washingtonexaminer.com / .washingtonexaminer-com-foreign-policy

Iran will begin a six-day funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as authoritarian leaders gather in Tehran, and questions persist over Mojtaba Khamenei's health.

Israel has been kept on the sidelines of the peace talks even though the Jewish state joined the U.S. in striking Iran over four months ago.

Vance said critics of current Iran talks are those who pushed the U.S. to "just drop a few more bombs in places like Afghanistan" during the war on terror.

The House Rules Committee blocked an effort from Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) on Monday evening to cut U.S. funding to Israel.

A deportation flight flying out of Miami landed in disaster-stricken Venezuela on Wednesday, dropping off 146 deportees, according to a flight tracker.

Tehran said it attacked commercial ships over frustration with a U.S.-affiliated maritime agency establishing traffic routes near Oman.

Younger Republicans may be turning away from U.S. support for Israel, but hardcore evangelicals remain firmly in support of the Jewish state.

The renewed fighting came after the United States and Iran agreed to engage in peace talks, with the U.S. military calling it a "powerful response."

"No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway," the secretary of state said. "That's existing international law."

But Trump also told reporters that Iranians who suggested there were no scheduled inspections from the IAEA were wrong.