Khamenei Orders Settlement Project in Occupied Emirati Islands

Aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower during training at a site in the Gulf last Sunday. US Navy handout
Aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower during training at a site in the Gulf last Sunday. US Navy handout
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Khamenei Orders Settlement Project in Occupied Emirati Islands

Aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower during training at a site in the Gulf last Sunday. US Navy handout
Aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower during training at a site in the Gulf last Sunday. US Navy handout

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Naval Force Commander Alireza Tangsiri revealed that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has tasked the IRGC with making Arab Gulf islands "habitable."

This includes the occupied Emirati islands. Meanwhile, the IRGC is trying to justify its retaliation against US forces in the Arab Gulf amid a raging war of words between Washington and Tehran. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had accused the US of conspiring daily against Iran.

Tangsiri warned that the IRGC would not allow "the presence of foreign warships in this region."

Revealing Khamenei's plans to develop the islands in a radio interview, Tangsiri did not elaborate on why and when he issued the order.
Tangsiri, however, revealed that settlements were a part of the plan.

Tangsiri called the US military presence in the region illegitimate, mindless of the fact that it was Iran's aggressive moves including attacks on civilian navigation in international waters in 2019 that prompted US allies in the region to call for the presence of European and US fleets.

He said when Khamenei wants to make the islands habitable, "this means that we want to make the region secure."

Tangsiri added that the IRGC has built international airports in Abu Musa and the Greater Tunb Islands and another island has been constructed in the Lesser Tunb.

"They must understand the situation by that name and by the coastal nation that has protected this waterway for thousands of years," AFP quoted Rouhani as saying in a televised address during a cabinet meeting.

"They should not plot against the Iranian nation every day,” he added.

“The soldiers of our armed forces in the guardians of the Revolution, the army, Basij (paramilitary organization) and the police have always been and will be the guardians of the Gulf,” Rouhani said.

Tehran and Washington have traded barbs over a spate of incidents in the past year involving their forces in the sensitive waters of the Gulf.

Their latest high-seas confrontation came on April 15, when the United States said 11 Iranian boats harassed its navy ships in what it described as the international waters of the Arabian Gulf.

President Donald Trump then tweeted that he had ordered the US Navy to "shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea".



Israel Killed 30 Iranian Security Chiefs and 11 Nuclear Scientists, Israeli Official Says

A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Israel Killed 30 Iranian Security Chiefs and 11 Nuclear Scientists, Israeli Official Says

A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Israel killed more than 30 senior security officials and 11 senior nuclear scientists to deliver a major blow to Iran's nuclear ambitions, a senior Israeli military official said on Friday in summarizing Israel's 12-day air war with Iran.

In the United States, an independent expert said a review of commercial satellite imagery showed only a small number of the approximately 30 Iranian missiles that penetrated Israel's air defenses managed to hit any militarily significant targets.

"Iran has yet to produce missiles that demonstrate great accuracy," Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at the CNA Corporation specializing in satellite imagery, told Reuters.

In Israel, the senior military official said Israel's June 13 opening strike on Iran severely damaged its aerial defenses and destabilized its ability to respond in the critical early hours of the conflict.

Israel's air force struck over 900 targets and the military deeply damaged Iran's missile production during the war that ended with a US-brokered ceasefire, the official said.

"The Iranian nuclear project suffered a major blow: The regime's ability to enrich uranium to 90% was neutralized for a prolonged period. Its current ability to produce a nuclear weapon core has been neutralized," the official said.

Iran, which denies trying to build nuclear weapons, retaliated against the strikes with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites and cities. Iran said it forced the end of the war by penetrating Israeli defenses.

Iranian authorities said 627 people were killed in Iran, where the extent of the damage could not be independently confirmed because of tight restrictions on the media. Israeli authorities said 28 people were killed in Israel.

Eveleth, the independent US expert, said Iran's missile forces were not accurate enough to destroy small military targets like US-made F-35 jet fighters in their shelters.

"Because of this the only targets they can hit with regularity are large cities or industrial targets like the refinery at Haifa," he told Reuters.

Iranian missile salvos, which were limited by Israeli airstrikes in Iran, did not have the density to achieve high rates of destruction, he wrote on X.

"At the current level of performance, there is effectively nothing stopping Israel from conducting the same operation in the future with similar results," he wrote.

In a statement on Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had directed the military to draft plans to safeguard air superiority over Iran, prevent nuclear development and missile production, and address Iran's support for militant operations against Israel.

Israel's military Chief of Staff Lieutenant General, Eyal Zamir, said on Friday the outcome in Iran could help advance Israeli objectives against the Iranian-backed Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip.

Zamir told troops in Gaza an Israeli ground operation, known as "Gideon's Chariots," would in the near future achieve its goal of greater control of the Palestinian enclave and present options to Israel's government for further action.