MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — Iran and the United States held indirect talks in Oman on Friday, negotiations that appeared to return to the starting point on how to approach discussions over Tehran’s nuclear program. But for the first time, America brought its top military commander in the Middle East to the table.

The presence of U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the American military’s Central Command, in his dress uniform at the talks in Muscat, the Omani capital, served as a reminder that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other warships were now off the coast of Iran in the Arabian Sea.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to reach a deal on the program after earlier sending the carrier to the region over Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands of others detained in the Islamic Republic.

Gulf Arab nations fear an attack could spark a regional war that would drag them in as well.

That threat is real — U.S. forces shot down an Iranian drone near the Lincoln and Iran attempted to stop a U.S.-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz just days before Friday’s talks in this sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula.

“We did note that nuclear talks and the resolution of the main issues must take place in a calm atmosphere, without tension and without threats,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later told journalists.

“The prerequisite for any dialogue is refraining from threats and pressure,” he added. “We stated this point explicitly today as well, and we expect it to be observed so that the possibility of continuing the talks exists.”

The U.S., represented by U.S. Mideast special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, did not immediately comment on the talks. Araghchi said diplomats would return to their capitals, signaling this round of negotiations was over.

On Friday evening, in a display of force, the U.S. military published photos on X of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group sailing in the Arabian Sea with aircrafts flying overhead, with the message “Peace through Strength!”

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and accompanying warships arrived in the Middle East at the end of January as Trump threatened attacks on Iran over the killing of protesters.

Iran’s top diplomat offers a positive note

Araghchi offered cautious optimism as he spoke in a live interview from Muscat on Iranian state television. He described Friday’s talks as taking place over multiple rounds and said that they were focused primarily on finding a framework for further negotiations.

“We will hold consultations with our capitals regarding the next steps, and the results will be conveyed to Oman’s foreign minister,” Araghchi said.

“The mistrust that has developed is a serious challenge facing the negotiations,” Araghchi said. “We must first address this issue, and then enter into the next level of negotiations.”

Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who oversaw multiple rounds of negotiations before Israel launched its 12-day war on Iran in June, called the talks “useful to clarify both the Iranian and American thinking and identify areas for possible progress.”

Still, Oman described the talks as a means to find “the requisite foundations for the resumption of both diplomatic and technical negotiations” rather than a step toward reaching a nuclear deal or easing tensions.

The had initially been expected to take place in Turkey in a format that would have included regional countries as well, and would have included topics like Tehran’s ballistic missile program — something Iran apparently rejected in favor of focusing only on its nuclear program.

Before the June war, Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels. The U.N. nuclear watchdog — International Atomic Energy Agency — had said Iran was the only country in the world to enrich to that level that wasn’t armed with the bomb.

Iran has been refusing requests by the IAEA to inspect the sites bombed in the June war, raising the concerns of nonproliferation experts. Even before that, Iran has restricted IAEA inspections since Trump’s decision in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw America from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Omani palace hosts talks

Friday’s talks saw in-person meetings at a palace near Muscat’s international airport, used by Oman in earlier talks Iran-U.S. talks in 2025. Associated Press journalists saw Iranian officials first at the palace and later returning to their hotel before the Americans came separately.

It remains unclear just what terms Iran is willing to negotiate at the talks. Tehran has maintained that these talks will only be on its nuclear program. However, the Al Jazeera satellite news network reported that diplomats from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar offered Iran a proposal in which Tehran would halt enrichment for three years, send its highly enriched uranium out of the country and pledge “not initiate the use of ballistic missiles.”

Russia had signaled it would take the uranium, but Iran has said ending the program or shipping out the uranium were nonstarters.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that the talks needed to include all those issues.

“I’m not sure you can reach a deal with these guys, but we’re going to try to find out,” he said.

U.S. place new round of sanctions on Iran’s energy sector

Shortly after Friday’s talks, the Treasury and State departments in Washington announced a new round of sanctions on Iran targeting its energy sector. The departments imposed penalties, including freezes on assets in U.S. jurisdictions, on 14 oil tankers in a so-called “shadow fleet” that the U.S. says are used to try to evade sanctions, as well as on 15 trading firms and two business executives.

“Time and time again, the Iranian government has prioritized its destabilizing behavior over the safety and security of its own citizens, as demonstrated by the regime’s mass murder of peaceful protestors,” the State Department said in a statement. “The United States will continue to act against the network of shippers and traders involved in the transport and acquisition of Iranian crude oil, petroleum products, and petrochemical products, which constitutes the regime’s primary source of income.”

