US President Donald Trump said he was meeting in the White House Situation Room on Friday to make a final decision on whether or not to strike a peace deal with Iran.
Trump said Washington would lift its naval blockade of Iran but insisted Tehran must open the Strait of Hormuz and agree never to have nuclear weapons.
Iranian sources told the Fars news agency that Trump's comments on the deal were a "mixture of truth, lies."
By Jonathan Landay, Steve Holland and Yomna Ehab
WASHINGTON/CAIRO, May 29 (Reuters) - Iran said on Friday it was looking for actions, not words from the United States after sources said President Donald Trump was weighing an initial U.S.-Iranian agreement to extend a ceasefire and open the Strait of Hormuz.
The comments by Iran's top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, were in line with previous defiant statements from Iran but added to questions over how such an agreement might unfold.
May 29 (Reuters) - Russian drones attacked three foreign-flagged merchant vessels late on Thursday and overnight as they sailed along Ukraine's maritime export corridor in the Black Sea, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on Friday.
The strikes caused fires on the vessels, but they were extinguished by the crews, Kuleba said on Telegram.
Ukraine's seaports authority said the vessels were under the flags of Vanuatu, the Comoros and Panama.
KARACHI, May 29 (Reuters) - Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar arrived in Washington on Friday for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that are expected to include the latest developments in negotiations on ending the Iran war.
A first round of peace talks in Pakistan concluded without a pact but Reuters cited sources as saying on Thursday that Tehran and Washington had reached an initial agreement, to extend a ceasefire announced in April and lift restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Professional photo and video journalists working in Gaza are to receive an annual press freedom award on Monday for risking their lives to report on the war, an association of publishers has said.
The 2026 Golden Pen of Freedom will be handed to representatives of global news agencies still operating in Gaza -- Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press and Reuters -- "whose local journalists continue to provide consistent, professional coverage under extremely challenging conditions", said the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
Israel's military issued evacuation warnings on Saturday for residents of seven villages in southern Lebanon, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces had pushed deeper into the country.
The latest warnings came a day after military delegations from the two countries held landmark security talks in Washington and ahead of US-brokered negotiations early next week -- the fourth round since the latest Israel-Hezbollah conflict erupted.
US President Donald Trump will only make a peace deal with Iran if it meets all of his conditions, a White House official told AFP on Friday, as questions swirled about the state of negotiations to end the war.
The White House had indicated Trump was close to a decision on a potential deal, even as Tehran insisted there was still "no final agreement" on ending the Middle East conflict.
An Iranian state media report also rebutted several key elements of Trump's characterization of the deal, with sources calling his remarks a "mixture of truth and lies."
By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, May 29 (Reuters) - An average of 11 children have been killed every 24 hours on average in Lebanon, as Israel expanded strikes across the country in spite of a ceasefire being in place.
Heavy Israeli strikes hit towns and villages in southern Lebanon overnight on Wednesday and into Thursday, after Israel declared a new swathe of the area "a combat zone".
On Thursday, an Israeli strike hit a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut amid a ceasefire that has failed to halt fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah in south Lebanon.
Sardar Azmoun is Iran's third top scorer in history with a successful club career behind him but is set to miss out on the 2026 World Cup in an exclusion shadowed by political controversy.
Azmoun, 31, is not part of the Iranian squad that has been preparing in Turkey for the World Cup and only a sensational last minute recall would see him join his teammates.
By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, May 29 (Reuters) - Israel's ambassador to the United Nations said his country had been added to a U.N. blacklist of sexual violence in conflict zones, alongside Hamas.
"This is a political decision! Disconnected from the facts and reality!" Danny Danon said in a post on X, referring to a report due to be published soon. Danon was informed about it during a phone call with the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a post on X by the Israeli mission to the U.N. said.
