- Any attack on Iranian ships will result in heavy attacks: IRGC
- Trump says he is waiting for Iran’s response to US peace deal proposal
- The United States believes it is unacceptable for Tehran to control the main oil route.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have threatened to target US sites in the Middle East if their oil tankers come under fire, Iranian media reported, as Washington awaited Tehran’s response to its latest negotiating position.
“Any attack on Iranian tankers and commercial vessels will result in a heavy attack on any of the U.S. centers in the region and on enemy ships,” the guards said, a day after U.S. strikes on two Iranian tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
US President Donald Trump said Friday he expected Iran’s response to Washington’s latest peace deal proposal “supposedly tonight.”
But while Tehran sent a response to Pakistani mediators, there was no public sign of its response, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reportedly questioned the reliability of American leadership.
“The recent escalation of tensions of the American forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions in violation of the ceasefire have added to suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the American side on the path of diplomacy,” he said in a call with his Turkish counterpart, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry. ISNA press agency.
On Friday, an American fighter jet fired on and neutralized two Iranian-flagged oil tankers that Washington accused of challenging its blockade of Iranian ports. An Iranian military official told local media that the navy responded with strikes.
The incident followed another outbreak of violence the night before in the Strait of Hormuz, the vital international shipping lane that Iran seeks to control in order to collect tolls and exert economic leverage over the United States and its allies.
The United States believes it is unacceptable for Tehran to control the main oil route.
Washington sent Iran, via Pakistani mediators, a proposal aimed at extending the truce in the Gulf to allow negotiations on a final settlement of the conflict, launched ten weeks ago with the American-Israeli strikes against Iran.
Margot Haddad, a journalist with French broadcaster LCI, said Saturday that Trump told her in a brief interview that he still hoped to know Iran’s response “very soon.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday that the proposal was still “under study.”
Oil slick
Top U.S. diplomat Marco Rubio met Saturday with the leader of Qatar, a key intermediary for Washington in dialogue with Iran, discussing “continued close coordination to deter threats and promote stability and security across the Middle East,” the State Department said.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani of Qatar met US Vice President JD Vance yesterday to discuss Pakistan’s efforts to negotiate permanent peace.
Iran has attacked sites in Qatar during the war, highlighting the wealthy emirate’s role as host to a major US air base.
Meanwhile, satellite images showed an apparent oil slick extending off the coast of Iran’s Kharg island, a key oil export terminal for the Islamic republic.
The cause of the apparent spill, which occurred off the island’s west coast and appears to cover more than 20 square miles (52 square kilometers), according to global observer Orbital EOS, was not immediately clear.
A UK-based non-governmental organization, the Conflict and Environment Observatory, said AFP that on Saturday, the slick was “significantly reduced” and could have been caused by a leak from oil infrastructure.
Kharg Island is the heart of Iran’s oil export industry, a pillar of its struggling economy, and lies in the Gulf at the northern tip of the narrow Strait of Hormuz.
After the war began on February 28, Iran largely closed the strait, throwing global markets into turmoil and sending oil prices soaring.
The United States then imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports in response, and Trump this week abandoned a short-lived U.S. naval operation aimed at reopening the strait to commercial shipping.
Lebanon Front
A parallel ceasefire on Lebanon’s war front is also under strain due to 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 air raids targeting a highway south of Beirut, outside the militant group’s traditional strongholds.
These new attacks are among the most intense since the start of a three-week ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah said it had targeted its troops in northern Israel with drones on at least two occasions in response to continued strikes.
The Israeli military said several explosive drones were launched into Israeli territory, with one army reservist seriously injured and two others moderately injured.
These new strikes come as Lebanon and Israel, officially at war since 1948, are due to hold direct negotiations in Washington next week, which Hezbollah vehemently opposes.
