Iran live updates: Qatari delegation arrives in Iran to continue talks

French President Emmanuel Macron said the major difficulty facing France is the rising cost of living, particularly energy prices, which he blamed on the war in Iran.

"The core of what is triggering this purchasing power crisis is the war in Iran, the blockade of Hormuz, the rise in fuel prices," Macron said in an interview with the French YouTuber HugoDecrypte. "It's not a tax increase, it's not a government decision, it's not a pension reform that's triggering this social movement."

France is currently facing nationwide protests, which were set in motion by high school students over learning conditions, but are now fuelled by broader anger over the rising cost of living.

UKMTO said it received a report of a third-party vessel seeing another vessel on fire in the Strait of Hormuz, north of Khasab, Oman.

The status of the crew is unknown, according to the UKMTO.

The Iranian navy claims an oil tanker has struck a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz, causing damage and a fire on board, and bringing the vessel to a halt, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB.

Iran’s navy claimed the tanker was navigating through “a prohibited and unsafe zone” east of the Strait of Hormuz when it struck the mine, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

Claims of tankers hitting mines are unverified and maritime security officials have previously said there is no evidence that there are mines in the Strait.

President Donald Trump appeared to confirm on Wednesday that Vice President JD Vance has reached out to members of the Iranian regime after the Wall Street Journal reported that the vice president had sent a letter to Iranian hardliner Mohsen Rezaei at Trump's behest.

Trump denied that he had directed Vance to reach out on the subject of peace negotiations, and instead implied that the U.S. was working to get humanitarian aid into Iran.

"No, what that is, is we -- they need help with medical supplies and various things. He asked me what I thought. I said, if you want to do that, that's OK," Trump said in response to a question on whether he directed Vance to reach out to Iran to restart peace negotiations.

"Basically, it's getting supplies in to help people that are not well," he added.

Trump made the comments on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews while en route to Ohio for a campaign rally.

The Journal reported that the letter was sent with the intention of "testing whether Tehran and Washington could find enough common ground to persuade Trump not to give a final order for a short, intense attack on Iran in the coming weeks."

ABC News has not corroborated the WSJ report. The White House and the vice president's office did not respond to requests for comment.

-ABC News' Nicholas Kerr

The U.S. military now estimates that through mid-October, the war with Iran has cost $47 billion dollars, according to a Pentagon document reviewed by ABC News.

The new figure is a $3.5 billion increase from an earlier estimate of $43.6 billion through mid-September that was also compiled by Pentagon. In mid-July, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had told Congress that the war had cost $37.5 billion through that time period.

Close to $29 billion worth of munitions have been expended by the U.S. since the start of the war, according to the document.

The costs of operations is estimated to total $11.9 billion, according to the document.

The document does not contain a cost estimate for the damage that Iranian attacks have caused at large U.S. military bases in the region, but it does say that equipment losses, including U.S. military aircraft, totals $6 billion.

The Trump administration does not include the cost of replacing the damage to the bases because it has yet to determine whether those bases will need to be rebuilt.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez