Strait of Hormuz: tanker catches fire after mine strike
A violating oil tanker catches fire in the Strait of Hormuz after hitting a naval mine; the strait stays closed to such ships amid a US-Iran diplomatic escalation and ahead of a meeting with Qatar.
Iran's army announced overnight Sunday that a "violating" oil tanker caught fire after hitting a naval mine east of the Strait of Hormuz, according to BBC Arabic. In a statement, the army said that "shortly before noon today, a violating oil tanker that had turned off its identification systems and was sailing in a restricted area caught fire after hitting a naval mine east of the Strait of Hormuz."
The Iranian navy's public relations office confirmed that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed to violating ships until any threat is removed, while official Iranian media reported explosions late at night on Qeshm island, at the mouth of the strait.
Rubio: talks with Iran have made only "little progress"
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that negotiations with Iran had made only "little progress," that he saw no imminent breakthrough, but that President Donald Trump preferred a diplomatic solution. Rubio described Iran's demands as "unacceptable," at times calling them "shameful, absurd and completely unrealistic." CNN, however, quoted Trump as saying it is "highly unlikely" he would order new strikes on Iran as long as talks to end the conflict keep making progress.
The escalation comes amid persistent military and political tensions between Washington and Tehran since the war the region saw between the two sides, whose political and military fallout is still being felt today.
Qatar as mediator... a meeting expected at the White House
The White House schedule showed that Trump was set to meet Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in a closed-door meeting on Monday, with Vice President JD Vance also due to meet him. Qatar has played a pivotal mediating role between Washington and Tehran, conveying proposals and working to narrow differences over Iran's nuclear program and the terms for ending the conflict.
Pezeshkian: Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei calls for ending "no war, no peace"
For his part, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Mojtaba Khamenei had directed that the state of "no war, no peace" be brought to an end, stressing that Iran is ready to negotiate but will not submit to "coercion or bullying." Pezeshkian said: "We can negotiate with dignity and end the matter with dignity."
In Tehran, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told a news conference on Monday that "ships wishing to pass must coordinate with the competent Iranian authorities; we control enemy drones and shoot them down." Responding to the US "Iron Gate" project targeting Iran, Baghaei said the idea "comes from those American military officers trying to justify their failure."
Major US military buildup: more than 100 flights in two weeks
In a sign of the scale of the US military buildup in the region, Al Jazeera's Open Source Unit tracked more than 100 US military transport and refuelling flights, flown by 61 different aircraft, from October 26 to Monday morning — 43 flights in the first week against 58 in the second, a sign of intensifying activity in recent days. Germany was the main departure point with 90 flights, while Jordan and Israel topped the list of destinations with 24 flights each.
At the same time, the US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt left Changi naval base in Singapore on Sunday, heading to the Middle East to join the carriers USS George Washington and USS George H.W. Bush already in the region, with it still unclear whether all three carriers will be in the region at the same time, or for how long.