Sarah: The U.S. strike map widens into new Iranian provinces
Sarah: a vessel is burning in Hormuz
Sarah: and Iran's own negotiator now says the memorandum is 'suspended.'
Sarah: This is Iran War Daily.
Sarah: Today: the exact word Tehran chose for that MOU
Sarah: the first American military death Washington cites as the trigger
Sarah: and a hostage landing safely in San Francisco while the paperwork collapses.
Sarah: We'll keep those lanes separate.
Rich: Tap follow so the next episode finds you.
Sarah: This one's from The Eurasian Times:
Quote: The US has augmented the scope of its strikes on Iran
Quote: targeting provinces around the country
Quote: including Iran’s southern port city of Bushehr.
Quote: Bushehr governor Mohammad Mozaffari said the attacks occurred “a few minutes ago,” in comments quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
Quote: “A few minutes ago, several locations in Bushehr city were hit by the American enemy’s projectiles,” Mozaffari said.
Quote: The city, on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf, is home to Iran’s only operational civilian nuclear power plant.
Sarah: The claim here is narrow
Sarah: and we know the source: Bushehr governor Mohammad Mozaffari
Sarah: quoted by IRNA says several locations in Bushehr city were hit — his words — 'a few minutes ago.'
Sarah: That's a named Iranian official on the record, so that's the level of certainty I'm putting on it.
Rich: And Bushehr city is where Iran's only operational nuclear plant sits — the one Russia built
Rich: fuels and staffs with hundreds of its own specialists. So if U.S.
Rich: projectiles are landing in that city, you're not just hitting Iran; you're firing rounds a stone's throw from a Russian-run reactor.
Sarah: Careful, though — the governor names the city, not the plant.
Sarah: Separately, Deputy Foreign Minister Gharibabadi says the U.S.
Sarah: struck the under-construction Darkhovin site, and he calls it an assault on peaceful infrastructure.
Sarah: Two facilities, two claims, both from the Iranian side.
Rich: 'Peaceful infrastructure' — sure.
Rich: But the margin for accident is what worries me.
Rich: A stray round near BNPP, and suddenly Moscow has skin in this that it didn't have this morning.
Sarah: This one's from Gulf News:
Quote: The conflict between the United States and Iran continues to widen
Quote: with Iran' President declaring it is in a 'full-scale war' as regional tensions spill across the Gulf.
Quote: Warning sirens sounded across Kuwait after the military intercepted Iranian missile and drone attacks
Quote: while Bahrain accused Iran of targeting its air navigation systems with drones.
Sarah: Pezeshkian's phrasing matters here: the Islamic Republic is engaged in — his words — a 'full-scale war.'
Sarah: That's now the declaration from the top of Iran's government.
Rich: And look at what Washington says triggered this wave — a dead U.S.
Rich: service member. That's the first American military life on the ledger, and it's the reason Washington gave for going back in.
Sarah: I still want the sourcing nailed down — confirmed by whom
Sarah: under whose command authority — before we treat that death as established fact instead of the stated trigger.
Rich: Meanwhile, the U.S. military says it's redirected seven commercial ships and disabled one since the port blockade started July 14.
Rich: A vessel's burning in the strait, and now the Houthis announce a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia.
Rich: Second chokepoint in the same week — ask what Lloyd's is charging to write a Gulf policy tonight.
Sarah: I'd keep Kuwait Bahrain
Sarah: and Jordan in separate buckets here — Kuwait's military says it intercepted Iranian missiles and drones; Bahrain accuses Iran of targeting
Sarah: its air navigation with drones.
Sarah: Different claims, different sources, all reported today, and they’re not one event.
Rich: Bahrain and Kuwait — that's where U.S.
Rich: bases sit. The bill I've been talking about has an address now.
Sarah: WANA writes:
Quote: Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed that Tehran has received proposals and ideas from several mediators aimed at easing tensions
Quote: saying that while Iran’s armed forces are carrying out their responsibilities
Quote: the country is also pursuing diplomacy and will spare no effort to stop what he described as “U.S. crimes.”
Sarah: At his weekly briefing Monday
Sarah: Baghaei confirmed Tehran has received proposals from several mediators aimed at easing tensions — and in the same breath
Sarah: he said Iran's armed forces are
Sarah: quote carrying out their responsibilities while the country pursues diplomacy.
