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The order invoked a provision allowing Trump to waive the measures on national interest grounds. It set no fixed expiry for the waivers and left earlier sanctions in place.

Congress passed the legislation last month to curb funding for Russia’s war against Ukraine. Named after Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died in July, it targeted Russian officials, oligarchs and financial institutions and provided for steep tariffs on countries buying Russian energy.

The move, unveiled amid a widening rift with Ukraine and its leader Volodymyr Zelensky, followed Trump’s agreement with Putin to ease sanctions on Russian diesel exports and bring additional supplies onto global markets, part of an effort to lower fuel prices ahead of November’s US midterm elections.

A senior diplomatic official tells i24NEWS there is no evidence of an imminent breakthrough, despite Israel’s intelligence assistance to Riyadh against the Houthis.

Despite President Donald Trump’s claim that the Abraham Accords are back on the table following Israel’s assistance to Saudi Arabia against the Houthis, Israeli officials are lowering expectations, i24NEWS understands.

Prior to October 7, Saudi Arabia was close to advancing a normalization deal with Israel. Over the past three years, however, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has moved significantly further away from the prospect of relations with Israel, partly due to Saudi public opinion.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded on Friday to comments made by former US president Barack Obama, in which he accused Israel of taking "land off people and being "excessive," referring to Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people throughout the country's history.

Obama made the comments during a visit to Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday.

"The Jewish people are not foreign occupiers in the land of our forefathers," Netanyahu said in a video posted to X/Twitter. "Our history is not a colonial enterprise. Our land is not stolen land. This is our homeland."

President Donald Trump said Thursday he would not use nuclear weapons against Iran amid reports that the Department of War was developing new strike plans that could include using a bomb known as the “Mother of All Bombs” against Iranian nuclear sites and energy infrastructure.

Speaking to Newsmax about the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or MOAB, Trump said, “The mother of all bombs is not nuclear.”

“This is just an extremely large bomb. It’s like a tiny nuclear bomb, but the mother of all bombs is one big bomb, but it’s not nuclear.”

“I wouldn’t use nuclear. We don’t have to,” Trump said.

The American military has largely operated on a familiar premise: combat the enemy overseas before the fight reaches home.

But as drones, cyberattacks and long-range weapons pose growing threats to U.S. military installations and critical infrastructure, Army leaders are preparing for a future in which American forces could come under attack before they ever deploy overseas.

"If we're going against a pacing threat, power projection will be contested," Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army's acting chief of staff, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

Former US president Barack Obama said on Tuesday that Israel "took land off people and they were excessive," in reference to Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people throughout the history of the nation.

Obama made his comments while visiting Belfast, Northern Ireland, to receive an honorary doctorate from Queen's University Belfast.

(photo: Reuters)

A ship anchored off the United Arab Emirates was seized and taken toward Iran and another — a cargo ship near Oman — sank after being attacked, authorities said Thursday, as tensions escalated near the Strait of Hormuz.

It wasn’t immediately clear who was behind these incidents, but they happened as a senior Iranian official reiterated his country’s claim of control over the waterway and another said it had a right to seize oil tankers connected to the U.S.

The turmoil in the strait, which a fifth of the world’s oil passed through before the war, has been a sticking point for weeks in talks between the U.S. and Iran to end the conflict. Iran’s grip on the vital waterway has jolted the world economy and spiked fuel prices far beyond the Middle East.

(photo: WANA via Reuters)

Iranian leaders believe that a US strike against the country is inevitable, viewing the question not as "if" Washington will launch another attack, but "when" it will happen.

According to several regional diplomats who spoke to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday following conversations with senior Iranian officials, concerns are growing within Iran’s leadership that the current period of relative calm could be short-lived and that hostilities may resume in the near future.

One diplomatic source described the mood in Tehran, saying that the atmosphere in the Iranian capital reflects a widespread expectation that further US strikes are imminent. “The atmosphere in Tehran is such that people feel the bombings are going to resume in the short term."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged US President Donald Trump to renew the fighting against Iran before Israel’s October 27 election and the US midterm elections a week later, Israeli television reported Tuesday, as the American leader said he would make a decision on Iran “very soon.”

US officials told Channel 12 News they came away with the impression from last week’s talks that Netanyahu wanted to launch an attack before the elections, with the premier citing worrying steps by Iran in the nuclear arena.

While Trump has since said publicly that he will not resume attacks on Iran before the US midterms, the Israel Defense Forces and CENTCOM remain at a high state of readiness and are completing preparations in case Trump changes his mind, the TV report quoted unnamed sources as saying.

Iran is strengthening defenses around its nuclear sites and preparing for possible renewed fighting with the United States, while Iranian officials have warned of possible ground incursions into neighboring countries, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

These preparations come as Tehran seeks to deter another American attack, which officials believe could come after the US November 3 midterm elections, according to the report.

Iranian officials have also warned regional counterparts that Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities could be targeted if fighting resumes, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the warnings. This would compound woes for the Saudis, who have faced multiple attacks in recent days form the Iran-backed Houthis, including repeated strikes on Riyadh airport.

“We know the trap we have set for Israel by demanding a two-state solution,” Basel Abu Shahab, secretary of the Fatah movement in the Burj al-Shemali refugee camp in Lebanon, told Palestine TV, adding that Israel “has reason to fear us.”

Abu Shahab, the son of Fatah Maj.-Gen. Jalal Abu Shehab, widely known as Abu Basel, said in the interview over the weekend that within 20 years of a Palestinian state being established, it could develop an aircraft industry and an industrial sector capable of rivaling Israel’s, giving it the “components of a state capable of confronting Israel.”

“We know the trap we have set for Israel by demanding a two-state solution. But Israel understands why it does not want to give us a state: it knows what the future could hold,” he continued.

(photos: AP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for Israel to be allowed to strike Houthi targets in Yemen, according to a diplomatic source quoted by Haaretz on Monday.

According to the report, Netanyahu is pushing through US mediators to secure Saudi Arabia's permission for Israel to intervene in the decade-old conflict.

The goal is for Israel to "join forces" with Saudi Arabia and develop the relationship to pave the way for a future normalization agreement.

However, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has been reluctant to permit Israeli intervention in the war, reportedly believing that it would play poorly with the Saudi public.

Israeli forces struck three weapons storage facilities, a rocket launch site and an observation command center across the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency said.

The facilities held dozens of weapons, including rockets, explosive devices, mortars and Kalashnikov rifles, along with other combat equipment, according to the joint statement.

In Daraj Tuffah, forces targeted an observation command center that the agencies said Hamas used to direct activities against Israeli troops operating nearby. A rocket launch site was also struck in the Al-Furqan area.