Monday, August 17, 2026 – Sixty-day negotiating period for U.S.-Iran Islamabad agreement ends without final deal. U.S. President Donald Trump tells Iran to “put up the white flag of surrender,” threatens to bomb Oman. Iran reaffirms that Oman deal is separate from full Hormuz reopening. Iran says Qatar is holding Iranian pilots as POWs. Drones target Kurdistan Prime Minister’s office, Intelligence Chief’s residence. Ansarallah says it struck Mokha and Marib. Yemen’s Saudi-backed government says it carried out 181 military operations in 24 hours. Israel continues its assault on Gaza. Israeli attacks in the occupied West Bank. Jared Kushner meets with Hamas leadership in Cairo. Regional powers condemn Israel for rejecting the Gaza roadmap. Over 70 Palestinian families face eviction in Lydd. Palestinian Red Crescent evacuates 74 people from Gaza. Palestinian paramedic released by Israel after more than two months. At least 10 Palestinian women prisoners contract scabies in Israel’s Damon Prison. Israeli Supreme Court considers case of detained Palestinian journalist. Israeli strikes on Lebanon kill 11 amid supposed ceasefire. Lebanese leaders condemn Saturday attacks; Hezbollah vows response. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun says Israel is pushing to end UNIFIL presence as Israeli military activity surges in southern Lebanon. Democratic National Committee votes to back abolishing ICE. Trump orders reduction of joint military exercises with South Korea. Attorney General Todd Blanche declines to pledge Department of Justice independence from Trump on prosecutions. Supreme Court again rejects Trump’s bid to overturn E. Jean Carroll verdict. UAE trained mercenaries in Sudan. Fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile State displaces thousands as RSF advances. Russia jails opposition party chairman for 11 years over anti-war comments. Taiwan plans record defense spending amid growing Chinese pressure. Somali troops claim to retake Baidoa from opposition forces. India claims to foil Pakistan-backed militant plot. Syrian detainee dies in government custody amid torture allegations. British prime minister exchanged messages with an impersonator posing as Trump aide.

Iran

• Sixty-day negotiating period for U.S.-Iran Islamabad agreement ends without final deal: The 60-day period set out for negotiations following the U.S.-Iran Islamabad memorandum of understanding ended Monday without a final agreement or a joint announcement of an extension.
  • Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday there was no 60-day deadline in the Islamabad memorandum, adding that Tehran does not formulate its policies under pressure or ultimatums, the Islamic Republic’s News Agency reported.
  • He said the memorandum provided for 60 days of talks on sanctions relief and the nuclear issue, with the possibility of an extension if no agreement was reached.
  • However, according to Baghaei, those talks never began because the U.S. breached the memorandum weeks after it was signed. “We did not start any negotiations at all, and the U.S. violated the understanding from the very beginning; as a result, the issue of a 60-day deadline became entirely moot,” Baghaei said.
  • A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran has reportedly given Washington “a few weeks” to fully implement the memorandum and “will not wait indefinitely” for the U.S. naval blockade to end, warning that Iran would be prepared to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider region if diplomacy fails.
• Trump tells Iran to “put up the white flag of surrender,” threatens to bomb Oman: U.S. President Donald Trump called on Iran to “put up the white flag of surrender” and threatened to bomb Oman, which is currently in talks with Tehran regarding the administration of the Strait, if it obstructs U.S. efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” Trump told Fox News Monday.
  • Asked about U.S. weapons stockpiles in the Middle East, he claimed, “What we have used so far is peanuts.”
  • Trump said he was under no pressure to end the conflict. “I have no time schedule…I’m not in a hurry,” adding, “The midterms have nothing to do with my thinking.”
• Iran reaffirms that Oman deal is separate from full Hormuz reopening: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Monday that an “understanding” has been reached in negotiations with Oman on a transit route through the Strait of Hormuz.
  • Baghaei said the talks have proceeded slowly, “but we had planned, and still plan, to finalize the understanding in the form of a package: the map plus a joint statement.”
  • The talks with Oman, Araghchi said, focus narrowly on mapping new navigation lanes for ships, since the previous routes are no longer operational. Whether the Strait actually reopens, he said, “will depend on the fulfillment of other conditions to which the United States must adhere.”
• Iran says Qatar holding Iranian pilots as POWs: Iran formally accused Qatar of holding three Iranian military pilots as prisoners of war for about six months and asked the Red Cross to intervene on Saturday.
  • In a letter to ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Bagherzadeh, who heads Iran’s committee for missing personnel, said the pilots were shot down over Qatar during a March 2 mission against an “enemy military base.”
  • Bagherzadeh said Qatar has denied the prisoners contact with their families and urged the ICRC to visit them and help secure their release.
  • Qatar denied these accusations, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson saying that the pilots entered Qatari airspace and ignored radio warnings before being shot down. Qatar claims rescue teams recovered the remains of one pilot, repatriated in July, and Tehran never answered an April invitation to review the Qatari search operation for the other two.
• Drones target Kurdistan Prime Minister’s office, Intelligence Chief’s residence: Two explosive-laden drones targeted the office of Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and the residence of the head of the region’s intelligence agency on Monday, Asharq Al-Awsat reported. Barzani said the Kurdistan Region’s Counter-Terrorism Directorate determined that the attacks were carried out using “Iranian drones,” calling them “a dangerous escalation and a direct threat to the security and stability of the region.”

