Several Iranian officials have bristled at Donald Trump’s mocking remarks about the slain commander Qasem Soleimani, calling his assassination in a 2020 US drone strike an act of terrorism that should have been avenged by killing American leaders.
On Thursday, during a Purple Heart ceremony at the White House, Trump mentioned Soleimani by name and called him “the father of roadside bombs.”
Immediately after, Trump scoffed, “Where is he? Where is he?” As the attendees burst into laughter, he asked again, 'Where is Soleimani?'"
“There is a simple answer to the question ‘Where is Soleimani?’ He is precisely where your gaze points — at the heights of heaven,” Mohammad Hossein Ranjbaran, an advisor to Iran’s foreign minister, posted on X.
During his first term as president, Trump authorized the 2020 drone strike in Baghdad that killed the senior Iranian commander.
“They killed Haj Qasem, and we should have executed all American leaders because Haj Qasem’s worth was far greater than that,” said Elias Hazrati, head of the Government Information Council.
“But since war was not our strategy, we let it go. Then they martyred our guest Ismail Haniyeh, and still, we chose patience and silence,” Hazrati added.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed on July 31, 2024, along with his bodyguard inside a military-run guesthouse in Tehran shortly after attending the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The killing of Qasem Soleimani sparked outrage among hardliners in Iran, who vowed to exact revenge against Trump.
Lebanon on Saturday strongly condemned the remarks made by a top advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader about Beirut's decision to disarm Tehran-backed Hezbollah, warning the Islamic Republic against interfering in its internal affairs.
Ali-Akbar Velayati, a senior foreign policy advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, on Saturday called Hezbollah disarmament "a dream that won't come true", describing it as a policy dictated by Israel and the United States.
The Lebanese foreign ministry in a statement on X condemned the remarks as "a flagrant and unacceptable interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs," saying it will not tolerate such "unacceptable conduct under any circumstances."
"This is not the first such interference. Some senior Iranian officials have repeatedly overstepped by making unwarranted statements regarding Lebanese domestic decisions that are of no concern to the Islamic Republic," it said.
It also said that the Arab country "will not permit any external party, whether friend or foe, to speak on behalf of its people or to claim any form of tutelage over its sovereign decisions."
Velayati said on Saturday that Tehran "is definitely opposed to disarming Hezbollah; because Iran has always supported the Lebanese people and the resistance, and continues to do so now."
The decision to disarm Hezbollah "is only the desire of the US and Israel. The US and Israel think they can bring another puppet to power in Lebanon; but this dream will never come true, and Lebanon will stand firm as always."
Lebanon's cabinet instructed the army earlier this week to develop a plan by the end of the year aimed at creating a state monopoly on weapons—an implicit challenge to Hezbollah, which has resisted disarmament since last year’s war with Israel.
Hezbollah decried the move as a "grave sin" and vowed to ignore it.
On Thursday, senior Iranian military official Iraj Masjedi said efforts to disarm Hezbollah will fail. “They are seeking to disarm the resistance in Lebanon, but they will take that wish to the grave."
'Mind your own business'
The Lebanese foreign ministry "reminded the leadership in Tehran that Iran would be better served by focusing on the issues of its own people and addressing their needs and aspirations, rather than involving itself in matters that do not concern it."
"Lebanon’s future, its policies, and its political system are matters decided solely by the Lebanese people, through their democratic constitutional institutions, free from any interference, dictates, pressure, or overreach," it added.
"The Lebanese state will remain steadfast in defending its sovereignty, and will respond, in accordance with diplomatic practice, to any attempt to undermine the authority of its decisions or to incite against them."
The Lebanese government has long been under international pressure to assert monopoly over arms, particularly from Western states who view Iran-backed Hezbollah’s military structure as a parallel force within the state.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June in a way that limited the scope of the conflict and avoided a broader war.
“The first thing to understand about that operation it was very – it was very defined. It was targeted. It wasn’t about starting a broader war," said Rubio in a Thursday interview.
"It was actually an effort to escalate in order to de-escalate,” he told Raymond Arroyo of EWTN’s The World Over.
On June 22, Trump ordered airstrikes on nuclear sites at Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow two days before brokering a ceasefire to a 12-day war in June between Iran and Israel.
"It had a very clear objective. He established the objective. His military planners offered him a timeline, and then there were checkpoints along that timeline where we had to go back and check with the President: Are you okay? Are you okay?" Rubio said on Thursday.
The planning and execution were calm, with the president relying on past experience in office to avoid expanding the operation, according to Rubio.
Once the strikes were complete, Rubio said, the president was not inclined to order further attacks or seek additional targets.
"He had a very clear objective in mind, and he achieved it. And we immediately pivoted now to our goal was: okay, we achieved this objective, now how do we end this war on the 12th day and not let it become a regional war."
A US-brokered ceasefire was announced on June 24 between Iran and Israel after Tehran launched a retaliatory airstrike against a US airbase in Qatar.
The Israeli campaign against Iran during the 12-day war killed hundreds of Iranians including civilians, military personnel and nuclear scientists. Iran's retaliatory missile strikes also killed 29 Israeli civilians.
The Financial Action Task Force has invited Islamic Republic representatives to attend talks in Spain aimed at ending a seven-year impasse over the country’s blacklisting, Iran’s economy minister said.
“After the approval of Iran’s accession to the Palermo Convention, the FATF deadlock has been resolved after seven years, and Iran has now been invited for talks,” Ali Madanizadeh said in a Friday interview on state television.
