Iran war day 81: Trump delays attack; Tehran says won’t ‘surrender’

The US president says he held off a scheduled attack on Iran after pressure from Gulf allies as renewed talks gain momentum amid tensions.Published On 19 May 2026United States President Donald Trump said he postponed a planned attack on Iran after requests from the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, adding that “serious negotiations are now taking place” behind the scenes.The comments suggest renewed diplomatic efforts are under way amid weeks of escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran.Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian defended Tehran’s participation in talks while rejecting suggestions that the country was backing down under pressure. “Dialogue does not mean surrender,” he said, adding that Iran had entered negotiations “with dignity, authority, and the preservation of the nation’s rights”.Meanwhile, there is no letup in Israeli attacks on Lebanon as the death toll crossed 3,000, with at least seven people reported killed on Monday, according to local reports, despite a US-brokered extension of the “ceasefire”.Here is what we know:In Iran The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its forces struck groups linked to the US and Israel in the western province of Kurdistan, near the border with Iraq. In a statement carried by the ISNA news agency, it said groups from “northern Iraq and acting on behalf of the US and the Zionist regime were attempting to smuggle a large shipment of American weapons and ammunition” into Iran. The IRGC said fibre-optic cables passing through the Strait of Hormuz could be brought under a system of permits as Tehran tightens control over the waterway. “Following the imposition of control over the Strait of Hormuz, Iran, citing its absolute sovereignty over the bed and subsoil of its territorial sea … could declare that all fibre-optic cables passing through the waterway are subject to permits,” the IRGC said in a social media post. Mohsen Rezaei, a member of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council, mocked Trump for setting and then cancelling a deadline for a military attack on Iran, saying Tehran would not surrender under pressure. In a post on X, he said the “iron fist” of Iran’s armed forces and people would force the US “to retreat and surrender”. Major-General Ali Abdollahi, commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, warned the US and its allies against making another “strategic mistake or miscalculation”, according to the Tasnim news agency. He said Iranian forces were stronger and more prepared than before, adding that any renewed aggression would face a response “far more powerful” than previous confrontations. War diplomacy