Trump | Pakistan

WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump told his cabinet and the media during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday that his administration is “not satisfied” with the terms of a deal with Iran yet, “but we will be”. The session, which is open to reporters, is one of the administration’s most closely watched meetings in recent weeks. The president and his cabinet members touched upon a number of domestic and international issues of interest, as well as discussing the ongoing negotiations with Iran. “They just want to make a deal. I dont think they have a choice,” Trump said, referring to Tehran. “Their economy is in free fall, their money has no value, their whole economic system has broken down,” he said. “They thought they were gonna outwait me, like, ‘He’s got a midterm’. I dont care about the midterm.” he said. “It’s very simple, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I am doing this for the whole world not for the US only,” he said. “We’ve had great support from other nations. We need it all.” T...

Trump warned Oman to “behave” or face possible US military action during cabinet remarks

United States President Donald Trump, who turns 80 next month, will undergo his routine annual physical on Tuesday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre, following a year of public attention on apparently minor health issues. Trump frequently casts himself as more energetic and fitter than Joe Biden, his Democratic predecessor who left office last year at age 82 after facing questions about his fitness for the job. Still, recent photographs showing a blotchy neck rash have added to questions about Trump’s health, following images in July 2025 of swollen ankles and a bruised hand concealed with makeup. Trump, whose birthday is June 14, became the oldest person to assume the presidency when he began his second term in January 2025. Trump maintains an active golf schedule, but joked about his relative lack of exercise at a recent Oval Office event where his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr said the president walks 14.5 kilometres every time he goes golfing. “When I am not using the cart,” Trump s...

US President Donald Trump on Monday seemingly predicated an emerging Iran peace deal on Muslim-majority nations across the Middle East and beyond normalising relations with Israel. This brand new demand came on the heels of a potential memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the US and Iran to end the war on all fronts and potentially lift oil waivers. It is worth noting that the nations named by Trump, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have traditionally advocated for a two-state solution between Palestine and Israel as a precursor to any discussions on the normalisation of relations with Israel. In a lengthy social media post, Trump listed countries whose leaders he spoke with on Saturday about efforts to end the war with Iran. “After all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these countries, at a minimum, simultaneously sign onto the Abraham Accords,” he wrote. “Those countries discussed are Saudi Arabia, the Uni...

• Trump says draft deal includes opening of Strait of Hormuz • Fars says Hormuz will remain under Iran's management

When Donald Trump warned Iran on April 7 that “a whole civilisation will die tonight,” a European diplomat in Washington said his government wanted an urgent answer to a chilling question: Was the US president contemplating the use of a nuclear weapon? Across Europe and Asia, the concern went beyond whether Trump’s apocalyptic threat was real or bluster. One fear, the diplomat said, was that Russia could seize the moment to justify similar threats in Ukraine, triggering a nuclear crisis on two continents. European governments immediately sought reassurance through a traditional channel: the US State Department. But according to the diplomat, officials there gave an unsettling response: they didn’t know what Trump meant or what actions his words might portend. The previously unreported episode points to a historic breakdown in American diplomacy. At a moment when a uniquely unpredictable US president is rattling markets and capitals with dramatic pronouncements, governments around the world are scrambling for ...

United States President Donald Trump’s administration threatened to revoke the visas of the Palestinian delegation to the United Nations if the Palestinian ambassador refuses to end his candidacy for the vice presidency of the UN General Assembly, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters. In a cable dated Wednesday, US diplomats in its embassy in Jerusalem are instructed to deliver the message that Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour’s general assembly bid “fuels tensions”, risks undermining Trump’s Gaza peace plan and would therefore face consequences from Washington if it went ahead. “To be clear, we will hold the PA responsible if the Palestinian delegation does not withdraw its VPGA candidacy,” the cable, marked sensitive but unclassified, said, referring to the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank. Among the talking points provided in the cable to US diplomats, the State Department’s September 2025 decision to waive visa sanctions for...

