IRGC navy says 26 vessels transited Hormuz with Iran coordination

Iran has not yet decided whether Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will attend a UN Security Council meeting on international peace and security on May 26, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said.

Baghaei said Araghchi had been invited because China currently holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council and plans to host a special meeting of foreign ministers.

“This open meeting of the UN Security Council is planned for May 26, but given the foreign minister’s busy schedule, his participation has not yet been finalized,” Baghaei said.

The comments came after lawmaker Ali Khezrian, a member of parliament’s National Security Committee, said Araghchi was expected to travel to New York and hold talks with Persian Gulf countries about the Strait of Hormuz.

Khezrian criticized the possible trip, saying he hoped the report was false because holding such a meeting in New York, “on enemy soil,” would place the Islamic Republic in a position of weakness.

The United Arab Emirates urged Iraq on Wednesday to prevent hostile acts from being launched from its territory, after Abu Dhabi said drones from Iraq targeted the Barakah nuclear power plant.

The UAE foreign ministry called on Baghdad to act immediately and without condition to stop such attacks and address the threat responsibly.

The ministry said the attack on Barakah violated UAE sovereignty, international law and the UN Charter.

Iran’s embassy in London rejected any link between Tehran and the stabbing of Iran International presenter Pouria Zeraati.

British prosecutors said on Monday that a team of Romanian men who carried out a 2024 knife attack on Zeraati in London were acting as proxies for Iran.

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  Iran International journalist stabbed at Tehran's behest, UK court told

Zeraati was stabbed three times in the leg near his home in Wimbledon, southwest London, in late March 2024. He was discharged from the hospital two days later.

“This is the absurdest claim one can possibly hear. This is an absolutely baseless allegation, and those who are hired to fabricate such fake news must be held accountable for propagating falsehoods and hatred,” the embassy said in a post on X.

Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei marked the second anniversary of Ebrahim Raisi’s death by calling on officials across the Islamic Republic to deepen what he described as service, unity and continuity in governance.

In a message commemorating Raisi and others killed in the flight crash, Khamenei praised the late president’s “responsibility, youth-oriented approach, attention to justice, active diplomacy and popular character.”

The most politically significant part of the message focused on the current war, saying Iran now faced what he called a historic resistance against “two global terrorist armies.”

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  Two years after Raisi’s crash: Iran has no sanctuary

Khamenei said that raised the responsibility of officials “from the leadership and heads of branches to all levels of management,” calling on them to strengthen public service, address people’s economic and livelihood concerns, and give the public a serious role in the country’s future.

UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash Anwar Gargash accused Iran-backed militias in Iraq of targeting the Barakah nuclear power plant, calling it a dangerous sign of the threat facing the region.

Gargash said the alleged targeting of the peaceful nuclear energy facility reflected “the absence of the national state” and clear violations of international law.

He compared the alleged threat to what he called the “hijacking and piracy” of the Strait of Hormuz, saying both endangered the global economy and the international order.

“From Hormuz to Barakah, the threat goes beyond the Persian Gulf to the entire international order,” Gargash wrote on X, accusing Iran-aligned actors of using chaos and coercion to preserve their position.