Trump says latest Iran peace offer not enough, may resume bombing, and other Mideast developments

U.S. President Donald Trump says it's “possible” he may ramp up bombing of Iran after the Nov. 3 midterm elections and that he rejected Iran's latest peace offer because it's not good enough.

Fighting between Houthi rebels and government forces overnight stirred fears that the Iran-backed rebels may be advancing toward Taiz City in southwestern Yemen.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Thursday. Full coverage is available here.

Trump said in a Time magazine interview published Thursday that he won't now accept proposals from Iran that “he wouldn't have approved a year ago.”

He left open the possibility of resuming bombing Iran after the Nov. 3 election. He refused to offer details, telling journalists, "I can’t tell you that because look, you know, you’re asking, where are you going to bomb?”

The U.S. president told Time magazine that he only heard about those reports on the same day that the Sept. 28 interview was conducted with Time reporters, adding “I can't imagine this.”

Trump said had Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu been forewarned, “he would have done something about it" or "would have had people at least alert.”

An Israeli newspaper reported that Netanyahu was directly warned by the president of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a major offensive just days before the militant group attacked on Oct. 7, 2023.

Netanyahu strongly rejected the report.

In the same Time magazine interview, Trump repeatedly avoided answering directly whether Netanyahu should be reelected in elections later this month.

Trump said that he's “not involved in politics anymore” and touted his own record on Israel.

But he said Netanyahu shouldn't be underestimated even if "people have written off Bibi many, many times, just like they’ve written off me many, many times.”

Of Netanyahu’s opponent, Gadi Eisenkot, Trump said: “I don’t hear bad things about him.”

The Trump administration on Thursday announced sanctions on Iran's automotive and rail industries in attempts to get the country to capitulate, citing entities based in Indonesia, the UAE and Germany, among other countries.

Two of Iran’s largest auto manufacturers, Iran Khodro Co. and SAIPA Iranian Automobile Manufacturing Co., were sanctioned alongside several foreign companies that provide auto parts and raw materials.

The actions by the U.S. Treasury come as Trump officials highlight how Iran's currency has fallen to new record lows. The administration credits the continued erosion of the Iranian economy to its months-long economic campaign and has no plans to cease the financial penalties anytime soon even as negotiations between the two countries have restarted.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels clashed with government forces overnight into Thursday in residential neighborhoods in eastern Taiz, located about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Mokha, which the Houthis seized last month.

A main road linking Taiz and Aden was cut off due to the latest clashes.

Al-Thawra Hospital, located a few kilometers from the clashes, received six bodies and 35 wounded people Thursday, according to hospital manager Abdelrahman al-Sabry.

The official told The Associated Press by phone Thursday the number of dead and wounded was similar to those in early September, when fighting was intense before clashes de-escalated.

Renewed violence in Yemen has killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands. The Houthis captured the strategic city of Mokha and a number of Red Sea islands last month, extending their reach to the key maritime waterway of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

It was the Houthis’ biggest land grab in years and ended a 2022 ceasefire that largely stopped major fighting in Yemen’s 12-year civil war.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said Thursday the rebels targeted a power distribution station in the area of Medina two days earlier. The strike shut down a transformer, but didn't affect the power grid. The Houthis have yet to respond to the claim.

By Marzouk al-Jaberi and Fatma Khaled

Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Britain’s ambassador in Tehran on Thursday to “strongly protest” allegations by British Prime Minister Andy Burnham linking Iran to a sabotage plot at RAF Fairford, Iranian state television reported.

The ministry dismissed allegations that Iran was connected to the alleged plot as “baseless” and called on the British government to provide an official explanation and change its approach toward Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had also posted on X that the U.K. was "barking up the wrong tree.”

Netanyahu told Fox News Thursday that the suspect in the FlyDubai incident was an Omani national who got through a loophole in Israeli constraints barring pilots from countries like Oman that don’t have diplomatic relations with Israel.

He said both countries are “interested in making sure this doesn’t happen again" and warned that “it might be attempted again because we have indications that Iran and its proxies are trying to conduct attacks against Israel and Israelis right now in this election season.”

Yaniv Hayoun, a passenger aboard the FlyDubai flight, said after arriving in Tel Aviv Wednesday night that the two British pilots who safely brought the aircraft in to land were sitting "one row in front of me, row six, and I was in row seven.”

The Soundstorm music festival in Saudi Arabia has been canceled for this year, and organizers said it will return in 2027.

No reason was given for the cancellation. The festival, which in the past has featured international stars including Bruno Mars, Cardi B and DJ Khaled, is the latest major entertainment event in the kingdom to be cancelled this year.

