Iran rejects joint statement on state threats abroad

The commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters warned that any any further US attacks on Iran would draw a harsher response and risk widening the war.

“We warn that if the United States once again seeks to carry out attacks against heroic Iran, it will receive a harsher response than before, and the fire of war, in addition to creating insecurity in the region, will become more widespread and extensive,” Major General Ali Abdollahi said in a statement, according to IRGC-affiliated Tasnim.

He said recent US threats against Iran’s oil infrastructure meant oil and gas exports would either be possible for everyone or for no one.

“Either oil and gas exports will be possible for everyone, or they will not be possible for anyone,” Abdollahi said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is deeply concerned by the continued escalation in the Middle East, including US strikes on Iran and Iranian strikes on its neighbors, a UN spokesperson said.

"He ⁠urges the parties to return ‌to ​the full implementation of the ​ceasefire and avoid ⁠any further deterioration, ‌which, as he ​told the Security Council yesterday, could ‌trigger a full resumption ​of the conflict, with unpredictable consequences for the ​region and the world, especially the most vulnerable countries," the spokesperson said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards spokesman warned the United States not to attack Iran again, saying Washington would regret it.

“If the United States wants to repeat its previous defeats, it will regret it,” Hossein Mohebbi said.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she had spoken to Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi about the latest escalation in the Persian Gulf and the state of negotiations with the United States.

She warned that renewed attacks on countries astride the Persian Gulf and critical infrastructure were "unacceptable."

Kallas said she had also been in touch with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

“A return to full-scale war would come at a tremendous cost to the entire region. The diplomatic route remains the best path out of this war,” she said on X.

Plans for the US military to try to capture Iran’s Kharg Island have been drawn up for months but repeatedly shelved because the operation was considered too risky, CNN reported, citing a senior Pentagon official and two administration officials.

The view inside the White House and Pentagon is that taking Kharg Island, or wiping out the island’s energy infrastructure, would effectively bankrupt Iran and diminish its capabilities to the point that it could not continue in the war, CNN cited the administration officials as saying.

Officials have also told President Donald Trump that such an operation would likely require a significant number of ground troops and could potentially result in heavy US casualties, the report said.

Because of those calculations, the Pentagon and the White House have considered any move to take Kharg Island an “endgame” option — a last resort that could shift the balance of the war, but at a high cost, the officials said, according to the report.