Iranian FM: The Region will Enter New Phase through 'Resistance Forces'

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian receives his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi at the Iranian Foreign Ministry headquarters in central Tehran (IRNA)
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian receives his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi at the Iranian Foreign Ministry headquarters in central Tehran (IRNA)
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Iranian FM: The Region will Enter New Phase through 'Resistance Forces'

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian receives his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi at the Iranian Foreign Ministry headquarters in central Tehran (IRNA)
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian receives his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi at the Iranian Foreign Ministry headquarters in central Tehran (IRNA)

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian warned of the expansion of the war amid the renewed Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, saying that the region will enter a new phase "through resistance forces."

On Sunday, the foreign minister made the remarks during a press conferen with his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi in Tehran.

The two ministers discussed the recent developments in Gaza amid reports about a possible Oman mediation in the Iranian nuclear program.

Amirabdollahian said that the new phase of the Israeli attacks on Gaza began with the presence of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at the ministerial meeting of the Zionist entity.

He added that the US must bear the consequences of this hypocritical behavior in supporting Israel, saying Washington claims it recommends Israel does not kill civilians while granting it the green light for genocide.

For more than 50 days, "we have been following the developments in Palestine to return stability and security in the region and stop the killing and genocide of the Zionist regime in Gaza," he said.

The leaders of the resistance warned that if the Israeli attacks continue, the region will enter a new phase, he indicated, warning that the killing of children and women must stop before it is too late.

He asserted that Iran never wanted the war to expand, but the warmongers in the region were strongly warned to stop their support for Israeli crimes.

He said that there is documented evidence that the Zionist regime is seeking to displace people in the Gaza Strip forcibly.

"In a part of the documents that were seized by the Resistance forces during the al-Aqsa Storm operation and in a part of the laptops that were captured, this hypothesis has been proven that the Israeli regime seeks to relocate all the residents of Gaza to a part of the territory and land of Egypt, and it seeks to transfer the residents of the West Bank to parts of Jordan," he noted.

"We hope that our brothers in Egypt will take immediate and serious action to reopen the Rafah border crossing and prevent this Israeli conspiracy against the territorial integrity of Jordan and Egypt."

- Discussing nuclear power

Earlier, the official IRNA agency reported that the two ministers were scheduled to discuss developing cooperation, achieving a ceasefire in the Strip, and delivering humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.

Ahead of his visit to Tehran, Busaidi and his Iranian counterpart discussed over the phone Israel's resumption of war crimes in Gaza without any regard to the international community and global public opinion.

Busaidi warned against the outbreak of war and its expansion in the region, stressing the necessity of establishing a sustainable truce, sending humanitarian aid on a large scale, and establishing an effective international action.

Iranian media expected Busaidi's visit to Tehran to be within the context of exchanging messages between Tehran and Washington to prevent the expansion of tension in the region.

During the past two months, Iranian officials welcomed an Omani initiative proposed by Sultan Haitham bin Tariq.

However, they noted it was not a new agreement or a new plan but rather a practical initiative to converge views between Washington and Tehran and the return of all parties to the 2015 agreement.

Last week, the Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said in press statements that talks with Iran might require a new framework rather than an attempt to revive the 2015 accord.

- Borrell urges Tehran to cooperate constructively

The nuclear agreement was part of the telephone conversation between Amirabdollahian and EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell.

The Foreign Ministry reported on Saturday that Amirabdollahian called on Borrell to stop the Israeli military attacks on the Strip and allow the entry of humanitarian aid.

The Iranian diplomat repeated previous warnings against displacing Palestinians and warned of the possibility of expanding the war in the region.

The two officials also addressed Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency's cooperation, and Amirabdollahian noted that the "cooperation will continue within a technical and legal framework."

Borrell expressed hope that constructive cooperation between Iran and the IAEA will continue.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi defended his country's positions in the Gaza war.

Speaking on Sunday at the "Second National Conference on Responsibility for the Implementation of the Constitution," Raisi said Iran's support for Gaza and Palestine is wholly based on the constitution's principles, which considers the protection of the oppressed as one of its duties.

"Since the beginning of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, one of the basic principles and approaches of the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been to support the rights of the Palestinian people and to recognize this issue as the first issue of the Islamic world."

He asserted that the principle is still standing and that global political developments will not change the primary direction of foreign policy.

Raisi reiterated that 6,000 children killed by the "Zionist usurpers will bring down this fake, cruel and usurping regime."



Report: 4 Dead, 8 Hurt as Gunman Opens Fire in Southern Türkiye

The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter. (Reuters file)
The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter. (Reuters file)
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Report: 4 Dead, 8 Hurt as Gunman Opens Fire in Southern Türkiye

The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter. (Reuters file)
The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter. (Reuters file)

Four people were killed and another eight wounded when a gunman opened fire near the southern Turkish city of Mersin on Monday, the DHA and IHA news agencies reported.

At least two people were killed when the assailant opened fire at a restaurant, with the two others killed elsewhere and the assailant fleeing in a car, DHA said.

The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter that also involved helicopters, it said.

There was no immediate comment from police or other officials.

DHA said the shooter was a 17-year-old armed with a shotgun.