Organizers MDLBEAST had earlier announced the cancellation of the 1001 music festival in Riyadh, which was scheduled for the end of the month. A week ago, organizers postponed the sixth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival from December to the fourth quarter of 2027.

This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

Passengers who experienced an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, during a flight on FlyDubai plane, arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Tarek al-Salami, 7, who was displaced from the city of Mokha and is showing symptoms of malnutrition, sits on a bed while receiving treatment at a therapeutic feeding center in Buraiqa, on the western outskirts of Aden, Yemen, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)

Israeli passengers who had been aboard a FlyDubai aircraft that made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia are welcomed at the arrivals gate at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israeli passenger Haim Lazarovich, who experienced an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, during a flight on FlyDubai plane, arrives at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli passenger Yaniv Hayoun, with blood stains on his shirt, who was aboard a Flydubai aircraft that made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, is welcomed at the arrivals gate at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Tomer Appelbaum)

The lethal drug administered in Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Christa Pike has been used in multiple states that carry out the death penalty and by the U.S. government after President Donald Trump resumed federal executions during his first term.

Pike, 50, remained alive Wednesday after two doses of pentobarbital were administered, according to her attorneys and media witnesses.

Tennessee officials haven’t explained yet what went wrong, and it wasn’t clear if Pike was still alive on Thursday.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee ordered a third-party review to determine what happened and said another scheduled execution in Tennessee will not take place this year.

Pentobarbital is a barbiturate, a class of drugs that depresses the central nervous system.

Approved medical uses include sedation, short-term treatment of insomnia, preparation for anesthesia and emergency control of certain severe seizures. It is also used in veterinary euthanasia.

In an overdose, it can produce coma, suppress breathing and cause circulatory collapse and death.

For years, lethal injections commonly used three drugs: an anesthetic, a paralytic that stopped breathing and potassium chloride to stop the heart.

That method drew criticism because if the anesthetic failed, the paralytic could prevent a prisoner from communicating pain. It also became difficult to maintain after drugmakers restricted distribution for executions.

The pentobarbital protocol was adopted at the federal level during Trump’s first term to replace a three-drug mix used in the 2000s.

As with Tennessee's guidelines, the federal death penalty protocol calls for administering a 5-gram dose of pentobarbital; in medical settings, patients typically receive a fraction of a gram.

Trump resumed the federal death penalty after an informal moratorium during previous administrations. The federal government used pentobarbital in 13 executions between 2020 and 2021, contributing to making Trump the most prolific execution president in over 130 years.

During the Biden administration, the Justice Department stopped executions with pentobarbital after a government review raised concerns about the potential for “unnecessary pain and suffering.”

After Trump came back to power, the Justice Department in 2026 reauthorized the use of lethal injections with pentobarbital.

Georgia and Texas use a similar protocol to Tennessee, administering a second dose only if the first is unsuccessful. South Carolina, which turned to pentobarbital in 2024, automatically gives inmates two 5-gram doses spaced about 10 minutes apart.

Lawyers for people on death row have argued that giving such a large dose twice was proof the condemned were dying a lingering death, still conscious and feeling like they were drowning when fluid rushed into their lungs.

But a South Carolina Department of Corrections attorney said inmates are unconscious in well under a minute and can't feel anything. The heart may show an occasional flicker on a monitor, but that's because it is the last organ to use the body's stored oxygen and has residual electrical impulses.

When past lethal injection executions have gone wrong, it is usually because an IV line can't be properly inserted and the execution is stopped before the drugs are given. There have also been cases of violent reactions or prolonged time passing before death when a new combination of drugs is used.

Wednesday's failed pentobarbital execution appeared to be the first time problems happened with that drug. Witnesses frequently report that inmates stop breathing and become still less than a minute after getting the drug.

Experts quoted in the 2025 federal review argue pentobarbital can cause pulmonary edema, a buildup of fluid in the lungs that may create a sensation of suffocating.

The review concluded that “there remains significant uncertainty about whether the use of pentobarbital as a single drug lethal injection causes unnecessary pain and suffering” and advised that the government should “err on the side of humane treatment.”

Other specialists quoted in a report released by the second Trump administration said a lethal dose causes unconsciousness before that occurs.

FILE - This photo provided by the U.S. Department of Justice shows a vial of pentobarbital used in the executions of two inmates in July 2020, according to court filings. The photo was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington on Aug. 13, 2020, as part of litigation over the use of pentobarbital in executions. (Department of Justice via AP, File)