UAE says Iran must halt attacks before mediation can begin

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said government policies and international engagements will be fully coordinated with the country’s supreme leader, stressing that the administration would follow the leader’s guidance in all major decisions.

“As the elected representative of the Iranian people and president, I consider it my duty to fully follow the leadership’s guidance,” Pezeshkian said in a message released on Friday.

“No policy in the administration of the country or in international relations will be proposed or pursued by the government without coordination with the leadership,” he added, saying such obedience forms “a foundation of national unity” and will remain a guiding principle of his administration.

Russia’s top nuclear official said on Friday that no changes in radiation levels had been detected following strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities during the conflict with the United States and Israel.

Alexei Likhachev, head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, said monitoring had not recorded any radiation changes, according to the state news agency RIA.

It was not immediately clear which strikes he was referring to. Iran said last week that its Natanz nuclear facility had been hit during US and Israeli military operations but reported no radioactive leakage.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said there is no clear evidence that Iran has placed mines in the Strait of Hormuz but said Iranian attacks on shipping are currently the only factor disrupting traffic through the strategic waterway.

“The only thing prohibiting transit in the straits right now is Iran shooting at shipping,” Hegseth told a Pentagon briefing on Friday, adding the passage remains open for vessels.

Hegseth said Washington is preparing options to ensure the strait remains open and noted the United States had targeted Iran’s naval capabilities partly to prevent Tehran from using the waterway as leverage.

On Iran’s nuclear program, he said the campaign against Tehran’s missile forces was intended to weaken the conventional shield protecting its nuclear capabilities.

“With Iran at its weakest moment, going at that ballistic missile capability creates an opportunity to ensure… Iran gives up their nuclear capabilities, or if need be, you prevent them from doing it,” he said.

The United States has rendered Iran’s navy “combat ineffective” and is continuing strikes to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine said on Friday.

Speaking at a Pentagon briefing, Caine said US forces had struck more than 6,000 targets in Iran since the start of the operation and were continuing to target missile, drone and naval capabilities.

“The only thing preventing commercial traffic from flowing through the straits right now… is Iran,” he said, adding Tehran was “holding the straits closed.”

Caine said US forces were targeting Iran’s mine-laying capabilities, naval bases and missiles that could threaten shipping in the strategic waterway.

“In less than two weeks, we’ve rendered the Iranian navy combat ineffective,” he said.

He added that US forces had used long-range artillery systems to strike Iranian targets, including firing precision strike missiles for the first time in combat and using ATACMS missiles to sink several vessels, including a submarine.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was “wounded and likely disfigured” and that the country’s leadership was “desperate and hiding.”

“They’ve gone underground, cowering. That’s what rats do,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Khamenei message questioned

Hegseth also cast doubt on a message attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei that was read on Iranian state television.

“He put out a statement yesterday, a weak one actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement,” Hegseth said.

“Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why.”

He added that the situation inside Iran’s leadership was unclear. “Who’s in charge? Iran may not even know.”

Hegseth said the United States and Israel were dismantling Iran’s military capabilities at a pace “the world has never seen before.”

“Never before has a modern, capable military… been so quickly destroyed and made combat ineffective,” he said.

He said the combined air forces of the United States and Israel had struck more than 15,000 targets across Iran.

“The combination of the world’s two most powerful air forces is unprecedented and unbeatable,” Hegseth said.

Iran’s capabilities

Hegseth said Iran’s military had been severely degraded.

“Iran has no air defenses. Iran has no air force. Iran has no navy,” he said, adding that missile launches had dropped sharply and drone attacks had fallen by more than 90%.

Hegseth said the campaign was also destroying Iran’s ability to rebuild its arsenal.

“As of two days ago, Iran’s entire ballistic missile production capacity… has been functionally defeated,” he said.

“We’re shooting down and destroying what missiles they still have in stock, but more importantly ensuring that they have no ability to make more.”