State dept. praises arrest of Iran-linked Iraqi operative

Lebanon filed a sharply worded complaint with the United Nations accusing Iran of abusing diplomatic immunity by refusing to recall its ambassador after Beirut allegedly demanded his expulsion, according to a report by Fox News.

The report, citing a letter from late April that recently surfaced, said Lebanese authorities also accused Iran of failing to halt alleged terrorist activities on Lebanese soil.

Fox News described the move as potentially unprecedented for Lebanon.

The Iran war has entered a more ambiguous phase, with the regime battered but not broken, the US struggling to define victory, and the Strait of Hormuz emerging as Iran’s most potent bargaining tool, two Middle East experts said at an Iran International townhall in Washington DC.

The panel, moderated by Iran International’s Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, brought together Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute and Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies to discuss what comes after a ceasefire that has not ended the wider confrontation.

The debate, held on May 14, came a month after the US naval blockade of Iranian ports began on April 13, intensifying pressure on Tehran’s economy and maritime trade. But the blockade has also pushed shipping, insurance risk and control of Hormuz to the center of the conflict.

Russia’s envoy to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, criticized comments by President Donald Trump suggesting that a 20-year halt to Iran’s nuclear activity could be sufficient.

Ulyanov was reacting to a video clip circulating online in which Trump appeared to say that stopping Iran’s nuclear activity for two decades “may be enough.”

“Why 20 years and not 15 or 25?” Ulyanov wrote on X. “The US position is not substantiated at all. It is guided exclusively by ideological considerations.”

“If such an approach is digestible to the US, let it be,” he added. “But, please, do not complain in case of fruitless actions.”

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said China has “backed away” from Iran following President Donald Trump’s meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing this week.

Appearing on Fox News program The Story, Waltz described Beijing’s shift in posture as one of the major outcomes of Trump’s three-day visit to China.

Asked to explain what he meant, Waltz said Beijing had agreed on two key principles: “no nuclear weapons and no militarization of the Strait of Hormuz.”

Senate Intelligence Committee chair Mark Warner said on Friday that Americans are increasingly feeling the economic impact of the conflict with Iran through rising housing and borrowing costs.

“From gas prices to home costs, Trump’s war of choice is making it harder and harder to afford the life you want,” Warner wrote in a post on X.

The Virginia Democrat shared a New York Times article examining how the Iran war and resulting rise in Treasury yields have pushed mortgage rates higher, adding pressure to an already strained US housing market.