Arab Coalition Accuses Iran, its Proxies of Destabilizing Regional Security

Foreign Ministers and Chiefs of Staff of States for the Coalition Supporting the Legitimacy in Yemen meet in Riyadh on Sunday/SPA
Foreign Ministers and Chiefs of Staff of States for the Coalition Supporting the Legitimacy in Yemen meet in Riyadh on Sunday/SPA
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Arab Coalition Accuses Iran, its Proxies of Destabilizing Regional Security

Foreign Ministers and Chiefs of Staff of States for the Coalition Supporting the Legitimacy in Yemen meet in Riyadh on Sunday/SPA
Foreign Ministers and Chiefs of Staff of States for the Coalition Supporting the Legitimacy in Yemen meet in Riyadh on Sunday/SPA

Foreign Ministers and Chiefs of Staff of States from the Coalition Supporting the Legitimacy in Yemen denounced on Sunday the negative role played by Tehran in supporting coup militias with weapons, ammunition, ballistic missiles and mines in a flagrant violation of Security Council Resolution 2216, stressing the Iranian regime and its proxies are responsible for destabilizing regional security.

A final communiqué read by Colonel Pilot Turki bin Saleh al-Maliki, official spokesperson of the coalition, during a press conference held Sunday in Riyadh said that member states condemned the militias for killing the Yemeni people and exposing them to famine, fear, disease, tampering with the capabilities of the Yemeni people and threatening the security and stability of the region’s countries, mainly Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Al-Maliki told Asharq Al-Awsat that Houthis have targeted the Kingdom with 77 missiles.

The spokesperson said the insurgents are the first outlawed terrorist group that own ballistic powers, which he considered a very threatening challenge.

“Terrorist and armed groups cannot possess such powers, especially ballistic and surface-to-surface missiles,” he said.

The final communiqué also confirmed that the military operations of the coalition are carried out in line with the relevant international laws, including international humanitarian law.

With regard to the annual report of the UN Secretary General on children in armed conflicts issued early last month, participants rejected parts of it for containing false information, and called on the UN to revise the mechanisms and fact-finding tools.

Nevertheless, they lauded other parts of the report, which hailed measures taken by the coalition in protecting civilians.

Representatives of the Coalition forces in Yemen also condemned the coup militias' criminal acts, such as using, training and recruiting children in armed conflicts in addition to imposing a siege on cities and looting humanitarian aid, which has led to the spread of epidemics and famine among civilians.

They concluded by stressing the need for the coalition states to highlight their message and disclose the criminal practices and plans carried out by the insurgents with the support of Iran and Hezbollah.



Mohsen Rezaei: Israel Planned to Overthrow Iranian State in 7-Stage Plan

 Former IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohsen Rezaei during the televised interview on Tuesday 
 Former IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohsen Rezaei during the televised interview on Tuesday 
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Mohsen Rezaei: Israel Planned to Overthrow Iranian State in 7-Stage Plan

 Former IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohsen Rezaei during the televised interview on Tuesday 
 Former IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohsen Rezaei during the televised interview on Tuesday 

Former IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohsen Rezaei said on Wednesday that Iran exposed a 7-stage Israeli plot designed to overthrow the state.

In a televised interview, Rezaei said his country will set the timing of any future war with Israel and warned against falling into “the trap of negotiation” with the US on the country’s nuclear program.

Rezaei, now a member of the Expediency Council, unveiled a new account of the 12-day war with Israel that started on June 13.

“We shot down 80 Israeli drones during the recent aggression, and the wreckage of 32 of them is now in Iran's possession, including highly advanced Hermes and Heron drones. Our radars have recorded 80 hits,” he said.

Commenting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, the Iranian General said, “It was an organized advertisement campaign in the White House.”

Following the 12-day war, Rezaei said due to popular pressure, the US and Israel had to launch a campaign claiming they won the war.

“Israel and America were defeated,” he said, adding that to cover this defeat, Trump had to lash out at some international media outlets like CNN, saying, 'You are lying, we won.’”

He said to examine whether Israel won, one should look at what the war has achieved and what it cost.

“According to an Israeli Finance Ministry report, the 12-day war cost approximately $20 billion. In just 12 days, the Israeli military used US-made THAAD missiles equivalent to two years of manufacture,” he said.

Seven Targets

Rezaei then uncovered a plan, in which Israel, in coordination with the US, spent over a year in training from Greece to the Mediterranean with an aim to first assassinate the Leader of the Iranian Revolution and Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) figures, then trigger nationwide chaos, infiltrate counter-revolutionaries into Tehran, divide Iran into several regions, and attack Iranian military and economic infrastructure.

“Their final goal,” Rezaei stated, “was controlling skies from the Mediterranean to China’s borders.”

However, the Iranian official said their scheme collapsed spectacularly: Israeli strikes on the site of the SNSC meeting caused “zero casualties” due to strategic relocation, while border incursions failed utterly, he said.

Rezaei assessed that the enemy achieved only 10% of their first-stage objectives, while suffering 65% at the military level and 80% at the political and social levels.

Commenting on Iran’s indirect negotiations with the US, he said military readiness must go in line with the diplomatic efforts but added that “the field must be ahead of diplomacy. That's what the Houthis did.”

Strategic Opportunity

On Monday, Trump said he would like to lift sanctions on Iran at some point.

And in an eye-catching post on X suggesting Tehran sees economic ties as a potential element in any deal, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei believed American investors can come to Iran with “no obstacles to their activities.”

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Iranian rulers face two unpalatable options: renewed strikes if they do not surrender their nuclear ambitions and humiliation at home if they do.

That means they may try to make talks drag out, unwilling to fully quit their nuclear project and presenting a difficulty for a US president impatient for a deal and its economic benefits for the US, Western and regional officials say.

For Israel, the fallback option is clear, the person familiar with Netanyahu's strategy said: a policy of sustained containment through periodic strikes to prevent any nuclear resurgence.

In the wake of its air war against Iran, Israel has reasserted itself as the region's unrivalled military power, more willing than ever to use force and more capable of doing so with precision and relative impunity.

Washington, meanwhile, is hedging its bets. While Israeli and US hawks still hope for regime change in Tehran, Trump appears unwilling to shoulder the huge military, political and economic costs that such a project would demand.

Trump rapidly claimed victory after the US attack. And while he has said he would consider bombing Iran again if it continued to enrich uranium to worrisome levels, he has portrayed the June 22 operation as a bold, surgical one-off.

The US may support Israel’s military actions, even supplying advanced weaponry, but it is betting mainly on economic pressure and diplomatic leverage to force Tehran’s hand. The result is a fragile standoff, with no clear endgame, the diplomats said.

Netanyahu sees a fleeting strategic opportunity, one that demands acceleration, not hesitation, the source close to him said. In his calculus, the time to strike harder is now, before Iran regains its footing, the source said.

Iran's air defenses are battered, its nuclear infrastructure weakened, its proxies decapitated and its deterrence shaken. But Tehran’s window to regroup and rebuild will grow with time, says the person familiar with Netanyahu's strategy.

So for Netanyahu, this is unfinished business -- strategic, existential, and far from over, the diplomats and the two Middle East officials said.