In the past month, the U.S. has sanctioned Iran’s interior minister,the secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security, and several other leaders involved in Iran’s deadly crackdown against last month’s protests.

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed from Washington.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian and U.S. negotiators discussed the expiration of the last remaining nuclear arms pact between the two countries and agreed on the need to quickly launch new arms control talks, the Kremlin said Friday.

At the same time, the U.S. emphasized the need for China to join a future arms pact and accused Beijing of covert nuclear tests.

The New START treaty expired Thursday, leaving no caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century and fueling fears of an unconstrained nuclear arms race.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had declared his readiness to stick to the treaty’s limits for another year if Washington followed suit. But U.S. President Donald Trump has argued that he wants China to be a part of a new treaty, and his administration ramped up the pressure by accusing Beijing of carrying out nuclear explosive tests. Beijing rejected the allegations and has rebuffed efforts to have it join a nonproliferation deal.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated that China should be involved in a potential new nuclear treaty. “An arms control arrangement that does not account for China’s buildup, which Russia is supporting, will undoubtedly leave the United States and our allies less safe,” he said.

Russian and U.S. negotiators discussed future nuclear arms control in the United Arab Emirates, where Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. delegations held two days of talks on a peace settlement in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

“There is an understanding, and they talked about it in Abu Dhabi, that both parties will take responsible positions and both parties realize the need to start talks on the issue as soon as possible,” he said.

Asked to comment on a report by Axios claiming Russian and U.S. negotiators discussed a possible informal deal to observe the pact’s limits for at least six months, Peskov responded that any such extension could only be formal.

“It’s hard to imagine any informal extension in this sphere,” he said.

The US wants China involved

Trump has indicated he would like to keep limits on nuclear weapons but wants to involve China in a potential new treaty.

In his first term, Trump tried and failed to push for a three-way nuclear pact involving China. Beijing has balked at any restrictions on its smaller but growing nuclear arsenal, while urging the U.S. to resume nuclear talks with Russia.

Rubio said the U.S. was “pursuing all avenues” to fulfill Trump’s “desire for a world with fewer of these awful weapons,” but insisted Washington would not stand still while Russia and China expand their nuclear forces.

“Since 2020, China has increased its nuclear weapons stockpile from the low 200s to more than 600 and is on pace to have more than 1,000 warheads by 2030,” Rubio wrote on Substack.

Thomas DiNanno, a top U.S. diplomat in charge of arms control, said Friday the expiration of the last Russia-U.S. nuclear arms pact marks the “end of an era” of what he described as “U.S. unilateral restraint.” He said Trump wants a “better agreement” involving Beijing.

“As we sit here today, China’s entire nuclear arsenal has no limits, no transparency, no declarations and no controls,” DiNanno told the Conference on Disarmament, a U.N.-backed organization, in Geneva.

DiNanno also accused Beijing of covertly conducting nuclear tests. “Today, I can reveal that the U.S. government is aware that China has conducted nuclear explosive tests, including preparing for tests with designated yields in the hundreds of tons,” he said.

DiNanno said China’s army “sought to conceal testing by obfuscating the nuclear explosions because it recognizes these tests violate test ban commitments.”

The comment follows U.S. statements accusing Beijing of covertly conducting nuclear tests.

Ambassador Shen Jian of China rejected what he called “false narratives and unfounded accusations by the United States,” saying that “we abide by our commitment to suspend nuclear testing.”

“The U.S.’ continuous hyping up of China’s nuclear arsenal expansion is essentially aimed at shifting its own responsibility for nuclear disarmament and seeking excuses for promoting nuclear hegemony,” Shen said.

He said that “at this stage, China will not participate in nuclear disarmament negotiations” because its nuclear capabilities ”are not on the same scale as those of the United States or Russia.”

Shen said Beijing regrets the New START’s expiration and urged the U.S. to accept Moscow’s offer to stick to the treaty’s limits and resume nuclear talks with Russia.

In October, Trump spoke about U.S. intentions to resume nuclear tests for the first time since 1992, but U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the following month that such tests would not include nuclear explosions.

