Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country would not negotiate on its ballistic missile program, rejecting a core U.S. demand and further dimming prospects for a breakthrough deal.

He again warned in an interview with Al Jazeera that Tehran, Iran, would target U.S. bases in the Middle East if provoked, calling Iran’s missile program ‘never negotiable.’

The warnings came as U.S. and Iranian negotiators met in early February in Oman, even as Washington continued to build up military forces across the region — a posture U.S. officials say is meant to deter further escalation but which analysts argue also underscores how far apart the two sides remain.

Despite the imbalance in military power, analysts say Iran believes it can withstand U.S. pressure by signaling greater resolve — and by betting that Washington’s appetite for war is limited.

While the U.S. possesses overwhelming military capabilities, Defense Priorities analyst Rosemary Kelanic said Iran is relying on the logic of asymmetric conflict.

‘One country is much stronger, but the weaker country cares more,’ Kelanic said. ‘And historically, the country that cares more often wins by outlasting the stronger one.’

‘Iran is trying to signal resolve as strongly as it can, but it likely doubts U.S. resolve — because from Tehran’s perspective, the stakes for Iran are existential, while the stakes for the United States are not,’ she added.

Behnam Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Tehran’s primary leverage is its ability to threaten wider regional instability, even if it cannot win a prolonged conflict.

‘The Islamic Republic’s leverage is the threat of a region-wide war,’ Taleblu said, noting that while U.S. and Israeli defenses could intercept most attacks, ‘something will get hit.’

Iran buying time

Analysts across the spectrum agree that Iran is using negotiations less as a path to compromise than as a way to delay decisive action.

Oren Kessler, analyst at global consulting firm Wikistrat, said Iran is using talks to stabilize its position internally while avoiding concessions on core security issues.

‘Both sides want a deal, but their red lines are very hard for the other side to overcome,’ Kesler said. ‘The talks are going well in the sense that they’re happening, but they’re not really going anywhere.’

Taleblu echoed that assessment, arguing that Tehran is treating diplomacy as a shield rather than a solution.

‘The regime is treating negotiations as a lifeline rather than a way to resolve the core problem,’ he said.

Taleblu added that Iran’s leadership sees talks as a way to deter a strike in the short term, weaken domestic opposition in the medium term, and eventually secure sanctions relief to stabilize its economy.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has insisted that limits on Iran’s ballistic missiles must be part of any agreement to avoid military action.

‘At the end of the day, the United States is prepared to engage, and has always been prepared to engage with Iran,’ Rubio said in early February. ‘In order for talks to actually lead to something meaningful, they will have to include certain things, and that includes the range of their ballistic missiles. That includes their sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region. That includes the nuclear program. And that includes the treatment of their own people.’

Anti-government protests beginning at the start of 2026 led to a brutal crackdown in Iran. The regime has admitted to 3,117 deaths linked to the demonstrations, though human rights groups and Iranian resistance organizations peg the death toll as much higher. 

The U.S. also has demanded that Iran give up all enriched uranium stockpiles, which can be used for civilian energy at low levels but for nuclear weapons at higher concentrations.

Araghchi told Al Jazeera that Iran is willing to negotiate on nuclear issues but insisted enrichment is an ‘inalienable right’ that ‘must continue.’

‘We are ready to reach a reassuring agreement on enrichment,’ he said. ‘The Iranian nuclear case will only be resolved through negotiations.’

Iran’s atomic chief said Monday that Tehran would consider diluting its 60% enriched uranium — a level close to weapons-grade — but only in exchange for the lifting of all sanctions.

As negotiations unfolded, the U.S. continued to expand its military footprint in the Middle East.

In late January, the U.S. dispatched a carrier strike group centered on the USS Abraham Lincoln to the North Arabian Sea, accompanied by multiple destroyers and other naval assets. Additional F-15E strike aircraft and air defense systems have also been repositioned at bases across the region, alongside thousands of U.S. troops.

Taleblu said the administration may be using diplomacy to buy time of its own.

‘The charitable interpretation is that the president is buying time — moving assets, strengthening missile defense, and preparing military options,’ he said. ‘The less charitable interpretation is that the United States is taking Iran’s threats as highly credible and still chasing the optics of a deal.’

