Iran’s President Calls U.S. Attacks “Cowardly” as Trump Threatens Annihilation
By Frank Andrews, Khaled Wassef
What to know about the Iran war:
- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, saying Iranians are “the victims of terrorism” by the U.S. and Israel and “targets of cowardly attacks.”
- U.S. and Iranian officials met Tuesday while both countries were at the U.N. gathering, President Trump said, shortly after threatening in an address to the world body that he may “annihilate” the Islamic Republic if a deal isn’t reached soon to end the nearly seven-month war.
- A commercial vessel was struck in an attack in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, killing one crew member and resulting in the evacuation of more than 20 more sailors, according to Oman’s navy.
8 suicide attempts by U.S. sailors assigned to USS Abraham Lincoln strike group during its record-long deployment, Navy letter says
There were eight suicide attempts by sailors assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group since it began its record-long deployment about 10 months ago, according to a letter from Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao that was obtained Wednesday by CBS News.
CNN was first to report on the letter. A Navy official confirmed it was sent Tuesday.
The deployment of the Lincoln and its approximately 5,000 crew members came under scrutiny afterfamily members of the sailors and members of Congress raised questions last month about the conditions aboard the carrier and concerns about the mental health of its service members.
The Lincoln and its strike group were sent to the Middle East after the Iran war broke out. It has since left the region and is returning to its home base of San Diego.
A defense official told CBS News two of the suicide attempts occurred during active fighting with Iran. The letter covers the entire length of the Lincoln strike group’s deployment, which began in November of last year.
The strike group includes the carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers and all the embarked aviation squadrons.
The letter was in response to questions from Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York about reported conditions on the ship. In a statement provided to CBS News, Gillibrand said that what President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “dismissed as ‘fake news’ turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members.”
That the Trump administration “can find endless taxpayer dollars for bombs, ballrooms, and billionaires, but cannot take care of our service members, is completely unacceptable,” she added.
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U.S. blockade has redirected 115 commercial vessels, military says
The U.S. military blockade on the Strait of Hormuz has now redirected 115 commercial vessels entering or exiting Iranian ports, according to U.S. Central Command.
The total is an increase of five ships since Monday, when the military last provided an update.
The blockade has become a renewed topic of conflict as Iran and the U.S. renewed negotiations this week at the U.N. General Assembly. Representatives from the United States, including Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, met with Iranian officials on Tuesday and apparently found some common ground, with President Trump saying the meetings went well.
However, on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei reiterated that no deal will be signed until the U.S. removes the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.
White House responds to Iranian president’s speech at U.N.
President Trump is “courageously” fighting against the Iranian regime, the White House said Tuesday in response to a question about Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s speech at the U.N. General Assembly.
“The Iranian regime has murdered thousands of its own people, killed Americans overseas, executed acts of terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz, and launched indiscriminate attacks against its neighbors in the region,” Anna Kelly, White House principal deputy press secretary, said in a statement. “The President is courageously ensuring that such an evil country never possesses a nuclear weapon, which will make the entire world safer and more stable.”
Through a translator, Pezeshkian said Iran was a victim of Israel and the U.S., and the U.S. is using the Strait of Hormuz “to impose their aggression upon us.”
Iran “will never bow our head or bend at the knee. Iran must be understood by Mr. Trump and those who seek to bully us that we are ready for dialog and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force,” Pezeshkian said.
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Tehran reviewing U.S. response to its proposal, senior Iranian official tells Reuters
Iran is reviewing a U.S. response to its plan to end the fighting between the two countries, a senior Iranian official told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday, adding that many differences remain between the two sides.
The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the ending of the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and vessels were subjects discussed during indirect talks with the U.S. on Tuesday, the official said.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezaei said Wednesday in a long interview aired by state television network IRIB that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until the U.S. met Iran’s long-stated conditions.
“There is no staging or step-by-step process,” he said. “Iran is trying to have this implemented within three or four days, within four or five days, for example.”
“The next step will also be determined and specified by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Rezaei said.
Iran has long demanded the U.S. lift its blockade and return to the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in June by President Trump and his Iranian counterpart, which Tehran quickly accused the U.S. of breaching by keeping the blockade in place.
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1 dead, 27 evacuated from vessel struck in Strait of Hormuz, Oman navy says
One crew member is dead and 27 others have been evacuated after a commercial vessel was struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, Oman’s royal navy said on social media, accompanied by a photo of the burning ship.
The crew member who was killed was a native of India, according to that country’s Ministry of External Affairs. Twenty of the people on board the ship were Indian nationals, the agency said.
Oman identified the ship as the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged merchant vessel Cape Dao.
The strike on a cargo vessel was reported earlier in the day by the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Center. The attack happened at about 7:30 a.m. local time.
The report from the UKMTO noted the ship was on fire and adrift, with Oman saying the ship was in the area of 2.5 nautical miles off the coast of the governorate of Musandam, which would correlate with the southern, U.S.-directed route through the Strait of Hormuz.
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Iranian students return to schools and universities after war closures
By CBS/AFP
Students in Iran returned to schools and universities Wednesday after months of closures due to the war with the United States, which has seen major attacks including a strike on the first day of the conflict that hit a school, killing about 150 people.
Parents walked hand-in-hand with their daughters, in mandatory headscarves and uniforms, as they arrived at a girls’ primary school in western Tehran for the first day of the new academic year.
Classes were canceled after the U.S. and Israel jointly launched strikes on Iran, igniting the war, on Feb. 28. It was in that first wave of strikes that a school in the southern city of Minab was hit, leaving 120 children among the dead. A preliminary U.S. assessment not long after determined that American forces were “likely” responsible for the strike, though the school was not deliberately targeted.
In Minab on Wednesday, Iran’s vice president for science and technology, Hossein Afshin, rang a bell at another primary school to signal the start of the new term. The bell-ringing, normally carried out by Iran’s president, is part of traditional celebrations to welcome Iran’s 16.5 million children back to school.
A ceremony featuring Masoud Pezeshkian was held two days early this year, before he left for the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
On Tuesday, a statement attributed to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei addressed the reopening, saying “the absence of some students, professors, and teachers” would be felt, referring to those killed during the conflict.
“This sorrow will guide our minds toward the true nature of the conflict between good and evil,” the statement said.
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U.S. soldier died in non-combat related incident en route to Mideast, defense official says
The U.S. Army has identified a soldier who died last week as a result of a non-combat related incident. A defense official told CBS News the soldier died due to a medical emergency while en route to the Middle East.
Capt. Bianca C. Wilkerson, 37, of Norfolk, Va., died on Sept. 18, 2026, according to a statement from the Army.
Wilkerson’s death is counted on the Defense Casualty Analysis System under Overseas Operations, which brings the total number of U.S. military personnel killed during the war with Iran to 19. That tally includes deaths recorded by the Pentagon as occurring as part of Operation Epic Fury, the former name for the offensive against Iran, and under the broader Overseas Operations category.
Two additional non-combat U.S. personnel deaths that do not appear to be reflected in the DCAS system have been announced by the Pentagon, one of them a soldier supporting the ongoing U.S.-led mission against ISIS who died in “a training-related incident” in northern Iraq on May 31, and the other a New York National Guardsman who died of undetermined causes at Camp Buehring in Kuwait on March 6.
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