In the wake of Trump’s statement, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to the International Organizations in Vienna Howard Solomon declared that “the United States will begin testing activities on an equal basis with other nuclear-armed states.” He noted the U.S. has raised concerns that Russia and China have not adhered to the zero-yield nuclear test moratorium.

He was referring to so-called supercritical nuclear test explosions banned under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, known as CTBT, where fissile material is compressed to start a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction that creates an explosion.

The monitoring network registered all of North Korea’s six nuclear tests, but it’s unable to detect very low-yield supercritical nuclear tests conducted underground in metal chambers, experts say.

Robert Floyd, executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization that monitors compliance with the global ban, said in Friday’s statement that its monitoring system “didn’t detect any event consistent with the characteristics of a nuclear weapon test explosion” on June 22, 2020, when the U.S. claimed China secretly conducted a nuclear test.

New START provisions

New START, signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, was the last of a long series of agreements between Moscow and Washington to limit their nuclear arsenals, starting with SALT I in 1972.

New START restricted each side to no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads on no more than 700 missiles and bombers deployed and ready for use. It was originally set to expire in 2021 but was extended for five years.

The pact envisioned sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance, although they stopped in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.

In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow’s participation, saying Russia couldn’t allow U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies openly declared they wanted Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine. But the Kremlin also emphasized it wasn’t withdrawing from the pact altogether, pledging to respect its caps on nuclear weapons.

In September, Putin offered to keep the New START’s limits for another year to buy time for both sides to negotiate a successor agreement.

Even as New START expired, the U.S. and Russia agreed Thursday to reestablish high-level, military-to-military dialogue following a meeting between senior officials from both sides in Abu Dhabi, the U.S. military command in Europe said. The link was suspended in 2021 as relations grew increasingly strained before Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Keaten reported from Geneva. Ken Moritsugu in Beijing and Stephanie Liechtenstein in Vienna contributed.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina and the United States agreed Thursday to ease restrictions on each other’s goods in an expansive trade and investment deal that boosts a drive by President Javier Milei’s government to open up Argentina’s protectionist economy and a push by the Trump administration to reduce food prices for Americans.

The deal, which slashes hundreds of reciprocal tariffs between the countries, also reflects the importance of Milei’s ideological loyalty to President Donald Trump, even as the chronically distressed South American nation long isolated from the global economy has little to offer Washington in the way of economic reward or geopolitical clout.

Argentina’s radical libertarian leader has gone to dramatic lengths to prove his devotion to Trump, reshaping his country’s foreign policy to align with the U.S. and championing Trump’s increasingly aggressive interventions in the Western Hemisphere. Milei has traveled to the U.S. at least a dozen times since entering office and plans to visit Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida again next week.

The efforts have already paid off. Last year as market turmoil threatened to derail Milei’s free-market overhaul and drain Argentina’s foreign currency reserves ahead of a crucial midterm election, Trump offered his ally a $20 billion credit line. Milei avoided a currency devaluation and won a decisive victory in the election that sent markets rallying.

A trade deal between ideological allies

On Thursday Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer signed the trade and investment agreement in Washington.

After imposing sweeping tariffs on its traditional trading partners for months, the Trump administration changed its tune last November in announcing framework deals with four Latin American countries, including Argentina.

The White House argued that the reduction of mutual tariffs on a range of food imports, like Argentine beef and Ecuadorian bananas, would improve the ability of American firms to sell industrial and agricultural products abroad and relieve rising prices for American consumers. The announcement also came as Trump’s steep tariffs drew scrutiny from the Supreme Court.

Argentina on Thursday became the first of the four countries to finalize its agreement with the U.S. Quirno hailed it as a milestone not only in Argentina’s alliance with the U.S., but also in Milei’s campaign to rebuild the serial defaulter’s reputation.

“Today Argentina sent a clear signal to the world,” he wrote on social media. “We are a reliable partner, open to trade and committed to clear rules, predictability and strategic cooperation.”

Concessions could revive criticism

Argentina’s foreign ministry said it would scrap trade barriers on more than 200 categories of goods from the U.S., including chemicals, machinery and medical devices, slash tariffs to 2% on a range of imports like auto parts and allow sensitive imports like vehicles, beef and dairy products to enter the country tariff-free under government quotas.

Those are key concessions as local Argentine industries long protected by steep tariffs voice concern about their ability to compete with American manufacturers.

