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MB Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran's Parliament, declared a ceasefire and upcoming negotiations "unreasonable" after he accused the U.S. of violating a newly minted agreement.On Wednesday, Iran reportedly again shut down the Strait of Hormuz after Israel attacked Lebanon. For his part, President Donald Trump insisted that Lebanon had never been part of the ceasefire agreement. The U.S. president also said he had not agreed to a 10-point Iranian plan for peace as a framework for further negotiations.Ghalibaf posted a statement to X accusing the U.S. of violating the 10-point plan."As the President of the United States has clearly stated in his Truth, the Islamic Republic of Iran's 10-Point Proposal is a 'workable basis on which to negotiate' and the main framework for these talks," the statement said. "However, 3 clauses of this proposal have been violated so far."The speaker pointed to attacks on Lebanon, an alleged drone intrusion into Iran's airspace, and a denial of Iran's "right" to nuclear enrichment."Now, the very 'workable basis on which to negotiate' has been openly and clearly violated, even before the negotiations began," Ghalibaf wrote. "In such situation, a bilateral ceasefire or negotiations is unreasonable."

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones declared President Donald Trump's war in Iran to be a "fiasco" after concluding that a ceasefire was "falling apart."During a Wednesday interview with conservative author Michael Savage, Jones noted that Trump's approval ratings were plunging amid the war in Iran."But admitting this is a big defeat so far for the U.S. The problem is we keep staying in there, in my view, it only gets worse," Jones noted. "And they've got thousands of people that are related to Muhammad that can be the mullah. And each one you get worse than the next. And Trump keeps saying, oh, I've got people I can work with now.""And then, of course, he can't. And now the ceasefire is falling apart. And so this is a disaster in my view," he added. "Now they've closed this [Strait of Hormuz] again. As I predicted this morning, it's all off, and just — this is a fiasco. It's like watching a Three Stooges movie, but they got nuclear weapons. So that's my take."

Analysts say Pakistani officials’ efforts led to breakthrough that has helped avert catastrophe, at least for nowMiddle East crisis – live updatesPakistan’s leaders had almost lost hope. After more than two weeks of frantic negotiations, phonecalls and diplomatic summits to try to end the US-Israeli war with Iran, it looked like the conflict might instead be escalating into Islamabad’s worst nightmare.In a cabinet meeting held at about 5pm on Tuesday, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, was morose. “We should brace ourselves for the impact of the war,” he told his cabinet ministers. “The situation has really become very bleak. The chance of peace has become dim.” Continue reading...

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back after a reporter wondered how the U.S. could claim the moral high ground after President Donald Trump threatened to eliminate Iran's entire civilization."So, regarding the President's rhetoric, when the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, George W. Bush said in a message to the Iraqi people that the military campaign was directed, quote, against the lawless men who rule your country and not against you," the reporter noted during Wednesday's White House press briefing. "Yesterday, the President threatened to destroy Iran's civilization, the entire civilization, not the Iranian government, but the Iranian civilization, the Iranian people.""The U.S. has been a moral leader for most of its history by fighting wars against other governments, not against civilizations," he continued. "How can the president claim that America can ever have the moral high ground if he's threatening to destroy civilizations and not casting wars as fights against other governments?""I think you should take a look at the actions of this president," Leavitt replied without addressing Trump's threat. "A rogue Islamic regime that has chanted death to America for 47 years, that has killed and maimed thousands of American soldiers over the course of the last five decades.""The president absolutely has the moral high ground over the Iranian terrorist regime," she added. "And for you to even suggest otherwise is frankly insulting."With that, Leavitt cut the reporter off and moved on to the next question.

MAGA host Gina Loudon said she found it "very upsetting" after Democrat Emily Gregory defeated a Trump-endorsed candidate in the district where the president's Mar-a-Lago home is located.During a discussion about a special election to fill former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA) seat in Georgia, Loudon said she couldn't shake off Gregory's win in Florida."Don't forget, too, the race that just happened in Florida, where the Trump-endorsed candidate did not win," Loudon recalled. "The race was seen as an early indicator heading into the midterms, highlighting both Republican strength and conservative strongholds and signs of Democrat momentum in areas where they have traditionally struggled.""Donald Trump is never going to retreat from doing presidential things," she said of Trump endorsements. "And I think even beyond his death, this man will somehow be doing presidential things."Co-host David Brody observed that Trump's influence could be waning because the Democratic candidate performed well in Georgia."A little bit of a warning signal here for Republicans," he said. "That's a tea leaf that is not good for Republicans."Loudon insisted she couldn't get over Jon Maples' loss in Trump's home district."John Maples, an amazing black conservative," she remarked. "And I hate using that, but I'm just saying he was very marketable in many ways to, let's just say, independents, right? More moderate voters. And he was Trump-endorsed, and he lost here in Florida.""But very upsetting to those like me who think, this is Trump's home district, this is where I live, and this is where President Trump's house is, his home is," she added. "Very upsetting to me that we lost this race. We really thought we had it won."

