US, Iran exchange fire as IRGC claims Strait of Hormuz closure until 'end of interference'

The U.S. Secret Service (USSS) on Sunday addressed reports of an alleged Iranian assassination plot targeting President Donald Trump during his trip to Turkey last week.

The agency said it does not confirm or comment on intelligence matters but emphasized that officials “consume information on a global level to effectively execute our protective operations.”

“Our most important responsibility is safeguarding the President and all of our protectees,” a Secret Service spokesperson told Fox News.

The statement came after Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported that a Western intelligence service warned Washington of an alleged assassination plot, prompting an unexpected aircraft switch ahead of Trump's trip to Turkey.

The reported warning came after a week-long funeral for Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during which mourners chanted slogans calling for Trump's death and the downfall of the United States.

Fox News contributor Joe Concha said Sunday that Iran wants to prolong the war into the turbulent midterm election season in an effort to hurt President Donald Trump politically.

To extend the conflict, Concha suggested Tehran may be misleading the U.S. about its intentions regarding a peace deal.

“All they want to do is get to November because they know this hurts the president politically. They want to stretch this out as long as possible,” Concha said. “They'll tell us one thing and then do another.”

Concha predicted that Democrats could retake the House while Republicans maintain control of the Senate in the midterm elections.

Under such a scenario, Trump could face repeated impeachment efforts from House Democrats, Concha said.

“They'll impeach Trump in perpetuity, and they're not going to look good in terms of not solving problems, only settling debts,” Concha said.

“So you're going to have a split, sort of, government at this point,” he added.

Iran has become much “more bold” in its rhetoric since the start of the war, foreign analyst Lisa Daftari told Fox News on Sunday.

Daftari, the editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, said Iran’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric suggests Tehran believes it still has leverage in the conflict, even as she described the regime as being at its weakest point in decades.

“Their rhetoric has not backed down any bit since the beginning of this war,” Daftari said. “If anything, we're seeing them become much more bold in their rhetoric, making threats against the President, making friends against Israel and the United States militarily.”

Despite the attacks, Daftari said the U.S. is continuing to send a strong message through what she described as a “controlled escalation” of strikes.

“It's a nuanced approach to controlled escalation, but at the same time deliver a very strong message to Iran's regime that we do have the appetite to go back to kinetic warfare, that we have the appetite to strike vital targets again,” she said.

“The president does not want this to become an escalated conflict once again. But at the same time, again, the boot has to remain on the neck of the regime,” Daftari added.

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) on Sunday pushed back on what it called “Iranian propaganda claims” that American service members were killed during strikes in Kuwait.

“Iranian propaganda claimed today that three American service members were killed in Kuwait by strikes from Iran,” CENTCOM said in a post on X.

“There are zero reports of U.S. service member deaths or injuries in the region,” the agency added.

The statement came after Iran’s state-affiliated Fars News Agency reported that three American personnel may have been killed and several others wounded in an operation targeting U.S. High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers in Kuwait.

Israel will hold its next national election on Oct. 27, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition announced Sunday.

Coalition chairman Ofir Katz told a parliamentary committee that the election will proceed on the date originally set by law after parliament failed to trigger an early election by dissolving itself before the end of its four-year term, Reuters reported.

The election will be Israel's first since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, which sparked wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister and one of the country's most right-wing leaders, has already signaled his intention to seek another term.

According to The Times of Israel, Netanyahu said in late June that he intended to "establish a broad national government, not a narrow government, not a left-wing government that would be dependent on Arab parties, but a broad national government."

"Because only in that way, I believe, can we reach agreements among ourselves," he added. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed Sunday that its retaliatory attack on Kuwait targeted U.S. High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers, according to Iran's state-affiliated Fars News Agency.

HIMARS are highly mobile rocket and missile launch systems typically mounted on U.S. Army trucks, allowing them to quickly relocate after firing and evade counterattacks.

“In the continuation of impact-focused operations by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted the American ground-to-ground missile platforms ‘HIMARS’ in Kuwait in a precise drone operation,” Fars reported.

The outlet further claimed the launchers and their accompanying ammunition storage facilities were effectively destroyed.

