Rubio Says Trump Undecided on Resuming Iran Strikes as Qatar-Led Talks Continue

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that President Donald Trump has not yet decided whether to resume military action against Iran, and that he did not know whether there was a specific timeframe for Qatar-led talks aimed at ending the US-Israeli war on Iran. Rubio spoke at a news conference. Reuters reported, citing an anonymous source, that Iranian negotiators met Qatari mediators in Doha on Saturday to discuss ways out of the war. That followed more than 12 hours of discussions on Friday between Iranian and Qatari envoys in Tehran, the source said.

Also on Saturday, Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei posted on X after meeting senior military commanders. He said any threat must be met with an immediate, impactful and geographically unrestricted response, and that Iran's armed forces would decide when and on what terms any renewed attacks end. He also called for the military target database to be updated so that physical and non-physical assets of the US and Israel are within reach of Iran's armed forces. A third aircraft carrier is reportedly headed to the region.

Left-leaning MS NOW leads with a different claim: its headline says Trump plans to resume strikes on Iran the day after the midterm elections. It stresses slipping Republican support for the war, the third carrier heading to the region, and Trump weighing another attack he hopes will end the war. That is a more definite and politically focused framing than Rubio's public statement that no decision has been made. Right-leaning Fox News shares Rubio's line in its headline but opens with Khamenei's quotes, putting Iran's threats and targeting language first and giving no domestic political angle in the excerpt. Middle East Eye, an alternative outlet, leads with Rubio and adds the Qatari mediation details and the Reuters sourcing that the others do not.