Iranian Parliament Speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran would not enter further negotiations until conditions set out in the memorandum of understanding are met, adding that current meetings were aimed at fulfilling its commitments.
Iran has no plans to hold talks with the United States in the coming days, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, adding that a delegation sent to Doha will meet Qatari officials on Iran’s frozen funds and the ceasefire in Lebanon.
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday that $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds had not yet been transferred to Iran, adding that the money remained subject to a 2023 agreement and was earmarked for humanitarian purchases.
Forty ships transited the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, out of which 16 used the Iranian route, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing data from maritime intelligence firm Kpler.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian criticized attacks on the country’s negotiating team on Tuesday, saying the MoU with the US was reached in full coordination with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
The IRGC Ground Forces said on Tuesday that a six-member armed team had been killed in a clash in the mountains between Mahabad and Piranshahr in northwest Iran.
The US-Iran memorandum of understanding failed to address human rights and risked leaving Iranians without accountability, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran Mai Sato said, according to a report by Geneva Solutions on Wednesday.
The US-Iran memorandum of understanding failed to address human rights and risked leaving Iranians without accountability, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran Mai Sato said, according to a report by Geneva Solutions on Wednesday.
“The Iranian people are barely visible in the framework,” Sato said in the interview conducted last Friday. “It serves geopolitical interests while leaving the Iranian people behind.”
She warned that an agreement that excludes human rights could return Iran to its pre-war conditions or make repression worse.
Continue reading
Hardline cleric Mohsen Ghanbarian called for retaliation over the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, saying senior officials would remain under threat unless those responsible were punished.
Speaking to a crowd gathered in Tehran on Tuesday, Ghanbarian said that without retaliation, "the current leader and other leaders of the Islamic Republic will always have to live in hiding."
"If we do not exact retaliation for the killing of our leader, then there is no doubt that the current leader and other leaders of the Islamic Republic will always have to live in hiding. That much is obvious. Those officials who went to Geneva probably saw the same tweet we did: if you do not make a deal, you will not return to your country. Mr. Ghalibaf is now on Netanyahu’s assassination list," Ghanbarian said.
Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), said in a Washington Times commentary published on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump should prevent Iran from continuing what he described as its decades-long success in negotiations with Washington.
May wrote that while recent US military operations had significantly weakened Iran's nuclear and conventional capabilities, Tehran had historically gained leverage in diplomacy through tactics including hostage-taking and by exploiting what he described as repeated US restraint and misjudgment.
The commentary said Trump had an opportunity to break what May described as Iran's long-standing advantage at the negotiating table.
A hardline media figure said senior clerics supported fatwas authorizing retaliation against individuals responsible for threats against Iran’s leader, but the government did not take it seriously or treat it as official policy.
Mohsen Maghsoudi said in a TV segment on Tuesday that the overwhelming majority of members of the Assembly of Experts — about 70 members — signed a fatwa calling for retributive justice against those he described as the perpetrators of the assassination of the “martyred leader.”
“When our officials were asked about such rulings, the president described them as a ‘personal opinion’ and not state policy.”
The comments were followed by hardline cleric Mohsen Ghanbarian, who said that, thanks to state TV, viewers saw a segment saying Trump would be in Turkey for a NATO summit, and he called on supporters in Turkey and Iran to follow orders for retaliatory punishment.
US Vice President JD Vance said the United States would remain in a strong position regardless of how negotiations with Iran unfold, in a Fox interview aired on Tuesday.
“I actually think that the United States is in a great position however the negotiation ultimately shakes out. If the negotiation is successful, which obviously we want it to be successful, you have an Iran that is permanently transformed,” he said.
Vance added that even if the negotiations fail, saying “the Iranians don’t behave,” Iran’s nuclear programme would be “still destroyed” and its conventional military “still destroyed,” while the United States would remain in a stronger position relative to Iran.
US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said IRGC-linked individuals sought entry into the United States with Iran’s World Cup delegation, Politico reported on Tuesday.
Mullin said Iranian officials attempted to bring into the country multiple individuals with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including personnel who had not previously travelled with the national team.
"Two individuals presented as media members had connections to IRGC intelligence, and another applicant was the subject of an international arrest warrant," he said.
Mullin added no World Cup delegation required more attention from US officials than Iran, and defended strict travel restrictions imposed on the Iranian team, including limited entry windows and immediate departure after matches.
"Iran posed the most significant security challenge of any participating delegation," Mullin said. "US officials spent more time dealing with Iran than any other team.'
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s parliament and head of its negotiating team said in an interview with state TV aired on Tuesday that $12 billion of Iranian assets will be placed at the disposal of the central bank under a memorandum of understanding, allowing the funds to be used in any currency and for any type of purchase.
In response to US President Donald Trump that part of Iran’s released assets would only be spent on buying grain from American farmers, said the statement was “not true.”
"Islamic Republic holds $24 billion in assets in various locations. Under a memorandum of understanding, $12 billion of that amount would be placed at the disposal of the central bank, allowing it to be used in any currency and for the purchase of any goods," Ghalibaf said. "The critics do not want to accept that the agreement has lifted restrictions imposed by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and ended the blockade.”
US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz on Tuesday praised Ellie Cohanim after she was appointed as a senior policy adviser at the US mission to the United Nations. Cohanim, an Iranian-American diplomat, was named to the role at USUN, according to the announcement.
"Few know the Iranian regime like Ellie. Born in Tehran, raised in Queens-just like President Trump-she’s a fighter. For America. Against antisemitism. For our freedom. Glad to have her in the fight," Waltz posted on X.
Iran’s parliament media center said on Tuesday that parts of an interview with Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf were cut from the state TV broadcast.
It said the omitted segments included remarks on claims about an International Atomic Energy Agency inspection, efforts to secure the release of frozen assets, and a $300 billion reconstruction credit included in a memorandum of understanding.
The cut material also included comments addressing what it described as “misinformation” by US President Donald Trump, as well as the “strategic message” of Iran’s Supreme Leader delivered on June 18.
The spokesperson for the funeral committee said on Tuesday the bodies of the Ali Khamenei and his family members have not been buried or laid to rest, and have been preserved under “religious and legal standards.”
“For the first time we announce that the pure body of our martyred Imam and his family members, with full respect and care, have been preserved in accordance with Sharia and legal standards,” Iman Attarzadeh said, adding that the bodies have neither been buried nor formally entrusted elsewhere.
“Rumors circulating on social media that the body of the martyred leader of the revolution was buried at the shrine of Masumeh in Qom are completely false and have no validity,” Attarzadeh posted on X.
Leave a Reply