- Any attack on Iranian ships will result in strong attack: IRGC
- Trump awaits Iran’s response to US peace deal proposal
- The United States says it is unacceptable for Tehran to control the key oil route.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard threatened to attack US sites in the Middle East if its oil tankers were attacked, Iranian media reported, as Washington waited for Tehran’s response to its latest negotiating position.
“Any attack on Iranian oil tankers and commercial vessels will result in a strong attack on one of the US hubs in the region and on enemy ships,” the Guards said, a day after US attacks on two Iranian oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he expected Iran’s response to Washington’s latest proposal for a peace deal “supposedly tonight.”
But if Tehran sent a response to Pakistani mediators, there was no public sign of this, and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reportedly questioned the reliability of the American leadership.
“The recent escalation of tensions by US forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions to violate the ceasefire have increased suspicions about the US side’s motivation and seriousness on the path of diplomacy,” he said in a call with his Turkish counterpart, as reported by Iran. ISNA news agency.
On Friday, a US warplane shot down and disabled two Iranian-flagged oil tankers that Washington accused of defying its blockade of Iran’s ports. An Iranian military official told local media that the navy had responded with strikes.
That incident followed another flare-up the previous night in the Strait of Hormuz, the vital international shipping lane that Iran seeks to control to collect tolls and exert economic influence over the United States and its allies.
The United States says it is unacceptable for Tehran to control the key oil route.
Washington has sent Iran, through Pakistani mediators, a proposal to extend the truce in the Gulf to allow talks on a final solution to the conflict, which began 10 weeks ago with the attacks by the United States and Israel against Iran.
Margot Haddad, a journalist at French broadcaster LCI, claimed on Saturday that Trump had told her in a brief interview that he still expected to learn Iran’s response “very soon.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday that the proposal was still “under review.”
black tide
Top U.S. diplomat Marco Rubio met Saturday with the leader of Qatar, a key intermediary for Washington in dialogue with Iran, and discussed “continued close coordination to deter threats and promote stability and security throughout the Middle East,” the State Department said.
Qatar’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met US Vice President JD Vance the day before to discuss Pakistan-led efforts to negotiate a permanent peace.
Iran has attacked sites in Qatar during the war, pointing to the wealthy emirate’s role as host to a major US air base.
Meanwhile, satellite images have shown an apparent oil slick spreading off the coast of Iran’s Kharg Island, a key oil export terminal for the Islamic republic.
It was not immediately clear what caused the apparent spill, which occurred off the island’s west coast and appeared to cover more than 52 square kilometers (20 square miles), according to the Orbital EOS global monitor.
A UK-based non-governmental organisation, the Conflict and Environment Observatory, said AFP that by Saturday the slick had “reduced a lot” and may have been caused by a leak from oil infrastructure.
Kharg Island is at the heart of Iran’s oil export industry, a linchpin of its battered economy, and lies in the Gulf, far north of the Strait of Hormuz.
Following the start of the war on February 28, Iran largely closed the strait, causing turbulence in global markets and driving up oil prices.
The United States subsequently imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports in response, and Trump this week abandoned a brief US naval operation to reopen the strait to commercial shipping.
Lebanon Front
A parallel ceasefire on Lebanon’s war front is also under pressure amid daily exchanges of fire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Authorities said at least nine people were killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday, while state media reported airstrikes on a highway south of Beirut, outside the militant group’s traditional strongholds.
The new attacks were some of the most intense since the start of a three-week ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah said it attacked troops in northern Israel with drones on at least two occasions in response to the continued attacks.
The Israeli military said several explosive drones were launched into Israeli territory, with one army reservist seriously injured and two others moderately injured.
The new attacks come as Lebanon and Israel, officially at war since 1948, will hold direct negotiations in Washington next week, which Hezbollah vehemently opposes.
