Live Updates: Trump says Iran “completely agreed” to nuclear inspections, but Tehran denies any such plans

U.S. immigration officials will allow the Iranian World Cup team to enter the country two days ahead of their match against Egypt on Friday, slightly easing prior entry restrictions, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

The Iranian team had previously been allowed to enter the U.S. from Mexico, where it has been training, the day prior to a match.

The team still has to depart the U.S. the evening of its match. The players complained of surprisingly being forced out of the locker room as soon as possible after their first match against New Zealand. Iran has earned draws in each of their first two matches and a win against Egypt would likely earn them a trip to the knockout stage.

“The overall security measures and protocol are the same. We remain committed to providing the safest tournament possible for players, staff, and fans alike,” the DHS said.

Iran is reaching out to Islamic countries to form a “new regional security architecture,” according to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is visiting Pakistan on Tuesday.

Pezeshkian mentioned speaking to Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, but not several of the Gulf countries Iran has targeted as retribution for U.S and Israeli attacks, like Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

“The unity and solidarity of the Islamic Ummah are essential for confronting common challenges,” he said. 

This was the Iranian president’s first visit to Islamabad since the U.S. and Israel launched war on Iran. He said during a news conference after their meeting that there was no mention of Iran’s missile program in the memorandum of understanding signed between the U.S. and Iran.

“If it was not for Iran’s missile capabilities, our country would have been plundered and destroyed,” Pezeshkian said, vowing to “never compromise or negotiate our missile capabilities.”

President Trump told reporters that senators who disagree with him need to be “educated,” when he was asked about Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s criticism of the Iran memorandum of understanding.

“Well I think anybody that’s been critical of it has to be educated, even if they’re friends of mine,” he said. “Because we have Iran in a position that nobody’s ever had.”

But lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including Republicans, have been voicing their frustrations that they haven’t been briefed on the memorandum of understanding. The Trump administration has not offered a briefing to the full Congress. 

Cruz has been critical of allowing Iran to sell oil, as well as of near-term sanctions relief.

“History demonstrates that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is an exceptionally bad idea,” Cruz said last week. “And I think, unfortunately, the president is receiving some really bad advice on this deal. I don’t want to see us send a penny to the Ayatollah.”

President Trump said Iran is “wrong” that nuclear inspectors aren’t coming to inspect enriched sites while speaking to reporters in Pennsylvania. The president had said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency will inspect sites, but Iran later said there are no plans for that to happen. 

“They’re wrong,” he said of the Iranians. “They’re wrong. They know they’re wrong. They told us inside and we have it down, 100% inspections.” 

A reporter asked the president when those inspections will take place. 

“At the appropriate time,” he said. “There’s no rush.”

At least 4,192 people have been killed and 12,171 wounded in Lebanon since Israel’s war with Hezbollah began on March 2, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Some 1.2 million people have been displaced from their homes.

The death toll for Israel includes at least 36 soldiers and four civilians.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun held a call with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday, where they discussed the U.S., Lebanon and Iran working together to implement what was agreed to Sunday during direct U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland, according to Lebanon’s president’s office. 

The United Nations’ International Maritime Organization said Tuesday that it would begin evacuating more than 11,000 sailors stranded in the Persian Gulf by the U.S.-Iran war.

“This large-scale operation will be carried out in close cooperation with Iran, Oman, all other coastal States in the region, the United States and the maritime industry,” IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement.

“We have secured the necessary safety guarantees and have thoroughly verified the conditions for safe navigation to support these operations,” he added.

Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Lebanon’s Vice President Joseph Aoun during a Tuesday phone call that the Trump administration was “closely following” efforts to create “a joint cell” involving the U.S., Lebanon and Iran that was agreed to Sunday during direct U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland. 

The new body will be created “to stabilize the ceasefire in Lebanon and monitor the implementation of related measures,” the Lebanese president’s office said in a statement on the call.

The U.S. officials told Aoun “that arrangements regarding the structure and formation of this cell are currently under review.”