Washington, for its part, will eliminate reciprocal tariffs on 1,675 Argentine products, the Argentine Foreign Ministry said, adding $1 billion in export revenue. It did not name all the products, while the White House only said the U.S. would remove reciprocal tariffs on “unavailable natural resources” and ingredients for pharmaceutical goods.

The text of the deal also shows the U.S. agreeing to review its stiff 50% taxes on steel and aluminum imports that have hobbled Argentine manufacturers since last year and quadruple the amount of Argentine beef it allows into the country annually at a lower tariff rate.

An influx of Argentine beef

The influx of beef could reignite criticism from cattle ranchers and Republican lawmakers in farm states who were outraged last October when Trump first floated plans to increase imports of Argentine beef, threatening to lower the price that American ranchers receive for their cattle.

The move, aimed at shoring up the South American country’s limping economy while helping bring beef prices in the U.S. down from record highs, came shortly after the Trump administration offered Milei the $20 billion lifeline and directly purchased both U.S. dollar-denominated Argentine bonds that ratings agencies were classifying as “junk” at the time and the volatile Argentine currency that local investors were dumping in droves.

The backlash came from across the political spectrum. Trump’s MAGA base questioned the need to bail out a far-flung country that has never been a natural U.S. trading partner: The two countries export many of the same things and directly compete in markets of soy, corn, wheat, meat and oil.

Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage that Trump was staking taxpayer money on a political gift to an ideological soulmate. That criticism continues, with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, on Thursday appealing to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to end the $20 billion lifeline.

Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the situation in Iran in a wide-ranging call as the U.S. administration pushes Beijing and others to further isolate Tehran.

Trump said the two leaders also discussed a broad range of other critical issues in the U.S.-China relationship, including trade and Taiwan and his plans to visit Beijing in April.

“The relationship with China, and my personal relationship with President Xi, is an extremely good one, and we both realize how important it is to keep it that way,” Trump said in a social media posting about the call.

The Chinese government, in a readout of the call, said the two leaders discussed major summits that both nations will host in the coming year that could present opportunities for them to meet. The Chinese statement, however, made no mention of Trump’s expected April visit to Beijing.

Trump and Xi discussed Iran as tensions remain high between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests last month. The U.S. president says he’s weighing taking military action against the Middle Eastern country.

Trump is also pressing Iran to make concessions over its nuclear program, which his Republican administration says was already set back by the U.S. bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites during the 12-day war Israel launched against Iran in June.

U.S. and Iranians officials said Wednesday they have agreed to hold high-level talks on Friday i n Oman. The talks had initially been slated for Turkey but were shifted to the Gulf country at Iran’s insistence. A White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the administration remains “very skeptical” that the talks will be successful but agreed to go along with the change in plans out of respect for allies in the region.

Trump announced last month that the U.S. would impose a 25% tax on imports to the United States from countries that do business with Iran. China is Iran’s biggest trading partner.

Years of sanctions aimed at stopping Iran’s nuclear program have left the country isolated. But Tehran still did nearly $125 billion in international trade in 2024, including $32 billion with China, $28 billion with the United Arab Emirates and $17 billion with Turkey, the World Trade Organization says.

China also made clear that it has no intention of stepping away from its long-term plans of reunification with Taiwan, a self-governing, democratic island operating independently from mainland China, though Beijing claims it as its own territory.

The Trump administration in December announced a massive package of arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10 billion that includes medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones. The move continues to draw an angry response from Beijing.

“Taiwan will never be allowed to separate from China,” the Chinese government statement said. “The U.S. must handle the issue of arms sales to Taiwan with prudence.”

Neither Trump nor the Chinese government in its statement raised whether the U.S. leader’s repeated calls for a U.S. takeover of Greenland, the Arctic territory controlled by Denmark, came up during the conversation.

Trump has made his case for the U.S. taking over the strategic island as necessary to rebuff Chinese and Russian encroachment, even as experts have repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s claims of Chinese and Russian military forces lurking off Greenland’s coastline. Denmark and Greenland as well as several European government leaders have pushed back against Trump’s takeover calls.

Separately, Xi also spoke on Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Xi’s engagement with Trump and Putin comes as the last remaining nuclear arms pact, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States is set to expire Thursday, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century.

Trump has indicated he would like to keep limits on nuclear weapons but wants to involve China in a potential new treaty.

“I actually feel strongly that if we’re going to do it, I think China should be a member of the extension,” Trump told The New York Times last month. “China should be a part of the agreement.”

