during unrest this year, as per UK-based Iran International.

But he said that strategy is becoming "less effective" as satellite-based services such as Starlink operate outside Iran’s state-controlled telecommunications infrastructure.

“If this continues, in the next crisis we may be forced to cut electricity,” Hakami said, according to Persian-language reports. He also said Starlink and direct-to-cell satellite services could render measures such as device registration and user-identity verification ineffective, according to Tehran-based news outlet Rouydad24.

Starlink is not licensed in Iran.

US President Donald Trump said late on Wednesday that Washington faced a binary choice on Iran: escalate militarily or cut a deal — and he explicitly used the “blow them up” phrasing when asked how he could negotiate with leaders he has called “crazy.”

“We have to make that decision: We blow them up or make a deal.” Asked how he could reach a deal with Iranian officials he has described as “crazy,” Trump replied: “Maybe you blow them up.”

He added: “It’s gonna end very soon, one way or the other.” He made these remarks to reporters in the Oval Office.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sent a letter addressed to “the American people” urging them to pressure Washington to end the war, but US officials rejected it as a propaganda “smoke screen” and said it did not signal any real shift in Tehran’s stance.

Iran’s government confirmed it had received a US proposal to end the war and discussed it at Cabinet level, even as hardliners and state media continued to frame the conflict as a US "failure" and mock US economic pressure claims.

Trump also said developments in Iran would be seen “very soon,” describing the campaign as a “total military victory” and claiming Iran had been “virtually destroyed” militarily and economically while the US had “almost total control” of the Strait of Hormuz.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told troops at Quantico that American forces had “destroyed” major parts of Iran’s military — including its navy, air force, defence systems, leadership and military-industrial capacity — and that Tehran’s conventional shield and nuclear ambitions had been “crippled.”

He credited the troops with ensuring Iran “never gets a nuclear weapon.”

Hegseth also announced a new autonomous warfare command and a 20% cut in general and admiral positions, calling it “accountability,” not a “purge,” and vowing to revive the “warrior ethos,” rebuild the military and reestablish deterrence.

Day 215: Iran says received US response to its proposal to end war

Day 214: Iran threatens strikes as it awaits US response to Hormuz plan

Day 213: Iran supreme leader says US will be forced out of Middle East

Day 212: Trump expects talks with Iran to resume in coming week

Day 211: US military activity surges around Strait of Hormuz

Day 210: Trump discusses Iran conflict with Xi Jinping