Iran International
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards continued launching attacks on neighboring countries despite President Pezeshkian’s apology to regional states and his order for the armed forces to halt such strikes, highlighting tensions over who controls wartime decisions.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards started launching attacks against the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the Iraqi Kurdistan shortly after President Pezeshkian said in a televised speech he had instructed them to halt such attacks.
The IRGC strikes followed unusually sharp verbal attacks by hardliners which highlighted the limited influence Pezeshkian exercises within Iran’s power structure despite his membership in the temporary three-member leadership council that is currently exercising powers normally held by the country’s supreme leader in wartime.
Pezeshkian said on Saturday that Iran’s armed forces had sometimes acted “at their own discretion” during the recent conflict. He added that, following a decision by the “temporary leadership council,” military forces had now been instructed not to attack neighboring countries “unless they intend to attack us from that country.”
The first institutional response came from the spokesman of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the body that coordinates operational command of Iran’s armed forces, including both the regular army and the IRGC.
The spokesman declared that any location used to launch attacks against Iran would be considered a legitimate target. “Every point that serves as the origin of aggression against Iran is a legitimate target,” he said, adding that with the continuation of offensive operations, “all military bases and interests” of the US and Israel in the region would remain the “main targets” of IRGC attacks.
Within hours, the IRGC also announced missile strikes on Dubai Airport and Juffair Base in Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters.
However, judiciary chief Gholam‑Hossein Mohseni‑Ejei, who also serves on the three-member leadership council, responded quickly. He said evidence from Iranian armed forces showed that “the geography of some regional countries has openly and covertly been placed at the disposal of the enemy” and used for attacks on Iran.
He added that “intense attacks” on such targets would continue and stressed that “this strategy is currently being implemented and the government and other pillars of the system are united on this matter.”
Factors behind the apology
Saudi Arabia on Saturday warned Iran that continued attacks on the kingdom and its energy sector could push Riyadh to respond in kind, Reuters reported citing four sources familiar with the matter.
The message was conveyed before Pezeshkian's televised apology, according to Reuters.
Another factor behind Pezeshkian’s apology may have been reports of a drone attack Thursday in the Nakhchivan autonomous region of Azerbaijan, which maintains extensive military cooperation with Israel.
Iran has denied involvement. However, officials in Baku also said they had also foiled several alleged sabotage plots attributed to the IRGC, including a plot targeting the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline.
Following the incident, Azerbaijan ordered the immediate withdrawal of its diplomats from Tehran and Tabriz, closed its border with Iran, and demanded an apology.
In a separate incident earlier this week, Iran’s armed forces denied firing a ballistic missile toward Turkish airspace, which Turkish authorities said was intercepted by NATO air and missile defense systems over the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara had issued “warnings in the clearest terms” to prevent similar incidents from recurring.
According to analyst Abdolreza Davari, who defended Pezeshkian’s stance, escalating tensions with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) could be very costly to Iran’s external economy which depends heavily on financial and trade channels through the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE has warned it could move to seize Iranian state-linked assets within its jurisdiction if tensions escalate further, according to regional analysts and officials familiar with the dispute.
Hardline backlash and possible moves to limit Pezeshkian’s authority
Some political figures defended Pezeshkian. Davari said the president was simply conveying a decision by the temporary leadership council to halt attacks on neighboring states. He argued that until a new supreme leader is chosen, council decisions carry the authority of the supreme leader and must be implemented.
Hardline critics, however, reacted harshly to the president’s remarks. Former lawmaker Jalal Rashidi Kouchi wrote on X: “An apology is made when a mistake has occurred, whether intentionally or unintentionally. We made no mistake. Your message showed no sign of authority.”
The conservative website Raja News described Pezeshkian as “an irritant to a nation ready for the final confrontation with arrogance” and called for preventing him from sending what it called “signals of weakness.”
The article also warned that Pezeshkian’s description of military strikes as “at their own discretion” could provide justification for neighboring states or international institutions to challenge what it called Iran’s “legitimate and sovereign defense.”
Hardline member of parliament Hamid Rasaei wrote on X that Pezeshkian’s comments were unacceptable, arguing that countries hosting US bases should be the ones apologizing. “The armed forces know their duty well and, as before, will target with powerful missiles wherever the Iranian nation and homeland are attacked. The firm demand of the Iranian people is exactly this.”
Several lawmakers, including Hamed Yazdian and Mohammad Mannan Raisi, urged the Assembly of Experts to quickly appoint a new supreme leader, arguing that statements like Pezeshkian’s risk placing Iran in a position of weakness.
Tehran representative Kamran Ghazanfari also threatened to pursue a parliamentary motion declaring the president politically incompetent — a process that would require signatures from one-third of lawmakers and a two-thirds vote to remove him.
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.