In 2025, five rounds of talks similarly stalled over U.S. demands that Iran abandon enrichment entirely — talks that ultimately collapsed into Operation Midnight Hammer, a U.S.-led bombing campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities.

President Donald Trump vowed to impose ‘very severe consequences’ on Russia in 2025 if it didn’t commit to a deal to end its war on Ukraine.

As the war nears its four-year anniversary in late February, national security experts tell Fox News Digital that Russia is facing tangible consequences for the war. Those are through its network of proxy countries that have directly endured the might of the U.S. military and subsequently left Russia with fewer streams of revenue and resources, they say. 

‘The President’s moves as it pertains to Russia are really strategic,’ Morgan Murphy, who previously served as the senior public diplomacy advisor to the president’s special envoy to Ukraine in 2025, told Fox News Digital. ‘So if you look at what he’s done with Iran and with Venezuela, these are two Russian proxies, right? Iran is a close ally of Russia.’

‘They sell a lot of drones to Russia,’ Murphy, who is running as a GOP Senate candidate to represent Alabama, continued. ‘Venezuela was again a proxy of Russia here in our hemisphere, and Trump is in the process of taking Iran off the table. He’s certainly taken Venezuela off the chessboard, and that that has to change Putin’s calculus, because he sees in President Trump a president who follows what he says he’s going to do.’ 

Russia’s war on Ukraine has persisted since Feb. 24, 2022, about a year after Trump’s first administration ended and during President Joe Biden’s presidency. Trump campaigned on ending the war upon his second inauguration in 2025, but ending the war has proven more difficult than anticipated as the U.S. continues negotiations. 

A White House official who spoke to Fox Digital said Trump is driven by humanitarian concerns and wants the conflict ended to stop the needless loss of life. The official added that in recent months his team has made major headway toward a settlement, pointing to Trump’s own remarks that ‘very good things’ are developing between Ukraine and Russia.

According to the official, recent negotiations in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, were substantive and constructive, with U.S., Ukrainian and Russian delegations agreeing to a 314-person prisoner exchange — the first in five months. While more work is ahead, the official argued that breakthroughs like this show sustained diplomacy is producing real, measurable progress toward ending the war.

Trump launched a series of strikes on Iran in June 2025 that hobbled the country’s covert nuclear program. Massive protests swept Iran in December 2025 as citizens spoke out against the government and its cratering economy. 

Iran violently cracked down on the nationwide protests, with thousands of citizens reportedly killed and the Trump administration warning Iran that it would face U.S. military action if the executions and killings continued. 

The U.S. and Iran held discussions in Oman Friday as Tehran, Iran, continues to obscure its nuclear ambitions, with military intervention on the table as the U.S. seeks to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons capabilities. 

Iran and Russia have grown into a tighter wartime partnership in recent years, with U.S. and allied officials citing Iran’s supply of armed drones and other defense cooperation that has helped power Russia’s attacks in Ukraine — drawing the two heavily sanctioned regimes closer economically and militarily.

Ret. Air Force Gen. Bruce Carlson pointed to the Trump administration’s actions on Iran and Venezuela as evidence of how Trump is strategically pressuring Russia via its proxies to end the war in Ukraine. 

‘In any campaign, you don’t just target command centers — you cut supply lines and logistics,’ Carlson said. ‘Pressuring Russian proxies does exactly that. Venezuela, Iran, and the shadow fleet are key arteries feeding Russia’s war in Ukraine. Additionally, by pressing Europe to increase NATO spending and move off Russian oil and gas, we are directly altering Moscow’s decision-making.’

Carlson argued that, strategically, the trend lines are moving against Moscow as the U.S. ramps up pressure on Russia’s partners — leaving Putin with fewer backers, tighter resources and less flexibility, and undermining any assumption that dragging out the war comes without a cost. 

The retired Air Force general added that Putin and his proxies operate as a single ecosystem: Russia’s campaign relies on outside suppliers and sanctions-busting networks, so hitting any link in that chain can weaken Russia’s revenue and its ability to sustain attacks on Ukrainian civilians.

‘But ensuring a lasting and fair peace is not solely about pressuring Russia. As the cold winter continues in Ukraine, there are increasing concerns on Ukraine’s energy needs and air defense systems. U.S. and European support remain vital,’ he added. 

As tensions with Iran heighten, the Trump administration successfully captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on sweeping narco-trafficking charges in January. 

