• Trump to make final decision about striking Iran.
• White House briefed on military buildup in Middle East.
• Iran to submit written proposal to ease tensions with US.

The United States military is ready to carry out possible strikes on Iran as early as this weekend, CNN reported citing familiar sources, as Tehran and Russia announced fresh joint naval exercises in regional waters.

However, the international media report said, US President Donald Trump will make the final decision on whether to strike Iran.

The report comes amid Omani-mediated talks between the two countries in Geneva, with White House confirming a “little bit of progress” but saying distance remained on some issues. It added that Tehran was expected to come back with more details in a couple of weeks.

The second round of negotiations was held on Tuesday, after talks last year collapsed following Israel’s attack on Iran in June, which started a 12-day war. The talks were aimed at averting the possibility of US military action, while Tehran is demanding the lifting of US sanctions.

Iran has insisted that the discussions be limited to the nuclear issue, though Washington has previously pushed for Tehran’s ballistic missiles programme.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene militarily against Iran, first over a deadly crackdown on protesters last month and then more recently over its nuclear programme.

According to the CNN report, the White House has been briefed that the military could be ready for a strike by the weekend, after a sufficient air and naval resources buildup in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the media outlet, quoted another source and claimed that Trump has privately argued both for and against military action and polled advisers and allies on what the best course of action is.

However, Reuters, citing an unnamed senior US official, reported that top US national security advisers met in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday to discuss Iran and were told all US military forces deployed to the region should be in place by mid-March, the official said.

‘Written proposal’

Reuters, quoting a US official, also reported that Tehran is expected to submit a written proposal on how to resolve its standoff with the United States in the wake of US-Iran talks in Geneva.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel to discuss Iran on February 28, the official said.

Tuesday’s indirect discussions in Geneva between US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, were aimed at heading off a mounting crisis between the two countries.

Iran agreed to make a written proposal on how to address US concerns during the Geneva talks, the senior US official said. “We are currently waiting for that from the Iranians,” the official said.

Trump has ordered a major military buildup in the region as he contemplates the use of force with a second aircraft carrier group en route. “The president has ordered the continued buildup in the region, including the arrival of the second carrier group. Full forces should be in place by mid-March,” the senior US official said.

‘Naval drills’

Amid the negotiations with the US, Iran has announced conducting joint navy drills with Russia in the Sea of Oman and the northern Indian Ocean on Thursday, the Iranian semi-official Fars news agency reported, a few days after Revolutionary Guards conducted military drills in the Strait of Hormuz.

“Creating convergence and coordination in joint measures to counter activities threatening maritime security and safety…as well as combating maritime terrorism, are among the main goals of this joint exercise,” an Iranian navy commander, Hassan Maghsoodloo said according to Fars news.

Moreover, Iran issued a notice to airmen (Notam) that it plans rocket launches in areas across its south on Thursday, the US Federal Aviation Administration website showed.

The notice was issued amid heightened tensions with the US, which has deployed warships near Iran, as US Vice President JD Vance said Washington was weighing whether to continue diplomatic engagement with Tehran or pursue other options.

The Notam system provides pilots, flight crews and other users of airspace with critical safety notices.

— With additional details from Reuters

• Launch planned for last week was delayed.
• Portal team includes former DOGE member Coristine.
• Officials discussed including a VPN function.

The US State Department is developing an online portal that will enable people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned by their governments including alleged hate speech and terrorist propaganda, a move Washington views as a way to counter censorship, three sources familiar with the plan said.

The site will be hosted at “freedom.gov,” the sources said. One source said officials had discussed including a virtual private network function to make a user’s traffic appear to originate in the U.S. and added that user activity on the site will not be tracked.

Headed by Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, the project was expected to be unveiled at last week’s Munich Security Conference but was delayed, the sources said.

Reuters could not determine why the launch did not happen, but some State Department officials, including lawyers, have raised concerns about the plan, two of the sources said, without detailing the concerns.

The project could further strain ties between the Trump administration and traditional US allies in Europe, already heightened by disputes over trade, Russia’s war in Ukraine and President Donald Trump’s push to assert control over Greenland.

The portal could also put Washington in the unfamiliar position of appearing to encourage citizens to flout local laws.

In a statement to Reuters, a State Department spokesperson said the US government does not have a censorship-circumvention program specific to Europe but added: “Digital freedom is a priority for the State Department, however, and that includes the proliferation of privacy and censorship-circumvention technologies like VPNs.”

