Tehran “is not looking for war” but will also “never sit still in the face of any aggression,” Iran’s president said on Monday in his first comments since the US’ weekend attack on Iran’s Larak Island.
Speaking before departing for Kyrgyzstan for an international summit, Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would respond firmly to any further attacks, according to the Fars news agency.
Iran “will give a decisive response to the aggressors” if attacked, he said.
“Instability and unrest in the region are not in the interest of any country and will challenge everyone,” he added.
Pezeshkian is due in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek to attend a summit of heads of state of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member countries.
Iran says it downed US drone over Strait of Hormuz
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Monday that it had shot down a US drone over the Strait of Hormuz, causing it to crash into the waters of the Gulf.
In a statement, the IRGC public relations office said the “ever-watchful fighters of the IRGC’s modern air defence” hit the long-range US MQ-9 Reaper drone with missile fire early on Monday, causing it to fall into the Gulf, according to Iran’s Mehr News Agency.
The statement also praised the Iranian people’s continued presence in the field as the greatest support for the nation’s fighters.
Trump shares AI-generated video imagining Iranian island ‘being blown to smithereens’
Iran’s energy hub of Kharg Island is being “blown to smithereens”, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday in a one-line social media post accompanied by an AI-generated video clip.
There was no other evidence that the Iranian energy hub was under attack. The White House and the US Defence Department did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment outside regular business hours.
There was no immediate response to Trump’s post on Iranian media.
“Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!! President DJT,” Trump said on social media, but gave no further details.
Reuters confirmed that an accompanying video clip showing dramatic explosions was most likely synthetically generated, using software that detects AI-manipulated imagery.
Attacking Kharg, which handled 90% of Iran’s oil exports before the war launched by US and Israeli attacks on February 28, would severely disrupt its energy trade and put huge pressure on its economy.
Iran responded to an earlier US attack on rocket launchers on its island of Larak, about 660 km (410 miles) east of Kharg, with an assault on two US bases in Jordan, Iranian media said.
The return to hostilities followed weeks in which the Trump administration has stepped up efforts to punish Tehran and its business partners with costly economic sanctions, shifting away from military options.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Reuters on Sunday new secondary sanctions were likely to be unveiled weekly in the effort to pressure Iran, with an initial focus on banks.
“We’re starting with the banks, and we’re telling the banks it’s not okay to have Iranian money and to aid the regime,” Bessent said in an interview.
After imposing penalties on the United Arab Emirates branches of Egypt’s Banque Misr on Friday over alleged financial links to Iran, Bessent said the next step may be cutting off an institution entirely from the dollar-based financial system.
“You’re going to see a lot more of these every week,” Bessent told Reuters, ahead of a meeting of Group of 20 finance leaders.
First known military attacks in weeks
In describing the first known US military strikes since late July, a US official said forces attacked two Iranian launchers on Larak Island.
The small island in the Strait of Hormuz near the strategic port of Bandar Abbas overlooks shipping lanes at the mouth of the Gulf, giving it a key role in tension over Iran, maritime security and global energy supplies.
“Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz,” the source added.
In retaliation, Iran launched ballistic missiles at Jordan, targeting two US bases. Jordan’s armed forces had intercepted eight missiles that entered its airspace, state television said.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the attack killed and wounded several soldiers and citizens and vowed a “response and punishment” from Tehran, according to Iranian state media.
In a statement, the US Central Command said it took “limited, precise” action against minelaying forces of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that posed an “imminent threat” in the Strait of Hormuz. It gave no details.
Amid threats to shipping, the number of visible commodity vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz dropped to five a day over the weekend, shipping data showed.
The actual number could be higher as some vessels have switched off automatic identification systems to evade attacks.
Last week, US President Donald Trump said all mines had been detonated or removed from the international waters of the strait and Iran had been warned that any vessel placing new mines would be destroyed.
While Trump has repeatedly said the Strait of Hormuz is open, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ navy had called those statements “an obvious lie”, reiterating that it remained closed to ships without Iranian permission.
The waterway carried nearly a fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas shipments before it was blockaded in the six-month-old Iran war.
Iran is the third-largest producer in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
