Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in an apparently pre-recorded statement that Tehran would halt attacks on its Gulf neighbors under certain circumstances. Soon after, several attacks occurred.
The launches were among the largest since the war began and coincided with the one-year anniversary of the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a U.S. and Israeli attack.
Pezeshkian said it was decided on Friday to stop attacks in the Gulf region unless attacks on Iran originate from the territory of these countries. On Saturday morning, Iran launched just 16 ballistic missiles and 121 drones into the United Arab Emirates.
Still, in Iran’s highest-level de-escalation remarks yet, Pezeshkian apologized to neighbors for days of attacks that have stoked panic in a region once considered safe.
The reformist leader has displayed an almost constant air of regret since taking office, issuing numerous public apologies during his tenure – for the sharp deterioration of the national economy, the killing of thousands of protesters during demonstrations and the continued inefficiency of his own government.
Now he is apologizing on behalf of Iran’s armed forces, saying they “acted with their own authority and took the necessary actions to defend our homeland with dignity and strength,” a message some Iranian leaders have repeatedly sent to justify harsh attacks on Gulf Arab cities.
unknown future
It was unclear whether the statement by the leadership council, of which Pezeshkian is now a member, was in line with the goals of the armed forces or the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which independently launched its own measures in response to U.S. and Israeli attacks that killed other key leaders.
Pezeshkian’s comments came as a relief to Gulf Arab states. However, shells flying overhead shortly after he spoke suggested it was too early to tell whether Iran’s attacks had ceased.
He made the remarks on the condition that the territory of Gulf Arab states, which host several large U.S. military bases, cannot be used to launch attacks against Iran. In an “explanatory” statement issued after the speech, Pezeshkian’s office stressed that Iran would “respond decisively to any aggression at U.S. bases.”
As the region faces an unknown future, it is unclear what actions the Iranian armed forces and their proxies would consider hostile to the Islamic Republic.
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Shortly after Pezeshkian’s statement, U.S. President Donald Trump wrote in The Truth Society that Iran had “surrendered to its Middle Eastern neighbors” and would be “hit very hard” today, with parts of the country likely to suffer “total destruction and even death.”
The Iranian military issued a statement saying that if the offensive operations against Iran continue, “all military bases and interests of the criminal U.S. regime and the fake Zionist regime on land, sea and air in the region will become the main targets of crushing and violent strikes by the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
leadership vacuum
Pezeshkian made the remarks amid a leadership vacuum and uncertainty about Iran’s path forward.
Joining Pezeshkian on the leadership council are senior cleric Ayatollah Alireza Arefi, 67, a powerful member of the Guardian Council, and notorious judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei. Together they form an interim authority to manage the country’s affairs until Khamenei’s successor is elected
As the council struggles to manage wartime affairs, a population of 96 million is suffering the worst military attack in the country’s history, and Iran’s military has become largely independent and isolated under interim leaders.
An image released by Iran’s state-run Press TV on Sunday showed a meeting of the leadership committee. – news tv
Even Oman, a key mediator with close ties to Iran, has been hit by Iranian shells. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the attacks were not the government’s choice and Tehran had instructed the armed forces to choose targets carefully, but said military units had become “independent and somewhat isolated.”
“They were acting in accordance with the general instructions given to them in advance,” Araghchi told Al Jazeera this week.
In what may be a sign of impatience, several prominent clerics in Iran have urged the swift election of a new supreme leader.
Selecting the supreme leader is a secretive and complex process restricted to clerics on the Assembly of Experts Committee – a procedure that has only been followed once, 37 years ago, when the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died and Khamenei was selected as his successor.
Khamenei was elected supreme leader within 24 hours, and the clergy moved quickly to fill the huge void left by the revered Ayatollah Khomeini. The new leader went on to rule for 37 years before being assassinated.
Today, the Islamic Republic recognizes that it faces an existential crisis and is exercising extreme caution in choosing its next leader
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