State department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said any outside support for the Iran-aligned Houthi movement American forces are bombing was unacceptable.
"The United States will not tolerate any country or commercial entity providing support to foreign terrorist organizations, such as the Houthis, including offloading ships and provisioning oil at Houthi-controlled ports. Such actions risk violating US law," she said in a statement on Wednesday.
Jailed activist Mehdi Mahmoudian warned in a letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that public mistrust has left Iran too fractured to support any government stance in a possible future conflict or negotiations.
“If war breaks out, the enemy won’t need to attack from outside — you’ve sown hatred in hearts, and this land will collapse from within,” he wrote from Evin Prison.
Mahmoudian criticized Iran’s leadership for isolating the country and weakening national unity, saying: “From the families of those executed, to ethnic minorities whose languages are banned, to a youth fleeing the country — who do you expect to defend Iran?”
Mahmoudian dismissed both diplomacy and displays of strength as solutions: “Today, neither the JCPOA, nor negotiations, nor the illusion of power in your mind can save us. Only your unconditional retreat from power, handing it to the people, and accepting that no one lives forever, can save Iran.”
“Otherwise,” he warned, “what will remain is not your system, nor even our country — only a bitter ruin of a nation once called Iran.”
