Iranian Commander Threatens to Destroy Haifa, Tel Aviv

Iran's regular army ground forces' commander Kiumars Heydari. Fars
Iran's regular army ground forces' commander Kiumars Heydari. Fars
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Iranian Commander Threatens to Destroy Haifa, Tel Aviv

Iran's regular army ground forces' commander Kiumars Heydari. Fars
Iran's regular army ground forces' commander Kiumars Heydari. Fars

Iran will raze the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa should its enemy Israel make any mistake, Commander of the Iranian army ground forces Kiumars Heydari threatened on Tuesday.

“For any mistake made by the enemy, we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground by the order of the Supreme Leader,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted the Iranian commander as saying.

Heydari said all units of the army are being equipped with precision-guided, long-range and smart weapons, adding that the range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and that the operational missiles of the army have increased.

He underlined that the military and defense achievements of the Iranian army are a thorn in the enemies' eyes.

“All this equipment is to respond to the stupid aggressions of the enemies of the Islamic Revolution,” Heydari noted.

The Army commander reiterated that the usurper Zionist regime has occupied Muslim lands and these lands will return to Islam in less than 25 years.

However, Heydari failed to refer to any of the security developments that shook Iran lately.

Last May 25, an engineer died and another employee was injured after an accident in a research center at the Parchin military site affiliated with Iran's Defense Ministry.

The next day, Iranian authorities confirmed the death of engineer Ehsan Ghad Beigi in an "industrial accident" at the military site.

The New York Times said that according to three Iranians with knowledge of the attack and to a US official, a drone strike targeted the highly sensitive military site outside Tehran where Iran develops missile, nuclear and drone technology.

The attack came four days after a senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, Col. Sayad Khodayee, was assassinated in Tehran outside his home, according to a statement by the Guards.

NYT said Israel told the United States that it was behind his killing, according to one intelligence official.

The Israelis intended it as a warning to Iran to stop targeting Israeli citizens abroad, the official said.

Few days following the Parchin explosion, another commander of IRGC Quds Force died under suspicious circumstances in Karaj. There were conflicting reports concerning the reason for his death, his role at the IRGC and his link to Khodayee.

Later, reports revealed that Ayoob Entezari, a senior Iranian engineer who held a PhD in aerospace engineering and was reported dead under unclear circumstances early this month, had been intentionally poisoned in the city of Yazd.

A letter written by the governor called him a "martyr" and a picture allegedly showed officials paying a condolence visit to his home.

Khodayee’s killing and the Parchin bombing dealt a major blow to Iranian authorities, who tried to reduce Israel’s ability to carry out operations deep inside Iranian territory, especially after hardliner Ibrahim Raisi was elected President.



Egypt Tries to Revive US-Iran Negotiations

 Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, August 17, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, August 17, 2026. (Reuters)
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Egypt Tries to Revive US-Iran Negotiations

 Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, August 17, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, August 17, 2026. (Reuters)

The top diplomats for Egypt and Iran discussed efforts to bring Tehran and Washington back to the negotiating table to settle the war, Egypt's foreign ministry said on Saturday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty also discussed the Iranian-Omani talks on the management of the Strait of Hormuz, the ministry said.

Araghchi briefed Egypt's foreign minister about “Iran’s view of ongoing developments, the course of negotiations and their challenges,” the ministry said, without elaborating.

There was no immediate statement from Araghchi.


Putin Says Ukraine Opened ‘Pandora’s Box’ with Strikes on Economic Targets

 Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to journalist Pavel Zarubin in Moscow, Russia, August 22, 2026. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to journalist Pavel Zarubin in Moscow, Russia, August 22, 2026. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters)
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Putin Says Ukraine Opened ‘Pandora’s Box’ with Strikes on Economic Targets

 Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to journalist Pavel Zarubin in Moscow, Russia, August 22, 2026. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to journalist Pavel Zarubin in Moscow, Russia, August 22, 2026. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in comments published on Saturday that Kyiv had opened "Pandora's box" with its strikes on Russian economic targets, saying that Russia would hit back at Ukraine's "most sensitive economic sectors".

Ukraine has this summer escalated a campaign of drone strikes targeting Russian economic infrastructure, including oil refineries and online retailers' warehouses, seeking to ‌destroy infrastructure it ‌says is central to Russia's ‌war ⁠effort.

Russia has responded ⁠with strikes against Ukrainian economic infrastructure, including Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea.

