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

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Loud explosions were heard late on Thursday in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, which is controlled by pro-Iranian Houthi forces, an AFP correspondent said. The Saba agency, which is affiliated with the anti-government fighters, spoke of "Saudi aggression" on X.

AFP footage showed large plumes of smoke rising above the city. After several years of calm, Yemen plunged back into war in July, pitting the Houthi rebels against the government.

The Houthis, who hold Sanaa and Yemen's Red Sea coastline, have been pitted against the government, which is recognised by the international community and backed by Riyadh.

Oil prices climbed sharply on Friday (Oct. 2, 2026), with Brent crude reaching $102.30 a barrel and Murban crude rising to $109.40, as of 8:06 am Tokyo time. WTI crude was at $93.05. The rally, tracked by OilPrice, came as markets continued to assess disruption risks linked to the US-Iran conflict, the Strait of Hormuz and regional shipping security.

The sharpest move was in Murban, the UAE's flagship crude grade and an important reference for Asian refiners. Its jump above Brent indicates that traders are assigning a higher risk premium to Middle Eastern supply, particularly barrels exposed to Gulf shipping disruptions.

Forty-six sovereign states condemned Iran’s escalating use of the death penalty, saying it is being used “to instill fear, suppress dissent and deter peaceful expression and assembly.”

Liechtenstein delivered the joint statement by 46 sovereign states during the UN Human Rights Council's general debate in Geneva. It was backed by a cross-regional group that includes most of Western Europe plus Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ukraine and others. The US is not listed among the signatories.

The US is dispatching roughly 9,000 sailors and Marines aboard a flotilla of warships to the Middle East, a major naval buildup that could bring three American aircraft carriers to the region by late October or November as President Donald Trump warns that renewed strikes against Iran remain possible.

The move, confirmed by US officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations and reported by major US media outlets, marks one of the largest concentrations of US naval power in the Gulf and Arabian Sea since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

It comes as diplomatic efforts to end the eight-month-old US-Iran conflict have stalled, with Tehran and Washington trading accusations and threats even as both sides say they seek to avoid an all-out regional war.

Jerusalem: President Donald Trump said Thursday that Iran may be linked to the FlyDubai copilot who tried to crash an Israel-bound plane as investigators worked to determine why the copilot stabbed the flight's captain, causing the plane to plummet before others on board landed it in Saudi Arabia.

Trump was asked by reporters at the White House whether he had been briefed about any links between the pilot behind the attack and Tehran. He said, "We're working on it right now."

"I would say the answer, based on what I'm hearing, is yes, but we're working on it right now," Trump said. He did not elaborate why he thinks Iran might be involved.

Asked if the US would retaliate against Tehran if it was behind the attack, Trump said, "Oh they'll be hit, very hard, don't worry."

"You just ask them," he added. "They know what happened. They'll be hit very hard."

His remarks come as diplomatic efforts to end the war appear to have stalled.

Trump said in a Time magazine interview published Thursday that he won't now accept proposals from Iran that "he wouldn't have approved a year ago."

He left open the possibility of resuming bombing Iran after the Nov. 3 election. He refused to offer details, telling journalists, "I can't tell you that because look, you know, you're asking, where are you going to bomb?"

The UAE has strongly condemned the Houthi drone attack on the Taiba power distribution station in Medina in Saudi Arabia.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) affirmed that this attack constitutes a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of Saudi Arabia and a threat to its security and stability.

The Ministry reiterated the UAE’s full solidarity with Saudi Arabia and its support for all measures aimed at safeguarding its security and stability.

A Houthi drone struck a civilian electricity distribution station in Medina that supplies power to the Prophet’s Mosque, knocking one transformer out of service but leaving the wider electricity network unaffected, the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen said on Thursday.

Coalition spokesman Major General Turki Al Maliki said the attack targeted the Taibah power distribution station.

He said an investigation by the competent authorities, including an operational review and examination of wreckage from the drone used in the attack, established what the coalition said was Houthi involvement in planning and carrying out the strike.

The attack forced one transformer out of service, but the electricity network was not affected, Al Maliki said.

The coalition described the Taibah station as a civilian facility providing electricity services to the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.

The United States on Thursday announced fresh sanctions targeting Iran's largest automakers, as well as major rail, manufacturing and metals companies, as Washington seeks to exert maximum pressure in its war against the country.

"Because the rail and automotive sectors represent some of the regime's largest remaining sources of revenue and logistical capacity, today's action strikes directly at the critical arteries Iran relies on to sustain its economy and evade sanctions," the US Treasury said in a statement.

British anti-terrorism police said Thursday that they had arrested a man with dual UK-Iranian citizenship over a mysterious major incident on Sunday at an airbase in southwest England.

Counter Terrorism Policing said in a statement that a "27-year-old man, a dual UK/Iranian national, was arrested" in central London "on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts" as part of an investigation into the events Sunday near RAF Fairford, while a second man was questioned.

Flights to and from Tehran's main international airport have fallen by nearly half, 42 per cent, since a US ban on Iranian airlines, but some popular routes remain, tracking data up to Wednesday shows.

On average 53 daily international flights have operated to and from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport since September 23, when the US ban took effect, compared to a daily average of 91 flights before the ban, according to data from tracking platform FlightRadar24.

Traffic had already fallen after Israeli-American strikes on Iran at the end of February led to the complete closure of its airspace.

Since flights resumed, only Iranian carriers operated services out of Iran.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Thursday welcomed the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq as a "historic victory" and called for American troops to leave the Middle East.

The Revolutionary Guards "congratulate the proud nation of Iraq, the united front of the Islamic Resistance, and the revolutionary fighters of the Islamic world on this historic victory," the guards said in a statement carried by their official media.

On Wednesday the US-led coalition that deployed to Iraq and Syria in 2014 to fight the Islamic State (IS) group formally concluded its mission and withdrew.

IS, which seized large swathes of both countries and committed massacres and atrocities, was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, but coalition forces stayed on to battle the group's remnants.

"The US must leave the region and entrust the management of security to the nations themselves," said the statement by the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran's military.

German motorists began paying less to fill their cars on Thursday as fuel subsidies aimed at softening the impact of the Middle East war energy shock came into force.

Prices of petrol had dropped by around 14 cents on average, to 2.06 euros a litre (equivalent to $8.85 per US gallon), and diesel prices by 15 cents, to 2.20 euros a litre, according to the automobile association ADAC. 

As in many other countries, Europe's biggest economy has seen prices at the pump surge as the US war against Iran drags on, causing major disruptions to fuel supplies from the Middle East.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi on Thursday announced June 30 as a new deadline for armed factions to turn over their weapons to the state, following the end of the US-led coalition's mission in the country.

"October 1 is considered a serious beginning to address the issue of weapons outside state control... according to a clear roadmap and agreed timelines extending no later than June 30, 2027," Zaidi said in a statement, after having backed away from an initial September 30 deadline.

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