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Iran Announces Death of Soleimani's Guard in Southern Aleppo

Asghar Pashapour
Asghar Pashapour
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Iran Announces Death of Soleimani's Guard in Southern Aleppo

Asghar Pashapour
Asghar Pashapour

Member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force Asghar Pashapour was announced killed in Aleppo’s battles on Sunday, according to Iranian sources.

Tehran’s militia participation in the attack on Idlib was confirmed in line with the Iranian Foreign Ministry's support for Damascus.

Sources said Pashapour was close to slain Commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad early January.

According to the Iranian Television Agency, he was killed “in confrontations with militant groups.”

His military rank in the IRGC was not revealed, but information indicates that he has accompanied Soleimani in Syria since the beginning of the war between the regime forces and the Syrian opposition factions.

IRGC intelligence agency’s Mashreq website has described Pashapour as “the man who was always concerned about Soleimani's life” and published a picture of them both gathered with other fighters at a site in Syria.

Young Journalists Club (YJC) news agency, for its part, released a video of a conversation going on between Soleimani and Pashapour in a site in Syria, in which the latter was asking Soleimani not to advance to frontlines.

Iran has not yet officially revealed a statistic on the number of its forces in Syria despite the announcement of the death of hundreds, including senior IRGC leaders over the past years.

In October 2015, Pashapour's brother-in-law died in an IRGC hospital in Tehran from his wounds after 13 months of fighting in Syria.

IRGC news agencies reported back then that he was subject to an assassination attempt using “chemical weapons” 40 days before his death announcement, without indicating who was behind the attempt.

Western diplomatic sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday that Iranian-backed militias are participating with the regime forces in battles to control Idlib, which are believed to be part of Tehran's “response” to Soleimani's assassination.

Iran had prevented its militias and Lebanese Hezbollah from participating in Idlib battles. However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported a few days ago that “six foreign pro-Iranian fighters were killed during the ongoing battles with the factions in the southern countryside of Aleppo.”

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World

Rubio Says US Will Not Accept Iranian Tolls on Hormuz

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 22, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 22, 2026. (Reuters)
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Rubio Says US Will Not Accept Iranian Tolls on Hormuz

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 22, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 22, 2026. (Reuters)

Washington's top diplomat insisted Tuesday that the US would not accept any attempt to impose tolls or fees on Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway where the UN said it would begin evacuating thousands of sailors stranded by the Middle East war 

The US and Iran have signed a preliminary deal to halt the war, and concluded a first round of talks in Switzerland as part of a 60-day negotiation period to settle outstanding issues like sanctions relief and the fate of Tehran's nuclear program. 

An Iranian blockade that began early in the conflict choked off maritime traffic through the Hormuz strait -- sending global oil prices surging -- but crossings have begun to rise again since the US-Iran deal was inked. 

Iran has repeatedly maintained it will retain control over the waterway, including on Tuesday, when it and Oman said in a joint statement that they would study the administration of the trade route and the costs to be charged for services provided, insisting on their sovereignty over the strait. 

But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, kicking off a regional tour, reiterated Washington's position that such an arrangement would be unacceptable. 

"It's an international waterway. No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway," he said from Abu Dhabi, adding that he believed "all the countries in this region would agree". 

Tehran's top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, had earlier insisted the Strait of Hormuz "will never return" to the pre-war status quo, despite the foes agreeing to set up communication lines to keep it open. 

- Muscat meeting - 

Oman and Iran agreed on Tuesday to press on with discussions about the future administration of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. 

In a joint statement issued after talks in Muscat, they said a joint working group involving their foreign ministries ‌would be ‌formed to continue the discussions and ‌that they ⁠would consult other ⁠littoral states and relevant parties.  

The move appears to implement a provision of the memorandum of understanding signed last week that calls for Iran to hold talks with Oman and other states on the future management of ⁠navigation and maritime services in the strait, ‌a vital waterway ‌for global oil supplies.  

The agreement was announced following a ‌visit by Speaker Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who met Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq and held talks with Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi.  

In the statement, Oman and ‌Iran, the two states bordering the strait, reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring ⁠safe ⁠passage through the waterway in accordance with international law while underlining sovereignty over their territorial waters.  

Since the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran in February, the strait has been largely closed to commercial shipping. The United States blockaded Iranian ports after Iran started effectively blocking the strait.  

