Tehran is negotiating with the United States in an atmosphere of deep distrust and suspicion, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Tuesday.
“We cannot forget the baseless aggressions by the United States against the Islamic Republic,” Baghaei said.
“Based on past experience, we decided not to waste time on issues that have already proven so complex that we were unable to reach agreement,” he added.
The United States and Bahrain are pushing a UN Security Council resolution that could lead to sanctions against Iran if it fails to halt threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported, citing three Western diplomats.
The draft, discussed by council members on Tuesday, would demand Iran stop attacks, disclose the locations of sea mines and refrain from interfering with navigation through the waterway, the report said.
The text operates under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, allowing measures ranging from sanctions to possible military action, though it avoids explicitly authorizing force.
Russia and China could seek to block or alter the resolution, the report cited diplomats as saying, adding that a vote could take place early next week.
Washington has also circulated a proposal for a new multinational maritime coalition called the Maritime Freedom Construct, aimed at establishing a post-conflict security architecture for the Middle East and reopening the Strait once conditions stabilize, the report added.
The lawyer for imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi warned her client faces a sharp deterioration in health and detention conditions, calling the situation unprecedented.
Chirinne Ardakani told a press conference in Paris that Mohammadi had been transferred more than 700 km from her home to a prison without a separate ward for political detainees.
“The degradation in her condition is unprecedented,” Ardakani said, adding the transfer appeared to be carried out “for reasons of reprisal.”
She also said Iranian lawyers have been denied proper access to Mohammadi and her case files. “They do not have access to the file and are refused direct contact with her,” she said.
Ardakani described Mohammadi as both a human rights defender and a journalist targeted for documenting repression, and said her family, including her children living in France, remain deeply affected by her detention.
Mohammadi, a prominent critic of Iran’s authorities, has been jailed for years despite international calls for her release.
US War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington will not pursue a nation-building effort in Iran, while adding that Tehran has killed large numbers of its own citizens.
“We’re not going to entangle this into some nation-building project,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing.
He also said Iran’s government “killed 45,000 of their own people, innocent civilians.”
Hegseth said US objectives remain limited, focused on security and preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
US War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States is not seeking conflict with Iran as it launches a temporary operation to protect shipping in the Persian Gulf.
“We’re not looking for a fight,” Hegseth said, describing the effort as defensive and limited in scope.
He said the operation, known as Project Freedom, aims to restore the flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz and protect commercial vessels from Iranian aggression.
“Project Freedom is defensive in nature, focused in scope and temporary in duration, with one mission, protecting innocent commercial shipping from Iranian aggression,” he said.
Hegseth said US forces would not need to enter Iranian waters or airspace, adding the mission is designed to secure global energy routes and support international trade.
He warned Iran against interfering with shipping. “If you attack American troops or innocent commercial shipping, you will face overwhelming and devastating American firepower,” he said.
Hegseth added the operation would eventually be handed over to international partners, saying the waterway is more critical to the global economy than to the United States.
Iranian newspapers reacted to the latest escalation in the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on the United Arab Emirates with a tone of pride and vindication, presenting the crisis as proof that Tehran can set the rules in the Persian Gulf.
The coverage followed UAE accusations that Iran launched missile and drone attacks, including on Fujairah, as the United States moved to escort ships through the strait under President Donald Trump’s “Project Freedom.”
Some papers in Iran went beyond portraying the escalation as leverage and treated it as a moment of humiliation for the UAE.
The most striking example came from the ultraconservative daily Vatan-e Emrooz, which used a macabre pun to turn the UAE’s Persian name into a taunt.
Instead of Emarat-e Mottahedeh-ye Arabi – the United Arab Emirates – it wrote Emarat-e Monfajereh, roughly “the Exploded Arab Emirates:” a wordplay that treats an attack on a neighboring country as a punchline and a boast.
Hardline Kayhan carried the message beyond the Persian Gulf, with a threat by its editor Hossein Shariatmadari: “Europe knows that we can, and we will strike.”
Javan, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, published a photo of the strait alongside an image of Alireza Tangsiri, the former Guards navy commander killed in March, with a quote attributed to him: “Because we are a superpower.”
JameJam, linked to Iran’s official broadcaster, used a cartoon of Trump trapped in the strait and struggling to open it. Its headline read: “Hormuz dead end.” The image captured a theme repeated across several papers: the United States as stuck, and Iran as the actor controlling the passage.
Other newspapers used more formal language but carried the same message. Sobh-e No and Ettela’at ran headlines such as “Iranian order in the strait” and “Iran’s show of power in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Ettela’at wrote that any foreign armed force, especially the US military, would be attacked if it tried to enter the strait, and that only vessels coordinating with Iranian forces would be allowed to pass safely.
Farhikhtegan gave the confrontation an economic frame. Under the headline “Iran’s $30 billion is no longer hostage to the UAE,” the paper argued that the collapse of trade and currency ties with the Emirates could create opportunities for Iran.
The framing appeared to respond to reports that the UAE was considering freezing billions of dollars in Iranian-linked assets and targeting the shell companies and exchange networks that have helped connect Iran to foreign currency and global trade.
The paper described the UAE as a former “golden corridor” for bypassing sanctions, but said it had become a full adversary after the war. It also said that more than 80 percent of Iran’s currency settlements had been conducted through the Emirati dirham.
That framing is central to the front pages. The UAE is not portrayed merely as a neighboring country pulled deeper into the war. It is presented as the closest and most exposed partner of Washington in the Persian Gulf – a place through which Tehran can send a message to the United States, Israel, Europe and regional governments at once.
There were some more cautious voices. Donya-e Eqtesad set out possible scenarios ranging from a prolonged standoff to direct military confrontation or renewed diplomacy.
Yet even that more analytical treatment reflected the same basic reality: Hormuz has become the Islamic Republic’s main card in a war already extending beyond Iran, the United States and Israel.