The call with Xi also coincided with a ministerial meeting that the Trump administration convened in Washington with several dozen European, Asian and African nations to discuss how to rebuild global supply chains of critical minerals without Beijing.

Critical minerals are needed for everything from jet engines to smartphones. China dominates the market for those ingredients crucial to high-tech products.

“What is before all of us is an opportunity at self-reliance that we never have to rely on anybody else except for each other, for the critical minerals necessary to sustain our industries and to sustain growth,” Vice President JD Vance said at the gathering.

Xi has recently held a series of meetings with Western leaders who have sought to boost ties with China amid growing concerns about Trump’s tariff policies and calls for the U.S. to take over Greenland, a Danish territory.

The disruption to global trade under Trump has made expanding trade and investment more imperative for many U.S. economic partners. Vietnam and the European Union upgraded ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership last month, two days after the EU and India announced a free-trade agreement. And Canada struck a deal last month to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products.

DUBAI (AP) — Nuclear talks between Iran and the United States will take place Friday in Oman, the Iranian foreign minister said, as tensions between the countries remain high following Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests last month.

The announcement by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday came after hours of indications that the anticipated talks were faltering over changes in the format and content of the talks. U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, sent a blunt warning to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ahead of the talks.

“I would say he should be very worried,” Trump said of Khamenei in an interview with NBC News.

Earlier Wednesday, a regional official said Iran was seeking a “different” type of meeting than that what had been proposed by Turkey, one focused exclusively on the issue of Iran’s nuclear program, with participation limited to Iran and the United States. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

The Trump administration confirmed the U.S. will take part in high-level talks with Iran in Oman instead of Turkey as originally planned, according to a White House official.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that several Arab and Muslim leaders urged the Trump administration on Wednesday not to walk away from talks even as Iranian officials pressed to narrow the scope of talks and change the venue for the negotiations.

The official added that the White House remains “very skeptical” that the talks will be successful but has agreed to go along with the change in plans out of respect for allies in the region.

Tensions between the countries spiked after Trump suggested the U.S. might use force against Iran in response to the crackdown on protesters. Trump also has been pushing Tehran for a deal to constrain its nuclear program.

Rubio hopes talks will go beyond nuclear ones

Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday said he had instructed the foreign minister to “pursue fair and equitable negotiations” with the U.S., in the first clear sign from Tehran it wants to try to negotiate. That signaled the move is supported by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state and previously dismissed any negotiations.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. hoped to discuss a number of concerns beyond the nuclear issue, including discussions on Iran’s ballistic missiles, support for proxy networks across the region and the “treatment of their own people.”

“The leadership of Iran at the clerical level does not reflect the people of Iran. I know of no other country where there’s a bigger difference between the people who lead the country and the people who live there,” he told reporters.

Vice President JD Vance told “The Megyn Kelly Show” that diplomatic talks with Iran are challenging because of Tehran’s political system, overseen by Khamenei.

“It’s a very weird country to conduct diplomacy with when you can’t even talk to the person who’s in charge of the country. That makes all of this much more complicated, and it makes the whole situation much more absurd,” Vance said, noting that Trump could speak directly by phone with the leaders of Russia, China or North Korea.

Vance said Trump’s bottom line is that Iran cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, asserting that other states in the region would quickly do the same.

Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful. However, Iranian officials in recent years have increasingly threatened to pursue the bomb.

Vance said he believed Trump would work to “accomplish what he can through non-military means. And if he feels like the military is the only option, then he’s ultimately going to choose that option.”

Talks expected even after US shot down Iranian drone

On Tuesday, a U.S. Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that approached an American aircraft carrier. Iranian fast boats from its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also tried to stop a U.S.-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, the Navy said.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge either incident, which strained but apparently did not derail hopes for talks with the U.S.

On Wednesday, Iranian military chiefs visited a missile base in an attempt to highlight its military readiness after a 12-day war with Israel in June devastated Iran’s air defenses. The base holds the Khorramshahr missile, which has a range of more than 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) and was launched towards Israel during the war last year.

Turkey urges diplomacy

Also Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated Turkey’s opposition to foreign intervention in neighboring Iran, calling for the resolution of issues through dialogue.

Turkey has been urgently working for the past week to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table, and was previously expected to host the talks.