Vance and Rubio “reaffirmed the United States’ support for the positions of the Lebanese President and government in their efforts to extend the authority of the legitimate state, strengthen national sovereignty over all its territory through its army and security forces alone, and enable it to fulfill its commitments in this regard.”

Lebanon’s president said Tuesday that his government would accept “nothing less” than the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the south of his country, where they have occupied a roughly six-mile deep swath of land extending from the two nations’ shared border. 

“We affirm that we will accept nothing less than the end of the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and the elimination of all forms of external tutelage,” President Joseph Aoun said ahead of talks in Washington with Israeli officials. 

Israeli leaders say forces will remain in the “security zone” across southern Lebanon until the threat posed by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group is eliminated. 

The memorandum of understanding signed last week by the U.S. and Iran calls for a “permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”

“We are entering a new round of negotiations that we hope will be decisive in achieving what we seek for our country and our people,” Aoun said. “We see that objective in the full restoration of Lebanon’s sovereignty over every inch of its territory and the extension of state authority across all Lebanese land.”

Aoun’s government has been under intense pressure by Israel and the U.S. to disarm Hezbollah, which, while designated a terrorist group by both of those countries, has long been a powerful political and paramilitary force in Lebanon, in addition to being Iran’s most powerful regional proxy.

Lebanon’s president said Tuesday that his government would accept “nothing less” than the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the south of his country, where they have occupied a roughly six-mile deep swath of land extending from the two nations’ shared border. 

“We affirm that we will accept nothing less than the end of the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and the elimination of all forms of external tutelage,” President Joseph Aoun said ahead of talks in Washington with Israeli officials. 

Israeli leaders say forces will remain in the “security zone” across southern Lebanon until the threat posed by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group is eliminated. 

The memorandum of understanding signed last week by the U.S. and Iran calls for a “permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”

“We are entering a new round of negotiations that we hope will be decisive in achieving what we seek for our country and our people,” Aoun said. “We see that objective in the full restoration of Lebanon’s sovereignty over every inch of its territory and the extension of state authority across all Lebanese land.”

Aoun’s government has been under intense pressure by Israel and the U.S. to disarm Hezbollah, which, while designated a terrorist group by both of those countries, has long been a powerful political and paramilitary force in Lebanon, in addition to being Iran’s most powerful regional proxy.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that forces opened fire at Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon who approached soldiers posing as civilians, in a second incident of the day.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said troops “identified four Hezbollah terrorists riding a bulldozer and a motorcycle who had crossed into the security zone and approached the soldiers, posing an immediate threat.”

According to the IDF, soldiers fired warning shots before opening fire on the alleged Hezbollah fighters. It was not clear whether anyone was injured in the incident. 

The IDF called it “yet another example of the cynical use the organization makes of Lebanese civilians and civilian infrastructure as a shield for its operations.”

Flare-ups in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon have threatened to derail the agreement reached between the U.S. and Iran. As part of the talks around that agreement, mediators say a “de-conflicting cell” is being created to avoid escalations, but it is not yet clear when it will commence, or how it will work.

Iran and Oman reiterated on Tuesday that they were hashing out plans to jointly manage commercial shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, and they said services they provide to vessels would have “costs associated.”

In a joint statement, the two countries said they were working to reach an agreement on how the waterway will be jointly managed in the future, “and the services that will be provided in this regard and the costs associated with them in accordance with international standards.” 

The two countries, which both have coastlines in the vital shipping passage out of the Persian Gulf, emphasized “their sovereignty and sovereign rights over their territorial waters in the Strait of Hormuz,” and their “commitment to maintaining the Strait of Hormuz as a secure and open waterway for international navigation.”

The deal struck between the U.S. and Iran calls for Iran to “conduct dialogue with the sultanate of Oman to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz,” and specifies the discussions must be in line with applicable international law. It does not explicitly bar Iran from charging fees for passage, which Tehran has said for weeks that it will do, though not during the 60-day negotiation period with the U.S.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were both in Pakistan’s capital for an official visit on Tuesday, as Islamabad continues working to broker a lasting peace deal between Tehran and the U.S.

