The day opened with Araghchi meeting Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad. An Iranian diplomatic source reiterated Tehran's refusal to accept US "maximalist demands" while the naval blockade continued. Despite this, Araghchi described the meetings as "very fruitful" on X before departing Islamabad for Muscat. At midday, Trump posted on Truth Social: "I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going [to] Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians. Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their 'leadership.' Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!" Before boarding Air Force One in West Palm Beach, Trump told reporters Iran had submitted a fresh proposal almost immediately: "They gave us a paper that should have been better. And interestingly, immediately when I canceled it, within ten minutes, we got a new paper that was much better." He added Iran had "offered a lot, but not enough" and told Fox News he preferred telephone negotiations over 18-hour flights. He told CNN explicitly that the cancellation did not mean resumption of fighting. In a significant counter-signal, IRNA reported Saturday night that Araghchi was returning to Islamabad from Muscat — before his planned Moscow visit — with part of his delegation having returned to Tehran specifically "to consult and obtain the necessary instructions on issues related to ending the war," scheduled to rejoin Araghchi in Islamabad Sunday night. PM Sharif separately held a 50-minute phone call with Iranian President Pezeshkian on Saturday night. The arc of the day: collapsed, then quietly revived through back-channels within hours.
CENTCOM announced that a US Navy helicopter had intercepted the M/V Sevan in the Arabian Sea and escorted it back toward Iran: "The merchant vessel is currently complying with U.S. military direction to turn back to Iran under escort." The Sevan is one of 19 vessels belonging to a shadow fleet newly sanctioned by the US Treasury Department on Friday — just one day before interception. The vessel flies a Panama flag and is owned by the Marshall Islands-based Anka Energy and Logistics Company. According to Treasury, it transported approximately 750,000 barrels of Iranian propane and butane to Bangladesh between August and November 2025 in violation of US sanctions. CENTCOM simultaneously confirmed the total blockade count had reached 37 vessels redirected since the blockade began — up from 33 on April 23. CENTCOM stated US military forces continue to enforce "U.S. sanctions and fully implement the blockade against ships entering or departing Iranian ports." The Treasury's Friday action sanctioning 19 shadow fleet vessels represented a significant escalation in the economic warfare dimension — going beyond interdiction of individual ships to systematically designating the legal entities and vessels used to move Iranian hydrocarbons globally, making them targets for any future intercept anywhere in the world's oceans.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu issued an order to the IDF to strike Hezbollah "with force" — saying the group was trying to "sabotage" the ceasefire. The directive came after Hezbollah conducted multiple attacks on IDF troops and northern Israeli towns during Saturday. Lebanon's Health Ministry confirmed four civilians were killed: "Two Israeli enemy strikes, on a truck and a motorbike, in the town of Yohmor al-Shaqeef in the Nabatieh district." The IDF separately claimed it had killed more than 15 Hezbollah militants across southern Lebanon during the day — including three described as "Hezbollah terrorists who were traveling in a pickup truck armed with weapons" struck in Yohmor, just north of the Israeli security zone. The IDF also struck Hezbollah infrastructure across southern Lebanon and said it would "continue to operate decisively against threats in accordance with directives from the political echelon." Hezbollah retaliated by firing rockets and deploying FPV drones to target IDF vehicles and northern Israeli towns — projectiles "largely landed in open areas" per initial reporting, but the exchange marked the most intense Israel-Lebanon combat since the three-week extension was announced 48 hours earlier. Separately, the IDF confirmed it was investigating footage that appeared to show Israeli soldiers deliberately damaging solar panels in a southern Lebanese town — an incident that drew additional international scrutiny of IDF conduct during the occupation.
Thousands of government-aligned protesters gathered in Tehran's Revolution Square, carrying Iranian flags and chanting slogans against the United States and Israel. The mass mobilisation was regime-organised — designed to project domestic solidarity and counter Western and US intelligence narratives of a fractured Iranian public opinion. The rally came on the same day Trump publicly mocked Iran's "tremendous infighting," making the public display of unity a direct political counter-move. Iranian authorities executed a man convicted of membership in the Sunni extremist group Jaish al-Adl, charged with armed rebellion and involvement in bombings targeting security forces in Sistan-Baluchestan province — the ongoing security crackdown in Iran's southeast continued amid the war. Separately, Iranian President Pezeshkian urged Iranians to reduce electricity usage following American and Israeli strikes that had damaged Iran's power infrastructure — a domestic acknowledgment of the war's lasting economic and infrastructural impact on Iranian civilians.
The "10-minute paper" is the most consequential diplomatic signal of the war. If Iran genuinely submitted a materially improved proposal within 10 minutes of the cancellation, it confirms two things: first, Iran has room to move but was holding back waiting for US leverage to be demonstrated; second, Trump's erratic signalling — cancelling then claiming he got what he wanted — has become its own negotiating tool. The question is whether the "much better" paper actually contains concessions on the core issues (uranium enrichment, Hormuz, nuclear stockpile) or is simply better-worded language around the same positions. The Araghchi return to Islamabad Sunday, with his delegation consulting Tehran on new instructions, suggests the process is alive. The Sevan interception alongside the 19-vessel shadow fleet designation is the Treasury's most aggressive single-day action against Iran's oil evasion network since the war began — it criminalises the entire parallel shipping infrastructure, not just individual vessels. The Netanyahu "with force" order while a three-week ceasefire is technically in place demonstrates that Israel will not allow any Lebanon deal to constrain its operational freedom in the security zone.