“We believe that external interventions involving our neighbor Iran would pose significant risks for the entire region,” Erdogan said during a visit to Cairo. “Resolving issues with Iran, including the nuclear file, through diplomatic means is the most appropriate approach.”

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Farnoush Amiri in New York, Aamer Madhani in Washington, Moriah Balingit in Washington, and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he plans to lower tariffs on goods from India to 18%, from 25%, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to stop buying Russian oil.

The move comes after months of Trump pressing India to cut its reliance on cheap Russian crude. India has taken advantage of reduced Russian oil prices as much of the world has sought to isolate Moscow for its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Trump said that India would also start to reduce its import taxes on U.S. goods to zero and buy $500 billion worth of American products.

“This will help END THE WAR in Ukraine, which is taking place right now, with thousands of people dying each and every week!” Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the tariff reduction on India.

Modi posted on X that he was “delighted” by the announced tariff reduction and that Trump’s “leadership is vital for global peace, stability, and prosperity.”

“I look forward to working closely with him to take our partnership to unprecedented heights,” Modi said.

Trump has long had a warm relationship with Modi, only to find it complicated recently by Russia’s war in Ukraine and trade disputes.

Trump has struggled to make good on a campaign pledge to quickly end the Russia-Ukraine war and has been reluctant since his return to office to place pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has simultaneously imposed tariffs without going through Congress to achieve his economic and foreign policy aims.

The announcement of the agreement with India comes as his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to hold another round of three-way talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials in Abu Dhabi later this week aimed at finding an endgame to the war, according to a White House official who requested anonymity to describe the upcoming meeting.

Trump has voiced that he believes that targeting Russia’s oil revenue is the best way to get Moscow to end its nearly four-year war against Ukraine, a view that dovetails with his devotion to tariffs.

In June, Trump announced the United States would impose a 25% tariff on goods from India after his administration felt the country had done too little to narrow its trade surplus with the U.S. and open up its markets to American goods. In August, Trump imposed additional import taxes of 25% on Indian products because of its purchases of Russian oil, putting the combined rate increase at 50%.

With the commitment to stop buying Russian oil and the lower rate, the tariff rate on Indian products could fall to 18%, which is close to the 15% rate charged on goods from the European Union and Japan, among other nations.

Historically, India’s relationship with Russia revolves more around defense than energy. Russia provides only a small fraction of India’s oil but the majority of its military hardware.

But India, in the aftermath of the Russian invasion, used the moment to buy discounted Russian oil, allowing it to increase its energy supplies while Russia looked to cut deals to boost its beleaguered economy and keep paying for its brutal war.

The announced tariff reduction comes days after India and the European Union reached a free trade agreement that could affect as many as 2 billion people after nearly two decades of negotiations. That deal would enable free trade on almost all goods between the EU’s 27 members and India, covering everything from textiles to medicines, and bringing down high import taxes for European wine and cars.

The deal between two of the world’s biggest markets also reflected a desire to reduce dependence on the U.S. after Trump’s import tax hikes disrupted established trade flows. While the cost of Trump’s tariffs have largely been borne by American businesses and consumers, the taxes can reduce trade volumes among countries.

In recent months, India has accelerated a push to finalize several trade agreements. It signed a deal with Oman in December and concluded talks for a deal with New Zealand.

Trump seemed to hint at a positive call with Modi on Monday morning, posting to social media a picture of the two of them on a magazine cover.

When the pair met last February, the U.S. president said that India would start buying American oil and natural gas. But the talks proved frustrating and the tariffs imposed last year by Trump did little to initially change India’s objections.

While the U.S. has been seeking greater market access and zero tariff on almost all its exports, India has expressed reservations on throwing open sectors such as agriculture and dairy, which employ a bulk of the country’s population for livelihood, Indian officials said.

The Census Bureau reported that the U.S. ran a $53.5 billion trade imbalance in goods with India during the first 11 months of last year, meaning it imported more than it exported.

At a population exceeding 1.4 billion people, India is the world’s most populous country and viewed by many government officials and business leaders as geopolitical and economic counterbalance to China.

Roy reported from New Delhi, India.

Talk of a European army has resurfaced amid tensions within NATO over President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, the semiautonomous territory of NATO-ally Denmark.

“Those who say that we need a European army, maybe those people haven’t really thought this through practically,” Kallas said. “If you are already part of NATO then you can’t create a separate army.”