Oman and Iran reaffirmed their commitment to the strait being a secure and open route for international navigation and to promoting maritime safety, freedom of navigation and regional stability. 

The head of the UN's International Maritime Organization, meanwhile, said it would begin evacuating more than 11,000 sailors stranded by the Hormuz blockade in cooperation with Iran, Oman and the United States, adding it had "secured the necessary safety guarantees". 

Traffic through the strait on Monday reached the highest level since the start of the war, according to two maritime tracking platforms, representing just over 40 percent of the normal peacetime level of about 120 vessels per day. 

World

Tehran Gets Three-Day Holiday for Ali Khamenei Funeral

An Iranian man walks past a banner depicting slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei at Valiasr Square in Tehran on June 15, 2026. (AFP)
An Iranian man walks past a banner depicting slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei at Valiasr Square in Tehran on June 15, 2026. (AFP)
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Tehran Gets Three-Day Holiday for Ali Khamenei Funeral

An Iranian man walks past a banner depicting slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei at Valiasr Square in Tehran on June 15, 2026. (AFP)
An Iranian man walks past a banner depicting slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei at Valiasr Square in Tehran on June 15, 2026. (AFP)

Iran announced Tuesday three days of public holidays in the capital Tehran for late supreme leader Ali Khamenei's funeral ceremonies, state television reported.

"The farewell ceremony and prayers for the martyred leader's body will be held on Saturday and Sunday, July 4th and 5th, in Tehran's Grand Mosalla, and the funeral will be held on Monday, July 6th, and Tehran province will be off for these three days," Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander Hassan Hassanzadeh, in charge of the ceremonies, was quoted as saying.

Earlier, state media said Tehran would be on holiday on July 4 and 5, while the rest of the country will join it on July 6.

Tehran authorities expect an attendance of around 20 million.

The northern city of Qom will also host a tribute on July 7.

Ali Khamenei will be laid to rest on July 9 in the northeastern city of Mashhad, his birthplace.

These two cities will also observe public holidays.

Neighboring Iraq has scheduled ceremonies for July 8.

The funeral was originally planned for March but was postponed due to the war in the Middle East, which was triggered by the US-Israeli attacks in February that killed Khamenei.

Ali Khamenei's son Mojtaba succeeded his father as supreme leader in early March, becoming the third person to hold the position since the regime was established in 1979.

Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded in the bombing that killed his father and other officials. He has not been seen in public since his appointment and communicates solely through official statements.

World

China’s Newest Aircraft Carrier Sails Through the Taiwan Strait

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, China's third conventionally powered aircraft carrier, the Fujian, conducts a maiden sea trial on May 7, 2024. (Ding Ziyu/Xinhua via AP, File)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, China's third conventionally powered aircraft carrier, the Fujian, conducts a maiden sea trial on May 7, 2024. (Ding Ziyu/Xinhua via AP, File)
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China’s Newest Aircraft Carrier Sails Through the Taiwan Strait

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, China's third conventionally powered aircraft carrier, the Fujian, conducts a maiden sea trial on May 7, 2024. (Ding Ziyu/Xinhua via AP, File)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, China's third conventionally powered aircraft carrier, the Fujian, conducts a maiden sea trial on May 7, 2024. (Ding Ziyu/Xinhua via AP, File)

China’s newest and most powerful of its three aircraft carriers sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, the Taiwanese defense ministry said, a day after Taiwan began a five-day military exercise on responding to a Chinese attack.

The Fujian carrier first sailed through the narrow body of water separating China and Taiwan in a trial run last September. It later transited the strait for the first time as a fully commissioned military vessel in December.

China claims the self-governed island as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to bring it under Beijing's control. China regularly sends navy vessels and war planes towards Taiwan in military exercises that have become more frequent in recent years to where they now occur almost daily.

Taiwan on Monday kicked off its own five-day exercise to support its response in case of a possible Chinese military invasion.

The US Navy sends warships through the strait periodically, as do some of its allies, in a warning to Beijing against any attempt to use force to establish its claim to the island.

The Fujian was commissioned in November 2025. It is world’s largest nonnuclear-powered warship, according to the US Naval Institute, and is considered more advanced than China's other two carriers, the Shandong and the Liaoning.