Statement Attributed To Iran's Supreme Leader Blasts US, As Leaders Say MOU 'Suspended'
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in a written statement attributed to him, assailed Washington for what it said were repeated breaches in commitments made under an interim cease-fire framework and he vowed to teach the US "unforgettable lessons."
"Now that the American enemy seeks to incite war and bear its most serious consequences, it should know that the dear Iranian nation and the axis of resistance have unforgettable lessons to offer it," he said in the statement read by state TV late on July 18.
He added that US violations of the framework agreement "demonstrated to everyone the worthlessness of the American president's signature."
US forces have for the past seven nights struck at Iranian coastal areas and infrastructure sites after Iran fired on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, which Washington said was a violation of the terms of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by both sides last month.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the attacks were designed to degrade Tehran's ability to attack ships in the strait.
Khamenei, the 56-year-old son and successor of Iran’s longtime leader, has not been seen in public since his father, Ali Khamenei, was killed in the first day of US-Israeli strikes on February 28. He was reportedly severely injured in the attack, raising questions about his health and his ability to carry out his duties as supreme leader.
There have been no known audio or video recordings of Mojtaba Khamenei since February 28. He was not seen throughout six days of ceremonies and rallies during funeral services for his father in early July.
Experts said his absence from the funeral services inflicted a further blow to Khamenei's legitimacy and intensified questions about who runs the Middle Eastern country of some 90 million people.
According to the authorities, he did not attend his father's funeral because of security concerns.
Mojtaba Khamenei was a controversial pick as supreme leader. While his selection represented continuity during wartime, it also angered government supporters who said hereditary succession betrayed the anti-monarchist roots of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Despite his absence from public life, US intelligence services say that Mojtaba Khamenei likely still plays a prominent role in war strategy and managing peace talks with the US.
Prior to the release of the Khamenei statement, top Iranian officials on July 18 said the framework agreement with Washington was effectively "suspended" following the latest US air strikes.
"Unfortunately, the Americans have violated their obligations under the Islamabad declaration of intent through their aggressive measures," Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in a televised interview.
He added that Washington had effectively abandoned its obligations under the MOU, forcing Iran to suspend implementation of all of its own commitments.
“None of those commitments are currently being implemented,” he said.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei made similar remarks, saying the MOU had “effectively been suspended.”
A day earlier, Iranian Major General Mohsen Rezaei threatened that Tehran was ready to resume "full-scale offensive operations" if US strikes against it continue for another two or three days.
The US-Iran framework agreement of mid-June was intended to lead to a permanent end to the war, stipulating that a final deal would be negotiated within 60 days.
A key clause was a US demand to open the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran had effectively blocked.
Traffic has irregularly moved through the waterway, although it currently appears to be virtually shut again after recent strikes by Iran on vessels that it said had not received its permission to transit, prompting the latest wave of US strikes.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, AFP, and Reuters
2 US Service Members Killed, 1 Missing In Jordan After Iranian Missile Strike
The US military said two US service members were killed and another one is missing in Jordan as part of defensive operations against incoming Iranian ballistic missiles.
Four others were injured and evacuated to Jordanian hospitals, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on X on July 18. Two of them have been discharged from the hospital, while several others were evaluated for minor injuries and returned to duty, it added.
"On July 17, two US service members in Jordan were killed in action as US Central Command...and partner forces defended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks. Additionally, one service member is currently missing in action," CENTCOM said.
The statement did not specify where in Jordan the attack occurred.
The deaths would bring the total of known fatalities among US service members since the start of the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 to 15.
It would also mark the first deaths since the resumption of hostilities following the latest cease-fire attempt.
Six were killed on March 1 when a drone hit a command center in Kuwait.
On March 8, a US soldier was fatally injured during an attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Six members of a refueling aircraft were killed in March 12 when their plane crashed.
The deaths come as Iranian officials said an interim agreement between Washington and Tehran had been suspended after the recent wave of US strikes on Iranian sites.
CENTCOM said the strikes were in response to Iran's attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran is attempting to control in what Washington says is a violation of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by both sides.
Meanwhile, a statement attributed to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on July 18 blasted the US for what it said were repeated violations of the MOU.
