Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said that Iran would be at the forefront of discussions with United States President Donald Trump. In a post on X, Netanyahu stated, “I am heading out now to a meeting with our friend, President Donald Trump, this is our eighth meeting since he was elected to his second term, more than with any other international leader.”
Terming it a “great honour” and “great responsibility,” the Israeli prime minister noted that his meeting with Trump would “discuss all the issues on the table, with Iran at the forefront.” He added, “Our goal is clear: to safeguard Israel’s security, strengthen its power, and expand the circle of peace around us.”
Further, Netanyahu stated, “I am embarking on this mission out of a deep commitment to ensure the security, strength, and future of the State of Israel.”
He added that during his visit, he would also pay respects “to a true friend of mine and of the State of Israel, Senator Lindsey Graham” whom he termed “one of Israel’s greatest friends of all time.”
אני יוצא עכשיו לפגישה עם ידידנו הנשיא דונלד טראמפ – הפגישה השמינית שלנו מאז שנבחר לכהונתו השנייה, יותר מכל מנהיג בינלאומי אחר. זו זכות גדולה, וזו גם אחריות גדולה.
בפגישתנו נדון בכל הנושאים שעל הפרק, ובראשם איראן. המטרה שלנו ברורה: לשמור על ביטחונה של ישראל, לחזק את עוצמתה…
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) July 27, 2026
Earlier in the day, the State of Israel’s Arabic-language account on X said that Netanyahu had departed for Washington, DC, where he is would meet Trump.
According to the post, the prime minister was undertaking the visit at Trump’s invitation, with the two leaders expected to discuss “issues of concern to both countries”.
The visit comes as Netanyahu remains the subject of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant. The ICC issued warrants in November 2024 for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged crimes against humanity committed amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
غادر صباح اليوم إلى واشنطن رئيس الوزراء بنيامين نتنياهو في زيارة للولايات المتحدة يلتقي خلالها الرئيس الأمريكي دونالد ترامب، بناءً على دعوته، وسيبحث معه القضايا التي تهم البلدين. pic.twitter.com/jYXDiCETdc
— إسرائيل بالعربية (@IsraelArabic) July 27, 2026
Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel intercept drones
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defence, citing its official spokesperson Major General Turki Al-Maliki, said in an X post that “air defences intercepted and destroyed a number of drones during the past hours that attempted to target petroleum facilities in the Eastern Region and Riyadh.”
The ministry added that Al-Maliki “clarified that these terrorist attempts were launched from Iraqi territory and carried out by Iranian-backed terrorist militias, affirming the Kingdom’s legitimate right to defend itself and its capabilities, and its retention of the right to respond at the appropriate time and place.”
وزارة الدفاع: اعتراض وتدمير عدد من المسيّرات قادمة من الأراضي العراقية.
صرح المتحدث الرسمي باسم وزارة الدفاع اللواء الركن تركي المالكي أن الدفاعات الجوية اعترضت ودمرت عددًا من المسيّرات خلال الساعات الماضية والتي حاولت استهداف منشآت بترولية بالمنطقتين الشرقية والرياض.
وأوضح… pic.twitter.com/Y7g2beUK0s
— وزارة الدفاع (@modgovksa) July 27, 2026
Meanwhile, Jordan’s armed forces on Monday said two drones had been intercepted, without identifying who launched the drones, Al Jazeera reported. According to the Qatari news agency, no casualties or material damage was reported.
The Israeli military also claimed that it intercepted two drones near the Jordanian border and was investigation where they had been launched from, according to AFP.
‘Not in our DNA’: Iran hasn’t asked to resume talks with US, Baghaei says
Earlier, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said at a news conference that some countries in the Gulf region had been involved in the US war on Tehran, but did not give further details. He added that Iran would not let the US determine the end of war, clarifiying that Tehran has not asked for resumption of talks with the US as it is “not in our DNA.”
According to Baghaei, negotiations between Iran and Oman on the Strait of Hormuz were held on Friday and Saturday, Al Jazeera reported. He noted, “There were useful discussions on how to manage shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” but stated that “the situation in the Strait of Hormuz has not changed; it remains closed and these negotiations have nothing to do with the US.”
BREAKING: Oman-Iran talks on control of Hormuz continue; strait remains ‘closed’, says Tehran
🔴 LIVE updates: https://t.co/E7mc2A6v8Q pic.twitter.com/hzdQRhB3Tv
— Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) July 27, 2026
Further, according to Al Jazeera, Baghaei stated that the Israeli government “will do whatever it takes to prevent the transfer of [nuclear] technologies” to the countries in the Middle East. He added that the “peaceful use of nuclear energy is everyone’s right,” and that “the reason for the pressure on Iran was Iran’s use of its right.”
