Iran threatens regional oil exports; Trump signs new sanctions bill into law

Tehran City Council’s deputy chairman, Parviz Sorouri, said he would welcome Iran moving toward nuclear weapons for deterrence and questioned the benefits of membership in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“I would be very happy to hear that the Islamic Republic had moved toward nuclear weapons for deterrence, not to pose a threat to other countries,” Sorouri told the Didban Iran website.

He said Iran had achieved a significant level of deterrence but that its enemies continued to use their nuclear capabilities to threaten it.

Sorouri said NPT membership had brought Iran “no benefits,” while leaving any decision on withdrawal to the country’s leadership.

“We must strengthen anything that creates problems for the enemy and turn it into a deterrent,” he said.

Flames and a large plume of black smoke were seen rising near Riyadh airport on Saturday, an eyewitness told Reuters.

A senior commander in Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement, identified as Abu Saqr, was killed alongside six members of his entourage in fighting on the Kahboub front, Al Arabiya reported.

Dozens of Houthi fighters were killed or wounded as battles intensified around the Kahboub mountains and spread to Al-Wazi’iyah district, the broadcaster said.

The report cited field sources describing the commander’s death as a setback for the Houthis on the front overlooking Bab el-Mandeb. It provided no precise overall casualty count.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards experts visited Mokha’s port and airport and the Bab el-Mandeb area, Yemeni sources told Sky News Arabia.

The sources said the Houthis had begun installing radars on hills overlooking the southern Red Sea and that Iranian equipment had reached Houthi-controlled areas along Yemen’s western coast.

The shipments were unloaded secretly after arriving from the Somali coast, the sources said. The report did not specify the equipment.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke by phone with his Pakistani counterpart.

No details of the discussion were provided in the brief announcement.

Iran’s Interior Ministry spokesman condemned accusations of betrayal against officials pursuing diplomacy and descriptions of the armed forces as warmongers, calling both forms of criticism “treason.”

Ali Zeynivand said at a news conference on Saturday that branding the president, parliament speaker, foreign minister and diplomats as sellouts or traitors while they worked on a diplomatic package amounted to “a great betrayal.”

He also criticized those who portrayed members of the army and Revolutionary Guards as warmongers.

Zeynivand acknowledged that many Iranians wanted an “honorable end to the war” and stronger diplomacy, while saying a majority supported “honorable defense and resistance against the enemy.” He offered no polling figures in the remarks provided.

Women who ran without compulsory hijab at a race in Tehran’s Velayat Park could face legal and disciplinary action, the province’s sports director said after the event.

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  Unveiled runners draw attention at Tehran 10k race

Habib Sotoudeh-Nejad told Tasnim news agency that participants had been required to pledge compliance with “Islamic standards” before the race, which he said had been authorized by the provincial security council.

Organizers and security personnel were stationed along the route to warn participants, he said, adding that some women had been prevented from taking part.

Iranian lawmaker Fada-Hossein Maleki portrayed China and Russia’s veto of a US draft resolution against Iran as a result of Tehran’s military strength, parliament’s Khaneh Mellat news agency reported.

Maleki, who represents Zahedan and sits on parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said Washington’s approach to confronting the Islamic Republic had failed “in every arena.”

While describing the veto as an important obstacle to US efforts, he said Iran’s diplomatic gains were rooted in developments on the battlefield and other countries’ recognition of its regional power.

He also said Washington was becoming increasingly isolated, citing European resistance to US demands against Iran, without identifying specific examples.

Iran has executed a man it accused of passing information about missile sites in Isfahan to Israel's Mossad, the judiciary said on Saturday, the latest in a series of espionage executions that rights groups say rest on confessions extracted in detention.

The judiciary's news agency, Mizan, identified him as Hossein Pedaran and said he had been convicted of espionage and intelligence cooperation with Israel and sentenced to death, with the sentence upheld by the Supreme Court. He had been arrested in Isfahan on charges related to the war.

Mizan published a long account of what it described as Pedaran's confessions. According to that account, he first messaged the CIA offering to cooperate and received no reply, then contacted Mossad and was answered days later by an officer who introduced himself as "Ben" using a Dutch WhatsApp number.

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Hardline newspaper Kayhan criticized the government’s handling of hijab rules, accusing it of failing to take cultural measures to promote compliance over the past two years.

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  War conditions curb mandatory hijab crackdown, Iranian official says

The newspaper, published under the supervision of the supreme leader’s representative, challenged officials who have described hijab as a cultural issue.

“Yes, hijab is a cultural issue, but why has the government taken no cultural action to improve the hijab situation over the past two years?” it wrote.

Kayhan described women’s dress on Tehran’s streets as “displays of nudity” and claimed, without presenting evidence in the excerpt, that it had disgusted even nonreligious people.