Iran has issued stark warnings to Israel following recent infrastructure attacks, with Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, declaring on Friday that Tehran would retaliate against any attacks on its infrastructure. According to reports from Reuters, Zolghadr stated that "We will respond to any attack on infrastructure, and the criminal Zionist regime will not escape." These threats come as the US-Iran hostilities have resumed this week, with the US-Iran memorandum of understanding, which had paused hostilities since April, appears to be unravelling after a fresh round of clashes over the past week. Zolghadr also lashed out at US President Donald Trump, calling him "the most despised figure in the world" and accusing him of insulting Iranians as the country concluded funeral ceremonies for former supreme leader Ali Khamenei. He praised the mass processions held across Iran and Iraq as a "historic epic."
A series of unclaimed air strikes hit areas across southern Iran on Thursday, even as the country prepared to bury its late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. As reported by Reuters, Iran's government has not directly blamed anyone for the strikes, though one lawmaker warned the United Arab Emirates over allegedly supporting the US campaign against Iran. Gulf Arab states, which have repeatedly come under Iranian attack since the war began on February 28, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The latest escalation saw US Central Command strike approximately 90 military targets along the Iranian coast on Wednesday, including air-defense systems, coastal surveillance equipment, missile and drone storage facilities, naval assets and logistics centers. Iranian state media confirmed that the perimeter of the Bushehr nuclear power plant and a strategic railway bridge linking Iran with Central Asia were also hit.
Iran responded to the US strikes by launching missiles and drones at US military positions across the Gulf, including facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait, according to i24NEWS. An American source told i24NEWS that continued Iranian fire could turn US strikes into a "daily" or "weekly" occurrence. The escalation follows the US-Israeli strike that killed Khamenei in the opening attack of the war on February 28, with his funeral ceremonies concluding Thursday in Mashhad following a week of processions through Iran and Iraq. Zolghadr warned that the "criminal Zionist regime," which he blamed for the strikes, "will not be safe from the response of the fighters."
Separately, Israeli intelligence reportedly shared information with Washington this week about a new plan by Iran to assassinate US President Donald Trump, according to US media reports. As reported by Reuters, Trump briefed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday about American operations in the Gulf, with Netanyahu's office saying coordination between the two countries had been established across several sectors. Additionally, Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom said the first six employees of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant have begun returning to the site, months after hundreds of staff were evacuated when the US and Israel launched their war against Iran in February.
