Mojtaba Khamenei vows global revenge for father’s killing

Hardline Iranian lawmaker Hamid Rasaei accused Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf of preventing Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi from answering lawmakers’ questions during more than four months of war, ceasefire and negotiations.

Rasaei wrote on Telegram that Ghalibaf had kept parliament out of session for four and a half months and had not allowed Araghchi to face even half an hour of questioning.

He contrasted this with a US congressional hearing involving Democratic Representative Seth Moulton and CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper, saying Iran’s parliament had held no oversight session on the war, ceasefire or memorandum signed with Washington.

Tehran will not enter negotiations with the United States unless Washington retreats from its current positions, the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency reported Saturday, citing a source close to Iran’s negotiating team.

The source said the Islamic Republic had not requested talks with Washington and would judge any US retreat by whether previously agreed arrangements were implemented.

Those conditions include establishing a special working group on Lebanon aimed at ending the war and securing a withdrawal, resolving navigation through the Strait of Hormuz under arrangements sought by Tehran, and restoring oil exports and flows to normal levels, Fars reported.

Influential hardline politician Saeed Jalili said negotiations should be judged solely by whether they strengthen Iran, describing diplomacy as a tool rather than an objective.

“Negotiation is a tool, not a goal. It may be effective at one point and ineffective at another,” Jalili, the Supreme Leader’s representative to the Supreme National Security Council, wrote on X.

“If it consolidates and increases the country’s power, it is valuable. If it weakens the country’s power, it is harmful,” he added.

Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said Saturday that Tehran would pursue those it holds responsible for alleged war crimes during the two recent conflicts and seek compensation for the damage caused.

“War criminals must be punished in proportion to the crimes they committed, and they must also pay compensation,” Ejei said at a meeting with international lawyers involved in pursuing cases against Israeli officials.

He said Iran’s prosecutor-general, the judiciary’s international affairs office and its lawyers’ center were gathering evidence against the United States and Israel, including material related to Ali Khamenei’s killing and attacks on a school in Minab.

A US official told ABC News that any agreement with Iran would depend on Tehran handing over highly enriched uranium buried under rubble after US airstrikes, referring to the material as “nuclear dust.”

“Either they’re going to give us the nuclear dust or we have very low-cost military options to ensure that it remains buried underground forever,” the official said.

The official said Washington retained military, diplomatic and economic leverage if Iran refused.

“We have a lot of options if they resist giving the dust,” the official said. “The United States fundamentally has the cards. We want the dust.”

“But I want to be clear here that if we don’t get the dust, we do not have a deal with Iran,” the official added.