Venezuela is another Russian ally, publicly backing Moscow and maintaining high-level diplomatic ties, while giving Russia a Western Hemisphere foothold through military-technical cooperation and deep dependence on Russian arms — a relationship that has triggered U.S. sanctions actions tied to Venezuela’s oil sector and Russian-linked firms.

‘The removal of Maduro stripped Moscow of a key client in our hemisphere, and the increased pressure on Iran threatens the weapons and drone supply chain that Russia uses against Ukrainian civilians,’ Carrie Filipetti, executive director of foreign policy group the Vandenberg Coalition, told Fox News Digital. ‘This is how we have to change Putin’s long-term calculus.’

‘For the first time, the United States has used the power of American diplomacy to bring Ukraine and Russia into trilateral diplomatic talks,’ Filipetti added. ‘Combined with the threat of additional sanctions reliance and increased pressure on the countries that buy Russian energy, these steps are critical to shaking Russia’s assumption that time is on its side.’ 

Ret. Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard Newton told Fox News Digital that when Trump warned Russia of severe consequences in 2025 if Moscow did not end the war, the threat was followed by tangible consequences that reverberated through the Kremlin. 

‘Deterrence and leverage requires our adversaries (to) believe we will act,’ Newton said. ‘President Trump is doing just that by disrupting the systems that fund and sustain Putin’s war. The capture of Maduro and the just announced trade deal with India’s Prime Minister Modi — that forces India off of Russian oil — is a major blow to Russia’s war machine.’

The White House said in February that it struck with India to increase U.S. energy imports and stop buying Russian oil. The U.S. tops the world in daily oil production, with Saudi Arabia and Russia following behind. 

Filipetti argued that peace in Ukraine is only obtained by forcing Russia to face ‘real consequences.’

‘Vladimir Putin is responsible for a war of aggression marked by atrocities against Ukrainian civilians, and any lasting peace must impose real consequences on Russia itself. And weakening Russia’s proxies and isolating Putin is one of the most effective ways to reduce his ability to wage war,’ Filipetti said.

‘When it comes to China, North Korea, and Iran — without question these authoritarians are facing a very different calculus than just a few months ago,’ she said. 

While Newton pointed to a shadow-fleet sanctions package and another sanctions package that are moving through Congress, along with higher NATO spending and a tougher allied military posture, as key pressure points he says could help drive a peace deal.

Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is promoting a sweeping Russia sanctions bill that would tighten the screws on Moscow by punishing countries and companies that keep buying Russian energy with secondary sanctions and tariffs, while a separate bipartisan ‘shadow fleet’ package would target the tankers, insurers and shell networks Russia uses to move oil and evade sanctions.

Murphy argued that Trump already has sketched what he sees as a realistic off-ramp for Moscow — one he says even some Democrats would recognize as the best deal Putin is likely to get — including restoring Russia’s seat at the top diplomatic table, reopening some Western commercial access, and acknowledging Russia’s current occupation of Ukrainian territory without formally recognizing sovereignty. 

Murphy likened that offer to a ‘golden bridge’ for Putin to exit the war, but said the Kremlin has so far declined it, making the next move ultimately Russia’s choice — and raising the question of how many more casualties Moscow is willing to absorb with no clear endpoint in sight.

The war underscores a Russian worldview U.S. negotiators often misread through a Western lens, Murphy said, explaining Russia is shaped by catastrophic losses in World War I and World War II and a deep-seated suspicion that invasion is a recurring threat. He said that unpredictability is why the U.S. military has long used the ‘Crazy Ivan’ moniker for Russian behavior. 

Trump is meanwhile putting himself in the Russians’ shoes, Murphy argued, and meeting the moment with a clearer-eyed read of Moscow’s mindset and history. 

‘It is a decision that the Russians are going to have to make. How many more lives do they want to feed into this meat grinder? How many more deaths are they willing to endure?’ Murphy said. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in February that the U.S. set a June deadline for Moscow and Kyiv to strike an agreement to end the war, teeing up heightened tensions ahead of the U.S. midterms in November. 

The Senate is scrambling to avoid a third government shutdown under President Donald Trump, and after negotiations seemingly appeared to hit a brick wall, lawmakers are cautiously optimistic that a deal could be made. 