Yemen

• Ansarallah says it struck Mokha and Marib: Yemen’s Ansarallah said on Sunday that it had struck Saudi-backed military forces in the Red Sea port of Mokha and in Marib, the country’s oil-rich province, with ballistic missiles and drones, according to the Ansarallah-affiliated Saba news agency.
  • Operations at Mokha were suspended on Sunday, with the port’s director saying that strikes had killed seven people and caused an estimated $16 million in damage.
  • Ansarallah’s spokesperson also claimed a missile attack on a “Saudi military vessel and four escort ships” off Mokha in the Red Sea on Monday.
• Yemen’s Saudi-backed government says it carried out 181 military operations in 24 hours: The armed forces of Yemen’s Saudi-backed government said they used drones, artillery, and rocket launchers in 181 operations against Ansarallah from Saturday to Sunday, according to military spokesman Col. Majed al-Nuzaili.
  • Al-Nuzaili claimed the strikes killed and wounded dozens of Ansarallah fighters and destroyed equipment and weapons depots along front lines stretching from the Red Sea coast to the Saada and Marib areas.

Palestine

• Killed and wounded in Gaza: Over the past 48 hours, two Palestinians were killed and 18 were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Three bodies were also recovered from beneath the rubble.
  • The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 73,399 killed, with 174,310 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,265 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 4,198, while 813 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble.
• Israel continues its assault on Gaza:
  • Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in Deir Al-Balah, striking him as he walked through Nuseirat refugee camp on Saturday evening, and wounded four others in strikes that day.
  • Israeli artillery also shelled densely populated areas of Khan Younis on Saturday, causing additional injuries and displacement. Forces opened fire toward Bureij and Jabalia refugee camps, bombarded Gaza City’s Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, and demolished homes and residential buildings in Al-Tuffah neighborhood and Rafah.
  • An Israeli airstrike on a Khan Younis tent encampment wounded at least 5 Palestinians on Sunday, while a separate strike on an apartment in Nuseirat wounded several others.
• Israeli attacks in the occupied West Bank:
  • Hebron: Mohammed Al-Mutawwar, 27, an intensive care nurse at Dura Governmental Hospital, was shot in the back during a Friday evening attack on the town of Sa’ir by Israeli settlers, according to the Palestinian Nursing and Midwifery Association. The bullet severed his spinal cord, causing permanent paralysis, the association said. A young woman was also shot in the back and head during the attack, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
    • Israeli settlers under military protection attacked the Al-Ras area of Hebron city early Sunday, shooting two Palestinians and beating eight others, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. A 60-year-old man was shot in the back and hand; a 46-year-old man was shot and then detained by Israeli forces. A 66-year-old woman was among those beaten.
    • In the village of Massafer Yatta, Israeli settlers broke into a Palestinian home, besieged the family, vandalized the yard, and then held a celebration on the family’s balcony, Israeli lawmaker Ofer Casif said on Sunday.
  • Jenin: Israeli forces on Monday arrested two Palestinian farmers in Faqqu’a after armed settlers detained them while they were picking prickly pears on their land near a newly established outpost.
  • Qalqilya: Residents of Azzun protested the continued closure of the town’s main northern entrance, sealed by Israeli forces since October 7, 2023, restricting movement and hurting local businesses.
  • Nablus: Israeli settlers, backed by the army, on Monday continued for a ninth consecutive day to besiege three families’ homes in Qusra amid attempts to seize them. Israeli forces have also blocked access roads, forced residents from two homes and turned 16 others into military posts. In Beit Dajan, Israeli forces on Monday demolished a residential structure and two agricultural structures and filled in a water well.
  • Bethlehem: About 10 Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian doctor Majed Dwayat with stones and sticks in Jannatah, east of Bethlehem, breaking his hand and smashing his car’s windows, WAFA reported on Sunday.
• Kushner meets with Hamas leadership in Cairo: President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and “Board of Peace” member Jared Kushner met Hamas leaders in Egypt on Sunday to press the group to disarm and relinquish authority in Gaza, Axios reported.
