INTERNACIONAL
Trump Iran framework gambles on diplomacy despite warning Tehran will ‘lie and cheat’
Details revealed about the US-Iran memorandum of understanding
The U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding, outlining a 60-day period for Iran to comply with nuclear program disposal in exchange for sanctions relief and access to frozen funds. President Donald Trump warned of military action if Iran misbehaves, while Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst and Middle East Forum strategist Jim Hanson analyze the deal’s performance-based conditions and the regime’s economic and military future.
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The Trump administration’s new framework with Iran grants Tehran immediate oil sanctions waivers while postponing the most consequential nuclear questions for future negotiations, a gamble officials acknowledge carries risks because they expect Iran may not comply.
«We come in with the full expectation that they will lie and they will cheat,» one senior U.S. official said on a call with reporters Wednesday, arguing that any final agreement would require a verification and enforcement mechanism capable of detecting violations.
The agreement, which establishes a 60-day negotiating period, rests on a bet that Iran can be deterred from violating its commitments through monitoring and enforcement. Administration officials say any sanctions waivers can be clawed back if Iran fails to comply, while critics argue the U.S. is giving up leverage before the toughest nuclear issues have been resolved.
The Trump administration’s new framework with Iran grants Tehran immediate oil sanctions waivers . (Ali Mohammadi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION UNVEILS SWEEPING TERMS OF PROPOSED IRAN AGREEMENT
The memorandum of understanding, unveiled by administration officials on a call with reporters Wednesday, says the Treasury Department will immediately issue waivers allowing Iran to export crude oil, petroleum products and derivatives, as well as access associated banking, insurance and transportation services.
But the agreement does not immediately require Iran to dismantle its nuclear program, surrender its enriched uranium stockpile or end enrichment. Instead, the deal says the U.S. and Iran will negotiate the «disposition» of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, with down-blending on site under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision identified as the minimum methodology.
Administration officials defended that language as an early nuclear concession, saying the U.S. continues to push for more.
«Of course that’s a flaw and we will push for more than that. But the fact that they’re conceding to that is a major, major win for the United States of America,» one senior U.S. official said on the call. «They’re saying we will destroy the enriched stockpile, and this is how we’re going to do it at a minimum.»
Down-blending would reduce the enrichment level of the material, but would not remove it from Iran.
Trump has defended the framework as necessary to avoid a prolonged conflict, closed shipping lanes and a market shock.
«If we didn’t do this deal, we could have dropped more bombs for another three weeks, two weeks, four weeks, two years,» Trump said Wednesday at the G7 summit in Évian, France. «You would never have the Hormuz Strait open … Your market would have, instead of going up, would go down at levels that nobody ever saw before, maybe except for 1929.»
Trump has defended the framework as necessary to avoid a prolonged conflict, closed shipping lanes and a market shock. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
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«I did not want to see economic catastrophe,» Trump added.
The framework drew support from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a prominent Iran hawk who said after speaking with special envoy Steve Witkoff that he thought the 60-day agreement would be «beneficial.»
«Whether or not the United States can reach an acceptable, verifiable deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program and other issues is yet to be determined, but I see little downside to trying,» Graham said.
Others criticized the deal for offering sanctions relief before Iran had agreed to anything concrete on the nuclear front.
«How do you expect Iran to agree to anything in the future, let alone within 60 days, when you’ve given up all your leverage?» Blaise Misztal, vice president for policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, told Fox News Digital.
Broader sanctions relief, a withdrawal of U.S. forces and a $300 billion reconstruction fund are also contemplated as part of a final deal if both sides can reach one within 60 days.
Others criticized the deal for offering sanctions relief before Iran had agreed to anything concrete on the nuclear front. (Photo by IIPA via Getty Images)
Those who opposed the war now argue that the memorandum is the best deal the U.S. can get after the conflict and blockade.
«The U.S. bargaining position was hurt by the war, not helped by it,» Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, told Fox News Digital.
