- Any attack on Iranian ships will result in heavy attack: IRGC
- Trump says he expects Iran’s response to the US peace deal proposal
- The US says it is unacceptable for Tehran to control the main oil route.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard threatened to attack US sites in the Middle East if its 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 one of the US centers in the region and enemy ships,” the guards said, a day after the US attacked two Iranian tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
US President Donald Trump had said on Friday that he expected Iran’s response to Washington’s latest proposal for a peace deal “probably tonight”.
But if Tehran sent Pakistani mediators a response, there was no public sign of it, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reportedly questioned the reliability of US leadership.
“The recent escalation of tensions by US forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions in violation of the ceasefire have raised suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the US side on the path of diplomacy,” he said in a call with his Turkish counterpart, according to Iran’s side. ISNA news agency.
On Friday, a US fighter jet fired on and disabled two Iranian-flagged tankers, which Washington accused of challenging 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 night before in the Strait of Hormuz, the vital international seaway that Iran seeks to control to extract tolls and exert economic influence over the United States and its allies.
The US says it is unacceptable for Tehran to control the main oil route.
Through Pakistani mediators, Washington has sent Iran a proposal to extend the ceasefire in the Gulf to allow negotiations on a final solution to the conflict, which was launched 10 weeks ago with US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
A reporter for French broadcaster LCI, Margot Haddad, said Saturday that Trump had told her in a brief interview that he still expected to find out Iran’s response “very soon.”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday that the proposal was still “under review”.
Oil spill
Top US diplomat Marco Rubio met on 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 the day before with US Vice President JD Vance to discuss Pakistan-led efforts to broker a permanent peace.
Iran has attacked sites in Qatar during the war, pointing to the rich emirate’s role as host to a major US airbase.
Meanwhile, satellite images have shown an apparent oil spill 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 was off the island’s west coast and appeared to cover more than 20 square miles (52 square kilometers), according to global monitor Orbital EOS.
This was reported by a British-based non-governmental organization, the Conflict and Environment Observatory AFP that on Saturday the smooth was “much reduced” and may have been caused by leaking oil infrastructure.
Kharg Island is at the heart of Iran’s oil export industry, a lynchpin of its battered economy, and lies in the Gulf far north of the narrow Strait of Hormuz.
After the start of the war on February 28, Iran largely closed the strait, throwing global markets into turmoil and driving up oil prices.
The US later imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports in response, and Trump this week abandoned a short-lived US naval operation to reopen the strait to commercial shipping.
Lebanon front
A parallel ceasefire on the war’s Lebanon 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 targeting 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-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah said it targeted troops in northern Israel with drones on at least two occasions in response to the continued attacks.
Israel’s military said several explosive drones were fired into Israeli territory, seriously injuring one military reservist and moderately injuring two others.
The new attacks come as Lebanon and Israel, officially at war since 1948, are due to hold direct talks in Washington next week, which Hezbollah fiercely opposes.