Senate Republicans received Senate Democrats’ ‘partisan wishlist’ of demands over the weekend, sources familiar with negotiations told Fox News Digital. The White House sent over its own counter-proposal, but several lawmakers weren’t clear what was in package as of Monday night. 

Some, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wouldn’t say, but noted that congressional Democrats and the White House were ‘trading papers,’ and signaled that the back and forth activity was a good sign of negotiations moving forward. 

But lawmakers aren’t out of the woods yet, a reality that Thune warned of since Senate Democrats demanded a two-week funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Congress has until Friday to avert a shutdown and little time to actually move a short-term patch from one side of the building to the other. 

Republicans are mulling another short-term extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to avert a partial shutdown. Thune said whether Democrats would sign off depended on how well background negotiations were going, but hinted that so far, things were moving toward a solution. 

‘I think, based on what I’m familiar with about the discussion so far, I think there is, but we’ll know more when the proposal comes back,’ Thune said. ‘Let’s have a chance to evaluate it.’ 

Thune later said that he planned to tee up another CR on Tuesday, but noted that the length would ‘have to be negotiated. But let’s see what the next day brings and we’ll go from there.’

Democrats’ prime objective is reining in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good. 

The proposal they submitted included items that are a bridge too far for Republicans, including requiring ICE agents to get judicial warrants, de-mask and have identification ready — some in the GOP warn doing so would lead to more agents being doxxed, or when a person’s private information is made public, like their address. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned that the ‘clock is ticking’ for Republicans to respond. 

‘We have sent you our proposals, and they are exceedingly reasonable,’ Schumer said on the Senate floor. ‘I hope our colleagues on the other side, many of whom, at least here in the Senate, recognize that things need to change, show they’re ready to act in a meaningful way.’

Prior to Democrats finally handing over the legislative version of their demands on Saturday, Republicans publicly questioned if they actually wanted to have serious negotiations. That changed over the weekend. 

A White House official told Fox News that ‘President Trump has been consistent, he wants the government open and the Administration has been working with both parties to ensure the American people don’t have to endure another drawn-out, senseless, and hurtful shutdown.’

Meanwhile, the scope and scale of a possible third closure would be limited to just the DHS, but would really only have an effect on FEMA, TSA, the Coast Guard and other priorities under the agency’s umbrella. That’s because ICE and immigration operations are flush with billions from Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill.’ 

‘To say that the security of Americans is not paramount, I think, would be a huge mistake for the Democrats, and I certainly hope that they’ll continue to operate in good faith,’ Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., and the chair of the Homeland Security spending panel, said.

‘Because you do realize, ICE and [Customs and Border Patrol] would continue to be funded,’ she continued. 

Things are also about to get complicated quickly in the upper chamber. Lawmakers are set to leave Washington, D.C., for a weeklong recess this Thursday, and many are headed overseas to the Munich Security Conference. 

That starts on the day of the deadline and lasts through the weekend. Thune warned that it was possible he would cancel the upcoming recess, especially if there was little progress toward avoiding a DHS shutdown. 

Still, Senate Democrats believe that the ball is in the GOP’s court and are waiting for their counterparts to act. 

‘I mean, I think they’re pretty reasonable,’ Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations panel, said.

‘I mean, we did not ask for the moon,’ he continued. ‘We asked for targeted but impactful changes in the way that ICE is terrorizing American cities. So obviously we’re willing to negotiate.’

Iran is prepared to pursue diplomacy while remaining ready to defend itself if challenged, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday, arguing that Tehran’s strength lies in its ability to stand firm against pressure.

‘We are a man of diplomacy, we are also a man of war; not in the sense that we seek war, but … we are ready to fight so that no one dares to fight us,’ he said, according to Press TV, Iran’s state-run English-language broadcaster.

Araghchi made the remarks in Tehran at the National Congress on the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Policy, two days after Iran and the United States held nuclear talks in Oman.

Fox News previously reported that negotiations between Iranian and U.S. officials in Muscat, the capital, were held face-to-face, marking the first such meetings since U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in June.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry described the talks as ‘intensive and lengthy’ in a post on X, saying the meetings allowed both sides to present their positions and concerns.

‘It was a good start, but its continuation depends on consultations in our respective capitals and deciding on how to proceed,’ the government account said.