Kelanic said Trump is now «buying off Iran to return to something approaching the pre-war status quo» by offering immediate sanctions waivers and unfreezing assets tied to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
She argued that the immediate waivers are the price Trump has to pay to convince Iran he is serious about diplomacy after launching strikes during negotiations.
«This is like earnest money, right?» Kelanic said. «It’s like upfront cash that shows that he really means it. It’s a costly signal that Trump essentially forced himself to have to make by breaking off negotiations and bombing Iran in the middle of them.»
Iran has framed the memorandum as a test of whether Washington is prepared to act first, rather than simply offer assurances.
«Unfortunately, it must be acknowledged that Iran’s deep mistrust of the United States stems from a long history of wrongdoing by American leaders,» Iran foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Monday in a press briefing. «The United States still has a long way to go before it can earn the trust of the Iranian people.»
The memorandum leaves the key nuclear mechanics to be worked out during the 60-day period, as well as key issues like ballistic missile production and proxy funding.
«What we have in this deal already suggests that if there is a deal in 60 days on the nuclear issue, that deal is going to be weaker than the JCPOA,» Misztal said, referring to the Obama-era nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Under the JCPOA, Iran was required to sharply reduce its uranium stockpile, including by removing excess material from the country. Misztal said the new agreement’s minimum standard of down-blending on site suggests Iranian uranium may remain inside Iran.
«That means first of all, no uranium is leaving Iran, which happened under the JCPOA,» he said.
The agreement also guarantees toll-free commercial transit through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days while Iran, Oman and Gulf states discuss a longer-term framework for administration and maritime services in the waterway.
Behnam Taleblu, senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, warned that the provision raises concerns that Iran could gain a role in regulating a critical international waterway after demonstrating its ability to disrupt global shipping.
«I mean, not just charge a toll, but regulate the crucial international waterway,» Taleblu said. «There can be no doubt over the fact that the Strait of Hormuz needs to be open and open to all, not just whomever Iran and Iran plus its friends can pressure others into.»
«If there is no guarantee of freedom of navigation, the Islamic Republic is going to salami slice the resolve of the Gulf countries and basically try to throw its weight around in this strait again,» he added.
The agreement also calls for the U.S. and regional partners to develop a reconstruction and economic development plan for Iran worth at least $300 billion. U.S. officials have stressed that the provision does not require American taxpayer money, but critics said any funding stream could free up regime resources for other priorities.
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«It doesn’t matter if it’s Chinese money or American money or [United Arab Emirates] money,» Taleblu said. «The more they have access, the less they have to compete over resources and more they can fund what they want to fund.»
If negotiations collapse during the 60 days, Trump has left resuming military pressure back on the table. «If we think that they’re just dragging us along and kind of bulls**ting us, then we’ll be very quick to pull the plug,» a senior administration official said.
war with iran, sanctions, administration, iran, nuclear proliferation
INTERNACIONAL
El despoblamiento del campo no deja «una solución sencilla» a los incendios forestales europeos
Zelenskyy: War initiative no longer in Putin’s hands
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s military has transformed dramatically, now supported by more than 500 defense companies. He says Russia is losing 30,000 troops each month and argues the initiative in the war is no longer in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hands.
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Poland, the closest NATO member to the Ukraine-Russia war, scrambled fighter jets and placed its air defenses on high alert early Thursday as Russia launched more than 70 missiles and roughly 280 drones across Ukraine, killing at least eight and wounding dozens from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just returning from this week’s U.S. visit with President Donald Trump and the funeral of late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the barrage exposed a critical shortage of Western-supplied interceptors, particularly against ballistic missiles.
«The protection of people’s lives depends directly on their willingness» to provide Ukraine with air-defense missiles, Zelenskyy said of Kyiv’s allies.
Hours later Thursday morning, the European Union disbursed $4 billion to Ukraine to finance the procurement of more drones, missiles, air defense and fighter jets, according to the European Commission.