Khamenei has not been seen in public since February 28, when his father -- the previous supreme leader -- was killed and he was severely injured in US-Israeli air strikes.
Iranian officials on July 18 said that the MOU, which was designed to give the sides 60 days to sign a permanent end to the war, was effectively "suspended."
"Unfortunately, the Americans have violated their obligations under the Islamabad declaration of intent through their aggressive measures," Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in a televised interview.
Statement Attributed To Iran's Supreme Leader Blasts US, As Leaders Say MOU 'Suspended'
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in a written statement attributed to him, assailed Washington for what it said were repeated breaches in commitments made under an interim cease-fire framework and he vowed to teach the US "unforgettable lessons."
"Now that the American enemy seeks to incite war and bear its most serious consequences, it should know that the dear Iranian nation and the axis of resistance have unforgettable lessons to offer it," he said in the statement read by state TV late on July 18.
He added that US violations of the framework agreement "demonstrated to everyone the worthlessness of the American president's signature."
US forces have for the past seven nights struck at Iranian coastal areas and infrastructure sites after Iran fired on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, which Washington said was a violation of the terms of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by both sides last month.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the attacks were designed to degrade Tehran's ability to attack ships in the strait.
Khamenei, the 56-year-old son and successor of Iran’s longtime leader, has not been seen in public since his father, Ali Khamenei, was killed in the first day of US-Israeli strikes on February 28. He was reportedly severely injured in the attack, raising questions about his health and his ability to carry out his duties as supreme leader.
There have been no known audio or video recordings of Mojtaba Khamenei since February 28. He was not seen throughout six days of ceremonies and rallies during funeral services for his father in early July.
Experts said his absence from the funeral services inflicted a further blow to Khamenei's legitimacy and intensified questions about who runs the Middle Eastern country of some 90 million people.
According to the authorities, he did not attend his father's funeral because of security concerns.
Mojtaba Khamenei was a controversial pick as supreme leader. While his selection represented continuity during wartime, it also angered government supporters who said hereditary succession betrayed the anti-monarchist roots of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Despite his absence from public life, US intelligence services say that Mojtaba Khamenei likely still plays a prominent role in war strategy and managing peace talks with the US.
Prior to the release of the Khamenei statement, top Iranian officials on July 18 said the framework agreement with Washington was effectively "suspended" following the latest US air strikes.
"Unfortunately, the Americans have violated their obligations under the Islamabad declaration of intent through their aggressive measures," Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in a televised interview.
He added that Washington had effectively abandoned its obligations under the MOU, forcing Iran to suspend implementation of all of its own commitments.
“None of those commitments are currently being implemented,” he said.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei made similar remarks, saying the MOU had “effectively been suspended.”
A day earlier, Iranian Major General Mohsen Rezaei threatened that Tehran was ready to resume "full-scale offensive operations" if US strikes against it continue for another two or three days.
The US-Iran framework agreement of mid-June was intended to lead to a permanent end to the war, stipulating that a final deal would be negotiated within 60 days.
A key clause was a US demand to open the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran had effectively blocked.
Traffic has irregularly moved through the waterway, although it currently appears to be virtually shut again after recent strikes by Iran on vessels that it said had not received its permission to transit, prompting the latest wave of US strikes.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, AFP, and Reuters
Bahrain Directs Citizens To Safety After Tehran Attack Claims
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry on July 18 advised its citizens and residents to head to a safe place as Tehran claimed it had targeted the Jufair military base in the north of the island.
The Jufair base, known as the Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bahrain, is the home of the US Fifth Fleet in the region.
The US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) has not commented on the Interior Ministry's announcement and the Iranian claim could be not independently verified.
“The siren has sounded, citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place,” the ministry said in a social media post.
The ministry did not release any details about Iran's claim of an attack, potential casualties, or damage to infrastructure.
Citing the Baghdad-based AlGhadeer TV, Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, reported that Tehran had targeted the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet.
Meanwhile, other media reports, quoting Iran’s Fars news agency, suggested that five key ports hosting the US military or commercial interests could be hit by Iranian strikes.
Iranian Prisoners Continue Strike Against Executions
Hundreds of inmates at Iran’s largest prison, Ghezel Hesar, are staging a hunger strike against the possible execution of six prisoners whom, rights organizations say, have already been shifted to solitary confinement.
