Trump rejected Iran Hormuz plan, expects strikes after midterms

Iraq’s first deputy parliament speaker, Adnan Faihan al-Dulaimi, criticized restrictions on Iranian civilian flights to Iraqi airports on Saturday, calling the decision “hasty” and unconstitutional.

Faihan said unilateral US sanctions did not automatically constitute an international obligation for Iraq and argued that any restrictions on Iranian flights required a basis in Iraqi law or a binding international commitment.

He warned that the measure could hit religious tourism, particularly traffic through Baghdad and Najaf, and asked how the government would compensate airlines, hotels, travel companies and other businesses affected.

Faihan also raised the prospect of Iranian retaliation, saying Iraq could lose 30% to 40% of its available electricity generation capacity if Tehran stopped supplying natural gas.

“We will not allow Iraq, under any circumstances, to become a partner in the blockade of the Islamic Republic,” he said, adding that parliament was prepared to hold an extraordinary session if the decision was not reversed.

The Iraqi government said earlier that it was in direct talks with Washington seeking exemptions for some airports to allow Iranian flights to resume for humanitarian and civilian purposes.

Mohsen Heydari, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, told Al Araby that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded in the February 28 attacks on the leadership office.

“Even after they learned he had been wounded and taken to the hospital, three hospitals in Tehran were bombed,” Heydari said. “Mojtaba Khamenei was in the third hospital and was pulled from the rubble.”

Heydari said members of the Assembly of Experts later received information that Khamenei was in good health and capable of leading the country.

“We obtained information that Mojtaba Khamenei was healthy and able to lead, and we determined that he met the requirements of religious qualification, justice and competence to manage the country,” he said.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Al Jazeera that Tehran “no longer trusts talks with Washington,” saying talks had repeatedly been followed by US attacks and sanctions.

“Those who thought they could target the Iranian people with sanctions miscalculated,” Pezeshkian said, adding that Iranians had “stood firm in the face of American and Israeli attacks, and we will continue to stand firm.”

He said the US and Israel had sought to “prevent Iran from relying on itself” and had “dragged” regional countries into the war in the belief that Iran “would fall within days.”

Pezeshkian also blamed Washington for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and said Iran could help resolve differences between Yemen’s Houthis and Saudi Arabia through dialogue.

He said regional security should come through “cooperation among its countries,” adding that the region did not need a “policeman.”

Ahmadreza Mohammadrezaei, a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force, was killed in an accident while carrying out his duties, state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

His death was disclosed in a report on his funeral. IRNA gave no details on the nature of the accident or when it occurred.

Mohammadrezaei was buried at Behesht-e Sadegh cemetery after a funeral attended by military commanders, officials and members of the public, the report said.

Hossein Ali Haji-Deligani, deputy head of parliament’s Article 90 Commission, said lawmakers had called for Nasser Asadi, a member of Iran’s UN mission, to be removed from his post and dismissed from the Foreign Ministry after he remained in the General Assembly hall during US President Donald Trump’s speech.

Asadi was the only Iranian diplomat who stayed in the chamber during Trump’s address.

Haji-Deligani also called for Iran to pursue a nuclear deterrent, saying that because countries Tehran considers enemies possess nuclear weapons, “we must also act on this issue to create deterrence against American crimes.”

Iranian lawmaker Esmail Kowsari said Tehran would take steps to counter what he described as an air blockade, amid restrictions affecting Iranian flights.

“We will take measures to neutralize these sanctions, and in practice we will make them regret the blockade,” Kowsari, a member of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Revayat-e Farda television.

He said the restrictions could not be sustained and were placing pressure on ordinary Iranians.

Iran’s Defense Ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik said recent conflicts had become increasingly technology-driven and extended well beyond the battlefield.

“The intensity of fire, speed of operations, geographic scope of the fighting, types of weapons and use of new technologies in the recent wars cannot be compared with the eight-year war,” Talaei-Nik said, according to state media.

Iran is facing what the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Ground Forces described as a “full-scale hybrid war” spanning economic, social, cultural, political, security and military fronts, Tasnim reported.

“The country today is engaged in a full-scale hybrid war,” Brigadier General Mohammad Karami said, adding that Iran’s adversaries were also using media and social networks “to influence public opinion and wage psychological warfare.”

Iraq is in direct talks with the United States to exempt some Iraqi airports from US Treasury measures affecting flights by Iranian airlines to regional airports, the Iraqi prime minister’s media office said on Saturday.

The government said the exemptions would allow flights to resume for humanitarian purposes, including medical treatment, education, religious visits and other civilian needs.

Baghdad also called for dialogue and negotiations to ease regional tensions, saying continued crises were making the situation more complicated.