Kallas told a security conference in Norway that the most important military asset during a crisis “is the chain of command — who gives orders to whom.”

She added: “And if you have, like the European army and then you have the NATO (one), then, you know, the ball just falls between the chairs. And this is extremely, extremely dangerous.”

NATO’s military operations are overseen by a Supreme Allied Commander, who is always a top U.S. officer. The role is currently held by Airforce Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich.

Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said: “NATO is there with the decision-making process among allies, which is in itself complex, but it is trained to work.” He rejected calls for a European army, saying that “it is not a road we should travel.” Norway is not a member of the EU.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said last week that Europe is incapable of defending itself without U.S. military support and would have to more than double current military spending targets to be able to do so.

“If anyone thinks here … that the European Union or Europe as a whole can defend itself without the U.S., keep on dreaming. You can’t,” Rutte told EU lawmakers in Brussels.

Europe and the United States “need each other,” he said.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — If the rules of ancient Greece were observed today, drone and missile fire over Ukraine would stop on Friday as guns fall silent in the Olympic tradition.

The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics begin in one week, and the United Nations and organizers are calling for a 7-week pause of all wars worldwide — as they do every time the Olympics take place.

It serves to set a moral baseline at a time when some researchers say there are more armed conflicts than ever before and Earth is at its closest to destruction.

An ancient pause, a modern plea

In ancient Greece, a truce was respected by warring city-states, allowing athletes and spectators to travel safely to Ancient Olympia for competitions and ceremonies of supreme athletic and spiritual significance.

The Olympics were revived in their modern form in 1896. The truce’s resurgence followed nearly a century later, in 1994, as war raged through the former Yugoslavia.

The proposed timeout starts one week before the Winter Games open on Feb. 6 and runs until one week after the March 15 Paralympics’ close. It is backed by a U.N. General Assembly resolution.

But fighting that continued in Ukraine and elsewhere on Friday confirmed the truce’s dismal record at 0-17.

Sarajevo, Korea and the power of sport

The first modern Olympic truce, during the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, did produce a one-day pause in the siege of Sarajevo, allowing aid convoys to deliver food and medicine to the Bosnian capital’s desperate residents. In Sydney six years later, North and South Korea marched together at the opening ceremony.

Governments around the world overwhelmingly agree that sport can unite and heal.

“Wherever possible, we should strive toward creating even a small space for peace,” Constantinos Filis, director of the International Olympic Truce Center, told The Associated Press.

Ceasefire initiatives still count in an era of global disorder and political polarization, as unilateral aggression increasingly threatens international cooperation, argues Filis, who is also director of the Institute of Global Affairs in Athens.

“This may not always be achievable in practice,” he said, “but the message reaches every corner of the globe.”

Arithmetic of a world’s wars

Outside the Swedish capital of Stockholm, a group of academics has tracked global war trends for more than 80 years. It reported that 2024 had the highest number of active armed conflicts in a single year: 61.

“We’ve seen quite a strong increase in the number of conflicts over the past five or six years,” said Shawn Davies, a senior analyst at Uppsala University’s Department of Peace and Conflict Research. And its upcoming annual report will show 2025 had even more conflicts than the prior year, he added.

As the U.S. steps back from multilateralism, Davies said, countries are becoming more likely to test their neighbors, creating a more volatile, fragmented security landscape.

Some major conflicts remain largely unnoticed in the West, he said, pointing to western Africa, where al-Qaida and Islamic State group affiliates continue to spread across borders.

And the “Doomsday Clock”, a symbolic gauge of Earth’s existential peril, edged closer to midnight this week, according to an announcement from members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Hope versus broken promises

U.N. truce resolutions typically pass with broad majorities. Yet signatories repeatedly break their own pledge. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 infamously began during a truce period.

“I think the Olympics are an excellent moment to symbolize peace, to symbolize respect for international law, and to symbolize international cooperation,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters Thursday.

Kirsty Coventry, the multi-Olympic swimming champion who last year became the first woman to lead the International Olympic Committee, addressed the General Assembly at the latest vote in November.

Watching peaceful competition, she said, inspired her to begin her gold-medal journey as a young girl in Zimbabwe.

“Even in these dark times of division, it is possible to celebrate our shared humanity and inspire hope for a better future,” Coventry said.

“Sport — and the Olympic Games in particular — can offer a rare space where people meet not as adversaries, but as fellow human beings,” she said. “This is why the Olympic Truce is so important.”