Among those killed in the shooting were the restaurant owner and one of his employees, IHA said, identifying the other two as a young man grazing livestock and a truck driver.

The violence came a month after two shooting attacks by teenagers rocked Türkiye.

In the first incident, 16 people were injured, while the second attack claimed 10 lives, most of them young schoolchildren.


Romanians Stabbed Journalist in London at Behest of Iran, UK Court Told

Nandito Badea and George Stana, two Romanian men accused of stabbing the Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati near his home in Wimbledon in March 2024, appear at Woolwich Crown Court in London, Britain, May 18, 2026, in a courtroom sketch. (Reuters)
Nandito Badea and George Stana, two Romanian men accused of stabbing the Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati near his home in Wimbledon in March 2024, appear at Woolwich Crown Court in London, Britain, May 18, 2026, in a courtroom sketch. (Reuters)
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Romanians Stabbed Journalist in London at Behest of Iran, UK Court Told

Nandito Badea and George Stana, two Romanian men accused of stabbing the Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati near his home in Wimbledon in March 2024, appear at Woolwich Crown Court in London, Britain, May 18, 2026, in a courtroom sketch. (Reuters)
Nandito Badea and George Stana, two Romanian men accused of stabbing the Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati near his home in Wimbledon in March 2024, appear at Woolwich Crown Court in London, Britain, May 18, 2026, in a courtroom sketch. (Reuters)

A team of Romanian men, acting as proxies for the Iranian government, carried out a knife attack on a journalist working for a Persian-language media organization in London, prosecutors told a British court on Monday.

Pouria Zaratifoukolaei, known as Pouria Zeraati, a British journalist of Iranian origin who works for Iran International, was stabbed in the leg three times as he was attacked near his home in Wimbledon, southwest London, in March 2024.

At the start of the trial of two of the three men accused of carrying out the stabbing, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson said ‌they had targeted ‌Zeraati, whose TV employer is critical of Iran's government.

'DELIBERATE, PLANNED VIOLENCE'

"This was no robbery, no fight that got out of control, it was deliberate, planned violence to achieve what it did, that is serious injury to its target," Atkinson told London's Woolwich Crown Court.

They had "committed a planned attack preceded by reconnaissance, and which was ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state," the prosecutor said.

Iran has denied any involvement in ⁠the incident.

Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, both ‌deny charges of wounding with intent and unlawful ‌wounding. The third man accused of involvement, David Andrei, was arrested in Romania but is not ‌involved in the trial.

Atkinson said Zeraati was an "obvious and readily identifiable target for ‌violence to be inflicted by proxies" acting for Iran. He said posters had been put up in Tehran in November 2022 featuring pictures of journalists including Zeraati, under the heading "Wanted: dead or alive".

"In recent years, since 2005, Iran has turned less to its ‌own operatives and increasingly to use proxies such as criminal gangs to meet their threatened violence on their behalf," Atkinson ⁠said.

"That has included ⁠attacks on persons in this country who have become targets of Iranian intimidation and, effectively, terror."

Atkinson said Zeraati had been subject to "extensive reconnaissance", and a year before Stana had been arrested in the garden of his apartment with another man, in possession of latex gloves, scissors and a mask.

On the day of the attack, Badea and Andrei confronted Zeraati as he crossed the street from his home to his car, the prosecutor said. Andrei held him, while Badea stabbed him at the top of his thigh before they fled to a getaway car driven by Stana, the prosecutor added.

The men, who were motivated by money, dumped the car and some clothing, and then took a taxi to Heathrow Airport from where they flew to Geneva, Atkinson said.

The trial, which is expected to last more than two weeks, continues.


Iran Arrests Over 4,000 on Charges Related to War, Says Rights Group

An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Iran Arrests Over 4,000 on Charges Related to War, Says Rights Group

An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Iranian authorities have made more than 4,000 arrests on charges related to the US-Israeli war against the country in a mass crackdown, a US-based rights group said on Monday.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had documented at least 4,023 arrests between February 28, when the war started, and May 9.

Charges included espionage, threats to national security and communicating or sharing content related to the conflict with foreign media, it said.

"Iranian authorities have used the conflict to intensify national security narratives and justify arrests, restrictions on freedom of expression, and violence against civilians," it said.

Meanwhile, Iran's national police chief Ahmad Reza Radan had said Sunday that more than "6,500 traitors and spies" linked with the "enemy" had been arrested since anti-government protests peaked in January.

The authorities described the demonstrations as riots and put them down with a crackdown that left thousands dead, according to rights groups.

"The process of identifying and arresting elements associated with the enemy continues, and the police have not stopped their actions in the field of confronting rioters," Radan said, quoted by the IRNA news agency.

There has also been growing alarm over executions in Iran.

Rights groups have said that since the start of the war, Iran has executed 26 men seen as "political prisoners" -- 14 men charged over January protests, one more over 2022 demonstrations and 11 accused of links to banned opposition groups.

Six men have been hanged by Iran on charges of spying for Israel since the war began, according to reports in Iranian official media.

HRANA said it had also documented at least 3,636 fatalities, including 1,701 civilians, due to US-Israeli attacks on Iran in the war, which is currently on hold with an uneasy ceasefire.