It added there was broad agreement on continuing the negotiations, though decisions on timing, format and the next round will be made following consultations in the two capitals, with Oman continuing to serve as the intermediary.

Araghchi said Sunday that Iran views its nuclear program as a legitimate right and is seeking recognition of that position through negotiations.

‘I believe the secret of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s power lies in its ability to stand against bullying, domination and pressures from others,’ he said, according to Press TV.

‘They fear our atomic bomb, while we are not pursuing an atomic bomb. Our atomic bomb is the power to say no to the great powers,’ the top diplomat added. ‘The secret of the Islamic Republic’s power is to say no to the powers.’

President Donald Trump has expanded the U.S. military presence in the Middle East, deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and the USS Michael Murphy, a guided-missile destroyer.

Other U.S. naval assets, including the USS Bulkeley, USS Roosevelt, USS Delbert D. Black, USS McFaul, USS Mitscher, USS Spruance and USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., are positioned across key waterways surrounding Iran, from the eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea to the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea.

North Korean authorities executed teenagers for watching the South Korean television series ‘Squid Game’ and listening to K-pop, human rights researchers announced in early February.

Amnesty International cited testimony from an escapee with family ties in Yanggang Province who said people, including schoolchildren, were executed for specifically watching the popular survival drama series.

It also separately documented accounts of forced labor sentences and public humiliation for consuming South Korean media elsewhere in the country, particularly for those without money or political connections.

‘Usually when high school students are caught, if their family has money, they just get warnings,’ said Kim Joonsik, 28, who was caught watching South Korean dramas three times before leaving the country in 2019.

‘I didn’t receive legal punishment because we had connections,’ he told Amnesty International in an interview.

Joonsik said three of his sisters’ high school friends were given multi-year labor camp sentences in the late 2010s after being caught watching South Korean dramas, a punishment he said reflected their families’ inability to pay bribes.

‘The authorities criminalize access to information in violation of international law, then allow officials to profit off those fearing punishment. This is repression layered with corruption, and it most devastates those without wealth or connections,’ said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director.

‘This government’s fear of information has effectively placed the entire population in an ideological cage, suffocating their access to the views and thoughts of other human beings,’ she added. ‘People who strive to learn more about the world outside North Korea, or seek simple entertainment from overseas, face the harshest of punishments.’

Several defectors told the human rights organization that they were required to witness public executions while still in school, describing the practice as a form of state-mandated indoctrination designed to deter exposure to foreign culture.

‘When we were 16, 17, in middle school, they took us to executions and showed us everything,’ said Kim Eunju, 40. ‘People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media. It’s ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too.’

For the first time in decades, the world’s two largest nuclear superpowers are no longer bound by any treaty limiting their arsenals.

The last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the U.S. and Russia, known as New START, expired Thursday.

The lapse removed limits on how many nuclear weapons Washington and Moscow could deploy on missiles, bombers and submarines, and ended the requirement that both sides notify one another whenever nuclear weapons were moved.

The scale of what’s now unconstrained is vast. 

Globally, there are more than 12,200 nuclear weapons spread across nine nuclear-armed nations, according to a recent analysis. The United States and Russia alone account for roughly 10,636 of those weapons.

While the exact size of each country’s arsenal is closely guarded, below is a breakdown of estimated nuclear stockpiles, based on data from the Federation of American Scientists. 

Ahead of the New START agreement’s expiration, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social, ‘Rather than extend ‘NEW START’ (a badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future.’

He has previously argued that China should be included in any new agreement with Russia, pointing to Beijing’s growing nuclear arsenal, the world’s third largest after the U.S. and Russia.

Russia said it plans to ‘interrogate’ two suspects in the attempted assassination of a top military intelligence official who was ambushed in Moscow on Friday, according to a Russian newspaper.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that two suspects in the shooting of Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev ‘will soon be interrogated,’ citing a source close to the investigation.

After questioning, the suspects are expected to be charged, the report said, according to Reuters. 

Alekseyev, the deputy head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, was shot three times in his Moscow apartment building on Friday and rushed to a hospital.

The Associated Press reported that the business daily Kommersant said the shooter posed as a delivery person and shot Alekseyev twice in the stairway of his apartment building, injuring him in the foot and arm. Alekseyev allegedly attempted to wrest the weapon away and was shot again in the chest before the attacker fled, the report said.