  • The Hamas delegation, led by political leader and chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya and including several senior leaders, attended talks with Kushner, Trump’s board envoy Nickolay Mladenov, and Egyptian, Qatari, and Turkish mediators, according to Reuters. Tony Blair was also at the talks, according to Axios.
  • A source familiar with the meeting told Axios that the talks sought “concrete, verifiable steps” toward Hamas decommissioning its weapons and military infrastructure, transferring governing authority to a Palestinian technocratic administration, and permitting an international force to deploy—commitments the group has already agreed to and repeatedly reaffirmed.
  • At an earlier meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, Al-Hayya stressed Hamas is ready to implement the agreement “as soon as Israel announces its commitment to it.”
  • Kushner and Mladenov met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
• Regional powers condemn Israel for rejecting Gaza roadmap: Eight Muslim-majority countries issued a joint statement on Sunday condemning Israel for rejecting the roadmap saying, “Israel now bears responsibility for obstructing the efforts to bring peace in Gaza.” The statement signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Indonesia, and Pakistan, called on the Board of Peace and the U.S. to take “immediate and concrete measures” to keep any party from obstructing the plan’s implementation.
• Over 70 Palestinian families face eviction in Lydd: Israel has ordered the eviction of more than 70 Palestinian families in the city of Lydd in Israel, according to Wafa. Israeli authorities issued the orders under the pretext of “seizing state lands.”
• Palestinian Red Crescent evacuates 74 people from Gaza: The Palestine Red Crescent Society, with the help of the World Health Organization, evacuated 74 people from Gaza through the Rafah crossing on Sunday, including 38 patients and 36 companions, WAFA reported.
  • When it first reopened Rafah earlier this year, Israel promised it would allow 50 Palestinian patients, with up to two companions each, to leave Gaza daily. Since the ceasefire began, 11,186 people, out of 28,600 scheduled, have passed through the crossing, a compliance rate of 39.1%.
  • Nearly 20,000 patients, including thousands of children and cancer patients, require treatment that is unavailable in Gaza.
• Palestinian paramedic released by Israel after more than two months: Palestinian Red Crescent Society paramedic Waseem Al-Mughari, 33, was released Sunday after 68 days of enforced disappearance, Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW) reported.
  • HWW said an Israeli-backed armed militia intercepted his marked ambulance on Salah al-Din Road on June 9 while he was on duty. The militia subjected him and six PRCS colleagues to field interrogation before handing Al-Mughari over to Israeli forces.
• At least 10 Palestinian women prisoners contract scabies in Israel’s Damon Prison: These cases come amid severe overcrowding, poor ventilation, and shortages of cleaning supplies and clothing, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said Monday. More than 90 Palestinian women are currently held at the prison, including pregnant women, minors and prisoners with chronic health conditions. The group said scabies has continued to spread through Israeli prisons since May 2024, while Israeli prison authorities have failed to adequately address the conditions driving the outbreak or provide effective treatment. The group described the continuing outbreak and denial of medical care as part of a broader system of “torture and systematic medical neglect.”
• Israeli Supreme Court considers case of detained Palestinian journalist: The Israeli Supreme Court held a session Sunday to review the case of Palestinian journalist Mohammad Arab, Haaretz reported.
  • Israeli forces detained Arab on March 14, 2024, while he was working as a correspondent for Al-Araby TV inside the Al-Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza City.
  • Since March 2024, he has been held under Israel’s “Unlawful Combatants Law,” which permits the state to hold individuals indefinitely without formal charge or trial, and his detention has repeatedly been extended at six-month intervals.
  • Reports from his lawyers indicate that Arab’s health has deteriorated drastically over the course of his 29 months in custody, and he previously engaged in a hunger strike to protest the prison’s conditions.
  • The court considered an appeal by his lawyers to halt the repeated six-month extensions of his detention. The hearing concluded without a ruling, and Arab remains detained at the Ketziot prison in the Negev desert.

