Iran lawmaker says retaliation for killing supreme leader is certain

Twenty-three crew members were rescued after a bulk carrier collided with another vessel north of Iran’s Qeshm island early on Tuesday, the Hormozgan ports authority said.

According to the statement, the collision caused one of the ships to take on water and prompted an emergency evacuation. The crew were transferred safely to Qeshm island.

A pilot boat and a tug were sent to the scene to manage the situation and investigate the accident, read the statement.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday that they targeted a US air base in Jordan with ballistic missiles, claiming the facility had been used in attacks against Iran.

In a statement addressed to the Jordanian public, the Guards said Iran had no hostility toward Jordan and urged people there to demand the removal of US military bases.

The IRGC also accused the United States of using bases in Jordan during earlier attacks on Iran.

Iran executed two men accused of membership in an Islamic State-linked militant cell and armed action against the Islamic Republic, the judiciary’s Mizan News reported on Tuesday.

Mohieddin Abdollahi and Hossein Palani were hanged after the Supreme Court upheld their death sentences, the report said.

The judiciary said the cell had sought to rebuild Islamic State networks and carry out attacks in Iran after operating along the Iran-Iraq border.

Authorities said several members were killed and others arrested during an operation in which weapons, ammunition and documents were seized.

Iran's oil exports will continue uninterrupted despite the US decision to end a 60-day sanctions waiver, Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said on Tuesday.

Paknejad said the oil ministry had maintained mechanisms developed over the years to bypass US sanctions and had kept them in place even after the temporary waiver was granted.

He accused Washington of violating the memorandum of understanding by revoking the waiver, saying the move breached the agreement's clause on the 60-day sanctions relief.

"Because the structures needed to sustain Iran's oil exports have been preserved, the country's oil exports will continue as before, and we will not face any problems in this regard," Paknejad said.

An Iranian lawmaker said on Tuesday that the time has now come for Iran to build the nuclear bomb.

“I think the time has now come for Iran to build the nuclear bomb, because it has paid enough of the costs and fought its battles. Therefore, it now needs to build it,” said Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, a member of parliament’s national security committee.

Commenting on Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s recent visit to Oman, Ardestani also said that Muscat had been Iran’s partner in the Strait of Hormuz but was “a small Arab country under the control of the United States and Arab countries aligned with it.”

“In reality, the United States speaks to us through Oman,” he added.