Senior U.S. and Iranian officials held indirect negotiations in Oman, in which Iran rejected the U.S. demand of ending uranium enrichment inside Iran. U.S. officials have also sought limits on Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for regional proxies, whereas Iran maintains that it will only negotiate over its nuclear activities. Both sides expressed willingness to continue talks. Earlier in the week, Iran had flown a drone at a U.S. aircraft carrier and sent armed vessels to harass a U.S.-flagged oil tanker. The United States was amassing air and naval forces near Iran.
News Briefs
January 26, 2026
Iranian sales of jet fuel and urea to Myanmar have enabled a bombing campaign by Myanmar's military junta. Two sanctioned Iranian tankers, Reef and Noble, together delivered approximately 175,000 tons of jet fuel in nine shipments between October 2024 and December 2025. The vessels manipulated their AIS trackers to make it appear that they were travelling between Basra, Iraq, and the port of Chittagong in Bangladesh, when in fact they were transporting fuel from a National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) refinery in Bandar Abbas to the Myan Oil Terminal near Yangon. The Myan terminal is connected to entities that have been sanctioned for supplying the junta with jet fuel. In the past three years, Iran has also supplied Myanmar with an estimated 400,000 to 600,000 tons of urea annually. The bulk cargo vessels Golden ES and Rasha both made deliveries of urea, which the Myanmar military uses to produce bombs and other explosives.
-- Reuters
January 26, 2026
Iranian businessman Ali Ansari, who was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in late 2025 for funding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), owns €400 million in property across Europe. Corporate filings show that Ansari owns resorts, hotels, and shopping centers in Germany and Spain. He controls his properties through shell companies registered in Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom, most of which are ultimately owned by a St. Kitts and Nevis-registered holding company. Ansari previously owned multiple London properties worth £150 million, which were frozen when he was sanctioned by the United Kingdom, and held a stake in an Austrian ski resort, which he was excluded from by the owners. Ansari denies the existence of a financial relationship between him and the IRGC. His family founded the Iranian lender Ayandeh Bank, which collapsed in October 2025.
-- Financial Times
January 23, 2026
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) head Mohammad Eslami said that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must "clarify its position" on the June 2025 U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities before Iran will allow the IAEA to inspect the bombed sites. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi earlier said that the Agency had inspected all of the 13 declared nuclear facilities that were not damaged in the strikes, but that it has had no access to the facilities in Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan that were the main targets of the attack.
-- Reuters
January 14, 2026
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force commander Majid Mousavi told Iranian state media that Iran has increased its missile stockpile since its war with Israel in June 2025. Mousavi claimed that damage to production facilities from the war had been repaired and that the Aerospace Force's production output "in various areas" was now higher than it was before June 2025.
-- Reuters
January 13, 2026
Iran sold USD $4 billion worth of weapons to Russia since 2021, including $2.7 billion worth of missiles, according to a Western security official who spoke to Bloomberg News. According to the official, Iran supplied Russia with hundreds of Fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles under a contract concluded in late 2021. In early 2023, Iran signed another contract worth USD $1.75 billion to supply Russia with Shahed-136 suicide drones and help it establish domestic production of the Geran-2, a Russian version of the drone. Iran also provided Russia with approximately 200 air defense missiles, according to the Bloomberg News report.
-- Kyiv Post
December 22, 2025
Iran held missile drills in Tehran, Isfahan, and Mashhad, according to state media reporting. The Telegram, a state-sponsored news channel, and Nournews, a semi-official outlet, published videos of what appeared to be missile launches. Later, state media denied that missiles were tested, instead claiming the circulated images were of "high-altitude aircraft." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to brief U.S. President Donald Trump that any expansion to Iran's ballistic missile arsenal posed a threat that may require swift action.
-- Reuters
December 16, 2025
A joint investigation by the Washington Post and PBS Frontline found increased construction activity at Pickaxe Mountain, a deep underground site near Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear infrastructure in June. Two tunnel entrances had been fortified and there was evidence of continuing tunneling activity. Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, confirmed that Iran was still using the site. Iranian officials have said that Pickaxe Mountain is intended for centrifuge manufacturing, though analysts say the site could be used for uranium enrichment or storage of enriched uranium.
-- PBS News
December 13, 2025
Iranian authorities seized a foreign tanker in the Gulf of Oman and detained 18 crewmembers, according to Iranian media. The detained crew included nationals of Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka.
-- Reuters
December 12, 2025
U.S. special operations forces boarded a ship in the Indian Ocean in November and seized dual-use items bound from China to Iran. According to U.S. officials, the seized items had applications in conventional weapons and were being delivered to companies that procure goods for Iran's missile program. The cargo was destroyed after being seized.
-- Wall Street Journal