Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an appearance on American television Sunday that he still believes Washington and Tehran can stave off a military clash and reach a diplomatic breakthrough. U.S. and Iranian officials are slated to hold a high-stakes round of talks Thursday in Geneva.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, signaled over the weekend that U.S. airstrikes may be imminent. White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who also appeared in a television interview Sunday, said Iran is about a week away from having enough enriched uranium to create at least one nuclear bomb.

The prospects for successful diplomacy appear dim. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said any deal with Iran must address its ballistic missile program along with its nuclear ambitions. Mr. Araghchi said Sunday ballistic missiles are not part of the agenda for Thursday’s talks. Mr. Rubio is slated to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the talks.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt cast the operation, which sparked chaos in some corners of Mexico and a shelter-in-place order for Americans in the country, as a joint success for both Mexico and the U.S., calling it proof that the Trump administration will use the full power of the U.S. government to stop the flow of drugs into America.

She said U.S. provided intelligence support to the Mexican military for its operation Sunday that resulted in the death of powerful drug cartel leader Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho.” However, the specifics of U.S. involvement weren’t immediately clear. American intelligence agencies and the Pentagon have significant visibility into the operations of major drug cartels operating across the continent.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson credited the Mexican military for the operation’s success. He said in a statement that under Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, bilateral relations between the U.S. and Mexico have “reached unprecedented levels.” Oseguera Cervantes, one of the most wanted criminals in North America, was wounded in the operation to capture him Sunday in Tapalpa, Jalisco — about a two-hour drive southwest of Guadalajara. He died while being flown to Mexico City, Mexican officials said. 

A series of recent high-stakes aerial incidents involving Chinese, Japanese and U.S. — but not South Korean — warplanes has become a flashpoint in the increasingly complicated alliance between Seoul and Washington. U.S. sorties last week from Korean bases into the skies over the Yellow Sea, a body of water that China jealously guards, appear to be part of a new American-led test of the People’s Liberation Army and its air force.

The incidents may also signal that the U.S. is opening a new “front” in the region’s tense strategic geography, marked by naval and aerial challenges and counter-challenges. Aerial chicken games in recent years have largely taken place over the East China Sea, the South China Sea, the Sea of Japan and the Taiwan Strait. For the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, the Yellow Sea lies uncomfortably close to home.

Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon reports from Seoul that the situation presents a diplomatic conundrum for South Korea, which shares Yellow Sea coastlines with China and North Korea. As tensions with China have ratcheted up, ties between Japan and the U.S. have tightened. But South Korea is walking a fraying diplomatic tightrope between Washington and Beijing as it seeks to maintain optimal relations with the Trump administration while soothing its giant neighbor and trade partner China.

The full-scale military assault, which began with pre-dawn missile strikes targeting dozens of Ukrainian cities and towns on Feb. 24, 2022, including the capital city of Kyiv, continues today amid the Trump administration’s struggle to lead peace negotiations.

The Associated Press notes that when the invasion surpassed 1,418 days last month, it officially exceeded a historic milestone — the same span of time it took Moscow to defeat Nazi Germany in World War II. Russia has occupied about 20% of Ukrainian territory since illegally annexing Crimea in 2014, but its gains after launching the 2022 invasion have been slow. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte recently characterized Moscow’s advance as occurring at “the speed of a garden snail.”

Martin Di Caro’s “History As It Happens” podcast examines what’s ahead as the war churns into its fifth year. Despite the slow pace and high cost, President Vladimir Putin maintains maximalist demands in U.S.-mediated peace talks, saying Kyiv must pull its forces from the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed but never fully captured, and repeatedly threatening tactical nuclear strikes as a way to prevent the West from boosting military support for Kyiv.

The United States is in “an intense global race with China for technological dominance,” and “it’s about who can build power plants, supply transmission lines and generate enough energy to keep data centers running,” writes Rep. Rich McCormick, Georgia Republican and chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

“America risks falling behind not because we lack talent or innovation but because red tape is painfully slowing the process and, too often, stopping projects before they ever break ground,” writes Rep. McCormick, who is slated to chair a hearing Tuesday examining the extent to which federal and state regulations would delay construction and hold America back.

“If we cannot build fast enough, then we risk losing this competition to China for reasons that have nothing to do with talent or ideas and everything to do with our own self-imposed barriers,” the congressman, who is a physician, writes in an op-ed for The Times.

• Feb. 23-25 — Warfare Symposium, Air & Space Forces Association

• Feb. 23 — The U.K. Critical Minerals Strategy: Building National Resilience Through Global Political and Commercial Collaboration, Chatham House

• Feb. 24 — Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee Hearing — Powering America’s AI Future: Assessing Policy Options to Increase Data Center Infrastructure, House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

• Feb. 24 — Assessing the Scope and Impacts of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Military Purges, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Feb. 24-25 — National Summit on Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles, American Conference Institute

• Feb. 25 — The International Relations of the Two-State Solution, Middle East Institute