Echoing killed father, Khamenei says Zionist regime near end

Rubio says Iran negotiations will take ‘a few days’ as Tehran vows response to US strikes

Trump to hold cabinet meeting at White House on Wednesday as talks reach critical point; Iranians allowed back online as some restrictions lifted

Talks between the United States and Iran on an initial agreement extending the ceasefire and reopening the Strait of Hormuz will take several more days, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday, as Tehran threatened retaliation for overnight US strikes, which it called a violation of the truce and a sign of “bad faith.”

The US military characterized Monday night’s strikes in southern Iran as defensive, saying targets included missile launch sites and minelaying boats, and said the US acted with “restraint” in light of the weekslong ceasefire.

Speaking to reporters after the strikes, Rubio said there is “a lot of talking back and forth going on about specific language in the initial document.”

“So, it’ll take a few days,” he said.

He added that US President Donald Trump will not accept a bad deal and said the critical point at the moment is reopening the Strait of Hormuz without Iran being allowed to charge a toll for ships passing through the crucial waterway.

“The straits need to be open, unimpeded, without tolls,” he said.

As the negotiations with Iran near a critical point, Trump was set to hold a rare cabinet meeting Wednesday at the Camp David presidential retreat, a White House official told AFP, with the choice of the secluded retreat in the Maryland mountains — which Trump hardly ever visits, in a break with previous presidents — seeming to reflect the sensitive nature of discussions.

Trump, however, later announced on his Truth Social platform that the cabinet meeting would take place at the White House instead of Camp David, citing “possible bad weather conditions.”

The New York Post reported that the issue of Iran is set to dominate the meeting, which is expected to be attended by all cabinet members. The economy is also on the agenda, it said.

Trump said Saturday that a Memorandum of Understanding with Tehran to end the Middle East war was close, but negotiations are still tense, with the US leader warning that strikes on Iran could resume. This initial deal would delay discussion of key US-Israeli war goals, including dismantling Iran’s rogue nuclear program and destroying or exporting its highly enriched uranium, and has triggered profound concern in Israel, where officials have described the terms as highly problematic. Iran avowedly seeks to destroy Israel.

Iran says strikes show ‘bad faith’

Reacting to the overnight US strikes, Iran denounced them as a sign of “bad faith and unreliability,” warning that Washington would bear responsibility for “all consequences,” without elaborating.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will leave no act of aggression unanswered,” Iran’s foreign ministry added in a statement.

Iranian state TV reported Tuesday that Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Qatar, where talks had been taking place.

According to Iranian media, Ghalibaf was seeking agreement on the release of around $24 billion of frozen Iranian funds as part of the memorandum of understanding. Iran’s Fars news agency cited a source saying that the unfreezing of the funds was the last serious sticking point for the memorandum of understanding to be finalized.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Tuesday that it shot down at least one drone and deterred another drone and a fighter jet that entered its airspace, according to the official Mizan news agency. It didn’t specify when the incidents occurred.

The shaken Zionist regime

In comments posted on his Telegram channel on the occasion of the annual hajj pilgrimage, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei purportedly said: “The clock cannot be turned back, and the nations and lands of the region will no longer be a shield for American bases.”

“From now on, the slogans ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’ will be the slogans of the Islamic nation and the oppressed people of the world, especially the youth,” the statement added, continuing his slain father’s rhetorical line.

After that message, Khamenei’s account posted on X: “The shaken Zionist regime and the cancerous tumor of Israel are approaching the final stages of their wretched existence.”

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar mocked him in response, saying the language “sounds familiar.”

“I remember someone with a similar surname who used to say it,” he said, referring to predecessor Ali Khamenei, who was killed in late February in US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

“BTW, where are you?” added Sa’ar, referring to the fact that the younger Khamenei hasn’t been seen or heard since his appointment, reportedly hunkering down in a secret location after sustaining lasting injuries in the attack that killed his father.

Blast damages tanker; US denies resuming Hormuz op

Also on Tuesday, an explosion damaged a tanker close to its waterline as it sailed off Oman, a marine monitor said, as tensions remained high around the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

“The crew and vessel are safe, although the master reports some bunker fuel has discharged into the sea,” UK Maritime Trade Operations said.

The incident, in the Gulf of Oman about 60 nautical miles east of Muscat, was an “external explosion,” UKMTO added, without detailing the cause of the blast.

Iran has been laying mines in waters nearby as part of its campaign to block Hormuz, which normally carries one-fifth of global oil production.

The blast came as the US military denied a Wall Street Journal report published Tuesday which claimed that the US renewed its naval escort initiative to help guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Dubbed “Project Freedom,” the original initiative was frozen earlier this month 36 hours after it began.

The report, which cited unnamed US military officials, said a Greek supertanker carrying two million barrels of crude oil has already been guided through the strait.

Hours later, the US Central Command flatly denied the report.

“FALSE,” CENTCOM said in a post on X. “Project Freedom has not resumed, and US forces are not currently escorting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.”

Iranians get back online

Meanwhile, Iranian authorities eased a monthslong internet shutdown that they cast as a wartime necessity, but that has cost the country’s economy an estimated $30 million to $40 million a day.

Internet users reported that access was gradually being restored, at least in some places. State media said fixed broadband service was back. It was unclear when mobile internet would be widely restored.

Iran’s vice president later confirmed the “first step” had been taken towards restoring the internet for Iranians, adding that the demands of Iranians “will be fulfilled.”

Iran has long enforced filters and policed content on platforms such as YouTube and Instagram. But before the war, Iranians could bypass restrictions with cheap virtual private networks, known as VPNs, and other easy workarounds.

Authorities cut off internet access in January during massive anti-government demonstrations and later began to relax those restrictions before imposing a complete internet blackout after the US and Israel launched the current war in late February. Internet access monitor NetBlocks on Tuesday called it the “longest nationwide internet shutdown in modern history.”

The internet outage made it difficult for Iranians outside the country to maintain contact with loved ones, and the lack of connectivity devastated the country’s relatively vibrant online businesses, putting further pressure on an already battered economy.

“Since a few minutes ago I could open international websites using my home internet provider,” said a 22-year-old woman from the western city of Kermanshah who declined to be named, but she said she still needed VPNs for social media.