Quds Force commander killed, says Israel
In a post on X today, the Israeli military said Behnam Shahriyari “was eliminated in a precise IDF strike in western Iran.” Shahriyari served as a commander of the Iranian Quds Force, the overseas arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“Shahriyari was responsible for all weapons transfers from the Iranian regime to its proxies across the Middle East,” the IDF added.
NBC News has not been able to independently verify the IDF’s claim, and Iran has not commented on Shahriyari’s whereabouts.
Two weeks’ notice: Trump’s deadline on Iran is a familiar one
President Donald Trump’s two-week timeline to decide whether the U.S. will strike Iran’s nuclear sites is a familiar one — it’s one he’s repeatedly used since his first term in office.
“Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” he said in a statement issued through White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Trump has promised action on questions or decisions in “two weeks” over a dozen times in the last two months, according to an NBC News review — and he used the same timeline repeatedly during his first term in office.
Trump says Israel-Iran war ‘very hard to stop’
President Trump said the war between Iran and Israel is “very hard to stop,” after Iran said it would not negotiate over its nuclear programme while under threat.
On the tarmac yesterday in Morristown, New Jersey, Trump told reporters that he “might,” support a ceasefire during a potential negotiation phase between the two countries, “depending on the circumstances.”
“It’s very hard to stop, I will say this, it’s very hard to stop when you look at it. Israel is doing well in terms of war, and I think you would have to say that Iran is doing less well. It’s a little bit hard to get somebody to stop.”
EXCLUSIVE: Iran not sure it can trust America after Israeli attack, Iran’s foreign minister tells NBC News
Reporting from Geneva, Switzerland
Iran is uncertain whether it can trust the United States in diplomatic talks after Israel launched an aerial attack on the country only days before scheduled negotiations with American officials, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday in an exclusive interview with NBC News.
Asked by NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell whether a deal with the United States could be reached within the two-week time frame recently given by President Donald Trump, Araghchi said it was up to the Trump administration “to show their determination for going for a negotiated solution.”
But he suggested Washington was perhaps not genuinely interested in diplomacy and had merely used talks as a “cover” for Israel’s air attack.
Americans flee Israel after strikes forced flights to stop
Some Americans in Israel have been able to leave the region after a flight arranged by Florida in partnership with a nonprofit organization brought evacuees home after Israeli airspace was closed off for most civilian flights for over a week.
‘She’s wrong’: Trump breaks with Gabbard on Iran assessment
Trump broke with his intelligence community and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard over Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Asked by NBC News why he disagreed with the assessment of his own intelligence agencies, who said they had no evidence Iran was building a nuclear weapon, Trump responded, “Well, then my intelligence community is wrong.”
Trump — who was on the tarmac in Morristown, New Jersey, this afternoon, after Air Force One landed at the airport — then asked, “Who in the intelligence community said that?”
When told it was Gabbard, he said, “She’s wrong.”