Lebanon

• Israeli strikes on Lebanon kill 11 amid supposed ceasefire: Israeli strikes on Ansar and Deir Al-Zahrani in southern Lebanon on Saturday killed 11 people and wounded 19, the highest single-day toll since the June ceasefire, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
  • Israeli strikes on Ansar killed seven, including a mother and four children, and killed four in Deir Al-Zahrani, where 17 others were wounded.
  • Israel claimed its attacks targeted “Hezbollah infrastructure” in response to activity against Israeli troops in the Ali Al-Taher Heights, which Israel claimed is inside what it calls its “security zone.” A Hezbollah drone struck a combat engineering unit near the Ali Al-Taher Saturday, injuring three Israeli soldiers, the Israeli military later claimed on Sunday.
  • Separately on Saturday, Israeli forces razed the last remaining houses in the town of Mais Al-Jabal, began constructing an earthen barrier near Khallet Haris-Haddatha, deployed troops along the road between Mais Al-Jabal and Wadi Slouki, and fired artillery at Taybeh, Kfar Tibnit, Zawtar Al-Sharqiya and Mansouri.
  • On Monday, Israeli forces targeted Aitaroun in Bint Jbeil district with artillery and machine-gun fire, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. Israeli warplanes also carried out two rounds of strikes on Mansouri in Tyre (Sour) district.
• Lebanese leaders condemn Saturday attacks; Hezbollah vows response: Leaders from Lebanon’s government condemned Israel’s escalation in the country’s south on Saturday, while Hezbollah promised an “appropriate” response to the strikes.
  • President Joseph Aoun called the attacks “a clear message against the negotiation process and U.S. efforts to implement the agreement.”
  • Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned Israel’s killing of civilians, noting that the women and children killed in Ansar were “not ‘military infrastructure.’”
  • In a statement Saturday, Hezbollah warned that Israel’s continuing violations and “attempts to impose a fait accompli” would draw an “appropriate response.” The group demanded that Lebanese authorities abandon what it called “humiliating direct negotiations” under U.S. sponsorship, arguing that these negotiations made the government “complicit” in Israeli attacks on the country. Hezbollah has refused to engage in direct talks with Israel and was not a party to the deal.
• Aoun says Israel pushing to end UNIFIL presence as Israeli military activity surges in southern Lebanon: The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the UN peacekeeping mission deployed in southern Lebanon, said Monday that Israeli military activity in the area had increased significantly over the past two weeks, recording an average of 137 Israeli projectiles per day between August 5 and 16, including 208 on Saturday and 185 on Sunday.
  • The figures came as Lebanese President Joseph Aoun renewed calls to extend UNIFIL’s mandate. “Israel rejects UNIFIL’s presence and has been pushing in this direction for nearly a year, while we are demanding that it remain,” Aoun said, adding that Lebanon’s first choice is to extend the force’s mandate, with an alternative international force alongside the Lebanese army as a second option.

U.S. News

• DNC votes to back abolishing ICE: The Democratic National Committee approved a non-binding resolution Saturday during its summer meeting in Austin urging Congress to abolish ICE and wind down the immigration detention system, alongside a more strongly backed separate proposal calling for reforms to the agency.
  • The resolution passed in Austin calls for federal legislation to abolish ICE, for the agency’s operations and its detention infrastructure to conclude and close down, to condition DHS appropriations on reducing ICE’s operations, to terminate private prison contracts and to release immigration detainees except under limited circumstances. It also calls for expanded civil rights oversight in the U.S. immigration system.
  • In response to Saturday’s vote, DNC Chair Ken Martin said official party positions are set every four years at the national convention but that Democrats remain united in opposing current enforcement tactics.
• Trump orders reduction of joint military exercises with South Korea: President Donald Trump said Sunday he instructed War Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” U.S. participation in joint military exercises with South Korea, complaining in a social media post that Seoul had not joined U.S. efforts on Iran’s “denuclearization” while praising his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
  • The announcement, which caught the Pentagon off guard according to a senior U.S. military official, comes as the U.S.’s 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises with South Korea began on Monday.
• Blanche declines to pledge DOJ independence from Trump on prosecutions: Attorney General Todd Blanche refused Sunday to pledge that the Justice Department would “always act independently” of the White House, telling NBC’s Meet the Press that “no attorney general should ever pledge that” and that President Donald Trump should “of course” have a voice in individual prosecution decisions, according to Axios.
  • Blanche called it an “extraordinarily false narrative” that Trump directs him to prosecute specific people, even as Trump has repeatedly named individuals he wants charged, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both of whom the DOJ has prosecuted.
  • During a separate interview with Fox News, Blanche said that Trump “would expect me to tell him no” in cases of legal disagreement, saying “the president loves disagreement.”
• Supreme Court again rejects Trump’s bid to overturn E. Jean Carroll verdict: The Supreme Court denied a second request from President Donald Trump’s lawyers to reconsider throwing out a jury’s $5 million finding that he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and later defamed her, according to the Associated Press.
  • Trump paid the $5 million judgment shortly after the Court refused to take up his appeal in June.
  • Trump and the Justice Department are separately asking the high court to toss out a second Carroll verdict totaling $83 million, arguing presidential immunity shields him from being sued over 2019 comments he made about her while in office, a case the court has not yet acted on.