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration imposed sanctions Friday against Iran ‘s interior minister, accusing Eskandar Momeni of repressing nationwide protests that have challenged Tehran’s theocratic government. The penalties are the latest by the United States and the European Union targeting high-ranking officials over the crackdown.

The administration says Momeni has overseen Iran’s law enforcement forces that are responsible for the deaths of thousands of peaceful protesters.

Economic woes sparked the protests in late December before they broadened into a challenge to the Islamic Republic. The crackdown soon followed, which activists say has killed more than 6,000 people. Iranian officials and state media repeatedly refer to the demonstrators as “terrorists.”

The EU on Thursday imposed its own sanctions against Momeni, along with members of Iran’s judicial system and other high-ranking officers.

“They ​were all involved ‌in the violent repression of peaceful protests and the arbitrary arrest of political ⁠activists and ​human rights ​defenders,” according to the EU.

Also Friday, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets imposed sanctions on Babak Morteza Zanjani, an Iranian investor who is accused of embezzling billions of dollars in Iranian oil revenue for the benefit of the Iranian government. Two digital asset exchanges linked to Zanjani that have processed large volumes of funds were penalized, too.

The EU has agreed to list Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, in a largely symbolic move that adds to pressure on Tehran.

Included in the latest set of U.S. sanctions is the secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security, whom the Treasury Department accuses of being one of the first officials to call for violence against Iranian protesters. The sanctions also target a group of 18 people and companies accused of participating in laundering money from sales of Iranian oil to foreign markets as part of a shadow banking network of sanctioned Iranian financial institutions.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department “will continue to target Iranian networks and corrupt elites that enrich themselves at the expense of the Iranian people.”

“Like rats on a sinking ship, the regime is frantically wiring funds stolen from Iranian families to banks and financial institutions around the world. Rest assured, Treasury will act,” he said in a statement.

Among other things, the sanctions deny the people and firms access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S., limit travel to America and prevent U.S. companies and citizens from doing business with them.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that would impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, a move that could further cripple an island plagued by a deepening energy crisis.

The order would primarily put pressure on Mexico, a government that has acted as an oil lifeline for Cuba and has constantly voiced solidarity for the U.S. adversary even as President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to build a strong relationship with Trump.

This week has been marked by speculation that Mexico would slash oil shipments to Cuba under mounting pressure by Trump to distance itself from the Cuban government.

In its deepening energy and economic crisis – fueled in part by strict economic sanctions by the U.S. – Cuba has relied heavily on foreign assistance and oil shipments from allies like Mexico, Russia and Venezuela, before a U.S. military operation ousted former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Since the Venezuela operation, Trump has said that no more Venezuelan oil will go to Cuba and that the Cuban government is ready to fall.

In its most recent report, Pemex said it shipped nearly 20,000 barrels of oil per day to Cuba from January through Sept. 30, 2025. That month, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Mexico City. Afterward, Jorge Piñon, an expert at the University of Texas Energy Institute who tracks shipments using satellite technology, said the figure had fallen to about 7,000 barrels.

Sheinbaum has been incredibly vague about where her country stood, and this week has given roundabout and ambiguous answers to inquiries about the shipments, and dodged reporters questions in her morning press briefings.

On Tuesday, Sheinbaum said that Mexico’s state oil company, PEMEX, had at least temporarily paused some oil shipments to Cuba, but struck an ambiguous tone, saying the pause was part of general fluctuations in oil supplies and that it was a “sovereign decision” not made under pressure from the United States. Sheinbaum has said that Mexico would continue to show solidarity with Havana, but didn’t clarify what kind of support Mexico would offer.

On Wednesday, the Latin American leader claimed she never said that Mexico has completely “suspended” shipments and that “humanitarian aid” to Cuba would continue and that decisions about shipments to Cuba were determined by PEMEX contracts.

“So the contract determines when shipments are sent and when they are not sent,” Sheinbaum said.

The lack of clarity from the leader has underscored the extreme pressure Mexico and other Latin American nations are under as Trump has grown more confrontational following the Venezuelan operation.

It remains unclear what the Thursday order by Trump will mean for Cuba, which has been roiled by crisis for years and a U.S. embargo. Anxieties were already simmering on the Caribbean island as many drivers sat in long lines this week for gasoline, many unsure of what would come next.

Janetsky reported from Mexico City.