Iranian Soccer Chief Says National Team Will Not Go To World Cup If Revolutionary Guards Are 'Insulted'
The head of Iran’s Football Federation has said the national team will only take part in the 2026 World Cup if the United States guarantees it will not “insult” the Islamic Republic’s “military institutions,” particularly the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Speaking on late on May 5, Mehdi Taj said Iran was seriously preparing for the tournament and that players will likely travel to Turkey for training camps and friendly matches after the domestic soccer season ends.
Taj added that the federation would seek “serious guarantees” during meetings with during meetings with Gianni Infantino, the president of world soccer’s governing body, FIFA, and other officials.
Referring to a recent controversy in which he and two other officials were turned back from Toronto airport while on their way to a FIFA congress, he said that, if a similar incident happened in the United States, “the national team may return" home.
“They do not have the right to insult our military institutions, especially the IRGC, and they cannot insult our officials,” Taj said.
Iran’s Football Federation said its delegation had returned from Canada after “the conduct of immigration officials at the airport and insults directed at one of the armed forces institutions.”
The Canadian government, without naming individuals, said people linked to the IRGC were not permitted to enter the country. Canada designated the IRGC a terrorist organization in June 2024.
The United States also designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization during Donald Trump’s first administration.
Iran Denies Unfrozen Funds Will Be Used To Purchase US Crops
Iran's parliament speaker and top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, has dismissed claims that Tehran will use its unfrozen assets to buy US agricultural products, calling them false.
"The US only exports GMO soybeans, broken promises and trash talks," Qalibaf said in an X post on June 25, a day after US President Donald Trump said that released Iranian assets will be "totally controlled" by the United States.
"We will be releasing some of their money, that is totally controlled by us, to our Farmers and Ranchers, for the purchase of Corn, Wheat, Soybeans, and more," Trump said in a Truth Social post on June 24.
He added that Iran "desperately needed" food and insisted that "we will be purchasing it for them exclusively from the United States," following a deal with Washington.
The release of billions in Iranian funds held abroad is part of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by Tehran and Washington on June 17 that aims to end months of war between the countries.
The prospect of purchasing US agricultural products using unfrozen funds has not gone down well with hard-liners in Iran, who say Iran is "gifting" billions to that United States and making its food security dependent on US farmers.
Rubio Seeks To Reassure US Gulf Allies At Talks In Bahrain
MANAMA -- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been bringing US allies in the Persian Gulf up to speed on the framework agreement with Iran and related issues at a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Bahrain.
Rubio acknowledged that GCC nations had concerns about the US-Iran deal, which set up a 60-day period for further talks with Tehran.
“It's important to point to a couple of things that are a priority to us. For while we want a deal, we don't want a deal at any price. We want a deal that's good,” he said. “We want to ensure that (in) any decisions that are made throughout this negotiating process, the interest of our partners and our allies in the region are always taken into account.”
The GCC consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The meeting follows a tour Rubio has taken through the region.
Media reports have suggested GCC countries have reservations about the deal.
All of them were targeted by Iranian missiles following the US and Israeli air strikes that began the war on February 28.
At the meeting in Bahrain, Rubio again emphasized that indications by Iran that it would seek to impose tolls or fees for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz were unacceptable.
“You can call it a toll. You can call it a fee, whatever you want to call it, it's a game of semantics. The reality of it is that no country on Earth has a right to charge for the use of international waterways, and that will never be an acceptable condition of any deal,” he said.
Oil Prices Fall To Pre-War Levels For First Time
The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark oil, has fallen to below the level it was at before US and Israeli air strikes started the war with Iran on February 28.
The decline comes as increasing numbers of ships have been clearing the Strait of Hormuz, the key global artery for some 20 percent of global oil supplies prior to the war.
At one point, Brent was trading at $72.24 a barrel on June 25. According to the Trading Economics web monitor, it reached $73.48 on February 27.
Oil prices have been coming down all week as traffic increased in the strait, following the US-Iran framework agreement to end their conflict.
Shipping levels still have a long way to go before they reach pre-war levels and have also been boosted by an International Maritime Organization (IMO) operation to evacuate ships stranded when Iran closed the strait in early March.
IMO figures on June 25 showed 13 vessels passed the strait on June 23, followed by 32 the next day, and 12 vessels by midday local time on June 25. These were just vessels exiting the strait as part of the IMO operation.
