Iran has issued dramatic new demands around the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Oman says talks to manage the strait between it and Iran are continuing. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates said on Saturday that an Iranian missile targeted one of its ships that's owned by Abu Dhabi’s state-run ADNOC oil company. No casualties were reported. Elsewhere in the region, Yemen’s military attacked the country's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in response to the strikes, escalating tensions and threatening to reignite the civil war. And Turkey's foreign minister gave new details on a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

After calling off a fresh round of strikes against Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump says the two sides are resuming talks to wind down the war. But Iranian officials claimed Monday that their diplomatic efforts were focused on neighboring nations. Talks between the U.S. and Iran are critical to ending the monthslong conflict and reviving stalled cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s foreign ministry said it’s focused on negotiations with Oman, not the U.S. That prompted Trump to criticize the country’s leadership, which has grown increasingly divided over the war’s endgame.

The man who was convicted of trying to kill Salman Rushdie is on trial again. Prosecutors and defense lawyers gave opening statements Wednesday in Hadi Matar’s federal terrorism trial in Buffalo, New York. The Booker Prize-winning Rushdie is expected to testify later this week. He was stabbed on a lecture stage in 2022. The 28-year-old Matar has pleaded not guilty. He is serving a 25-year prison sentence on an attempted murder conviction. The federal case is expected to delve more into questions of motive. Prosecutors argue that Matar was acting out of loyalty to Iran’s theocratic government and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for Rushdie’s death following his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses.”