UN says Iran 'instrumentalizing' war to stifle dissent

President Donald Trump told reporters the United States will "get the highly enriched" uranium stockpiles from Iran.

"We will get it. We don't need it. We don't want it. We'll probably destroy it after we get it. But we're not going to let them have it."

Trump warned that the US is "going to either make sure they don't have a nuclear weapon or we're going to have to do something very drastic."

On the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said "we want it open. We want it free. We don't want tolls. It's international. It's an international waterway and not charging tolls."

He said the US blockade is costing Iran $500 million a day as they cannot export anything through their southern waters.

"There hasn't been a ship that's been able to get through without our approval. And the Navy has done an amazing job. And no ship is going to Iran, as you know. No ship is going to or out of Iran without our approval."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that any Iranian move to impose tolls in the Strait of Hormuz would make a diplomatic deal with Tehran “unfeasible,” calling the plan “unacceptable, completely illegal, and a threat to the world."

"No one in the world is ‌in favor of the tolling system. It can't happen. It would ⁠be unacceptable. It would make a diplomatic deal unfeasible ‌if ​they were to continue to pursue that. So ​it's a threat to ⁠the world if they ‌were trying to do that, ​and it's completely illegal," Rubio told reporters in Miami on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there had been “some progress” in efforts to reach a deal with Iran, citing expected Pakistani diplomacy in Tehran, but cautioned against “overly optimistic” expectations and warned President Donald Trump still had “other options” if diplomacy failed.

“I think we’ve made some progress, but obviously, we’re dealing with a system that itself is a little fractured, the Iranian system," he told reporters in Miami.

“The President’s preference is to do a good deal. That’s his preference. It’s always been his preference. I’m not here to tell you that it’s going to happen for sure, but I’m here to tell you that we’re going to do everything we can to see if we can get one.”

He warned that “if we can’t get a good deal, the President’s been clear, he has other options. I’m not going to elaborate on what those are, but everybody knows what those are."

“There are some good signs, but ... I don’t want to be overly optimistic.”

German prosecutors charged a Danish national accused of working for an Iranian intelligence service and scouting Jewish figures in Germany for possible assassination and arson attacks, including Josef Schuster, head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, and Volker Beck, a former lawmaker who heads the German-Israeli Society.

A second suspect, an Afghan national arrested in Denmark in November, was charged with attempted participation in murder.

Prosecutors said the Danish suspect was linked to the intelligence service of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and was in close contact with the Quds Force.

Iran’s judiciary summoned the managing editor of state news agency IRNA after it published a photo report of a woman without hijab who had taken temporary custody of an infant, saying the images violated “law and sharia.”

IRNA quickly removed the entire photo gallery from all its platforms after it sparked backlash among supporters of the Islamic Republic.