"The Kyiv regime set out to damage our economy. What did it do? It opened this Pandora’s box itself. Well then, expect a response targeting your ⁠most sensitive economic sectors," Putin said ‌in comments to ‌a Russian state television journalist.

He said that the strikes, ‌which have jeopardized Ukraine's agricultural exports, would ‌not cause global food shortages, because Russia would be able to replace Ukrainian exports, even as Kyiv has targeted Russian grain export infrastructure.

"We do face ‌challenges regarding the shipment of our goods, but we will resolve these issues. ⁠Consequently, ⁠there will be no shortage on the global market," Putin said.

Russia and Ukraine had previously adhered to a Turkish-brokered deal to protect grain exports on the Black Sea. But Russia exited the deal in 2023.

The Russian leader also restated his position that Moscow is open to peace talks, but only on the basis of "realities on the ground", rather than what he called "exotic" proposals that he said had been made by Ukraine via intermediaries.


Iran Condemns US Plans to Announce New Sanctions

Iranian people walk past an anti-US mural in Tehran, Iran, 17 August 2026. (EPA)
Iranian people walk past an anti-US mural in Tehran, Iran, 17 August 2026. (EPA)
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Iran Condemns US Plans to Announce New Sanctions

Iranian people walk past an anti-US mural in Tehran, Iran, 17 August 2026. (EPA)
Iranian people walk past an anti-US mural in Tehran, Iran, 17 August 2026. (EPA)

Iran on Saturday denounced US plans to announce new sanctions that could put further strain on the country’s economy and have an impact on its most important trading partners including China.

After nearly six months of war since the US and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on February 28, the sides are not firing at each other but also showing no sign of pursuing peace talks.

Oil shipments are at a virtual standstill in the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran threatening to strike any unauthorized oil tankers that try to transit the vital waterway, and Iran's economy is already under immense pressure from sanctions.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday after threatening "the toughest sanctions in history" on Iran.

Bessent has also urged cooperation with Washington by China, which buys more than 80% of Iran's shipped oil, according to 2025 data from ‌analytics firm Kpler. ‌Beijing has urged diplomacy.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Saturday the imminent US announcement of ‌new ⁠economic sanctions was an "assertion ⁠of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations."

"Such secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law," he said in a post on X.

The chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, Major General Ali Abdollahi, promised on Friday that Iran would respond to enemy threats militarily with "crushing, punishing and devastating responses.”

US President Donald Trump, who has warned of economic consequences against any country that provides "any type of lifeline to Iran," said on Friday that Washington was observing "what happens" in the conflict.

"They would love to make a deal, but they're not ready to make the right deal, in my opinion," Trump said of Iran.

HORMUZ TRAFFIC HALTED

While the US has effectively blockaded Iranian vessels in their ports, the Strait of ⁠Hormuz remained bottled up with thousands of seafarers stranded on hundreds of vessels.

Only four commodity ships ‌sailed along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied ‌natural gas tankers, ship-tracking data showed.

However, Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait following repeated requests from ‌Baghdad, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

IRNA said obtaining special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad’s main requests ‌during a visit to Iraq by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the US military helped move a seven-day average of 8 million barrels a day of oil through the strait. That's down from more than 20 million per day before the war or about one of every five barrels consumed worldwide.

US attacks have severely diminished Iran's economy and devastated its navy and air force, but Tehran maintains enough missile and drone capability ‌to impede oil tanker traffic and attack regional rivals.

Abdollahi, the armed forces chief of staff, sought to underline Iran's missile capabilities during a visit to an underground plant manufacturing ballistic missiles that was reported ⁠by state television on Saturday.

"This ⁠plant has been able, much better than in the past, to produce equipment superior both in capacities and quality and in quantity," he said.

Trump, meanwhile, has yet to achieve objectives he set at the start of the war such as dismantling Iran's nuclear program - the state of which remains uncertain given that UN inspectors have been shut out since 2025 - and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.

Thousands have been killed, mainly in Iran, where 168 Iranian school children were killed on the first day of the war. The US has reported more than 750 military personnel wounded and 18 killed.

While Iran remains defiant, President Masoud Pezeshkian has also called for a diplomatic solution.

"It would be better to end the war today, when we are powerful and have dignity, and the whole world acknowledges our victory and emphasizes that America, contrary to all regulations, attacked our schools, hospitals, and infrastructure and is hated in the world," the ISNA news agency quoted him as saying on Friday.