Iran Supreme Leader: Saying "Military Options are on the Table" is Meaningless

Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during his meeting with IRGC commanders (Khamenei website)
Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during his meeting with IRGC commanders (Khamenei website)
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Iran Supreme Leader: Saying "Military Options are on the Table" is Meaningless

Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during his meeting with IRGC commanders (Khamenei website)
Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during his meeting with IRGC commanders (Khamenei website)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said the phrase "military options are on the table" to the IRGC's deterrence power and capabilities has become "trivial, meaningless, and worthless."

Khamenei was speaking during a meeting with the Supreme Assembly of Commanders and Officials of the Iranian Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), the first meeting post coronavirus, and the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the head of al-Quds Force, who was killed by a US air strike in Iraq in 2020.

The leader accused his country's enemies of stirring up crises and trying to distort the image of IRGC, describing it as the "largest counterterrorism" organization in the world.

US officials hinted at their readiness for several scenarios, including a military solution to deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Khamenei pointed to the enemy's policy of creating crises, undermining the country's security, and disrupting people's lives.

However, he asserted that the enemy's defeat and the nation's victory are inevitable through efforts to bring about national unity, encouraging people's participation, helping people, hope, and enthusiasm toward the realization of the goals of the revolution.

Khamenei said "forgetting the facts and truths of the Revolution by the Iranian nation is one of the goals of the world's Satans."

He considered the CIA, Mossad, and British MI6 spy agencies to be the main perpetrators behind the design and creation of the crises.

"Of course, they also use internal and external agents and Western-oriented and indifferent elements, but the main perpetrators are the spy services."

The meeting comes about a month before the first anniversary of the protests sparked by the death of the young woman, Mahsa Amini.

The IRGC participated effectively in the campaign to quell the protests through the Basij forces and the intelligence service.

Khamenei compared the 1979 revolution in Iran to the French and Bolshevik revolutions in Russia and described the IRGC as a "rare phenomenon" among the great revolutions that lasted more than four decades.

Khamenei echoed the statements of his predecessor, the first Iranian Supreme Leader, Khomeini, in which he warned against infiltration into the state apparatus.

Khamenei defended the role of the IRGC in the economy, infrastructure, and construction of roads, dams, and oil refineries.

He also implicitly warned against the involvement of the Guards' leaders in corruption, saying everyone could make mistakes.

Recently, 3,000 American soldiers crossed the Red Sea towards the US bases in the Gulf when the US-led joint international forces warned commercial ships and tankers of approaching Iranian waters.

Washington and Tehran have begun the early stages of a deal to release US prisoners in Iran in exchange for freeing Iran's frozen assets.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran had slowed the pace at which it is accumulating near weapons-grade enriched uranium and has diluted some of its stockpiles.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declined to confirm these reports.

Blinken said on Tuesday he would welcome any Iranian steps to de-escalate its "growing nuclear threat."

The British newspaper, the Financial Times, reported on Wednesday that the US is pushing Iran to stop selling armed drones to Russia as part of discussions on a broader "unwritten understanding" between Washington and Tehran to de-escalate tensions and contain a long-simmering nuclear crisis.

Meanwhile, Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Chairman, Vahid Jalalzadeh, said that his country is preparing to hold talks to release the frozen assets in Iraq and India.

Jalalzadeh denied, in a statement to the state-run ISNA news agency, that the current negotiations were about the nuclear file, noting that when the US raised the issue of prisoners, Iran said it wanted to free its foreign funds in exchange for prisoners.

Iran also demanded that Washington stop pressuring South Korea, Iraq, and India to freeze its money.

State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel said in a daily briefing that the issue of five US citizens released from Evin Prison is separate from all other matters related to the Iranian regime.

"We will continue to take steps to hold the Iranian regime accountable for their malign, destabilizing activities in the region, as well as more broadly."

He asserted that the US will coordinate with allies and partners and continue holding the Iranian regime and the Russian Federation accountable for using these drones in Ukraine.



NASA's Stuck Astronauts are Finally on their Way Back to Earth after 9 Months in Space

In this photo provided by NASA, Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 13, 2024. (NASA via AP)
In this photo provided by NASA, Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 13, 2024. (NASA via AP)
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NASA's Stuck Astronauts are Finally on their Way Back to Earth after 9 Months in Space

In this photo provided by NASA, Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 13, 2024. (NASA via AP)
In this photo provided by NASA, Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 13, 2024. (NASA via AP)

NASA’s two stuck astronauts headed back to Earth with SpaceX on Tuesday to close out a dramatic marathon mission that began with a bungled Boeing test flight more than nine months ago.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams bid farewell to the International Space Station — their home since last spring — departing aboard a SpaceX capsule alongside two other astronauts. The capsule undocked in the wee hours and aimed for a splashdown off the Florida coast by early evening, weather permitting.

The two expected to be gone just a week or so after launching on Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. So many problems cropped up on the way to the space station that NASA eventually sent Starliner back empty and transferred the test pilots to SpaceX, pushing their homecoming into February. Then SpaceX capsule issues added another month’s delay.

Sunday’s arrival of their relief crew meant Wilmore and Williams could finally leave. NASA cut them loose a little early, given the iffy weather forecast later this week. They checked out with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov, who arrived in their own SpaceX capsule last fall with two empty seats reserved for the Starliner duo.

“We'll miss you, but have a great journey home,” NASA's Anne McClain called out from the space station as the capsule pulled away 260 miles (418 kilometers) above the Pacific.

Their plight captured the world’s attention, giving new meaning to the phrase “stuck at work.” While other astronauts had logged longer spaceflights over the decades, none had to deal with so much uncertainty or see the length of their mission expand by so much.

Wilmore and Williams quickly transitioned from guests to full-fledged station crew members, conducting experiments, fixing equipment and even spacewalking together. With 62 hours over nine spacewalks, Williams set a new record: the most time spent spacewalking over a career among female astronauts.

Both had lived on the orbiting lab before and knew the ropes, and brushed up on their station training before rocketing away. Williams became the station's commander three months into their stay and held the post until earlier this month.

Their mission took an unexpected twist in late January when President Donald Trump asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to accelerate the astronauts’ return and blamed the delay on the Biden administration. The replacement crew’s brand new SpaceX capsule still wasn’t ready to fly, so SpaceX subbed it with a used one, hurrying things along by at least a few weeks.

Even in the middle of the political storm, Wilmore and Williams continued to maintain an even keel at public appearances from orbit, casting no blame and insisting they supported NASA’s decisions from the start.

NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing after the shuttle program ended, in order to have two competing US companies for transporting astronauts to and from the space station until it's abandoned in 2030 and steered to a fiery reentry. By then, it will have been up there more than three decades; the plan is to replace it with privately run stations so NASA can focus on moon and Mars expeditions.

Both retired Navy captains, Wilmore and Williams stressed they didn’t mind spending more time in space — a prolonged deployment reminiscent of their military days. But they acknowledged it was tough on their families.

Wilmore, 62, missed most of his younger daughter’s senior year of high school; his older daughter is in college. Williams, 59, had to settle for internet calls from space to her mother. They’ll have to wait until they’re off the SpaceX recovery ship and flown to Houston before the long-awaited reunion with their loved ones.