The spokesperson denied any announcement had been delayed and said it was inaccurate that State Department lawyers had raised concerns.

The Trump administration has made free speech, particularly what it sees as the stifling of conservative voices online, a focus of its foreign policy including in Europe and in Brazil.

Europe’s approach to free speech differs from the US, where the Constitution protects virtually all expression. The European Union’s limits grew from efforts to fight any resurgence of extremist propaganda that fueled Nazism including its vilification of Jews, foreigners and minorities.

US officials have denounced EU policies that they say are suppressing right-wing politicians, including in Romania, Germany and France, and have claimed rules like the EU’s Digital Services Act and Britain’s Online Safety Act limit free speech.

The EU delegation in Washington, which acts like an embassy for the 27-country bloc, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the U.S. plan.

In rules that fall most heavily on social media sites and large platforms like Meta’s Facebook and X, the EU restricts the availability — and in some cases requires rapid removal — of content classified as illegal hate speech, terrorist propaganda or harmful disinformation under a group of rules, laws and decisions since 2008.

Friction with European regulators

Rogers of the State Department has emerged as an outspoken advocate of the Trump administration’s position on EU content policies. She has visited more than half a dozen European countries since taking office in October and met with representatives of right-wing groups that the administration says are being oppressed. The department did not make Rogers available for an interview.

In a National Security Strategy published in December, the Trump administration warned that Europe faced “civilisational erasure” because of its migration policies. It said the US would prioritise “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations.”

EU regulators regularly require US-based sites to remove content and can impose bans as a measure of last resort. X, which is owned by Trump ally Elon Musk, was hit with a 120 million-euro fine in December for noncompliance.

Germany, for example, in 2024 issued 482 removal orders for material it deemed supported or incited terrorism and forced providers to take down 16,771 pieces of content.

Similarly, Meta’s oversight board in 2024 ordered the removal of a Polish political party’s posts that used a racial slur and depicted immigrants as rapists, a content category EU law treats as illegal hate speech.

Calling the US plan “a direct shot” at European rules and laws, former State Department official Kenneth Propp, who worked on European digital regulations and is now at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Centre, said freedom.gov “would be perceived in Europe as a US effort to frustrate national law provisions.”

Also involved in the US portal effort is Edward Coristine, a former member of Musk’s job-slashing Department of Government Efficiency, two sources said. Coristine works with the National Design Studio, created by Trump to beautify government websites. Reuters was unable to reach Coristine for comment.

It was not clear what advantages the US government portal would offer users that are not available from commercial VPNs.

The web address freedom.gov was registered on January 12, according to the federal registry get.gov. On Wednesday, the site had no content but showed the National Design Studio’s logo, the words “fly, eagle, fly” and a log-in form.

Before Trump’s second term, the US government helped fund commercial VPNs and other tools as part of efforts to “promote democracy globally” and help users access free information in China, Iran, Russia, Belarus, Cuba, Myanmar and other countries.

• Washington-Tehran indirect discussions aimed at averting crisis
• White House reviews regional US troop deployment, set by mid-Mar.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio to meet Netanyahu on Feb 28 over Iran.

Iran is expected to submit a formal proposal outlining steps to ease tensions with the United States, following indirect talks in Geneva on Tuesday, a senior US official told Reuters on Wednesday.

The discussions, involving US envoys and Iran’s top diplomat, aimed to prevent the standoff from escalating further.

Top US national security advisers met in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday to discuss Iran and were told all US military forces deployed to the region should be in place by mid-March, the official said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel to discuss Iran on February 28, the official said.

Tuesday’s indirect discussions in Geneva between US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, were aimed at heading off a mounting crisis between the two countries.

The United States wants Iran to give up its nuclear programme, and Iran has adamantly refused and denied that it is trying to develop an atomic weapon.

Iran agreed to make a written proposal on how to address US concerns during the Geneva talks, the senior US official said.

“We are currently waiting for that from the Iranians,” the official said.

The US has sought to expand the scope of talks to non-nuclear issues such as Iran’s missile stockpile. Iran says it is willing only to discuss curbs on its nuclear programme, in exchange for sanctions relief, and that it will not give up uranium enrichment completely or discuss its missile programme.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that some progress was made in Geneva but that “we’re still very apart on some issues.”

Trump has ordered a major military buildup in the region as he contemplates the use of force with a second aircraft carrier group en route.

“The president has ordered the continued buildup in the region, including the arrival of the second carrier group. Full forces should be in place by mid-March,” the senior US official said.