Global oil supply has been further boosted by the US waiver on sanctions applying to Iranian oil, bringing extra barrels to market that were previously not legally available -- although Chinese refineries did buy large amounts of oil transported by Iranian shadow fleet vessels.
Kpler, a commodities intelligence company, noted 70 crossings in both directions on June 24, the highest figure since March 1. The same day, maritime intelligence company Windward noted a 48 percent increase in traffic through the strait.
Veterans Of Iran Talks Say Verification Will Be ‘Heavy Slog’ With Details Of Access Key To Success
Amid an ongoing row between Washington and Tehran over whether international monitors can verify Iranian compliance with its nuclear nonproliferation commitments, former officials have told RFE/RL that the scale, scope, and degree of access are crucial to the success of inspections.
Details on those have yet to be determined, though Raffael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the UN body "will be working on the modalities -- dates, procedures, places -- very soon."
That doesn't mean, according to experts, that the organization hasn't already drawn up a wish list for any eventual inspections.
"They almost certainly have a plan for when they go back in, what the priorities are, where they would want to go first, second, third," Laura Rockwood, a former IAEA negotiator on Iran, told RFE/RL.
To read the full report, click here.
Iran Agreed To Downblend Its Uranium. But How Do You 'Dilute' A Radioactive Metal?
In the 1990s, US and Russian scientists pulled off the ultimate nuclear magic trick: "downblending" weapons-grade uranium so it could never be used in a bomb.
Now, the US and Iran are trying to repeat history.
Under the new 60-day peace roadmap, Iran has agreed to downblend its current stockpile.
But how exactly do you "dilute" a radioactive metal? It’s not as simple as adding water.
US Senate Rejects Bill Limiting Trump’s Iran War Powers
The US Senate voted 50-47, with one abstention, to block a war powers resolution approved a day earlier that limited the president's handling of the war in Iran.
President Donald Trump had sharply criticized the original resolution, saying its passage could weaken Washington's position in negotiations with Iran. He reportedly clashed with some Republican senators over their support of the resolution before the new vote was taken.
Praising the Republicans' actions in the new vote on social media, he wrote: "This vote is a warning to Iran."
The bill, which is mostly symbolic, has not been placed on the Senate agenda. The two votes relate to two different stages of the process of considering a bill or resolution in Congress.
The original resolution, which was first passed in the House of Representatives, would require the Trump administration to withdraw US forces from a conflict with Iran unless Congress specifically authorizes the action.
Iran Demands Accountability For NATO's 'Complicity' With US In War
Iran's Foreign Ministry called the statements by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte saying the United States used some of the military alliance's bases in Europe in the war with Iran "an admission" of its "complicity" in the conflict and demanded accountability.
Rutte's comments, which were in response to US President Donald Trump's criticism of NATO's lack of cooperation in Washington's military campaign against Tehran, were "an admission of the organization's active complicity in committing military aggression against an independent country" the ministry said.
Rutte said that during the war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, European NATO member countries cooperated greatly with the United States, and between 4,000 and 5,000 operational flights of the US military were carried out from European bases, including from Italy.
Italian officials rejected the claim, saying they only allowed the United States to use the country's bases for logistical and support flights based on bilateral commitments with Washington, and that no offensive operations were carried out from Italy.
Several of America's European allies, including Italy and Spain, explicitly opposed the war, while others, such as Britain, Germany, and France, took a more cautious stance and avoided from entering the war, an issue that greatly angered Trump.
Iran Rejects Oman's Proposed Route Through Strait Of Hormuz
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) says the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz is only possible via the route that Tehran has specified and that another route announced without consulting Iran is unacceptable and a security risk.
The IRGC have maintained that its forces will handle vessels attempting to pass through the vital waterway without coordination with Iran.
On June 24, Oman introduced a temporary route for asked ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Some reports indicate the "quiet" cooperation of the United States in guiding a number of ships to this route.
Iran had previously identified another route and declared it the only safe route through the Strait of Hormuz.
US Government Requests Additional $88 Billion In Funding, Mostly Related To Iran War
The US government has asked Congress for nearly $88 billion in additional funding. According to a statement on the White House website, the bulk of the request is for "urgent needs" related to the Iran war and the Ebola outbreak in Africa.
More than $67 billion of the requested budget is for the military; $21 billion of that is requested for the Pentagon, which the US Department of Defense will use to replace spent ammunition, bolster the military industry, and help with critical capabilities.
We are now closing the live blog for the day. We'll be back at 7:30 a.m. Central European time to cover the latest events across the Middle East.