RATCLIFFE FLIES TO MOSCOW IN PERSON

Ratcliffe made an unannounced trip to Moscow, his first as CIA director, to deliver two explicit warnings to Russian intelligence officials: cut support to Iran, and do not test NATO in the Baltics. 6YNT CIA chief visits Moscow, warns Russia against attacking NATO and aiding Iran The Kremlin confirmed the visit, confirmed Putin was briefed, and confirmed Ratcliffe did not get a Putin meeting, which is Russia's way of absorbing the message without looking like they accepted it. The trip came one week after Treasury's Operation Economic Outcast sanctions launched, and the sequencing is deliberate: Washington is telling Moscow directly that it is in scope. If Russia actually pulls back its military and economic support for Iran, Tehran's much-publicized rebuilding effort gets significantly harder. 6YNT CIA chief visits Moscow, warns Russia against attacking NATO and aiding Iran

The IRGC claimed earlier this week that an agreement with Oman had been reached. A senior Iranian source told Reuters the details are still being negotiated. 7YNT Iran, Oman still negotiating Hormuz deal as Qatar joins mediation Iran's deputy foreign minister confirmed the strait will not reopen anytime soon and that full reopening stays conditional on sanctions relief. 11TTM Oman understanding does not mean Hormuz reopening: Iran Three days of diplomacy from Oman, Pakistan, and now Qatar have produced a framework with no operational date and two Iranian government bodies contradicting each other publicly. That is movement, not a deal.

About 40 million barrels of Iranian crude are sitting on roughly 20 supertankers near Malaysia, already past the blockade line. 8FOX Millions of barrels of Iranian oil sit beyond Trump blockade as he vows ‘zero leakage’ Chinese imports of Iranian crude have dropped sharply this month (823,000 to 534,000 barrels per day by Kpler's provisional count), but that oil can still move through ship-to-ship transfers that obscure its origin. 8FOX Millions of barrels of Iranian oil sit beyond Trump blockade as he vows ‘zero leakage’ A former Treasury official put it plainly: the blockade as currently practiced is not stopping oil that is already outside it. Operation Economic Outcast's actual reach gets tested on what happens to those tankers, not what happens at Hormuz.

A nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia landed in Congress this week. 9CNN Trump admin sends Saudi nuclear deal that includes enrichment pathway to Congress If Congress does not pass disapproval resolutions from both chambers within 90 days, it goes through automatically. The deal gives Riyadh a pathway to enrich uranium on its own soil without signing the IAEA's Additional Protocol safeguards. In the middle of a war that started partly over Iran's nuclear program, Washington is offering its Gulf ally a faster route to a comparable capability. The classified text is reportedly unprecedented in its secrecy. 9CNN Trump admin sends Saudi nuclear deal that includes enrichment pathway to Congress If no senator moves on this in the next two weeks, it is almost certainly done.

A bill making it illegal for Iranians to speak to international journalists has cleared a first parliamentary reading. 4CNN USS Theodore Roosevelt set to sail to the Middle East as Trump claims US sanctions will win war The timing is not subtle: ordinary Iranians have been one of the most reliable sources of ground-truth information for six months of war coverage. If this passes, independently verifying conditions inside Iran, including the economic collapse Iran's own president is now describing as "the worst conditions of economic warfare" the country has faced, gets much harder. 13AAM Iran experiencing ‘worst conditions’ of economic warfare: President Pezeshkian