Negotiations With Iran, Trump On Deal With Iran, ICE Impact On Airport Lines
March 24, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readAmid escalating US-Israel strikes on Iran now nearing a month, President Trump has extended a deadline for attacking Iranian power plants and signaled potential negotiations, while back-channel diplomacy ramps up through regional mediators. Domestically, ICE agents deployed to a dozen US airports have failed to shorten security lines plagued by TSA staffing shortages.
Trump Signals Talks Amid Strait of Hormuz Standoff
The US and Israel have bombed Iran for nearly a month, prompting Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz to US, Israeli, and Gulf Arab partner vessels carrying oil tankers and ships. Iran justified the closure due to the war and threatened strikes on power plants in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and other Gulf areas, leading locals to seek solar panels and generators.
Trump initially gave a 48-hour ultimatum to reopen the strait but backed off, postponing attacks on power plants for five days. He described "constructive and in-depth conversations" underway with a top Iranian figure—not the new Supreme Leader—claiming Iran agreed it would never pursue nuclear weapons. Trump framed it as a real possibility for a deal, saying, "If it goes well, we're gonna end up with settling this. Otherwise we'll just keep bombing our little hearts out."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:02) **Iran Denies Direct Talks** - Iran rejects negotiations with Trump admin amid ongoing US/Israel attacks
- 2 (02:22) **Dubai Correspondent on Escalation** - Aya Bertrawi reports fears of wider war after Trump's 48-hour ultimatum
- 3 (03:48) **Back-Channel Diplomacy Efforts** - Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan relay de-escalation messages to Iran
- 4 (05:12) **Prospects for Negotiation Success** - Oil price strain pushes for wind-down but trust issues persist
- 5 (06:21) **Ongoing Regional Strikes** - Iran hits Tel Aviv; gas supply disrupted
- 6 (06:39) **Trump Signals Deal Optimism** - President describes "constructive" talks, postpones attacks for 5 days
- 7 (07:11) **White House on Talks** - Franco Ordonez details Trump's "productive conversations" claim
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Trump says he believes a deal is possible but is not guaranteeing anything, as the political clock ticks with midterms approaching and gas prices rising. And ICE agents are now in more than a dozen airports across the country to help ease security lines during the partial government shutdown, but passengers in Atlanta's airport are still waiting for hours.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Miguel Macias, Rebekah Metzler, Susanna Capeluto, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas/Ava Pukatch.
Our director is Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
And our Supervising Senior Producer is Vince Pearson.
(0:00) Introduction
(01:57) Negotiations With Iran
(06:14) Trump On Deal With Iran
(09:55) ICE Impact On Airport Lines
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