Trump open to backing armed Iranian militia groups - WSJ

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi held a phone conversation to discuss the situation in Iran and ongoing regional developments.

According to statements released following the call, the two ministers expressed support for an early cessation of hostilities and a return to a political and diplomatic settlement.

Russia and Oman said they are prepared to facilitate efforts aimed at finding peaceful solutions based on international law.

The two sides also stressed the need to take into account the legitimate interests of all Arab countries of the Persian Gulf in any future arrangements.

A senior adviser to the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Tehran would strike regional economic and oil facilities if its main centers are attacked.

“America is thirsty for oil. Let them know that for now we have closed the Strait of Hormuz and will not allow ships to pass. We have also announced to the world that any country that wants to take fuel from here, we will strike.” Ebrahim Jabbari said.

“So far, we have hit several ships,” he added.

Iran’s Defense Ministry spokesman said the country’s military capabilities would soon force its adversaries into a deadlock and compel them to stop the war, the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Reza Talaei-Nik said Iran’s “jihadi will,” tactical capabilities and weapons power are at a level that will leave the enemy facing a stalemate in the coming days and ultimately force a halt to the fighting.

He added that Iran’s “offensive defense" would continue with strength.

Israel’s air force struck the building housing Iran’s Council of Experts in the holy city of Qom on Tuesday in an attempt to disrupt the process of appointing a new supreme leader, Axios reported, citing an Israeli defense official.

The official said the strike occurred while votes were being counted and that the aim was to prevent the clerical body from selecting a successor to former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated on Saturday in the first wave of Israeli strikes.

"We wanted to prevent them from picking a new supreme leader," Axios quoted the unnamed Israeli official as saying.

It was not immediately clear how many of the council’s 88 members were in the building at the time or the extent of the damage, the report said.

US and Israeli forces struck the office of Iran’s Assembly of Experts in the city of Qom on Tuesday, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported, in the latest attack on senior state institutions.

Tasnim, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also cnfirmed that the Assembly’s compound in Tehran – located at the former parliament building – had also been struck overnight.

Separately, a Telegram channel known as Zed TV reported that an airstrike had targeted a formal session of the Assembly of Experts convened to select the Islamic Republic’s next supreme leader.

The channel claimed that many members of the body had been killed or wounded.

The Assembly of Experts is the clerical body responsible under Iran’s constitution for appointing and overseeing the supreme leader.

The reported attacks come amid heightened tensions following the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and as Iranian officials have said the process of selecting his successor is under way.