Kommersant reported that Alekseyev underwent successful surgery and regained consciousness Saturday but remained under medical supervision.

Russian news outlet TASS reported that the surgery was successful and that Alekseyev’s injuries were not life-threatening.

The outlet reported that the Investigative Committee launched a criminal investigation on charges of attempted murder and illicit trafficking in firearms.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the assassination attempt, alleging — without providing evidence — that it was intended to sabotage peace talks. Ukraine denied any involvement.

Alekseyev, 64, has been under U.S. sanctions over alleged Russian cyber interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The European Union also sanctioned him over the 2018 poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England.

The assassination attempt came as President Donald Trump’s administration has been seeking to help broker peace between Russia and Ukraine.

The warring nations agreed to a prisoner swap this week, according to readouts posted on X by U.S. special presidential envoy for peace missions Steve Witkoff and Ukraine’s national security and defense council minister Rustem Umerov.

Fox News’ Alex Nitzberg and Reuters contributed to this report.

Ambassador Mike Waltz, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, outlined the Trump administration’s ‘America First’-centered policies that he is adopting in a wide-ranging, exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, as the former national security advisor asserts himself in the role.

Waltz rejected claims that the present U.N. cash crisis was primarily a result of unpaid U.S. dues. ‘The United States pays to the U.N. system, more than 180 countries combined,’ noting, ‘We have historically been the largest supporter of the U.N., but under President Trump, we’re demanding reform.’

Waltz argued the organization has drifted from its founding mission. ‘There are times where the U.N. has been incredibly helpful to U.S. foreign policy and objectives, but there are also times where it’s working against us,’ he said. ‘It has become bloated, it has become duplicative, it has lost its way from its original founding.’

Waltz framed the approach as part of an ‘America First’ doctrine focused on accountability for taxpayer dollars and burden-sharing among member states, saying that Washington’s financial leverage is intended to force change. ‘When we give the U.N. some tough love … these are the American taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars,’ he said. ‘At the end of the day, we will get the American taxpayers’ money’s worth, so to speak, out of this organization.’

At the U.N. earlier this week, the secretary-general framed the crisis as a matter of unpaid obligations by member states. When asked what gives him confidence the United States will pay, he said, ‘The question is not one of confidence. Obligations are obligations. So in relation to obligations, it’s not a matter of having confidence. It’s a matter of obligations being met.’

The secretary-general’s spokesperson, in response to a Fox News Digital question, rejected the idea that the organization’s financial crisis stems from internal management and echoed that position, saying the funding situation is ‘very clear,’ pointing to the fact that some of the largest contributors have not paid, while arguing the secretary-general has been a ‘responsible steward’ of U.N. finances and has pursued management reform since the start of his tenure.

‘They just agreed to cut nearly 3,000 headquarters bureaucratic positions,’ Waltz said in their defense. ‘They agreed to the first-ever budget cut in U.N. history in 80 years, a 15% budget cut, and they’re cutting global peacekeeping forces by 25%.’

‘What’s interesting is, behind the scenes, a lot of people are saying thank you. This place needs to be better. President Trump is right. It’s not living up to its potential. We should ask ourselves, why isn’t the U.N. resolving things like border disputes with Cambodia and Thailand? Why aren’t they really driving the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan to a resolution? That’s what the U.N. was built for. Thank God President Trump is, but he’s asking the question of why is he having to do all of this. Where’s the United Nations? So we’re determined here to help them live up to their reforms, live up to their mandate, live up to their mission.’

‘You have to have one place in the world where everyone can talk,’ he said. ‘The president is a president of peace. He puts diplomacy first.’

Asked whether U.N. leadership is doing enough to reform the world body, Waltz said Secretary-General António Guterres has begun moving in the right direction but should have acted sooner.

‘The secretary general has taken steps in the right direction. Frankly, I wish he had done it much sooner in a much more aggressive way,’ Waltz said.

He cited structural changes and consolidation efforts while arguing that measurable results must follow.

‘The U.N.’s budget has quadrupled in the last 25 years,’ Waltz said. ‘We haven’t seen a quadrupling of peace around the world. In fact, it’s gone the opposite direction.’

When asked if the administration’s Gaza peace framework and a mechanism known as the Board of Peace are alternatives to the U.N., Waltz said they are intended to complement the institution rather than replace it.