Trump says Iran talks 'on borderline'

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in Beijing on Tuesday for talks with his Chinese counterpart and his “long-time good friend” Xi Jinping, intending to show their ties are unshakeable days after a visit by Donald Trump. The confirmation of Putin’s trip came just hours after Trump wrapped up his visit on Friday, the first by a US president to China in nearly a decade and one aimed at stabilising their turbulent relations. Putin and Xi are set to discuss how to “further strengthen” Russia and China’s strategic partnership and “exchange views on key international and regional issues”, according to a Kremlin statement. Their ties have deepened since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Putin visiting Beijing every year since. Setting warm tones for the visit, the two leaders exchanged “congratulatory letters” on Sunday to mark 30 years of their countries’ strategic partnership. Xi said cooperation between Russia and China had “continuously deepened and solidified”, according to Chinese state media. A...

President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing this week may have produced modest results by the standards of US-China summits but it highlighted a clear benefit for China: after the extremes of last year’s trade war, the countries have reverted to their familiar economic and strategic standoff. Two days of talks between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping underscored that even after Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs and the ensuing trade detente the two sides reached late last year, Washington and Beijing are still locked in the contest that Trump inherited when he started his second term. For the United States, that means that the most troubling aspects of the relationship — from what it considers Beijing’s mercantilist trade policies to its efforts to increase its military clout in the Indo-Pacific — remain largely unaddressed. But for Xi it offers some breathing room and a return to a more predictable set of challenges. He appeared to describe the change this week with a new framework for the countries’ relatio...

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Abu Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, had been eliminated in an operation conducted by US and Nigerian forces. “Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield. “Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. He also thanked the Nigerian government for its partnership in the operation. Nigeria had earlier come under scrutiny from Trump who had said that Christians there were being persecuted, which the African nation’s government denies. The US had struck what it said were militant bases in northwestern Nigeria on Christmas Day last year, following Trump’s accusations. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu and ...

United States President Donald Trump on Friday concluded his visit China, where he said he made “fantastic trade deals” with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump had arrived in Beijing seeking to seal deals in sectors including agriculture, aviation and artificial intelligence, as well as to contain differences between the two sides in a number of tense geostrategic areas — not least the Middle East war. Trump’s overtures to Xi, whom he described as a “great leader” and “friend”, have so far been met with more muted tones by the Chinese leader. But the US leader said “a lot of good” has come out of the visit. “We’ve made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries,” he said, as Xi accompanied him through the gardens of Zhongnanhai, a central leadership compound next to Beijing’s Forbidden City. “We’ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve,” Trump added, without providing details. Xi said it was a “milestone visit”, and that the two sides had to date est...

US President Donald Trump hailed “extremely positive” talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Thursday, in remarks made at an opulent banquet in Beijing attended by top leaders and American business figures, including Elon Musk and Tim Cook. His trip to Beijing is the first by a US president in nearly a decade, with the grand reception belying a host of unresolved trade and geopolitical tensions between the two countries. The two leaders rounded off the first full day of a closely watched summit in the Chinese capital with the banquet in a red-carpeted dining room in the lavish Great Hall of the People, abutting Tiananmen Square. “There are those who say this may be the biggest summit ever,” Trump told Xi after a ceremony that featured an honour guard and throngs of children waving flowers and flags at the Great Hall. Trump also said he had invited Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to visit the White House on September 24. Live images streamed before the leaders arrived showed a jovial atmosphere, with s...

Trump seeks economic wins, help on Iran war Xi hails 'positive outcome' of trade talks China to buy 200 Boeing

United States President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Beginning the first visit to China by a US president in nearly a decade, Trump touched down on Air Force One at Beijing Capital International Airport at 7:50pm (4:50pm PKT) after the long flight from Washington. Ructions over Iran, trade and Taiwan loom over the highly anticipated meeting between the leaders of the world’s largest economies, which Trump had already delayed from March because of the war in the Middle East. But Trump appeared firmly focused on business deals, with Nvidia chief Jensen Huang boarding the plane at the last minute in Alaska and Tesla’s Elon Musk also travelling on the presidential jet. Trump was welcomed by Chinese dignitaries, a tightly choreographed formation of military honour guard and dozens of Chinese students waving US and Chinese flags as he disembarked Air Force One in the waning hours of twilight. Pausing midway down the red carpet as the students chanted “...

