Iran’s supreme leader warns of ‘unforgettable lessons’
Iran’s religious leader warned of “unforgettable lessons” if the United States continues to attack the Islamic Republic and called President Donald Trump’s signature “worthless and invalid.”
The comments came Saturday, just hours after a negotiator said Tehran was suspending its commitments to the interim agreement signed nearly a month ago.
The statement, attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei and still unseen since the beginning of the war, was read on state television following mutual attacks by the United States and Iran on infrastructure and military targets.
With no end to the war in sight, Tehran’s statements resolved yet another sensitive issue. The agreement aimed to end the hostilities permanently. Khamenei now warns to learn “lessons” not only from Iran but also from its armed proxies in the region, calling them the “Axis of Resistance.”
The war over the Strait of Hormuz has intensified, with a conflict increasingly focused on control of the key waterway that previously carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil. The global economy is again on alert as expanding attacks threaten civilians and services to civilians, including drinking water desalination plants.
The seventh straight night of attacks hit “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons depots and maritime capabilities,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement early Saturday.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Garibabadi, said in a statement to state television that the United States had violated its commitments under the agreement signed about a month ago and that Iran “no longer implements them.”
No new statements were made regarding mediation efforts.
The most damage from Iran’s attacks on Saturday occurred in Kuwait, where a water purification plant and an oil facility were hit, according to Kuwaiti officials and the Kuwait Oil Company. Both refused to give locations.
The strikes resulted in many injuries at the oil facility and a fire at the desalination plant, causing many power generation units to go offline. It was the second attack on a desalination plant in two days in the small desert nation, which relies on desalination for 90 percent of its drinking water.
According to the Kuwait Fire Force, several firefighters and one worker were injured while fighting two other fires caused by Iranian attacks. Kuwait briefly closed its airspace due to missile threats, and Kuwait Airways said it had rescheduled most of its flights to and from the capital.
Meanwhile, Iraq announced that it shot down attack drones over the city of Erbil. Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency said the kingdom’s air defenses shot down Iranian missiles, while air sirens sounded multiple times throughout the day in Bahrain and in the mornings in Saudi Arabia, according to their governments.
Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, secretary-general of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, accused Iran of committing war crimes for attacks on infrastructure and civilian facilities.
Iranian state television reported that US airstrikes hit an electricity and desalination plant in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province. IRNA said the Bonji desalination plant was destroyed, cutting off water supplies to about 10,000 people and damaging a desalination plant on the strategic Qeshm Island inside the strait.
Overnight attacks damaged two tunnels and a bridge and disrupted one of the main highways leading to Iran’s main port of Bandar Abbas, near the narrowest part of the strait, according to Iran’s state news agency. IRNA said three bridges were hit on Saturday, including one on the road to Bandar Abbas.
Iran first acknowledged “attacks on its energy infrastructure” during US airstrikes on Friday, when the Energy Ministry called on people to use less energy in southern states “experiencing extreme heat”. It was not stated what was hit.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has stepped up its warning that countries hosting US forces should “be ready to receive a corresponding response”, according to Iranian state television.
Iranian officials say at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 injured in US strikes in the past three weeks, eight of whom died in an attack on a bridge on Friday.
