U.S. President Donald J. Trump: “May have been a historic day for Lebanon. Good things are happening!!! President DJT”

BLKCAT6, a U.S. Navy MQ-4C “Triton” High-Altitude Surveillance Drone flew an over 12-hour mission yesterday off the coast of Cuba, flying rounds over the Gulf of America and Northern Caribbean, taking a particularly close look at both Havana and the area near Guantanamo Bay, before returning to Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump stated in a post this morning on TruthSocial, that the Strait of Hormuz is “COMPLETELY OPEN AND READY FOR BUSINESS AND FULL PASSAGE,” adding that the ongoing naval blockade of coastal areas and ports in Iran will remain, “IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT AS IT PERTAINS TO IRAN, ONLY, UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE.”

In a flurry of posts on TruthSocial over the last few minutes, U.S. President Donald J. Trump thanked Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while once again attacking NATO.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump continues his ongoing tirade of posts about the Middle East and Iran, stating: “Again! This deal is not tied, in any way, to Lebanon, but we will, MAKE LEBANON GREAT AGAIN!”

U.S. President Donald J. Trump thanks Pakistan and its Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, as well as Pakistani Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, calling them “two fantastic people!!!”

“A GREAT AND BRILLIANT DAY FOR THE WORLD! DJT”

According to Axios, citing two U.S. officials, a three-page plan is at the center of U.S.-Iranian peace talks. One facet of the plan reportedly being discussed by both sides is the release of $20 billion in frozen Iranian funds in exchange for Iran giving up its stockpiles of enriched uranium. Per the report, earlier in the negotiation process, the U.S. offered the release of $6 billion and the Iranians countered with a demand to release $27 billion. U.S. officials have described the potential deal as a “cash-for-uranium concept.”

The United States and Iran have made progress in the negotiations over a three-page memorandum of understanding to end the ongoing war, which will include a “voluntary” multi-year ban on Iranian nuclear enrichment and the removal of some highly-enriched uranium to a third country, in exchange for the return of billions in frozen funding to Iran, U.S. officials and sources with knowledge tell Axios.

Under the agreement, Iran would be allowed to have nuclear research reactors for the production of medical isotopes, but would pledge that all of its nuclear facilities would be above ground, while existing underground facilities would remain out of commission, including the ones destroyed in last year’s Operation Midnight Hammer.

The Cook Islands-flagged asphalt/bitumen tanker Pushpak has transited inbound the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf before turning around and transiting back outbound to the Gulf of Oman.

Iran “agreed to everything,” President Trump tells NewsNation.

During a phone interview earlier with Bloomberg, U.S. President Donald J. Trump said that Iran has agreed to suspend its nuclear program indefinitely, and that it will not receive any frozen funds from the United States, adding that talks over a lasting agreement will “probably” be held this weekend in Islamabad.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump told Axios that American and Iranian negotiators will probably meet this weekend in Islamabad, and that he expects them to hammer out a final deal to end the Iran War. “The Iranians want to meet. They want to make a deal. I think a meeting will probably take place over the weekend. I think we will get a deal in the next day or two,” Trump said in a brief phone interview with Barak Ravid.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has announced a loosening of restrictions set on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz in response to the ceasefire in Lebanon, with the following rules now in effect:

1. Civilian vessels are permitted to transit solely through Iran's designated route.

2. Transit of military vessels through the strait remains prohibited.

3. All transits require permission from the IRGC Navy.

4. This transit is in accordance with the agreement for the period of silence on the battlefield and follows the implementation of the Lebanon ceasefire.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump said in a phone interview this morning with CBS News that Iran has “agreed to everything,” and will work with the United States to remove its buried stockpile of highly-enriched uranium, though he insisted that U.S. troops would not be deployed onto the ground in Iran.

“No. No troops,” Trump said. “We'll go down and get it with them, and then we'll take it. We'll be getting it together because by that time, we'll have an agreement and there's no need for fighting when there's an agreement. Nice right? That's better. We would have done it the other way if we had to.” The President then stated that the material would be brought back to the U.S. once it was recovered, “Our people, together with the Iranians, are going to work together to go get it. And then we'll take it to the United States.”

During an interview earlier with CBS News, President Trump said that Iran has agreed to stop backing proxy terrorist groups across the Middle East, like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.

The U.S. Navy’s Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) has denied reports from USA Today and other media outlets, which citied Sailors and Marines attached to the vessels, of food shortages and poor conditions onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) and USS Tripoli (LHA-7) deployed to the Arabian Sea.

The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and her Carrier Strike Group, who on Thursday hit 296-days at sea, surpassing the record for the longest deployed aircraft carrier since the end of the Cold War, has since transited the Suez Canal from the Eastern Mediterranean and is once again conducting operations in the Red Sea, in support of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), two defense officials tell the Associated Press.

The Ford, which initially left the Red Sea in March, after suffering a severe ventilation fire that started in the ship’s laundry and resulted in damage to hundreds of berthings and other compartments, was expected to finally return to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia after loitering for the last few weeks in the Eastern Mediterranean - with stops in Crete and Croatia. Though it appears that the carrier and its crew has yet again been ordered to remain on station near Iran until the arrival of the USS George H. W. Bush (CVN-77), who is currently taking the long way to the region around the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Africa.

Five oil tankers that had been loitering outside Iran’s easternmost port in the Gulf of Oman were no longer visible in satellite imagery late this week, with the ships having left the gulf in the hours before President Trump’s blockade took effect around Iran. One of the vessels has since returned to an Iranian port, two others have turned around and the remaining two are being shadowed by U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers in the Arabian Sea, a U.S. official tells the Washington Post.