The Guyana-flagged sanctioned crude oil tanker M/T VERONICA, which was boarded and seized this morning in the Southern Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela by the United States, last week changed its name and registration to the Russian-flagged GALILEO, with a homeport of Taganrog on the Sea of Azov in the Black Sea.

Abolqasem Jarareh, a hardline lawmaker in the Iranian Parliament, along with Meysam Nadi and several other prominent figures in Iran, are alleging that Former President Hassan Rouhani and his Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif have been detained by authorities and placed on house arrest in Tehran.

Iran has now been under a near-total internet blackout for a full week, over 168 hours without cell service, internet, and almost all other communication out of the country, besides occasional messages via Starlink.

In addition to senior officials in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Egypt, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke to President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday and requested that he postpone any plans for an American military attack on Iran, concerned that an attack could lead to a wider regional conflict, worries seemingly shared by Gulf States, a senior U.S. official told the New York Times.

President Donald J. Trump is delaying a decision on striking Iran as the White House consults internally and with allies about the timing for such an operation and whether it would meaningfully destabilize the regime, according to five U.S., Israeli and Arab sources with knowledge of the situation who spoke to Axios.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Trump on Wednesday and asked him to wait to give Israel more time to prepare for possible retaliation from Iran. An Israeli source said that in addition to concerns about retaliation, the current plan by the United States includes strikes on security force targets in Iran, but is not seen by Israel as strong or effective enough to meaningfully destabilize the Islamic Regime.

When President Donald J. Trump told reporters yesterday at the White House that the “killing had stopped” in Iran, appearing to step away from potential military action, U.S. intelligence had not yet indicated that the killing of protestors had definitively been halted in Iran, sources tell CNN.

Recent U.S. intelligence reports indicate Iran is preparing options to target American bases in the Middle East, including those in Iraq and Syria, if President Trump orders military strikes, according to a U.S. official and another source familiar with the matter who spoke to CNN.

On Thursday, the cremated remains of 32 Cubans killed during the recent U.S. military operation in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, which resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who the Cubans were reportedly protecting, were returned to Havana, Cuba.

During her private lunch today at the White House with President Donald J. Trump, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented President Trump with the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize that she was awarded last month in Oslo, Norway.

An Iraqi security source tells CNN that over the last few weeks nearly 5,000 fighters from Iranian-backed paramilitary groups in Iraq entered Iran via two separate border crossings in Southern Iraq: the Shaib Border Crossing in the Maysan Province and the Zurbatiya Border Crossing in Wasit Province, in order to assist with the ongoing crackdown against anti-government protests in Tehran and other parts of Iran.

A European military source also confirmed that 800 Shiite militia fighters had crossed from the Iraqi Provinces of Diyala, Maysan and Basra, to help with the Iranian crackdown, with the fighters belonging to armed groups loyal to Tehran - like Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada and the Badr Organization, organized under the umbrella organization known as the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

Yoon Suk Yeol, the Impeached President of South Korea, has been sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “abuse of power, obstructing justice and falsifying documents,” related to his failed military coup and declaration of martial law in December 2024.

Friday’s ruling was the first of the verdicts in four trials linked to the South Korean President’s failed martial law bid in 2024, the most serious of which will be a trial in February related to charges of insurrection, for which prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for Yoon Suk Yeol.

Security officials in Iran allege that 3,000 members of “terror groups” and who played a role in the recent civil unrest have been arrested, according the Iranian state-owned Tasnim News Agency.

Iran plans to extend its ongoing nationwide internet blackout, which has been in place now for over a week, until at least the Iranian New Year (Nowruz) which falls around March 20, according to the Iranian opposition outlet IranWire.

U.S. Forces arrived in the Northern Syrian town of Dayr Hafir in the Eastern Aleppo Governorate earlier today, meeting with a delegation from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), amid attempts to cool increase tensions which could lead to major clashes soon between the SDF and the Syrian Army.

David Barnea, the Director of the Israeli Intelligence Agency, known more commonly as Mossad, arrived in the United States on Friday morning for talks on the situation in Iran, with him expected to meet in Miami with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who is currently managing a direct channel of communication between the Trump Administration and Iran, according to an Israeli source who spoke to Axios.

In a post earlier on Truth Social by President Donald J. Trump, the President praised the Iranian Regime’s decision to cancel the hanging of 800 protesters scheduled for Thursday, stating, “I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!”

President Donald J. Trump spoke to reporters earlier outside the White House about his decision to not carry out military strikes against Iran.

Reporter: “Did Arab and Israeli officials convince you to not strike Iran?”

Trump: “Nobody convinced me, I convinced myself. You had, yesterday, scheduled, over 800 hangings. They didn't hang anyone. They cancelled the hangings. That had a big impact.”