Radio Farda, quoting the Iranian Human Rights Organization, reported that the protest began in Unit 2 of the prison on July 12, where the authorities are keeping around 1,500 prisoners.
A video posted by Iran Human Rights on X shows dozens of men lining both sides of a corridor inside a building, some holding Persian-language placards calling for an end to executions.
RFERL was unable to verify the location of the video and the date it was recorded.
According to the Iranian Human Rights Organization, the condition of some of the hunger-striking prisoners was critical but the authorities refused to transfer them to hospital for treatment.
The rights organization also released a video showing two apparently unconscious prisoners and their cellmates asking if they can be transferred to a hospital.
The prisoners on death row have reportedly been convicted of drug-related charges. Ghezel Hesar prison, in the city of Karaj, around 20 kilometers northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran, is holding around 20,000 prisoners of whom 13,000 are facing charges relating to drugs.
Iran’s Ghezel Hesar Prison has a history of mass protests. In February 2024, prisoners started the “No to Executions Tuesdays” by staging a weekly hunger strike every Tuesday against the increasing number of death penalties. In one of those protests, prisoners sewed their lips together.
There has been no comment from Iranian officials in Tehran or from inside the Ghezel Hesar prison.
In a May 2025 statement, the New York-based Amnesty International reported that the Iranian regime has executed an “unprecedented” 2,159 people in 2025, the highest number globally since 1981.
Iran Warns Gulf Neighbors Of 'Corresponding' Military Response
In a stark warning following the seventh night of US strikes against Iran, the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said that the country's Gulf neighbors must be ready to receive a “corresponding and proportional” response.
In the statement, the IRGC warned the “host nations” with US military bases to activate their civil defense units and relocate civilians away from potential military targets, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on July 18.
The IRGC warning came hot on the heels of an apparent shift in US military strategy, with strikes expanding from targets near the Strait of Hormuz to multiple sites across central and southern Iran on July 18.
Quoting the IRGC, Iran’s ISNA news agency reported that the groups's fresh warning is Iran’s direct response “to a shift in the US military strategy” over the past 24 hours.
Referring to the ongoing US strikes in its statement, the IRGC justified its warning by stating that Iran is executing the “reciprocal defense” following the “failure of international bodies to halt these actions.”
On July 17, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the fresh strikes are designed to continue degrading Iranian military capabilities at the direction of the commander in chief (US President Donald Trump).
CENTCOM said it "hit surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities” employing fighter aircraft, aerial drones, and warships in addition to other assets.
Earlier, Iran’s top military officials had threatened “full-scale offensive operations” if the US continued striking Iran for another two or three days. Quoting Major General Mohsen Rezaei, who is a senior military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Iranian news agency IRIB reported that "Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses...and no political border will be safe."
Meanwhile, Tehran continued firing drones and missiles toward neighboring Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar on July 17, resulting in damage to infrastructure.
Al-Jazeera reports that the security threat level was elevated in Qatar amid sounds of loud explosions in the capital, Doha, early on the morning of July 17. Quoting the Qatari Interior Ministry, the TV channel said a child was injured by falling shrapnel during the attacks.
Qatar hosts a major US military base and has been the target of regular Iranian drone and missile strikes since the beginning of the conflict in late February.
In Kuwait, the country’s Electricity, Water, and Renewable Energy Ministry said in a July 17 statement that a power and water desalination plant was hit in the Iranian strikes that sparked a fire, damaging a large number of electricity generation units.
As hostilities continue with risk of further expansion of the war, there are fresh calls for an immediate cease-fire and a resumption of dialogue.
On July 17, the foreign ministers of China and Pakistan, in a joint appeal, called for a return to the cease-fire agreed upon between Iran and the United States last month.
CENTCOM Says Seventh Night Of Attacks Concluded At 5 A.M. Iran Time
The US Central Command at 5 a.m. Iran time on July 18 said its latest wave of strikes -- the seventh night in a row of attacks -- had been concluded.
"US Central Command (CENTCOM) hit surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities. US forces employed fighter aircraft, aerial drones, and warships in addition to other assets," it said on X.
