Iran’s Parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf has asserted that Tehran will not remain in a state of ‘neither war nor peace’ with the United States amid simmering tensions and continued deadlock over a definitive peace deal, semi-state Mehr News Agency reported.
Ghalibaf, who is also Iran’s chief negotiator, warned the US against committing further miscalculations, saying that the Islamic Republic’s armed forces would dictate the territorial parameters of any ensuing conflict.
“We do not care whether the US chooses the path of negotiations or war. If it accepts our seven reasonable conditions, the door to an agreement will be open,” he was quoted as saying.
‘Diplomatic frustration’
He also dismissed US treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s remarks and dubbed them as ‘diplomatic frustration.’
“The absurd statements and immoral language of the US Treasury Secretary reveal their profound desperation in the face of the Islamic Republic’s authority on the international stage. Someone who has fled their own home for military bunkers out of fear of looming threats would do better to reflect on their strategic failures in the Persian Gulf, rather than insulting great and heroic nations,” he was quoted as saying.
Bessent has claimed that he relocated from his Washington residence to a military base on Secret Service instructions following Iranian death threats.
Ghalibaf reiterated that such provocative rhetoric merely exposed profound uneasiness regarding the expanding international influence of the Iranian state, with Mehr highlighting the condemnation.
Iran targets US military assets in Bahrain
Meanwhile, the conflict in West Asia continues to flare and Bahrain on Sunday was targeted by ‘Iranian projectiles’.
Bahrain’s military accused Iran of continuing its “systematic aggression” against Bahrain and said its forces intercepted the projectiles before they could reach their targets.
Iran is continuing its “treacherous attacks targeting the kingdom of Bahrain”, it said in a statement on social media.
Claiming responsibility for the aerial attacks, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) said it had launched attack on US military assets.
“In the second stage of the decisive and crushing response to the blatant aggression of the United States army, the radar of the US defence site at the al-Riffa helicopter base in Bahrain was targeted by six drones,” IRGC said, Iran’s Sepah News agency said.
The IRGC said the strikes against “the American aggressors” came in response to “the enemy’s aerial aggression against a telecommunications tower in Sirik”, southern Iran, last week.
“Expensive American drones are being shot down one after another, and a greater number of IRGC drones are heading towards American targets at this stage than in the previous stage, so the enemy knows any aggression will result in a tough and calculated response,” it said.