A senior Pakistani government official told CBS News that Pezeshkian’s visit would be “very important,” with many critical issues yet to be addressed during the next two months of U.S.-Iran negotiations.

“A number of important matters still need to be defined, clarified, and discussed,” a senior Pakistani official told CBS News on Tuesday, adding that Islamabad was still working “to reduce tensions between Iran and the United States and will continue its efforts to transform the current agreement into a permanent solution and bring lasting peace to the region.”

“Significant challenges remain, and a great deal of difficult work lies ahead,” the official told CBS News. “However, Pakistan’s Prime Minister and the country’s military leadership are committed to pursuing this opportunity for peace to its conclusion.”

Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva has rejected Vice President JD Vance’s suggestion that the U.S. and Qatar would influence how Iranian frozen assets are spent.

On Monday, the vice president said any frozen assets which are released to Iran as a result of the ongoing negotiations would not be used to fund terrorism. Vance said the U.S. and Qatar would be able to approve how that money is spent, and that it would be used to buy American products.

Ambassador Ali Bahreini rejected that suggestion on Tuesday, however, echoing a statement from the country’s foreign ministry spokesman.

“Iran is the only country who will decide what to do with its assets, which are going to be defrozen,” he told reporters in Geneva. “I reject any claim that there … would be any role for any other country to have an influence on those decisions or on those processes.”

President Trump insisted the U.S. would control how Iran spends its frozen financial assets released as a result of ongoing negotiations.

“The Money and/or Sanctions that the U.S. Treasury is releasing … will be used exclusively for the purchase of food and medical supplies, exclusively from the United States, including Corn, Wheat, and Soybeans from our great American Farmers,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei rejected that point earlier, telling reporters that “with regard to Iran’s released assets, we will make decisions in whatever way serves the country’s interests and is most beneficial. Concerning the purchase of goods, our Ministry of Agriculture and other relevant authorities will decide based on both price and quality. Therefore, there are no restrictions in this regard.”

He noted that the U.S. Treasury had, on Monday, waived sanctions to permit Iran to sell its gas and oil again, and said that income would be spent at Tehran’s discretion.  

“It is interesting to us that the philosophy and objective of the war, which they previously declared to be the destruction of Iranian civilization and the collapse of Iran, has now been reduced to making American farmers richer,” said Baqeai.

President Trump insisted in a social media post on Tuesday morning that Iran had “fully and completely agreed to highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future,” doubling down on Vice President JD Vance’s assertion the previous day that Tehran had agreed during the first round of direct talks on Sunday to let U.N. inspectors return to its nuclear facilities.

Vance said Iran had agreed to let International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors visit the country’s nuclear facilities as soon as this week. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei told reporters in Tehran on Tuesday, however, that there were no plans yet for any new inspections of the most sensitive sites, which were damaged by U.S. and Israel strikes a year ago and include the facility where Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed to be buried deep underground.

Mr. Trump, in his Tuesday morning Truth Social post, dismissed Iranian “protestations and false statements to the contrary,” insisting that there was an agreement for renewed inspections and adding: “If they did not agree to this, there would be no further negotiations!”

Mr. Trump said he had lifted the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and vessels “based on this and other major concessions being made by Iran.”

Israel’s military said Tuesday that forces operating in southern Lebanon had killed two “armed terrorists operating in close proximity” to soldiers.

“The soldiers struck the terrorists north of the Security Zone in order to remove the threat,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. 

The “security zone” is an area that extends roughly six miles into Lebanese territory, spanning virtually all of its southern border with Israel, that Israeli forces have occupied for weeks. Israeli officials say forces will remain in Lebanon until the threat posed by Hezbollah is eliminated.

The incident came as Lebanon’s civil defense rescue agency told the Qatari government-owned Al Jazeera network that two people were killed and one was injured by Israeli troops firing on a group of people. 

