Iran security official meets Taliban defense minister in Moscow

An Iranian lawmaker said on Thursday that a possible agreement with the United States would violate the Supreme Leader’s red lines on the Strait of Hormuz, the nuclear issue, compensation and Lebanon.

Abolfazl Abutorabi told Iran-based website Didban Iran that the draft under discussion differed “180 degrees” from an earlier 10-point version he said had been prepared under the Supreme Leader’s direct view.

He said reopening the Strait of Hormuz had been placed against the lifting of the naval blockade, but without enforcement guarantees.

“If we open the Strait of Hormuz, what guarantee is there that they will not start the blockade again? No guarantee,” he said.

Abutorabi also criticized reported proposals for the release of Iranian funds, saying Tehran should not give up leverage in Hormuz to receive $12 billion of its own money.

He said a proposed $300 billion fund for Iran lacked enforcement guarantees and accused Washington of trying to deceive Tehran with what he called “a lollipop.”

“JCPOA Two is more damaging than JCPOA One,” he said, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal, adding that he believed the United States would attack again after the World Cup and its elections.

Reopening internet access is against the law, said the spokesman for parliament’s cultural committee on Thursday.

Ahmad Rastineh said the Islamic Republic should use all its capacity to complete the National Information Network, a domestic network cut off from the real internet.

The lawmaker added that “unregulated access” to internet, especially for teenagers, would cause serious harm to the country.

He said a body created by President Masoud Pezeshkian to restore internet access lacked authority because its duties overlapped with those of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace.

South Korea’s AI-driven semiconductor export boom will more than offset the economic hit from the Iran war and the global energy shock, the country’s central bank chief said, according to the Financial Times.

Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song said booming chip sales were expected to lift 2026 GDP growth by 0.7 percentage points.

That would outweigh the central bank’s estimated 0.4 percentage-point drag from the Iran war, according to the report.

Some buyers of US liquefied petroleum gas canceled cargoes normally headed to Asia after freight rates surged because of the conflict in the Middle East, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

At least two cargoes scheduled to load next month from US Gulf Coast export terminals were canceled, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Some buyers were also in talks to cancel more shipments, it added.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday that it targeted a US air base in response to what it described as a “hostile attack” by the US military on a site near Bandar Abbas airport earlier, according to a statement by its public relations office published by IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency.

The IRGC said the strike at 4:50 a.m. served as a “serious warning,” adding that any further “aggression” would be met with a stronger response.