‘The president doesn’t intend the Board of Peace to replace the U.N., but he intends to drive a lot of these conflicts to conclusion,’ he said.

‘As part of the president’s 20-point peace plan was also the Board of Peace to actually implement it,’ he said.

He said the Board of Peace involves regional governments and is designed to create a stabilization structure on the ground. ‘The Egyptians are involved, Turkey’s involved, the Gulf Arabs, Jordan and importantly, the Israelis,’ he said. ‘We’re going to have a stabilization force, we’re going to have a funding mechanism for rebuilding humanitarian aid … and this Palestinian technocratic committee that can restore government services.’

Looking ahead, Waltz said the administration wants a narrower, more mission-driven U.N. focused on security, conflict resolution and economic development.

‘I see … a much more focused U.N. that we have taken back to the basics of promoting peace and security around the world,’ he said.

He also called for greater private sector involvement and less reliance on traditional aid structures. ‘This old model of NGOs and agencies going to governments and just saying, ‘More, more, more’ — it isn’t sustainable,’ he said. ‘If we’re driving environments in developing countries that welcome American businesses … we break that dependence on development aid and everyone benefits.’

Ultimately, Waltz framed his role as executing foreign policy vision. ‘I’m a vessel for the president’s vision,’ he said. ‘From my perspective, at the end of his administration, he looks at a U.N. that is leading in driving countries toward peaceful conclusions to conflicts around the world and asking for his help. That’s a much better dynamic than the president having to do it all and saying, ‘Where is the U.N. in these conflicts?’ And so we’re looking to very much flip that on its head, and we have a plan to do it.’

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard denied any wrongdoing on Saturday as Democrats question why a whistleblower complaint filed against her last May took nearly a year before it was referred to Congress.

‘[Virginia Democrat] Senator Mark Warner and his friends in the Propaganda Media have repeatedly lied to the American people that I or the ODNI ‘hid’ a whistleblower complaint in a safe for eight months,’ Gabbard wrote in a lengthy X post on Saturday. ‘This is a blatant lie.’

She continued, ‘I am not now, nor have I ever been, in possession or control of the Whistleblower’s complaint, so I obviously could not have ‘hidden’ it in a safe. Biden-era IC Inspector General Tamara Johnson was in possession of and responsible for securing the complaint for months.’

The highly classified complaint by a U.S. intelligence official alleging wrongdoing on the part of Gabbard was filed eight months ago with the intelligence community’s watchdog office and was first reported on by the Wall Street Journal.

The complaint has been locked in a safe since its filing, according to the Journal, with one U.S. official telling the newspaper that the disclosure of its contents could cause ‘grave damage to national security.’

The whistleblower’s lawyer has accused Gabbard’s office of slow-walking the complaint, which her office has denied, calling it ‘baseless and politically motivated.’ 

Meanwhile, Democrats are also questioning why it took her office so long to hand the complaint over to Congress.

‘The law is clear,’ Warner, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Thursday, according to NPR, adding that the complaint was required to be sent to Congress within 21 days of its filing. ‘I think it was an effort to try to bury this whistleblower complaint.’

Neither the contents of the complaint nor the allegations against Gabbard have been revealed.

Gabbard wrote on Saturday that the first time she saw the complaint was ‘when I had to review it to provide guidance on how it should be securely shared with Congress.’

‘As Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Warner knows very well that whistleblower complaints that contain highly classified and compartmented intelligence—even if they contain baseless allegations like this one—must be secured in a safe, which the Biden-era Inspector General Tamara Johnson did and her successor, Inspector General Chris Fox, continued to do,’ she continued. ‘After IC Inspector General Fox hand-delivered the complaint to the Gang of 8, the complaint was returned to a safe where it remains, consistent with any information of such sensitivity.’

She claimed that either ‘Warner knows these facts and is intentionally lying to the American people, or he doesn’t have a clue how these things work and is therefore not qualified to be in the U.S. Senate.’

Gabbard further wrote that ‘When a complaint is not found to be credible, there is no timeline under the law for the provision of security guidance. The ‘21 day’ requirement that Senator Warner alleges I did not comply with, only applies when a complaint is determined by the Inspector General to be both urgent AND apparently credible. That was NOT the case here.’

