We ask the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams about the strategy behind President Donald Trump’s Project Freedom – a plan for US forces to guide stranded ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

On Tuesday, the US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said the US had established “a powerful red, white and blue dome” of defence over the Strait as a “gift to the world”, and that two American commercial ships had already made the crossing.

There is growing concern that the operation could jeopardise the fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran. US Central Command has said that since the start of Project Freedom, the Iranian military has fired at American naval and commercial ships. Iran has also resumed firing missiles at the United Arab Emirates, and is suspected of targeting a South Korean cargo vessel anchored in the Strait of Hormuz.

Washington’s top general, Dan Caine, has said that the latest Iranian attacks have fallen below the threshold of restarting major combat operations, but that American forces were ready to resume such operations.

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US President Donald Trump has urged Iran to “get smart soon” and sign a deal with the US, following days of deadlock in efforts to …

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The Lebanese health ministry says at least 13 people, including four women and a child, have been killed in Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon.

Elsewhere, President Trump says he’s not happy with the latest peace proposals Tehran has reportedly submitted to mediators in Pakistan.

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US President Donald Trump claimed that his intervention helped save eight women arrested in Iran from the death penalty. Iran responded by saying that none of the women Trump mentioned were ever facing execution and accused the president of fake reports. The BBC’s Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet is reporting from Tehran on condition that none of her material is used on the BBC’s Persian Service. These restrictions apply to all international media organisations operating in Iran.

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With peace talks between the US and Iran at an impasse, the Pentagon says it is planning a short, sharp campaign to force Iran’s hand in negotiations.

Could the focus be a seizure of Iran’s enriched uranium, and how would it be carried out? 

The Security Brief takes you back to 1994, when Project Sapphire saw the US conduct a covert operation in Kazakhstan to seize 600kg of enriched uranium, before smuggling it back to the United States. 

Christian Fraser and Mikey Kay explain what can be learned from that operation, and why a mission in Iran would be far more difficult. 

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