RUSSIA LAUNCHES BALLISTIC MISSILE ATTACK ON KYIV HOURS AFTER ZELENSKYY WARNS OF MAJOR STRIKE
Ukrainian firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a market following a Russian missile strike in Kyiv on overnight into Thursday morning. Russian strikes killed at least eight people and wounded more than a dozen others across Ukraine, authorities said, triggering renewed calls from Kyiv for its allies to send air defense supplies. (AFP)
The disbursement is part of a more than $100 billion loan approved by the EU earlier this year and follows the roughly $3.5 billion installment on June 25 and $4.5 billion on June 30.
Polish forces detected an unidentified object moving west through the country’s airspace shortly before 4 a.m. An F-16 was dispatched to intercept it, but the object disappeared from radar minutes later. Authorities subsequently found a crater about 33 feet wide and scattered debris in farmland near Tarnawa-Kolonia, about 1.2 miles from the closest buildings.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said initial evidence indicated the object was a Russian Kh-101 missile, although investigators were still working to confirm its type and origin.
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Emergency workers use heavy equipment to clear rubble from apartment buildings in Lviv, the westernmost city in Ukraine and the closest to NATO ally Poland, after a Russian missile attack Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Anadolu)
«All the indications are that it was a Russian Kh-101,» Tusk said, adding that Polish forces were prepared to shoot it down if it had continued flying toward a populated area.
He added the U.S. is interested in joining the investigation, which has initially determined the missile was not intended for Poland territory. The fate of the Ukraine-Russian war might be decided within the next 100 days, Tusk told reporters.
The threat to a NATO ally is a new frontier in the long-running war and comes after Zelenskyy pressed senators to advance Graham’s sweeping sanctions package. Also, Trump and Zelenskyy discussed U.S. licenses allowing Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptors, along with other defense cooperation and efforts to revive stalled diplomacy with Moscow.
Six people, including two girls ages 5 and 12, were killed when a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile struck a private home housing a large family near Kryvyi Rih, according to local officials. Seven others were reported killed in Kyiv and elsewhere in the Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava regions as the casualty count rose during rescue operations.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Donald Trump at the White House during his Tuesday visit to Washington, D.C.
«A dark night,» Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rih’s defense council, wrote on Telegram. Eight people were wounded in the strike on the home.
The person killed in Kyiv was a 31-year-old man, while two others were wounded, according to Ukrainian police. Russian strikes damaged residential buildings, vehicles, storage facilities, a market and a garage complex in the capital, where air raid warnings lasted more than five hours and thousands of residents sheltered in subway stations.
In Lviv, about 40 miles from the Polish border, emergency crews searched damaged apartment buildings for people trapped beneath concrete and debris. Thirty people, including children, were reported injured. More than 20 residential buildings, a school and two kindergartens were damaged, officials said.
«I was terrified watching the rescuers go beneath those concrete slabs,» one Lviv resident told Reuters as crews pulled a boy from a damaged building.
Ukraine’s air force said its defenses intercepted 55 missiles and 265 drones. But only one of nine ballistic missiles was shot down, while 11 missiles and 17 drones struck targets at 20 locations.
The U.S.-made Patriot is the only system currently in Ukraine’s arsenal capable of reliably intercepting Russian ballistic missiles, which travel at several times the speed of sound. Zelenskyy has repeatedly warned that Patriot interceptors are arriving too slowly and in insufficient numbers.
During his Tuesday meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy said the leaders discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production in Ukraine. He also met with Lockheed Martin executives and told senators that domestic production would be a long-term solution but would not address Ukraine’s immediate shortage of missiles. European countries have offered to pay for additional U.S.-made interceptors.
Zelenskyy’s Washington visit coincided with Senate consideration of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, named for the longtime defense hawk and outspoken Ukraine supporter who died unexpectedly earlier this month.
The Senate voted 86-12 Tuesday to clear an initial procedural hurdle and voted 84-12 Wednesday to formally proceed with the legislation. Additional votes were still required before final passage.
The package would impose sanctions on Russian officials, oligarchs, financial institutions, energy projects and vessels accused of helping Moscow evade existing restrictions. It would also authorize tariffs of up to 100% on goods from the five largest purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas and the leading countries facilitating sanctions evasion.