Hours earlier, Kuwait's Defense Ministry said a "criminal aggressive attack" damaged three border outposts and an offshore oil drilling platform, injuring one worker. 

An autopsy would be appropriate for late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., after his office called the death came from a "sudden and brief illness," according to former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell on Sunday.

“I think America deserves to know exactly what the circumstances are,” Grenell told “The Sunday Briefing.”

Grenell was asked about online speculation surrounding Graham’s death, including whether a foreign adversary could have been involved.

"I think that there'll be time to to look at that; hopefully there'll be an autopsy," Grenell told host Peter Doocy. "He was a very serious U.S. official, a high-ranking U.S. official."

Grenell, who was a close friend, said he knew Graham has "had some health challenges, so I'm not as concerned about what others are thinking."

"But I think it's a very appropriate move to have an autopsy and to make clear and transparent exactly what happened," Grenell concluded.

A senior adviser to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani planned to meet with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, but the State Department squashed it, Fox News correspondent CB Cotton reported on “Fox News Live.”

The planned meeting came as tensions between Washington and Tehran continue to escalate, with U.S. forces striking Iranian targets and Iran threatening shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

The State Department’s move underscores the sensitivity around any contact with Iranian officials as the U.S. works to pressure Tehran diplomatically and militarily.

The reported intervention also raises questions about how local officials should engage with foreign governments during an active national security crisis, especially one involving a U.S. adversary.

Iran is likely to drag out negotiations unless the U.S. applies sustained pressure over the Strait of Hormuz, missiles and Tehran’s proxy network, retired Gen. Frank McKenzie warned Sunday.

“Iran has never met a war they could win or a negotiation they could lose,” McKenzie, the 14th commander of U.S. Central Command, told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Iran has a long history of extending talks by focusing on procedural disputes instead of core issues, he added.

“What Iran wants to do is extend negotiations in time, arguing about the size of the table, who’s in the room, the font on the document, everything except the core issues,” McKenzie continued.

The U.S. should keep diplomacy as the goal but recognize that Tehran typically responds only to “military force” and “extreme pressure,” he advised.

"Look, we're not talking about regime change here: What we're talking about is modifying the views, and actions of an extreme hardline regime; that is possible," he said.

Ultimately, too, Washington has the military capability to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, he concluded.

"We certainly have the capability to control the Strait of Hormuz if the president chooses to follow that course of action," McKenzie said. "Look, what he's been trying to do is get to a diplomatic and a political solution here, which I applaud, and I think we should all want to see as the final end state.

"We have the capability to do that. That capability is resident in the U.S. Military should the president elect to employ it."

Renewed fighting between the U.S., Iran and Gulf states risks catastrophic consequences for the region and the global economy, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned Sunday.

“I am deeply concerned by the serious escalation & renewed military confrontations in the Gulf,” Guterres wrote on X, citing Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. attacks on Iran and Iranian attacks on neighboring countries.

“These attacks must all stop,” he said.

Guterres warned that a return to full-scale hostilities would have “catastrophic consequences” for people in the region, international peace and security, and the global economy.

He urged Iran and the United States to “urgently resume negotiations” and resolve outstanding issues through diplomacy.

Kuwait's army said one worker was injured on Sunday after a drilling platform owned by Kuwait Oil Company was targeted by a "hostile" drone.

The army also said on X that three border posts in the north were subjected to an attack, resulting in material damage.

The reported strikes came as Axios reported the U.S. carried out several attacks on Iranian missile and air defense systems around the Strait of Hormuz, citing a senior U.S. official.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Missiles were launched toward Qeshm Island, a strategic Iranian island near the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state media Sunday.

No casualties from the missile attack, aIran’s IRNA news agency reported.

Several explosions east of Bandar Abbas and in the coastal area of Qeshm, according to Reuters.

The U.S. military conducted several strikes targeting Iranian missile and air defense systems, according to Axios.

U.S. forces also reportedly targeted IRGC small boats at several locations around the Strait of Hormuz.

Reuters contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump will not end the war with Iran until Tehran gives up its nuclear ambitions and stops threatening the Strait of Hormuz, according to Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., on Sunday.

“President Trump has been very clear that he’s going to finish the job,” Banks told “Fox News Sunday,” saying the "kid gloves" are off with Iran's nuclear weapons ambition.

“The United States of America is not going to let Iran get away with ever having a nuclear weapon, especially on Donald Trump’s watch.”

No more "footsie," according to Banks.

"President Trump is doing what no other president has done before: He's negotiating from a position of strength instead of what we've seen from Obama and Biden and other presidents who have played footsie with Iran," he said.

"They have treated them with kid gloves and appeased them and let them get away with these actions that President Trump has said he will no longer allow them to get away.

"It is in the best interest of America and the rest of the world that Iran never have a nuclear weapon because we know what they will do with it. They will point it at us and at our allies and President Trump will go down in history for being the United States president that. That did what was everything that was possible to stop Iran from achieving that."

Ongoing military pressure will force Tehran back to the table, Banks vowed.

“They’re going to feel the pain,” Banks said. “They’re going to come back to the table and beg President Trump to stop the strikes.”

China has its fingerprints on Iran and other U.S. adversaries, according to Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., on Sunday.

“They are a bad actor in the region, but they portray themselves as a neutral party,” Moolenaar, told “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“I believe that they are helping both Iran and Russia,”

Moolenaar, who chairs the House Select Committee on China, said Beijing is buying large amounts of energy from both countries and supplying dual-use equipment that can support civilian or military needs.

“Drone parts, other technology they are supplying to these adversaries,” he said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., remained focused on U.S. foreign policy until the end, including the need for a strong and steady approach to Iran.

“He was working about improving relations with Israel" and "focusing on what was going on in Iran and the need to have a strong policy position that was consistent with Iran," Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told “The Sunday Briefing.”

"And then finally, his concern that Russia was playing us all the way."

Graham was urging the Senate to do "everything that we could do to make sure that the Russia sanctions bill passed the United States Senate and the United States House, and it was one that the president could work with to really put pressure on Mr. [Vladimir] Putin.”

Graham as a close ally of President Donald Trump and a key voice in the Senate on foreign affairs.

“He was focused on the long-term successes of our country and on our foreign policy,” Rounds said.

Israel is ready to rejoin military action against Iran if Washington asks as it works to strip Tehran’s influence from Lebanon, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Dr. Michael Leiter said Sunday.

“If the United States calls on us to rejoin kinetic activity against Iran, we’re going to be there for the United States,” Leiter told CBS's “Face the Nation.”

President Donald Trump has been consistent in pursuing diplomacy with Iran when possible, but said Tehran violated the core condition of a recent memorandum of understanding (MOU) by threatening the Strait of Hormuz, according to Leiter.

“When the United States signed the MOU with Iran just a few weeks ago, there was one item, just one thing that the Iranians had to fulfill, and that was keeping the straits open,” Leiter said. “And that they’ve completely ignored.”

Leiter said he leading Israel’s negotiations with Lebanon, describing the talks as an effort to remove Iran and Hezbollah from the country’s security equation.

“Iran is not to be involved in Lebanon,” Leiter said. “They have no business in Lebanon, Hezbollah has no business in Lebanon.”

Leiter said Israel and Lebanon share an interest in dismantling Hezbollah, adding that Israeli forces can withdraw once the Iranian-backed group is removed as a threat.

President Donald Trump and the U.S. Central Command are controlling the Strait of Hormuz, not Iran or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Waltz.

The Strait of Hormuz is "open as Central Command has said," Waltz told "Sunday Morning Futures." "And most of the targets that we've hit the last several nights have been directly aimed at Iran's radar sensors, drones and missile batteries right there on the strait – to eliminate and degrade their ability to attack the the global economy.

"So we're going to take that leverage off the table, our great military and continue to do that."

President Donald Trump's peacemaking in the Middle East is breaking through in unprecedented ways, according to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Waltz on Sunday.

"We have more talks going on in Lebanon; we're taking that off the table, too," Waltz told "Sunday Morning Futures" of reducing Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz and its ability to fund terrorist proxies in the Middle East.

"For the first time, perhaps ever, the Israeli government, the Lebanese government, are working together to eliminate and disarm Iran's proxy Hezbollah.

"We've completely flipped the script there.

"We're taking the leverage off the table."