A court in Pakistan granted bail to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan in a case relating to the illegal sale of state gifts, his party said on Wednesday.

Khan, 71, has been in prison since August 2023, but it was not immediately clear if the embattled politician would be released given that he faces a number of other charges too, including inciting violence against the state, Reuters reported.

"If the official order is received today, his family and supporters will approach the authorities for his release," one of his party's lawyers, Salman Safdar, told journalists. Safdar added that, as far as he knew, Khan had been granted bail or acquitted in all the cases he faced.

However, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, told Geo TV Khan lacked bail in cases in which he is charged with planning riots by his supporters in the wake of his arrest in May last year.

Khan denies any wrongdoing, and alleges all the cases registered against him since he was removed from power in 2022 are politically motivated to keep him in jail.

The case in which he was granted bail on Wednesday by the Islamabad High Court is known as the Toshakhana, or state treasury case.

It has multiple versions and charges all revolving around allegations that Khan and his wife illegally procured and then sold gifts worth over 140 million rupees ($501,000) in state possession, which he received during his 2018-22 premiership.

Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were both handed a 14-year sentence on those charges, following a three-year sentence handed to him in late 2023 in another version of the same case.

Their sentences have been suspended in appeals at the high court.

The gifts included diamond jewellery and seven watches, six of them Rolexes - the most expensive being valued at 85 million rupees ($305,000).

Khan's wife was released last month after being in the same prison as Khan for months.

Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs says Tehran has kept the door open to negotiations with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, while warning the US that any attempt to reimpose “maximum pressure” on the country would fail to extract concessions.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Takht-Ravanchi said that coercion and intimidation would prove ineffective in the long-running stand-off between Iran and the West over Tehran’s nuclear program.

“As for negotiations, we need to observe US policy and decide how to respond accordingly,” Takht-Ravanchi said.

“Right now, the key question is how the new administration will approach Iran, the nuclear issue, regional security and the Middle East. It’s premature to speculate about specific outcomes.”

Takht-Ravanchi said the nuclear deal reached with the West in 2015, from which Trump later withdrew the US, “could still serve as a foundation and be updated to reflect new realities”, adding that “if the other parties return to their commitments, we have repeatedly said that we are willing to do the same”.

He added: “We do favour negotiations, as we proved [with that deal] . . . But who sabotaged the negotiations previously? It was the Trump administration who was unwilling to negotiate.”

At the same time, the veteran diplomat and former nuclear negotiator warned that if Trump again takes a tough approach, “maximum pressure will be met with maximum resistance”.

“We will continue to work around sanctions, diversify our trade partners and strengthen regional relations to maintain calm,” he added.

During his first term as US president, Donald Trump sparked a nuclear stand-off with Iran after he abandoned the 2015 accord, known as the JCPOA, that Tehran had signed with world powers, and imposed waves of sanctions on the Islamic republic in what he called a “maximum pressure” campaign.

He accused Tehran of violating the “spirit” of the agreement by funneling newfound revenue to support its regional proxies, notably Lebanon’s Hezbollah. 

In retaliation, Iran dramatically expanded its nuclear activities, and is enriching uranium near to weapons-grade despite insisting its programme is for civilian purposes, Financial Times reported.

People familiar with Trump’s thinking have told the Financial Times his administration would try to “bankrupt” Iran to force the republic into talks.

The regional and nuclear crises have stoked fears in Tehran that Trump will once again try to drive Iran’s oil exports — its vital source of hard currency — to zero. In recent years Iran has substantially increased oil sales, mainly to China.

Takht-Ravanchi sought to downplay the potential for tighter oil sanctions under a second Trump presidency.

“While developments may occur, they won’t lead to significant changes,” he said, adding: “If the Trump administration decides to pursue the maximum pressure policy in the oil market again, it will surely fail. In today’s world, no single country can dictate terms to the entire international community.”

For now, he said, “We hope he doesn’t repeat the same mistake because the outcome will be no different.”

India has successfully tested a domestically developed long-range hypersonic missile, it said on Sunday, attaining a key milestone in military development that puts it in a small group of nations possessing the advanced technology, Reuters reported.

The global push for hypersonic weapons figures in the efforts of some countries, such as India, which is striving to develop advanced long-range missiles, along with China, Russia and the United States.

The Indian missile, developed by the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation and industry partners, is designed to carry payloads for ranges exceeding 1,500 km (930 miles) for the armed forces, the government said in a statement.

"The flight data ... confirmed the successful terminal manoeuvres and impact with high degree of accuracy," it added.

The test-firing took place from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam island off the eastern coast of Odisha state on Saturday, it said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called the test a "historic achievement" in a post on X, adding that it placed India among a select group of nations possessing such critical and advanced technologies, read the report.