Iranian media earlier reported that at least two bridges and a tunnel had been hit by US forces. News outlets also reported that three people had been killed in the attacks, but the report could not be independently verified.
Hormuz Shipping Comes To Near Halt Amid Latest Flareup Of Violence
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz -- through which some 20 percent of the world’s crude oil and gas supplies transited prewar -- has almost ground to a halt again following the renewed exchange of attacks, according to data supplier Kpler.
Only eight ships passed through the strait on July 16, the lowest figure in three weeks and down from 15 passages a day earlier and from 48 two weeks ago, Kpler said.
"Seven of the eight transits used the Iranian route, highlighting a growing concentration of movements through higher risk corridors as operators reassess security, crew safety, and insurance exposure," it said.
"While regional mediation efforts remain under way, commercial shipping patterns suggest military developments are now shaping operational decisions more than diplomatic progress."
Prewar, more than 100 vessels on average passed through the waterway each day.
The reduction in transit traffic has led to major shortages of oil and gas throughout the world and pushed energy prices sharply higher.
Prices had dipped and traffic increase following an interim cease-fire agreement between Washington and Tehran, but the latest attacks by both sides has again disrupted shipment of supplies.
Exiled Iranian Kurdish Group Reports 9 Killed In Suspected Iranian Attack
At least nine members of an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group based in Iraq's Kurdistan region were killed on July 17 on an attack the exiled party blamed on Iran.
Idriss Kohlwazi of the exiled Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan told AFP: "The Iranian regime attacked at 4:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) with drones and rockets a camp."
The strikes killed nine members of the party at their camp near the city of Sulaimaniyah, he said.
The Iraqi government also blamed the attack on Iran.
The attacks come amid renewed military escalation between the US and Iran.
Thousands of self-exiled Iranian Kurds have established bases in the semiautonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region. The Iranian Kurds, although keeping ties, maintain separate militias from the Iraqi Kurds in the region.
With reporting by AFP
US Hits Iran For Seventh Straight Night As Tehran Strikes Gulf States
US forces have launched a new wave of attacks on Iran, marking the seventh straight night of strikes described as looking to degrade Tehran's military capabilities.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in an X post that it "launched a round of strikes against Iran at 3 p.m. ET today [10:30 p.m. on July 17 in Iran] for the seventh consecutive night. The strikes are designed to continue degrading Iranian military capabilities at the Commander in Chief's direction."
CENTCOM also said that over the first three days of a renewed blockade of Iranian ports, US forces have redirected four commercial vessels, disabled one, and boarded another to "ensure full compliance" with the blockade.
The announcements come as US-allied Gulf Arab states reported incoming Iranian missiles and drones, with some strikes causing some injuries and damages at infrastructure sites.
An X post by the Kuwaiti Army stated that the Defense Ministry spokesman said that "the sinful Iranian aggression resulted in the targeting of several facilities and camps affiliated with the Kuwaiti Army using hostile drones, leading to injuries among a number of Kuwaiti Land Force personnel while carrying out their duties."
"The injured have received the necessary medical care and treatment, and their health condition is stable," it added.
The Kuwaiti Army also said that fire broke out and caused damage to power-generation units at an electricity and water desalination plant, although the exact timing of that attack was not immediately clear.
Meanwhile, Iranian Major General Mohsen Rezaei threatened that Tehran is ready to resume "full-scale offensive operations" if US strikes against it continue for another two or three days.
Rezaei, a senior military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, said, "Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses...and no political border will be safe," according to the Iranian news agency IRIB.
With reporting by AFP
CENTCOM Says Strike Destroyed Iranian Maritime Surveillance Tower
The US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces destroyed a surveillance tower at the Shahid Kalantari commercial port in the southeastern Iranian city of Chabahar.
It described the tower as part of a maritime surveillance network used "for decades" by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) "to track and target commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz."
CENTCOM said in an X post on July 17 that the destruction of the tower the previous day "directly degrades IRGC's ability to coordinate attacks on innocent civilian crew members" and would help protect freedom of navigation in regional waters.
It included what it said was footage of the strike in its post.
Iranian authorities had previously said that the Chabahar maritime watchtower was used to ensure the safety of civilian navigation. The US military says that it was instead used to support attacks on merchant vessels.