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Graham negotiated the revised package with the White House shortly before his death. The legislation also includes an extension of sanctions targeting Iran’s energy and weapons sectors, a provision sought by the Trump administration.
Zelenskyy met with a bipartisan group of senators before the procedural votes and called the legislation an important signal to Russia, Europe and the Ukrainian people. He watched the Senate vote from the chamber’s gallery after attending Graham’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
nato, wars, ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyy, russia
INTERNACIONAL
Hawley moves to close federal cash prize loopholes after Fauci ‘got rich while millions of people died’
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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is introducing legislation to block federal bureaucrats from accepting cash prizes on Thursday, just a day after laying into Dr. Anthony Fauci for receiving what Hawley said was over $1 million during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hawley accused Fauci during a Wednesday Senate hearing of exploiting loopholes in federal laws that already prohibit government employees from soliciting rewards like cash prizes. Hawley’s bill, dubbed the No Cash Prizes for Bureaucrats Act, would close those loopholes.
«No federal bureaucrat should accept cash prizes while on the job. That’s why I’m introducing legislation to bar federal employees from accepting cash prizes or soliciting awards. Fauci got rich while millions of people died. It can never happen again,» Hawley told Fox News Digital in a statement.
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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks in front of a board with an image of Anthony Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and medical advisor to several U.S. presidents, as Fauci (not pictured) attends a U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 29, 2026. Anthony Fauci declined to answer questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. (REUTERS/Nathan Howard)
Hawley cited public records showing that Fauci, while director of the National Institutes of Health, used employees to solicit at least eight cash awards for himself, with one award check alone totaling $900,000.
The new legislation would block federal employees from receiving rewards for medicine and research as well as block employees from soliciting such rewards. It would also strengthen existing federal regulations that block NIH officials from using their or a subordinate’s official duty time to solicit rewards.
The bill comes after Hawley thrashed Fauci during a Wednesday hearing with the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, during which Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment over 100 times.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is sworn in during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 29, 2026. Dr. Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is testifying after Senator Rand Paul, Republican from Kentucky, released more than 1000 pages of Fauci’s diary entries from the COVID-19 pandemic. (Alex Wroblewski / AFP via Getty Images)
RAND PAUL SEEKS CONTEMPT CHARGES AFTER FAUCI INVOKES FIFTH AMENDMENT MORE THAN 100 TIMES
«But I think I know why you’re doing it,» Hawley said of Fauci’s refusal to testify. «It’s because you don’t want to answer questions. It’s because you did all kinds of terrible things. It’s because during the pandemic, you got rich … while people were dying.»
«You were using federal employees with taxpayer money to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you personally, cash prizes totaling over $1 million,» Hawley said. «You did all of that during the pandemic, didn’t you?»
Rather than respond to Hawley’s questions, Fauci repeatedly said, «On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.»
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Hawley then pointed to what he described as internal emails from Fauci’s staff, including one from former chief of staff Greg Folkers discussing a nomination for the Dan David Prize. According to Hawley, the email asked federal employees to bolster the COVID-19 section of Fauci’s nomination by providing language detailing his pandemic response.
Former NIH Director Anthony Fauci testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., on July 29, 2026. Fauci was expected to be questioned about his diary entries during his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Getty Images)
«We’re working on this nomination for the Dan David Award for Fauci,» Hawley read from the email. «We need to beef up the COVID part.»
Hawley said the Dan David Award carried a $900,000 cash prize and claimed Fauci used federal employees to help obtain it. He further accused Fauci of using government staff and resources to pursue at least eight additional cash awards, including honors from the Partnership for Public Service, the Adelson Prize, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Academy of Medicine and the CDC Foundation.
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«In fact, you turned your staff into a full-time application machine,» Hawley said. «You actually wrote to people and said, ‘Do you think maybe I’d qualify?’»
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
congress, anthony fauci, senate elections, fox news media, politics
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