“The IDF will continue to operate to remove immediate threats and will not allow the Hezbollah terrorist organization to harm Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

The conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah has threatened to derail the agreement struck between the U.S. and Iran, which calls for an end to military operations on all fronts, including, explicitly, Lebanon.

Iran’s foreign minister said Monday that a “de-conflicting cell” agreed to during Sunday’s first round of U.S.-Iran negotiations, aimed at avoiding escalations in Lebanon, would be the “first test” of the memorandum of understanding signed by President Trump and his Iranian counterpart last week. 

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday that the start of talks on the future of Iran’s nuclear program will be dependent on the implementation of the other points in the memorandum of understanding with the U.S.

“The text of the memorandum clearly states that the start of negotiations on these two issues [nuclear program and sanction relief] is conditional upon the implementation of specific clauses of the memorandum,” spokesman Esmail Baqaei said during a regular briefing to reporters in Tehran aired on state television.

“We are currently working to ensure that all these clauses are fulfilled as prerequisites for the start of negotiations,” he said.

Iran has long stressed the point in the memorandum that calls for a halt to hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israeli forces continue to occupy a wide swath of the country in their fight with the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.

Iran’s chief negotiator insisted Tuesday that Tehran intends to retain control of the Strait of Hormuz following talks with the U.S.

“The Strait of Hormuz will never return to its pre-war conditions and will be administered by the Islamic Republic of Iran, in accordance with international law,” Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said according to Iranian state media.

Qalibaf, who is also the speaker of Iran’s parliament, echoed his own statements from Monday on his way back from Switzerland.

“Hopefully we can activate the strait again, in terms of passage, and bring prosperity back to [the] regional and global economy,” he said.

At least 35 commodity carriers transited the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, a record level since the start of the Middle East war in late February, according to data from the maritime tracking firm Kpler.

The 35 passages represent nearly a third of normal peacetime traffic, which was around 120 per day through the strait, which normally sees around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas exports.

The total count for Monday crossings is expected to rise further as ships are detected later by maritime trackers. Vessels will sometimes switch off their location transponders to transit the strait.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday that there is no plan yet to allow inspectors from the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency to return to Iranian nuclear sites that were severely damaged by U.S. and Israeli strikes a year ago, casting doubt on a remark made Monday by Vice President JD Vance.

“We have not had a meeting with the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, nor do we have any plans for the agency to inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities damaged by the U.S. and Zionist military aggression,” Esmaeil Baqaei said at a press conference.

Vance said Monday that Iran had agreed to let IAEA inspectors visit the nuclear sites as soon as this week following talks with Tehran’s negotiators. 

It is not clear whether Iran might allow inspections of other nuclear sites in the country, but the one of most interest is likely Isfahan, which was among those struck last year. 

Isfahan is where IAEA officials believe Iran’s stockpile of roughly 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium is buried under rubble. The material is enriched to 60% purity, a short technological step away from the 90% required to make a nuclear weapon.

Vice President Vance said he did not feel snubbed by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi when he appeared to skip out on a photo op with him on Sunday. 

“Trust me, I’ve spent a lot of time dealing with the Iranians over the last few months. Sometimes I find them extremely confusing as negotiators,” he told reporters Monday following hours of meetings with Iranian negotiators and mediators in Switzerland.

Vance said there was a “sort of social media firestorm” suggesting the Iranians were going to leave the talks. 

“And then we proceeded to talk to them for like the next nine hours. So I would just encourage the media, mistrust a little bit what you see coming out of Iranian social media. They can be confusing negotiators, but we feel like we’re making progress,” he said.

Technical talks between Iran and the United States in Switzerland have wrapped up, with negotiating groups to be set up on nuclear issues and sanctions on Tehran, Iran’s state media reported Tuesday.

The negotiators “decided that four working groups would be established: (Iran) Sanctions Termination, Nuclear Affairs, (Iran) Reconstruction and Economic Development, and Monitoring and Implementation (of agreements reached),” said the IRNA state news agency, quoting Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi.