US urged major banks to help cut Iran's oil revenue - Bloomberg

"Any war that might break out between Iran and the United States would not be limited to the two parties to the conflict, but would drag the entire region into the fire." Hadi Al-Amiri, the leader of the military and political group the Badr Organization said according to Iraqi state media.

"Any war against Iran will not be a picnic; rather, it will ignite the entire region," he added.

Joe Wilson, a US lawmaker from South Carolina, said on Wednesday that Tehran controls Baghdad citing remarks he attributed to Al-Amiri.

France’s foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot said military confrontation with Iran is almost inevitable if a deal is not reached, hours after a rare defense cabinet meeting over Iran in Paris.

"We only have a few months until the expiration of this (2015) accord," he told a parliamentary hearing referring to the now-defunct Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) from which US president Donald Trump withdrew during his first term.

"In case of failure, a military confrontation would seem to be almost inevitable," Barrot said, adding that new EU sanctions on Iran linked to the detention of foreign citizens would be approved in the coming weeks.

Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi spoke with his Dutch counterpart Casper Veldkamp on Wednesday, according to Iranian media.

Araghchi warned that any violation of Iran's territorial integrity will be met with a swift and decisive response.

His remarks come as the US boosts its military presence in the Middle East.

Edalaat-e Ali, a group that has previously leaked surveillance footage and official documents, said the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic authorized the distribution of over 3,000 pistols to senior government officials.

The weapons, including stun guns and pepper spray, were issued following a clearance process involving three levels of vetting.

"This extraordinary move reveals the extent to which Iran’s leadership anticipates retaliatory action from its own citizens," Edalaat-e Ali wrote on X, saying the measure stemmed from fears that officials would be identified in future uprisings.

The group’s report could not be immediately verified by Iran International, but Iran has seen mounting tensions over economic hardship, water scarcity and political repression in recent months.

According to security sources cited by Edaalat-e Ali, personnel within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Intelligence Ministry had already received similar equipment for years.

The report surfaced shortly after farmers in central Iran torched a water transfer station in Isfahan province, disrupting supply to Yazd, amid a long-running dispute over access to the Zayandeh Rud river.

In January, two Supreme Court judges and clerics Mohammad Moghiseh and Ali Razini, both were shot dead in Tehran in a rare deadly attack on senior officials.

The assailant, a staff member responsible for refreshments at Iran's judiciary headquarters, committed suicide after the shooting. The judges were stalwart ideologues who had handed down harsh sentences on dissidents for decades.

“If the enemies think they can instigate sedition within the country, the Iranian nation itself will respond,” said Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Monday.

Security directives have tightened nationwide, particularly at police stations and military facilities, according to the hacktivist group.

Edalaat-e Ali added that daily visitor numbers are now capped and ammunition stores reduced, citing fears that weapons could fall into civilian hands in case of a takeover.

The Iranian government’s response to public dissatisfaction has largely been marked by repression, including what happened in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022.

The tragedy triggered widespread protests across the country under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom".

What began as outrage over Amini’s death rapidly transformed into a broader movement against the government, driven by long-standing political and social grievances. Authorities responded with mass arrests and a forceful crackdown, leading to over 500 deaths among demonstrators, according to rights groups and the United Nations.

Despite the efforts to silence dissent, the likelihood of future unrest remains high, not least as at least one third of the country now lives below the poverty line.

Years of economic mismanagement, widespread corruption, and the weight of international sanctions have deepened crises like fuel shortages and power outages, compounding public anger.

The government’s reluctance to raise fuel prices—mindful of the deadly 2019 protests—highlights its recognition of the growing risk of renewed demonstrations.

Citing open-source aviation data, a Haaretz analysis reports that the US military has undertaken its most significant offensive deployment to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023.

The analysis details that in March, at least 140 heavy US transport aircraft originating from key US military bases landed in Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Jordan, with mid-flight data indicating most were carrying equipment.

This buildup marks an approximate 50 percent increase over the previous monthly peak in US military flights to the region and includes the arrival of fighter jets, such as A-10 ground-attack aircraft deployed to Jordan and stealth F-35s sent to Saudi Arabia, accompanied by transport and refueling planes identified through flight-tracking platforms.

Satellite imagery also reveals the deployment of at least six B-2 stealth bombers, roughly a third of the US Air Force's fleet, to the US base on Diego Garcia, a location previously used for bombing missions in Afghanistan and Iraq within striking distance of both Iran and Yemen.