Iran’s leadership is betting it can outlast an under-pressure Donald Trump in its peace negotiations with Washington, but its defiance risks renewed military confrontation, analysts say. With a shaky ceasefire holding, almost two-and-a-half months after the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic began, the US president has angrily dismissed Iran’s responses to an American proposal for a settlement, warning the truce is on its last legs. But analysts say that even after the assassination of long-time supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, Iran’s leadership remains fiercely ideological and dedicated to the preservation of the Islamic republic set up in the 1979 revolution that ousted the shah. The Iran flag flutters from a tall flagpole over high-rise buildings in northern Tehran on May 12, 2026. — AFP “They do think they can outlast Trump. The war is existential for them,” Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the Chatham House think tank in Lon...

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced talks with Cuba, which has been crippled by a fuel blockade in the wake of Washington’s capture of key regional ally Nicolas Maduro, the former president of Venezuela. In a post on Truth Social, Trump described the communist-ruled island as “a failed country,” adding: “Cuba is asking for help, and we are going to talk!!!” He did not provide details. There is growing speculation in Washington that Trump is seeking to overturn the Cuban government as part of a drive to increase US dominance in the Caribbean and Latin America. Earlier this month, Trump said the United States would be “taking over” the Caribbean island off the Florida coast “almost immediately.” He has also said that following the US military operation to depose Venezuela’s longtime leader, Maduro, Cuba will be next. The communist island has been in a standoff with successive US administrations since the 1960s, and Florida, only around 145 kilometres away, hosts a large, politically influential Cuban...

President Donald Trump on Monday said the ceasefire in the Middle East war was on “life support,” rejecting Iran’s latest counteroffer, which it said had included demands for the release of frozen assets and the end of a US blockade. The president’s reaction to Iran’s position — itself a response to a US proposal — sent oil prices soaring and dashed hopes that a deal could be quickly negotiated to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. After slamming the response as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE”, Trump insisted the US would see a “complete victory” over Iran, adding that the truce, which has largely halted fighting in the Gulf for over a month, was on its last legs. “The ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, ‘Sir, your loved one has approximately a one per cent chance of living,’” he told reporters on Monday. The developments unnerved global energy markets already thrown into chaos by the war and the overlapping blockades imposed by Iran and the US in the Strait of Ho...

Oil prices rallied on Monday, after US President Donald Trump said Iran’s response to a US proposal was “unacceptable,” raising supply fears as the Strait of Hormuz stayed largely closed, which kept the global market tight. Brent crude futures climbed $4.16 or 4.11 per cent to $105.45 a barrel at 0340 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate was at $99.80 a barrel, up $4.38, or 4.59pc. Last week, both contracts recorded 6pc weekly losses on hopes for an imminent end to the 10-week-old conflict that would allow oil transit through the Strait of Hormuz. “The oil market continues to trade like a geopolitical headline machine, with prices swinging sharply based on every comment, rejection, or warning coming from Washington and Tehran,” said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at Phillip Nova. Trump is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday and is expected to discuss Iran, among other topics, with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to US officials. “Market attention now shifts squarely to President Trump’s v...

A Vatican statement after Pope Leo’s meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which said the two had pledged to improve bilateral relations, was a recognition of unprecedented tensions, insiders and analysts said. Rubio’s meeting on Thursday with Pope Leo, the first US pope, garnered wide public attention as President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked the pontiff over the US-Israeli war on Iran. The Vatican statement after the 45-minute encounter, the first between the pope and a Trump cabinet official in nearly a year, said the two leaders had “renewed the shared commitment to fostering good bilateral relations”. “[The] statement makes it clear that, at present, there is work to do,” Peter Martin, a former diplomat at the US embassy to the Holy See who served during Democratic and Republican administrations, told Reuters. Break with tradition of saying all is well Austen Ivereigh, a Vatican specialist who co-wrote a book with the late Pope Francis, said the statement’s focus on the need to build bi...