Other International News

• UAE trained mercenaries in Sudan: Seven Colombian mercenaries told the Financial Times that UAE-based GSSG recruited, trained and deployed about 2,000 fighters to support Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, according to an investigation from the outlet published on Saturday.
  • “It’s the Emirates that put in the most money and resources,” one former commander explained.
  • Around 300 specialists trained in drones and anti-aircraft weapons at Emirati bases, including in Abu Dhabi, and traveled through UAE-backed hubs in Somalia and Libya.
  • One battalion fought beside the RSF in the siege and capture of El Fasher, where Yale estimates 60,000 civilians were killed in the weeks after its fall. Fighters said GSSG paid bonuses when the city fell.
• Fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile State displaces thousands as RSF advances: Clashes between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have forced thousands of residents to flee parts of southeastern Blue Nile State, with civil society monitors reporting civilians crossing the river by small boat after the RSF-aligned Tasis Coalition seized the strategic town of Geissan near the Ethiopian border on Tuesday.
  • The Blue Nile Civil Society Initiative warned that military operations during a period of extreme weather in the region pose a direct threat to civilians and called for an immediate ceasefire and safe humanitarian corridors to reach stranded populations.
  • The RSF and its ally, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, have advanced in both Geissan and the border town of Kurmuk in August.
• Russia jails opposition party chairman for 11 years over anti-war comments: A Russian court sentenced Lev Shlosberg, deputy chairman of the liberal Yabloko party, to 11 years in a penal colony after convicting him of “discrediting” the armed forces and spreading false information about the war in Ukraine following comments criticizing the invasion.
  • Shlosberg used his closing statement to demand an immediate ceasefire and denounce the war as a catastrophe for Russia, stating “one day the entire nation will shudder at this list ​of martyrs,” from the conflict.
  • The sentence comes a week after Russia’s Supreme Court barred Yabloko—the only registered party calling for an end to the war—from participating in next month’s parliamentary election.

• Taiwan plans record defense spending amid growing Chinese pressure: Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said Taiwan’s 2027 defense budget will rise to the equivalent of $31.4 billion USD, exceeding 3% of GDP for the first time, as Taipei accelerates military modernization in response to mounting Chinese pressure.
  • Lai called the spending “an investment in peace,” while Taiwan continues developing submarines and expanding preparations for scenarios including a Chinese maritime blockade.
  • The increase also reflects sustained U.S. pressure on Taipei to shoulder more of its own defense costs.
• Somali troops claim to retake Baidoa from opposition forces: Somali federal forces stated that they had driven opposition fighters out of the city of Baidoa after heavy clashes. Federal authorities said that they had repelled an attack by Laftagareen’s forces using vehicle-borne explosives and that around 30 assailants were killed, while statements on social media by Laftagareen’s office claimed that the city center was still held by his movement.
  • Baidoa has been a flashpoint since federal troops seized the city in March after forces loyal to former South West state president Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen broke with Mogadishu over constitutional disputes.

• India claims to foil Pakistan-backed militant plot: Indian security agencies arrested more than 200 alleged members of what Home Minister Amit Shah claimed was a militant network backed by Pakistani intelligence in a coordinated operation across 14 states.
  • Shah said the crackdown targeted what he called the “Shahzad Bhatti Network” and prevented planned “subversive attacks,” with authorities claiming to recover pistols, ammunition, and grenades bearing Pakistan Ordnance Factory markings.
• Syrian detainee dies in government custody amid torture allegations: Mohammad Ghamira, a resident of rural Latakia and former member of the Syrian Civil Defense, died in government custody while he was being held over a financial complaint, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said that accusations of torture had emerged in connection with his death.
  • Ghamira developed severe bleeding in detention over several days, and after release was found to have suffered a brain hemorrhage, falling into a coma and dying in intensive care at a nearby hospital.
  • Syria’s Interior Ministry said that it had initiated an investigation into the circumstances of Ghamira’s death.
• British prime minister exchanged messages with an impersonator posing as Trump aide: British Prime Minister Andy Burnham engaged with messages from someone impersonating White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles before growing suspicious the contact was illegitimate, four officials told Politico, prompting the British embassy in Washington to raise concerns with the White House.
  • One person briefed on the exchange said a “few messages” were sent after Burnham entered No. 10 but described them as “of no significance.”
  • A White House official said the incident “had nothing to do with the Chief of Staff’s devices being hacked,” though officials within the UK government feared Wiles’ phone had been compromised again following a similar hacking investigation last year, in which someone claiming to be Wiles contacted senators, governors and business executives.

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