The Financial Information Center, part of Iran’s Supreme Council for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, confirmed the news on its website, saying that Hadi Khani, secretary of the council, had been invited to take part in the negotiations.
The direct talks in Madrid will address the process of normalizing Iran’s case, suspending countermeasures, and removing the country from the FATF blacklist, according to Tehran’s official statement.
Iran’s UN ambassador Saeed Iravani wrote to Secretary-General António Guterres on August 5 announcing that, on government orders, the ratification document for the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime—signed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi—was being submitted.
Iran’s parliament passed the bill to adopt the convention in 2017, but the Guardian Council blocked it until the Expediency Council approved it in May this year. The years-long failure to ratify it left Iran unable to establish normal financial links abroad, even after the 2015 nuclear deal offered partial economic relief.
Joining the FATF and related conventions was a campaign pledge of Masoud Pezeshkian in the 2024 presidential election.
On May 21, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf formally notified President Pezeshkian of the law’s enactment, enabling Iran’s accession to the Palermo Convention, one of the FATF’s four core treaties.
Tehran has already joined two others: the Vienna Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and the UN Convention against Corruption.
The only outstanding FATF instrument is the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), designed to curb funding for armed groups and improve cross-border cooperation in tracking and cutting such flows.
The Islamic Republic has for years provided financial support to groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, which are designated as terrorist organizations by much of the international community.
In May, Expediency Council spokesman Mohsen Dehnavi said the CFT would be addressed in upcoming sessions.
Even if Iran secures removal from the FATF blacklist, the looming prospect of UN sanctions snapback could render the move moot.
The snapback mechanism, which European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal have threatened to trigger if no deal is reached with Iran by the end of this month, would restore UN sanctions lifted under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), from which the US unilaterally withdrew in 2018.
International banking tools may be available, but renewed sanctions could block trade even with long-standing partners such as China and Russia.
Iran and the United States could begin Norway-mediated talks in August, Iran’s state-run English-language newspaper Tehran Times reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
The paper said the discussions would be indirect, with the mediator acting as a go-between, and would cover both Iran’s nuclear program and Tehran’s demand for compensation over damages from the June war with Israel and the United States.
The United States has dismissed Iran’s compensation demand as “ridiculous,” with State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott saying earlier this month that Tehran should instead “stop funding terrorist death squads” and “stop wasting money on a nuclear program that isolates them further.”
Iran and the US held five rounds of talks between April and May this year in Muscat, Oman, and Rome, Italy. A sixth round was scheduled to take place in Muscat on June 15, but was indefinitely suspended after Israel launched airstrikes on Iran two days earlier.
The ensuing 12-day conflict in June included US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow, and Israeli strikes that destroyed critical infrastructure, killing several senior military and scientific figures as well as hundreds of civilians. Iran responded with missile strikes that killed at least 27 Israeli civilians.
Norwegian visit to Tehran
Norway’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Kravik visited Tehran this week and met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. While the official readout made no mention of nuclear talks, the Tehran Times linked the trip to the mediation effort. Norway was among the few Western states to join 120 countries in condemning Israel’s June strikes on Iran.
Israeli attack was US-directed, Iranian president says
President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that the Israeli June strikes were conducted “with the guidance and support of America” and aimed to spread unrest through “blind strikes” and the assassination of military commanders, scientists and civilians. “When it comes to the security and independence of the country, all differences fade and the principle is Iran,” he said, adding that even political opponents joined in defending the country.
Trump calls Iran a ‘very evil place’
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that American action had prevented wider wars in the Middle East by “stopping Iran from having a nuclear weapon.” He called Iran “a very evil place” and warned that if Tehran restarted its program, “we’ll be back as soon as they start.”
Iran will stop the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus even without Moscow’s help, as it would endanger regional security and alter the geopolitical map, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said on Saturday.
“Mister Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Velayati told IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News, referring to the route included in Friday’s US-brokered Armenia–Azerbaijan peace deal.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” he said, dismissing the idea as “impossible” and “political treachery” aimed at undermining Armenia’s territorial integrity.
He stressed that Iran has “always opposed” the so-called Zangezur corridor, saying it would alter borders, fragment Armenia, and restrict Iran’s own regional access. He said that when Turkey and Azerbaijan previously pushed the plan, Iran staged multiple military drills on its northwestern frontier to signal readiness to block it.
US-brokered deal signed in Washington
Velayati’s remarks came a day after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a US-brokered peace agreement at the White House alongside US President Donald Trump.
The accord grants Washington exclusive development rights to a strategic transit route across Armenia that would link mainland Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave, without passing through Iran or Russia. The White House said the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” would boost energy exports and trade across the region.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in conflict since the late 1980s over Nagorno-Karabakh, fighting several wars, most recently in 2023 when Baku regained full control of the enclave. Russia mediated in past years, but its influence has waned since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Tehran warns of foreign interference
Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday said it “welcomes” the peace text as an “important step” toward lasting stability, but warned that projects near its borders should be implemented “within the framework of mutual interests, with respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and without foreign interference.”
Velayati echoed that line, saying “whether with Russia or without Russia, we will move to protect the security of the South Caucasus” and adding that he believes Moscow is also opposed to the corridor on strategic grounds.
NATO ‘snake’ at the border
Calling the corridor “a political plot, not just a trade passage,” Velayati said it would open the way for NATO to position itself “like a viper” between Iran and Russia. He argued that no Armenian government could legitimately agree to the “partition” of its territory, regardless of US pressure, and claimed that even Prime Minister Pashinyan had previously told Iranian leaders he opposed the route.