The successor to Donald Trump will have a hard time convincing world allies of the United States' stability, an analyst has warned. A longer-term test will be put to the US by world leaders because of the two terms Trump has served in the Oval Office. Political analyst Rafael Behr, writing in The Guardian, suggested that even the first term Trump served still has an effect on how other countries view the US. Behr wrote, "There is a psychological need to believe that the havoc unleashed by Trump, while extreme, is exceptional – a singular event, like the Covid pandemic; painful and costly, but not a permanent change to the order of things. The president is mortal.""His powers may be constrained if Democrats prevail in November’s midterm elections. Ceasefires can be brokered. Closed waterways can be reopened. Supply chains can be rewoven.""But the Trumpdemic is a more complex syndrome. The US was thoroughly exposed for a full term after the 2016 election, culminating in an acute anti-democratic seizure on January 6, 2021. That severe infection did not cultivate enough immunity in the body politic to prevent a second term that is already proving more virulent in its attacks on probity and basic human decency than the first one.""There is no guarantee that a successor to Trump will be able to restore the old constitutional norms, assuming it is even someone who cares to try. Former US allies would be grateful for a less deranged president, but they cannot be sure that sanity would endure longer than any single election cycle. Trust is gone."Part of the problem, Behr adds, is that no world leader or intergovernmental body, such as NATO, solved how to deal with Trump as a president. He wrote, "No democratic leader has fully mastered the art of Trump-whispering because the president doesn’t respect power when it is softly spoken. The EU is still figuring out how to project a unified message."Trump has suggested pulling the US out of NATO, calling the alliance a "paper tiger." Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized NATO for not backing the Iran war. Trump argues NATO members weren't supportive during Ukraine conflict. However, Rubio acknowledged NATO provides crucial basing rights for US military operations globally, though tensions remain high under the current administration.

If the Pakistan-brokered Iran ceasefire had not been announced shortly before Donald Trump’s deadline that included a threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would have been confronted by a revolt inside the Pentagon, according to new reporting.That is according to MS NOW’s David Rohde, who told “Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire that a handful of Pentagon lawyers were committed to refusing to approve some of the targets the White House wanted to destroy.Speaking moments after the former Fox News personality-turned Pentagon head once again battled with reporters at a press availability, Rohde was asked about the aftermath of the ceasefire with Iran.After noting that Vice President JD Vance was tangentially involved in ceasefire negotiations, he veered off and told Lemire, “And just my last thought: this war was a test of how we wage war as a democracy. We are a democracy. And I feel like as a journalist, that is our, that's my core belief and it's the most defining trait we have. So I completely agree with you in terms of Congress not playing a role.”"We were going to take out all these bridges and that somehow the regime was profiting from bridges and power stations,” he continued. “You know, I had military, former military lawyers saying they were talking to current military lawyers, and these lawyers were going to resist inside. They were not going to sign off on a target list that involved war crimes.”“And I can just tell you from embeds and my own time in the military and embeds, and the people I've known in the military, the United States military does not intentionally commit war crimes, period,” he added. “It does not engage in that kind of war fighting; That's one of our qualities as a democracy. And so this administration was testing that and flirting with that –– we have killed civilians. There's no question we've made huge mistakes in war. But I just, you know, so I don't know how we did as a democracy.” - YouTube youtu.be

Two-week ceasefire comes after Trump spoke to Pakistan’s leaders, with China also believed to be exerting influence over TehranMiddle East crisis – live updatesUS and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire with Tehran saying it will reopen strait of HormuzThe US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday barely an hour before Donald Trump’s deadline to obliterate Iran was set to expire, with Tehran agreeing to temporarily reopen the strait of Hormuz.Israel also agreed to the ceasefire, the White House said. As Trump announced he was suspending his plans to escalate attacks across Iran, the US president said he had received a 10-point proposal from Iran which was a “workable basis on which to negotiate”. Continue reading...