Sarah: So that's the Iranian side, on the record, saying the channel is still live — proposals are in hand.
Sarah: And it sits right next to the other word out of Tehran today: suspended.
Rich: Proposals from several mediators.
Rich: Great. Does anybody say what's actually in them — the nuclear file, the proxies, the remaining detainees?
Rich: Or is this another envelope with nice letterhead and nothing on the hard files?
Rich: Because Baghaei's own list gives it away — Hormuz, Iraq, Yemen, the nuclear file, all in one press conference.
Rich: You don't calm five fronts with a stack of ideas from friendly go-betweens.
Sarah: And listen to what he leads with — condemning strikes on civilian infrastructure, thanking Hormozgan, Khuzestan, Bushehr.
Sarah: He's narrating damage through the foreign ministry; he's not laying out terms.
Sarah: From Al Jazeera:
Quote: Iran says at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 injured in strikes by the United States this month
Quote: as an Iranian negotiator says the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two is effectively “suspended” amid US violations.
Rich: "Suspended." That's the word Gharibabadi used — Iran's own deputy foreign minister, on the record.
Rich: The Islamabad MoU was signed last month, and it lasted about as long as the ink took to dry.
Sarah: The precise language matters, Rich.
Sarah: Gharibabadi says Washington violated and suspended its commitments first, so Tehran has 'likewise suspended' its own.
Sarah: Suspended — not withdrawn, not declared dead.
Sarah: Both sides are leaving themselves a door.
Rich: A door? Sarah, 50 dead since July 6, 500 injured, and 10,000 people without water after a desalination plant got hit.
Rich: That's what the paper was supposedly buying.
Rich: So what exactly was in it?
Sarah: And that number — 50 — comes from Iran's Health Ministry, reported Saturday, after CENTCOM's seventh straight night of raids.
Sarah: CENTCOM confirms the strikes; the casualty count, for now, is Tehran's figure.
Sarah: Keep those separate.
Rich: Fine — but the desalination plant, the water for 10,000 people, that's the kind of hit you can't spin as a clean military target.
Rich: And put it next to the Baghaei item we just heard: Tehran says it's receiving mediator proposals.
Rich: Suspended framework, live channel, same afternoon.
Sarah: That's the tension today.
Sarah: By Iran's own description, the formal instrument has lost its footing — while the back channel is still passing paper.
Sarah: One track has collapsed, one is open, and they're running on completely separate clocks.
Sarah: From Dillon Burroughs at RSB Network:
Quote: An American woman who had been detained in Iran for more than a year on espionage charges has returned to the United States
Quote: her attorney announced Saturday.
Quote: Dena Karari, an Iranian-American dual citizen, arrived in San Francisco after spending 566 days in Iranian custody.
Sarah: Her attorney Jared Genser
Sarah: confirmed it on X: Dena Karari landed in San Francisco Saturday after 566 days in Iranian custody on espionage charges.
Sarah: She got home the same weekend Iran's president used the words 'full-scale war.'
Sarah: Keep the tracks separate here.
Sarah: A quiet channel worked — she's home.
Sarah: At the same time, an Iranian negotiator now calls the formal instrument, the MoU, 'suspended.'
Sarah: One track functioning, the other declared inoperative, in the same news cycle.
Rich: So the framework that supposedly covers detainees is dead on paper, and a detainee still walks off a plane in San Francisco.
Rich: That tells you exactly how much the document was ever doing.
Rich: 566 days. One of the longest recent American holds in Iran, per RSB.
Rich: And Genser's own line — 'redouble our efforts to get all the other Americans out' — makes this one release, not a deal.
Rich: The hard files are still sitting there untouched.
Sarah: I'd underline that. One name is confirmed home.
Sarah: Nobody at State is calling it a diplomatic breakthrough.
Host: If you’ve got feedback, story ideas, or a correction for Iran War Daily, we’d like to hear from you.
Host: Email us at iranwardaily at lantern podcasts dot com.
Host: What we’re watching next: Iran’s interior minister is due in Pakistan for talks as diplomatic efforts continue.
Host: We’ve put links to every story from today’s briefing in the show notes.
Host: If something stood out, you can follow it there and read further.
Host: That’s Iran War Daily for today.
Host: This is a Lantern Podcast.