The head of the U.S. Southern Command traveled to Venezuela to meet with the country’s acting president just weeks after U.S. forces captured former leader Nicolás Maduro. 

The trip on Wednesday, described as a surprise visit, was the first to Venezuela by a U.S. military delegation since the Jan. 3 raid to retrieve Maduro, according to Reuters. 

"The commander of U.S. Southern Command, Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Chargé d’Affaires to the Venezuela Affairs Unit, Ambassador Laura F. Dogu, and U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of War for Homeland Defense and the Americas Joseph M. Humire met with Venezuelan interim authorities in Caracas," U.S. Southern Command said in a statement. 

"During the meeting, the leaders reiterated the United States’ commitment to a free, safe and prosperous Venezuela for the Venezuelan people, the United States, and the Western Hemisphere," it added.

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"Discussions focused on the security environment, steps to ensure the implementation of President Donald Trump’s three-phase plan – particularly the stabilization of Venezuela – and the importance of shared security across the Western Hemisphere," U.S. Central Command also said.  

The U.S. Embassy in Venezuela added in a post on X that it was a "historic day" in a push to "advance the objective of a Venezuela aligned with the United States."

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Venezuela’s government said the U.S. delegation met with interim President Delcy Rodriguez, defense minister Vladimir Padrino and interior minister Diosdado Cabello, with the two sides agreeing to coordinate on drug-trafficking, terrorism and migration, Reuters reported. The Associated Press also confirmed that Donovan, who is the head of American military operations in Latin America, met with Rodriguez.

"The meeting reaffirms that diplomacy should be the mechanism for resolving differences and addressing issues of bilateral and regional interests," it also cited Venezuela's Communications Minister Miguel Angel Perez as saying on X. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Russia warned Iran and "all parties in the region to exercise restraint and caution" Thursday amid a U.S. military buildup in the Middle East. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the remark as the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and its strike group are moving from the Caribbean toward the Middle East. 

"Russia continues to develop relations with Iran, and in doing so, we call on our Iranian friends and all parties in the region to exercise restraint and caution, and we urge them to prioritize political and diplomatic means in resolving any problems," Peskov said Thursday, according to Reuters. 

"Right now, we are indeed seeing an unprecedented escalation of tensions in the region. But we still expect that political and diplomatic means and negotiations will continue to prevail in the search for a settlement," he added.

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The move of the USS Gerald R. Ford would place two aircraft carriers and their accompanying warships in the region. The USS Abraham Lincoln and three guided-missile destroyers arrived in the Middle East more than two weeks ago. 

Negotiations between the United States and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program advanced Tuesday toward what Tehran described as the beginning of a potential framework, but sharp public divisions between the two sides underscored how far apart they remain. 

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Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the two sides reached a "general agreement on a number of guiding principles" and agreed to begin drafting text for a possible agreement, with plans to exchange drafts and schedule a third round of talks.  

Yet Washington has publicly insisted that any agreement must result in the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program — including its enrichment capacity — along with limits on Tehran’s ballistic missile program and an end to its support for allied militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Those demands go well beyond temporary enrichment pauses or technical adjustments. 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday dismissed what he described as Vladimir Putin’s "historical s—," saying he has no interest in debating the past and wants peace talks focused squarely on ending the war.

In a pointed post on X, Zelenskyy described Russia's historical arguments as a "delay tactic," accusing Moscow of using them to stall meaningful negotiations. He argued the only issue worth discussing with Putin is how to bring the war to a swift and successful end.

Putin has long made claims about the history of Ukraine and Russia, including a 2021 piece he wrote that discussed his position that "Russians and Ukrainians were one people" and that the two countries are "essentially the same historical and spiritual space." Zelenskyy said debates about history will not accomplish the goal of reaching peace, and will only prolong the process of reaching a resolution.

"I have been to Russia – to many cities. And I knew a lot of people there. He [Putin] has never been to Ukraine this many times. He was only in big cities. I went to small cities. From the northern part to the southern part. Everywhere. I know their mentality. That's why I don't want to lose time on all these things," Zelenskyy wrote.

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The remarks came after another round of trilateral talks between Ukrainian, U.S. and Russian officials in Switzerland; meetings the Ukrainian president suggested he had produced limited progress.

"As of today, we cannot say that the outcome of the meetings in Geneva is sufficient," Zelenskyy explained, saying that while military representatives had discussed certain issues "seriously and substantively," sensitive political matters, possible compromises and a potential meeting between leaders have not yet been adequately worked through.

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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte questioned at the Munich Security Conference last week whether Russia is serious about negotiations, noting that Moscow again sent presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who has previously emphasized historical narratives in talks, to lead discussions in Geneva.

Medinsky characterized the two days of negotiations as "difficult but businesslike," according to a translation of his remarks from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

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NBC News reported that Medinsky, who has served as a Kremlin aide since 2020, is regarded as a close Putin ally whose views on Ukrainian history closely align with the Russian president’s.

"It would seem obvious to anyone familiar with history at the primary school level: Russians and Ukrainians are historically — one people," he wrote in a November op-ed for the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Iran has been elected vice-chair of the United Nations Charter Committee, a body tasked with examining and strengthening the principles of the U.N. Charter, drawing criticism from Israel and renewed scrutiny of the organization’s selection processes.

The appointment was approved during the committee’s opening meeting as part of its executive composition, through an agreed procedure and without a formal vote.

At a U.N. press briefing, Fox News Digital asked whether Iran’s record aligns with the values of the Charter and whether the Secretary-General would condemn the move.

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"The election of any member state to a body is the result of voting by member states themselves," Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the Secretary-General said. "So questions about who gets elected to which bodies is a question for member states. We expect every member state of this organization to uphold the Charter, to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, given that they themselves signed on to this club that the UN is and those are founding, some of our founding documents."

Pressed on whether the Secretary-General would condemn Iran’s election, the spokesperson added: "It is not for him to condemn the election of any member state to a body. He will condemn and has when member states, through their actions, he feels, violate the charter or human rights."

The Charter Committee operates under the UN Legal Committee and meets annually. Its mandate includes examining issues related to the Charter and proposing ways to reinforce its implementation, though its work typically requires consensus among member states and rarely results in binding action.

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Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, sharply criticized the move, linking it to longstanding concerns about the U.N.’s performance.

"The U.N. created a committee back in 1974 supposedly to ‘enhance the ability of the UN to achieve its purposes.’ The trouble is that ever since, the UN has been a downward trajectory on actually achieving its primary purposes, namely, maintaining international peace and security, and promoting respect for fundamental human rights," Bayefsky said.

"Given that Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and a country committed to the annihilation of the Jewish state and the bloody repression of its own people, the UN appointment helps clarify that in our time, UN purposes are in fact antithetical to peace, rights and human dignity."

Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon sharply criticized Iran’s appointment. "This is a moral absurdity," Danon said. "A regime that violates the basic principles of the UN cannot represent them."

Danon added: "A country that systematically violates the basic principles of the UN cannot sit in a leadership position that deals with strengthening them. The UN cannot continue to grant legitimacy to regimes that violate the very principles of its own charter."

The committee has in recent years served as a forum for political disputes among member states, including criticism directed at Israel, diplomats say. Iran’s selection to a leadership role comes amid ongoing debate over how the UN balances representation among member states with concerns about human rights records and adherence to the organization’s founding principles.

The U.N. maintains that leadership positions across its committees are determined by member states, not the Secretariat, and reflect internal diplomatic processes rather than endorsement of any government’s policies or record.