JERUSALEM, Israel – As President Trump continues to work out a deal that includes opening the Strait of Hormuz, Iran and the U.S. have engaged in more military skirmishes. U.S. CENTCOM announced it conducted self-defense strikes on Iranian radar and command-and-control sites after Iran shot down a Predator drone operating over international waters.
Kuwait also announced on Monday that it had intercepted incoming drone and missile fire.
The White House is continuing efforts to work out an agreement that must include Iran’s opening the Strait, along with guarantees that it won’t pursue a nuclear weapon and will turn over its enriched uranium.
President Trump claims he’s in no hurry to make a deal with Iran as he weighs a negotiated proposal for a 60-day ceasefire between the two nations.
The President told Fox News, “I would rather get a deal because we can open the Strait (of Hormuz) immediately on signing. The one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons. They’ve agreed to that.”
He added, “But if you’re going to be in a hurry, you’re not going to make a good deal. Slowly, but surely, we’re getting, I think, what we want. And if we don’t, we’re going to end it a different way.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed that Trump is keeping the military option open.
He said, “I know he means it when he looks in the camera in the cabinet room and said, ‘They can either do this now through a deal, and we think we’re in a good place to make that deal, or they can deal with the War Department. And we are prepared.’”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has submitted his resignation, citing that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has effectively taken over large portions of the government, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post.
The New York Times and CNN are reporting that Iran is restoring access to a majority of its underground ballistic missile storage sites and maintains up to 70 percent of its mobile launchers. One U.S. official says Iran has “exceeded all timelines for this reconstitution.”
Yet, Iran’s Parliament Speaker, Bagher Galibaf, insisted on Sunday that his country will not give a “blank check” to any party during negotiations with the U.S. to end the war.
Iranian-born analyst Ali Siadatan from the Ideological Defense Institute believes that, despite its bluster, the regime is failing.
He told CBN News, “So that’s what people need to understand, that they like to focus on the appearance of strength that they’re very far from falling. But what we’re seeing is that they’re the weakest they’ve been in 47 years, fragile and isolated, and economically devastated.”
Siadatan asserts that Trump has a historic opportunity.
“President Trump can be the man that brings down this Iron Curtain and be the Reagan of this generation, or he can be a President like Carter, like Obama, that ended up being more the appeasers and the deal-makers, the ones that threw a lifeline and prolonged the suffering of the region, the cycle of war, and the suffering of the people,” he observed.
*** Please sign up for CBN Newsletters to ensure you receive the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***
In Lebanon, for the first time in 26 years, the Israel Defense Forces captured the Beaufort Castle, once a Hezbollah stronghold, as they advanced deeper into southern Lebanon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he plans to expand Israel’s control, not only inside Lebanon, but in places previously held by Israel’s enemies.
“The capture of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic change in the policy we are leading. We have broken the barrier of fear. We are taking the initiative, we are operating on all fronts – in Syria, in Gaza, in Lebanon; we have established security zones beyond our borders to protect our communities.”
The capture of the fortress built during Crusader times represents a notable military milestone for the IDF. Israel captured the castle in 1982, when it was controlled by Yasser Arafat’s P.L.O., and abandoned it in 2000 under Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Now, it has been recaptured 26 years later.
