Any US action would trigger strikes on wider range of targets, Iranian official says

Iran has prepared a mechanism to manage traffic through the Strait of Hormuz along a designated route and will unveil it soon, according to Ebrahim Azizi, head of parliament’s national security committee.

Azizi said only commercial vessels and parties cooperating with Iran would benefit from the arrangement.

He added that Iran would collect fees for specialized services provided under the mechanism.

Lebanese MP Fouad Makhzoumi welcomed the 45-day extension of the ceasefire with Israel, saying it marked a step toward restoring Lebanon’s sovereignty and ending the role of weapons outside state control.

“The era of weapons outside the state has ended, and the era of Lebanon reclaiming its full sovereignty has begun,” Makhzoumi wrote on X.

His comments were aimed at Iran-backed Hezbollah, whose independent military power has long been at the center of Lebanon’s sovereignty dispute.

Makhzoumi, a Beirut member of parliament and founder of the National Dialogue Party, said the ceasefire extension and the launch of political and security tracks under US sponsorship in Washington were an “advanced step” toward strengthening the Lebanese state and making the army the sole authority responsible for protecting the country’s borders, land and people.

The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was extended by 45 days after talks in Washington, with further negotiations expected in early June, according to the US State Department.

US and Israeli pressure on Beirut has focused in part on disarming Hezbollah, while previous ceasefire arrangements and UN resolutions have called for the disarmament of armed groups outside the Lebanese state.

Hezbollah has not been a direct party to the Israel-Lebanon talks, leaving its weapons and military autonomy a central obstacle to any lasting settlement.

Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, warned Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates that Tehran’s restraint toward them would not last indefinitely, accusing them of placing their territory at the disposal of Iran’s enemies.

“Iran looked at them for years as friends and brothers, but they pre-sold their independence and even placed their land and homes at the disposal of the enemies of Palestine and Iran,” Mokhber said.

He said the Islamic Republic’s response to what he called “CENTCOM’s rented strongholds” during the recent war was not full-scale.

“But this restraint is certainly not permanent,” he added.

Iran has repeatedly argued that its strikes in regional countries during the conflict targeted only US- and Israel-linked sites and infrastructure, not the countries themselves.

Tehran has used that distinction to say it remains open to relations with neighbors even as it warns them against allowing their territory to be used in operations against Iran.

Hossein Shariatmadari, the hardline editor of Kayhan newspaper, said the war “must not and cannot” end without revenge for former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

In an article titled “They began with the martyrdom of Agha (Khamenei); we will not end without revenge,” Shariatmadari wrote that the United States, Israel and several regional countries had taken part directly in the war against Iran.

He said diplomacy with Washington and regional states may be part of the Islamic Republic’s defined policy, but argued that the war could not end without what he called “harsh revenge” against those responsible for Khamenei’s death.

Shariatmadari wrote that killing Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, their deputies and aides, as well as identifying and killing pilots involved in the attacks, should not be excluded from Iran’s “formula of revenge.”

He also said Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Bahrain should be among Iran’s marked targets, accusing them of direct participation in attacks against Iran.

Iran’s judiciary has ordered the seizure of assets belonging to 51 people in Yazd province on accusations of “espionage and cooperation with hostile countries,” IRGC-affiliated Tasnim reported.

The outlet said 20 of those targeted were inside Iran and 31 were outside the country.

The report did not provide further details on the cases or the alleged evidence.