Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has sparked fears the US is heading for war with Iran after a secret briefing from the Trump administration on Tuesday.
Schumer emerged after a meeting held by Secretary of State Marco Rubio with the ‘Gang of Eight’ – a select bipartisan group of lawmakers who receive classified national security briefings.
‘This is serious, and the administration has to make its case to the American people,’ the Democratic veteran told reporters without elaborating on details.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe was also present at the meeting which came just hours before Donald Trump is set to deliver the State of the Union address at 9pm.
Jim Himes, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters after the briefing: ‘I’m very concerned. Wars in the Middle East don’t go well for presidents, for the country, and we have not heard articulated a single good reason for why now is the moment to launch yet another war in the Middle East.’
Trump’s landmark congressional speech has already been overshadowed by the specter of war with Iran as the US assembles its largest military force in the Middle East since the Iraq War. The President has been advised to focus the address on domestic policies including the economy and immigration, but sources say he will also touch on Iran.
Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are meeting their Iranian counterparts for a third round of negotiations in Geneva on Thursday.
But talks to avert all-out war with the Islamic regime are rapidly deteriorating. Trump has ramped up his threats in an effort to bend Iran into agreeing a deal to end its nuclear program, but so far Tehran has refused America’s zero-enrichment demand.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer arrives at a press conference with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein ahead of Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Capitol Hill on Tuesday
Trump gestures as he waits for the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC on September 29, 2025
The President trashed reports Monday that he is planning ‘fake limited strikes’ amid claims that advisers are warning against an attack because the US is running low on missile stockpiles.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine reportedly warned Trump that US troops would be ‘sitting ducks’ as arms had been depleted in bolstering Ukraine and Israel.
Trump dismissed the ‘fake news’ and said Caine and he agreed both that the US should avoid war with Iran but that it would be ‘easily won’ if necessary.
Caine warned the President that the mission is now fraught with significant risk to American lives, sources said.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi claimed Tuesday that a deal was within reach amid widespread protests against the government in Tehran.
‘We have a historic opportunity to strike an unprecedented agreement that addresses mutual concerns and achieves mutual interests,’ Araghchi said in a social media post.
The minister added that a deal was ‘within reach, but only if diplomacy is given priority.’
Araghchi vowed Iran will ‘under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon,’ but insisted on the country’s right to ‘harness dividends of peaceful nuclear technology’.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses to the public on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution according to Iranian state television in Tehran, Iran on February 9
‘We have proven that we will stop at nothing to guard our sovereignty with courage,’ he added.
Iran and the US held five rounds of nuclear talks last year but those negotiations were brought to an end with Israel’s attack on Iran which triggered a 12-day war.
The initial wave of protests began in December, sparked by economic woes in the sanctions-hit country, but soon grew into nationwide demonstrations that crested on January 8 and 9, posing one of the largest challenges to Iran’s leaders in years.
The unrest prompted a violent government crackdown that killed thousands of people.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has recorded more than 7,000 deaths, while warning the full toll is likely far higher.
Iranian officials acknowledge more than 3,000 deaths, but say the violence was caused by ‘terrorist acts’ fueled by the United States and Israel.
The crackdown in January prompted Trump to threaten to intervene militarily on the protesters’ behalf, though the focus of his threats soon shifted to Iran’s nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at building an atomic bomb but Tehran insists is peaceful.
Since then, the US has carried out a massive military build-up in the Middle East aimed at pressuring Tehran into cutting a deal, even as the two sides pursue indirect negotiations.
Washington deployed the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to the Arabian Sea, and another, the USS Gerald R. Ford, has arrived at a US base in Crete en route to the region.
