The hard-line new leader of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council threatened Tehran\u2019s neighbors against joining the new U.S. effort to hurt Iran\u2019s economy, and accused the United States of increasing global nuclear insecurity with months of war.<\/p>\n
If President Trump \u201cwants to do something, we will retaliate in a seismic manner,\u201d Mohsen Rezaei said in an interview with the state broadcaster that aired Saturday.<\/p>\n
Rezaei was named this month as part of senior appointments widely seen as hardening Tehran\u2019s political and military stance. His interview with IRIB is his most extensive public statement since then.<\/p>\n
Rezaei said Iran would target oil-shipping routes out of the Persian Gulf \u2014 alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 if neighbors join what he described as the economic war against Iran. Those neighbors would be considered enemies and \u201cwe will target their interests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Trump in the last week has vowed to increase Iran\u2019s pain by imposing an \u201cunprecedented\u201d level of economic warfare and isolation. Iran has lived under sanctions for years.<\/p>\n
Rezaei said discussions with Oman, on the other side of the strait, over management of it were ongoing, and said fees would be imposed. Iran asserted control over what had been an international waterway shortly after the U.S. and Israel attacked on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n
Rezaei also vowed to make changes to Iran\u2019s diplomacy and bring new capabilities to what he called the next war. He warned the U.S. against sending more military personnel to the region, and said the U.S. had increased nuclear insecurity because countries see that participating in international monitoring efforts, as Iran has done, is no protection against attack.<\/p>\n
Egypt tries to revive talks<\/p>\n
The top diplomats for Egypt and Iran discussed efforts to bring Tehran and Washington back to the negotiating table to end the war, Egypt\u2019s Foreign Ministry said.<\/p>\n
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty also discussed the Iranian-Omani talks, the ministry said.<\/p>\n
Araghchi briefed Egypt\u2019s foreign minister about \u201cIran\u2019s view of ongoing developments, the course of negotiations and their challenges,\u201d the ministry said, without elaborating. Araghchi confirmed the call. Separately, Araghchi said he had a call with Pakistan\u2019s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir.<\/p>\n
Iraqi oil is facilitated through the strait<\/p>\n
The governments of Iraq and Iran said Tehran has helped some ships carrying Iraqi oil to transit the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil, natural gas and other supplies, but there were few details.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is facilitation for some ships carrying Iraqi oil in the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d Iraqi President Nizar Amidi said in comments published Saturday by the state-run news agency, adding that Iraq doesn\u2019t have a national carrier for transporting oil.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s state-run IRNA news agency said a number of Iraqi oil tankers have been permitted to transit. It was not clear how many or what Iran might have received in return.<\/p>\n
Syria reports Israeli drone strikes<\/p>\n
An Israeli drone strike on a vehicle wounded one person Saturday in the southwestern Syrian village of Beit Jin, according to the Syrian state news agency SANA. Syria\u2019s Foreign Ministry said several civilians were injured and called the strike a flagrant violation of the country\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said it targeted a \u201cterrorist who advanced terror attacks in final stages of preparation,\u201d without elaborating. It wasn\u2019t immediately clear if it was the same strike.<\/p>\n
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes around Syria after the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in late 2024, mainly destroying army assets to keep them out of the hands of his successors.<\/p>\n
Messages differ on the Golan Heights<\/p>\n
In an interview on Friday with Mario Nawfal, a Lebanese Australian entrepreneur, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said Israel \u201cstill\u201d occupies the Golan Heights in violation of U.N. resolutions.<\/p>\n
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz in a statement Saturday called Barrack\u2019s remarks \u201cfull of inaccuracies and positions that contradict Trump\u2019s own position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war and annexed it in 1981. The United Nations considers the territory occupied Syrian land. But in March 2019, Trump signed a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, reversing decades of U.S. policy.<\/p>\n
French president and Saudi crown prince will meet<\/p>\n
French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are expected to discuss plans to develop alternatives routes to the Strait of Hormuz during the Saudi leader\u2019s two-day visit to Paris that starts Sunday, according to French presidency officials who weren\u2019t authorized to be publicly named.<\/p>\n
Proposals include increasing trade through Omani ports outside the Persian Gulf, expanding or doubling pipelines in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and developing new rail links, the officials said.<\/p>\n
France and Saudi Arabia have formed a task force on energy and logistics connections between the Middle East and Europe that is scheduled to meet at the ministerial level Monday. The officials said the work would focus on identifying the most strategic projects, securing financing and establishing roles for French companies.<\/p>\n
Israeli strike in Gaza kills 1 Palestinian<\/p>\n
An Israeli strike on the backyard of a house in central Gaza killed one Palestinian and wounded another Saturday, according to health officials at Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s military said it targeted Sharif al-Hasanat, a Hamas commander who \u201cadvanced terror attacks and took part in efforts to restore Hamas\u2019 underground infrastructure.\u201d Days earlier, a U.S. negotiator reportedly asked Israel to draw down attacks while seeking to make progress on the ceasefire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The hard-line new leader of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council threatened Tehran\u2019s neighbors against joining the new U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[655,3748,102,1607,34,37,9812,26169,722,5308,1219,95,69,683,36],"class_list":["post-260613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tehran","tag-egypt","tag-foreign-ministry","tag-hormuz","tag-interview","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-mohsen-rezaei","tag-neighbor","tag-president-trump","tag-saturday","tag-strait","tag-syria","tag-tehran","tag-u-s","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117141512162780894","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}