“We leave the judgement to the world,” the spokesman said.
According to Baghaei, Washington thought “Iran would collapse in three days and surrender” after the start of the US-Israeli war, Al Jazeera reported. He added, though that months later, “America is stuck in this place and they are proud of its crimes.”
The spokesman also said that the US returns to the negotiation table whenever global energy prices increase, Al Jazeera reported.
Iran summons French ambassador over diplomat detention
Tehran summoned the French ambassador over the detention of two French diplomats earlier this month by the Islamic Republic’s security forces, Al Jazeera said. Baghaei, at the news conference, said Iran “was stressed that the French government must cease such actions and such interference in Iran’s internal affairs under misleading labels,” the news agency reported.
According to the foreign ministry spokesman, the diplomats’ actions were carried out “under the pretext of engaging with civil society,” Al Jazeera said. It added that the diplomats were detained and interrogated for several hours on July 19, before they were allowed to return to the embassy. One of the diplomats, Baghaei noted, was physically abused.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called the incident “an extremely serious act of intimidation.”
Jean-Noël Barrot dénonce “une agression extrêmement grave et préméditée”, après l’arrestation brutale de deux diplomates français à Téhéran dimanche 19 juillet. Ces actes sont “inqualifiables et ne resteront pas sans réponse”, a fait savoir le ministre des Affaires étrangères au… pic.twitter.com/jsU7e6Q9F6
— France Inter (@franceinter) July 23, 2026
Saudi, Omani FMs discuss Strait of Hormuz security
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Oman discussed ongoing security tensions in the Gulf region in a telephone call on Monday, Saudi state agency SPA reported.
According to Al Jazeera, the ministers shared their concerns about recent developments and spoke about ways “to ensure the safety and freedom of maritime navigation in the Strait of Hormuz”.
Omani representatives also held in-person discussions in Iran over the weekend.
Foreign Minister Receives Phone Call from Omani Counterpart.https://t.co/EL61R64slR#SPAGOV pic.twitter.com/DNCuT3wGOE
— SPAENG (@Spa_Eng) July 27, 2026
Houthi official says Riyadh failed to achieve goals in Yemen
Deputy Foreign Minister Abdulwahid Abu Ras said Saudi Arabia had failed to achieve its goals in Yemen after relying on the US, Al Jazeera reported. He added that it would also fail by depending on “local mercenaries and tools.”
In a statement to the Houthi-run Yemen News Agency (Saba), cited by Al Jazeera, Ras stated that “America, with all its arrogance, failed in previous rounds to achieve its goals of subjugating the Yemeni people, yet the Saudi regime has not learned its lesson.”
The deputy FM also warned that Saudi Arabia’s insistence on maintaining the siege on Yemen, confiscating its wealth and tearing its social fabric will backfire on the Saudi economy, according to Al Jazeera.
Red Sea traffic off the coast of Yemen has remained disrupted since last week by the Houthi movement, which declared a naval blockade on Saudi exports.
Ukraine’s Zelensky says Moscow deepening military cooperation with Iran
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was deepening military coordination with Tehran as well as North Korea and China.
In an interview with Sky News, Zelensky said that North Korea could send 30,000 troops to Russia while Iran may also provide additional missiles, Al Jazeera reported.
Regarding whether he was concerned about a potential Iranian attack on Ukraine, the president stated that Tehran was already involved in the war by supplying weapons to Moscow.
According to Al Jazeera, Zelensky stated, “We can’t trust these people because at the very beginning, without any escalation from our side, Iranians gave weapons.” He added, “We have to do everything not to open a new front … [but] Iranians and North Koreans already attacked us.”
Six vessels intercepted in Strait of Hormuz
Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB reported that six ships had been intercepted in the Strait of Hormuz that attempted to pass through an “illegal and unsafe” route in the south of the strait after turning off their navigation and positioning systems.
One vessel suffered an accident, and the others returned to the Gulf under “decisive Iranian management”, IRIB said.
🚨 EXCLUSIVE
6 violating vessels switched off navigation systems and, with incitement from the U.S., attempted to pass through the illegal southern route of the Strait of Hormuz. One of them encountered an incident, and the others were decisively turned back to the Persian Gulf.
— IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) (@iribnews_irib) July 27, 2026
According to Al Jazeera, IRIB reported that the incident occurred in the early hours of Monday morning after the vessels were provoked by the American military.
Iran insists on ‘service fee’ in Strait of Hormuz
An Omani delegation, according to Al Jazeera, was in Tehran, exchanging ideas with the Islamic Republic on how to create a mechanism for the future management of the Strait of Hormuz.
However, Iran still opposes alternative corridors through the strait while the Omanis have reportedly suggested a regional consortium to manage the mechanism without collecting tolls, Al Jazeera said.
According to reports cited by the Qatari news agency, the Iranians are still insisting on a “service fee” and want the mechanism to be managed by Tehran.
Shipping falls in Red Sea amid Houthi attack on Saudi oil installations
Shipping traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb strait slowed following Houthi attacks on Saudi oil installations along the Red Sea coast, Al Jazeera reported. The development came amid the Houthis’ announcement of a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported, citing shipping data from analytics platform Kpler.
11 commodity vessels passed through the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Sunday, which was the lowest level in months, according to the data, Al Jazeera said. Seven of the vessels were oil tankers, with three entering the Red Sea and four exiting on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the news agency reported that, according to the Kpler data, fewer than 10 vessels per day passed through the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, despite the US and Iran pausing their attacks.
On Saturday, only three vessels passed through with their transponders switched off, while seven vessels transited on Sunday, including three Iranian-linked oil products tankers exiting the strait, according to the Reuters report, said Al Jazeera.
Trump denies reports of dwindling munitions
According to the Qatari news agency, the US president rejected reports that the US was running out of munitions in its war against Iran. “We have far more munitions than anyone in the world, and far more than we need,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal in a statement.
Earlier, it was reported that US military officials in recent days had cautioned that bombings over the past two weeks meant to deter Iranian threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow waterway that has become a key flashpoint in the war — had largely exhausted the pre-selected sets of targets, one US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Resuming major combat operations remains an option, but General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has cautioned privately to Trump that it would carry risk given the negative impact on stocks of munitions, the official said. That includes interceptors used by US air defenses in the Middle East, the official added.
Caine’s office and US Central Command declined comment. US military officials have traditionally declined to comment on their private advice to a sitting US president, even in testimony to Congress.
Read: Mediators intensify US-Iran diplomacy after Trump orders ‘pause’ in strikes: sources
On NBC’s Meet the Press, US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said the US military “has everything that it needs,” but also said that when Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth took over under the Trump administration, he “inherited a depleted situation.”
It was reported earlier that Iran would halt its own attacks as long as the US does the same, a senior Iranian official told Reuters. The development came as the US pressed pause on its bombing campaign after Trump’s advisers told him they were running out of targets and expressed worries about depleting the US arsenal.
After 13 nights of intensifying US airstrikes on Iran, the Pentagon suspended the campaign late on Friday, with no US attacks reported on either Saturday or Sunday. Iran, which had been following each night of US attacks with its own strikes on neighbouring countries that host US bases, has also so far held fire for two days.
The Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Tehran’s position “remains ‘attack for attack’: if the attacks stop, Iran will also halt its operations. That message has already been conveyed to the United States.”
Waltz told Fox News Sunday and other US media that Trump had decided to pause US attacks to allow more time for diplomacy. “He’s giving talks some space, he’s giving it a little bit of room,” Waltz said, without providing further details.
According to a senior Iranian source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Tehran did not hold much hope that Trump’s decision to pause strikes represented a major shift in the US negotiating position.
“There is more scepticism than optimism about the halt in attacks. The prevailing view is that the pause is tactical rather than genuine. Iran has accumulated enough bitter experience with what it sees as US deception,” the source said.
Stuck in Limbo
For the past two weeks, US forces had been striking Iran nightly in what Washington said was retaliation for Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian forces have responded to the US attacks by launching strikes at water desalination plants in nearby Gulf Arab states.
Iran says it aims to retain control of the strait, through which a fifth of global oil flows passed before the war.
The renewed US military campaign effectively torpedoed last month’s interim agreement aimed at ending the war.
Trump’s decision to pause the strikes followed what several media outlets described as a meeting on Friday where Caine and other senior military and political advisers raised concerns.
CNN said Vice President JD Vance had expressed reservations. Axios reported that the overall commander of US forces in the Middle East, Admiral Brad Cooper, had advised halting the US bombing campaign because it had reached the limits of its effectiveness.
Residents of Iran remain apprehensive. Nader, 49, an import-export business owner in Tehran, said he doubted any pause in strikes would last.
“Everyone in the country is stuck in limbo,” he told Reuters by telephone. “Trump is playing games with Iran. He neither ends the war and leaves the region nor strikes decisively. It’s exhausting.”Latest News, Breaking News & Top News Stories | The Express TribuneReutersRead More