Second Qatari LNG tanker crosses Hormuz - Reuters

Iran’s exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi warned Western governments against seeking deals with what he called supposedly moderate figures in the Islamic Republic, saying the system was controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

“You’re falling back into the same trapping that the regime has laid out for decades to make you think that there are some elements that are more manageable and more reasonable that can be dealt with,” Pahlavi said at Politico’s Security Summit on Tuesday.

“The problem is that such a thing doesn’t truly exist,” he said. “They’re just people that ultimately are there to preserve the system.”

Pahlavi said the Islamic Republic had been weakened but that its “radical elements” remained in charge.

“You’re facing now a system that has become a de facto paramilitary dictatorship,” Pahlavi added. “It’s the IRGC that controls ultimately everything, and no one else can resist.”

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi discussed regional developments and Islamabad’s efforts to mediate an end to the Iran conflict, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.

“Both sides underscored the importance of continuing a durable ceasefire and ensuring normal passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

The call came ahead of planned talks in Beijing later this week between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister warned Iran against using the Strait of Hormuz to “pressure or to blackmail” countries astride the Persian Gulf.

“In the past few weeks, we have seen the Strait of Hormuz being used as a weapon in this war,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said at a press conference in Doha alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

“It’s an international water corridor that should be always protected and should be always safeguarded,” he added. “This current state of the strait and what’s happening over there should never be repeated.”

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Iran would stop enriching uranium and abandon any effort to build a nuclear weapon, even as talks between Washington and Tehran remain stalled.

“100% they’re going to stop,” Trump said during an interview on WABC’s Sid and Friends in the Morning.

Trump said he had been directly engaged with Iranian officials during the talks.

“I deal with them,” Trump said. “And they said that we’re going to get the dust. I call it the nuclear dust because it’s appropriate. And we’re going to get it.”

The president said the United States did not need to rush a deal.

“We’re not going to rush anything, we have a blockade,” Trump said.

A senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday the estimated cost of US military operations linked to the war with Iran had risen to nearly $29 billion from an earlier estimate of $25 billion.

Jules W. Hurst III, performing the duties of under secretary of war (comptroller) and chief financial officer, said the revised figure reflected updated assessments.

"At the time of testimony from the ask it was $25 billion," Hurst told lawmakers during a House Armed Services Committee hearing. "But the joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate. And so now we think it's closer to 29."

"That's because of updated repair and replacement of equipment cost, and also just general operational costs," he said.

Lawmakers have pressed the administration for a fuller accounting of the costs of "Operation Epic Fury," the US campaign linked to fighting with Iran that began in late February and continues under a fragile ceasefire.