An inspector general representative said that it had determined some of the allegations in the complaint against Gabbard weren’t credible, while it hasn’t made a determination on others, according to the Journal.

Gabbard said she was made aware that she needed to provide security guidance on the complaint by IC Inspector General Chris Fox on Dec. 4, ‘which he detailed in his letter to Congress.’

Afterward, she said she ‘took immediate action to provide the security guidance to the Intelligence Community Inspector General, who then shared the complaint and referenced intelligence with relevant members of Congress last week.’

In closing her post, Gabbard once again accused Warner of spreading ‘lies and baseless accusations over the months for political gain,’ which she said ‘undermines our national security and is a disservice to the American people and the Intelligence Community.’

Warner’s office told Fox News Digital Gabbard’s post was an ‘inaccurate attack that’s entirely on brand for someone who has already and repeatedly proven she’s unqualified to serve as DNI.’ 

Republicans on the House and Senate intelligence committees have backed up Gabbard, with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., writing on X on Thursday: ‘I have reviewed this ‘whistleblower’ complaint and the inspector general handling of it. I agree with both inspectors general who have evaluated the matter: the complaint is not credible and the inspectors general and the DNI took the necessary steps to ensure the material has handled and transmitted appropriately in accordance with law.’

He addded, ‘To be frank, it seems like just another effort by the president’s critics in and out of government to undermine policies that they don’t like; it’s definitely not credible allegations of waste, fraud, or abuse.’

Gabbard’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order requiring the government to assess foreign weapons sales based on their impact on U.S. production capacity for key systems and to favor allies whose defense investments and strategic importance align with U.S. national security priorities.

Under the order, obtained first by Fox News Digital, the Departments of War, State and Commerce are instructed to ensure that U.S. arms transfers support weapons systems deemed most operationally relevant to the National Security Strategy, reinforce critical supply chains, and prioritize partners that have invested in their own defense and occupy strategically important regions.

The administration argues that past arms transfer policy allowed foreign demand to shape U.S. production decisions, contributing to backlogs, cost overruns and delivery delays that left both the U.S. military and its allies waiting years for critical equipment.

‘The America First Arms Transfer Strategy will now leverage over $300 billion in annual defense sales to strategically reindustrialize the United States and rapidly deliver American-manufactured weapons to help our partners and allies establish deterrence and defend themselves,’ according to a White House fact sheet.

A central goal of the order is to speed up a foreign military sales process that defense officials and industry leaders have long criticized as slow and overly bureaucratic. The order directs federal agencies to identify ways to streamline enhanced end-use monitoring requirements, third-party transfer approvals and the congressional notification process — steps the administration says have contributed to years-long delays in delivering U.S. weapons overseas.

The order also creates a new Promoting American Military Sales Task Force charged with overseeing implementation of the strategy and tracking major defense sales across the government. In a move aimed at increasing accountability, the administration says agencies will be required to publish aggregate quarterly performance metrics showing how quickly defense sales cases are being executed.

 The strategy also signals a shift in how the United States prioritizes its partners. The order directs the government to favor countries that have invested in their own defense and occupy strategically important regions, effectively tying arms sales decisions more closely to U.S. military planning and geographic priorities.

Other partners could face longer timelines or lower priority if their requests do not align with U.S. strategic or industrial objectives. While the order does not name specific countries, it reflects an effort to focus limited U.S. production capacity on allies viewed as most critical to executing the National Security Strategy.

The order also instructs the War, State and Commerce departments to ‘find efficiencies in the Enhanced End Use Monitoring criteria, the Third-Party Transfer process, and the Congressional Notification process.’

Congress will likely be watching how the administration implements the order, especially provisions aimed at speeding both oversight of U.S. weapons once they are sold abroad and the process for notifying lawmakers about major arms deals. Lawmakers have argued those steps help prevent misuse of U.S. weapons, even as they have criticized delays that slow deliveries to allies.

The order follows a series of recent defense-related executive actions taken by Trump. In January 2026, he signed an order directing defense contractors to prioritize production capacity, innovation and on-time delivery over stock buybacks and other corporate distributions.

That built on an April 2025 order aimed at improving speed and accountability in the foreign military sales system, as well as a January 2025 order focused on modernizing defense acquisitions and reducing red tape across the defense industrial base.