Lawmaker says nuclear file closed, sets new negotiation terms

A hardline Iranian lawmaker threatened Arab rulers in the region during a pro-Islamic Republic rally, warning that their palaces would not be safe if Iran’s senior leaders were targeted.

Mahmoud Nabavian, a member of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said regional governments should prevent military bases on their soil from being used against Iran.

“If any assault is carried out against our great leaders, none of the kings of the Arab countries or their palaces in the region will remain safe, and they will all be sent to hell,” Nabavian said.

A senior adviser to the UAE president said no unilateral arrangement by Iran over the Strait of Hormuz could be trusted after what he described as Tehran’s “treacherous aggression” against its neighbors.

Anwar Gargash said on X that the ongoing debate over Hormuz must be grounded in collective international will and international law, rather than Iranian control or guarantees.

“In the ongoing discussion about the Strait of Hormuz, the collective international will and provisions of international law emerge as the primary guarantor of freedom of navigation through this vital passage,” Gargash said.

His remarks come as regional governments push back against Iran’s efforts to shape new rules for the strategic waterway, where shipping has been disrupted throughout the war.

The US naval blockade of Iranian ports has left Tehran struggling for a way out, exposing the limits of its strategy of using the Strait of Hormuz as leverage while continuing oil exports through shadow shipping networks, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Iran initially appeared to gain leverage after the war began in February by disrupting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a route for roughly a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

But the United States later responded with a blockade of Iranian ports, cutting into the network of tankers that had long helped Tehran move oil to China despite sanctions, the report said.

“There is no evidence any Iranian oil cargo has crossed the US blockade and reached Chinese customers or other buyers,” the Journal reported, citing commodities-data firm Kpler.

The report said 44 commercial vessels working for Iran had been ordered to turn around or return to port, according to US Central Command.

Alternative routes appear limited. The Iranian Shipping Association said only about 40% of Iran’s trade could be redirected away from blockaded ports, according to Fars.

The blockade has sharpened divisions inside Iran’s ruling system, the report said, with moderates favoring negotiations while hardliners argue that the blockade amounts to an act of war and requires a military response.

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“The blockade is increasingly viewed in Tehran not as a substitute for war, but as a different manifestation of it,” Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the Berlin-based SWP research institute, told the Journal.

The report said Iranian officials have discussed possible escalation using weapons not yet deployed, while IRGC-linked Tasnim recently mapped undersea internet cables in the Strait of Hormuz in what appeared to be a warning that regional communications infrastructure could be targeted.

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  IRGC-linked media hints at threat to Persian Gulf undersea internet cables

The Journal said Tehran presented regional mediators with an offer last weekend to stop attacks in the strait in exchange for an end to the war, lifting of the US blockade and postponement of nuclear talks.

President Donald Trump, however, told aides to prepare for an extended blockade that could remain in place until Iran accepts his nuclear demands, the report said.

“The blockade is genius, OK, the blockade has been 100% foolproof,” Trump told reporters this week.

The Journal said the war has left more than a million people out of work in Iran, pushed food prices higher, prolonged the internet shutdown and helped drive the dollar to about 1.81 million rials as the blockade shows no sign of ending.

Iran’s deputy parliament speaker said the Pakistan talks with the United States began with the direct approval of the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, in an apparent response to claims of confusion and infighting inside Tehran’s decision-making structure.

Ali Nikzad said the American side opened the talks by raising demands including a 20-year halt to Iran’s nuclear activities and the handover of enriched uranium.

He said the demands were “firmly rejected” by the Islamic Republic.

The remarks come after President Donald Trump canceled a planned trip to Pakistan by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, saying there was “tremendous infighting and confusion” within Iran’s leadership and that “nobody knows who is in charge.”

The Pakistan track has also been strained by a basic sequencing dispute: Washington has pushed for nuclear restrictions, including a long halt to enrichment, while Tehran has sought to first end the war, address shipping and the Strait of Hormuz, and only then move to wider issues.

A senior official in the office of the Islamic Republic’s leader dismissed comments about Mojtaba Khamenei’s health as an “enemy tactic” to spread rumors, while confirming that he was wounded in the attack on the first day of war.

Mohsen Qomi, deputy for international communications in the leader’s office, said enemies were trying to force officials into reactions by spreading rumors about Khamenei’s health and then use those reactions to advance their plots.

“Our most important issue now is to help preserve his life, because he is now God’s representative here,” Qomi said.

He said Khamenei had been in a building struck in an attack in which other occupants were killed, but had gone into the courtyard minutes before the strike.