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❗️ Spokesman for Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Ebrahim Rezaei said on Tuesday there was no longer a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States.
🔹 Rezaei told state TV that the ‘enemy’ has officially resumed war and violated all of the agreement’s provisions.
🔹 Sanctions have returned, a blockade has been imposed, and the Americans have violated the understanding of Lebanon, Rezaei said.
🔹 Rezaei said: “A memorandum of understanding is the lowest form of agreement and carries the lowest cost for violation, so officials should not raise public expectations.”
🔹 The spokesman added that Iran should not tie domestic issues to understandings that the ‘enemy’ can easily renege on, because even in the case of a formal agreement, the ‘United States will not remain committed.’
❗️ Iran’s parliament issued a stern declaration on July 14, signed by 180 lawmakers, formally announcing the collapse of all understandings with the US.
🔹 The legislative body stated that the era of diplomatic restraint had concluded, affirming that the state will pursue decisive retribution for the assassination of Supreme Leader Khamenei.
🔹 In the statement, lawmakers pressured the heads of the three branches of government to adopt a ‘revolutionary stance’ in line with the shift in foreign policy.
🔹 The parliament further demanded the immediate establishment of a special commission tasked with scrutinising past negotiations and ensuring strict adherence to the conditions set forth by the Supreme Leader.
🔹 A central element of the policy is the assertion of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, and the legislature confirmed it had officially placed the ‘management of the Strait of Hormuz’ on its agenda.
🔹 In a clear signal to regional and international actors, the parliament pledged ‘all-encompassing support’ for the armed forces to exercise Iran’s full sovereign right over the strategic waterway, further escalating the regional standoff.
❗️ US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the MoU was over when publishing a statement announcing that more than 50 individuals, companies, and vessels linked to Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani’s global network, which Washington claims supports Iranian oil exports, container shipping, and commodities trading, had been sanctioned.
🔹 The action targeted key financiers, shipping executives, vessel managers, and companies across the UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, the MarshallIslands, and other jurisdictions.
🔹 According to the Treasury, the network moves both legal and illicit cargo, including goods linked to the Houthis, and also helped transport Russian petroleum products.
🔹 The latest measures brought the total number of Shamkhani-linked people, entities, and vessels, sanctioned by the United States to more than 200.
🔹 Bessent said on X: “The Iranian regime survives on deception, and the Shamkhani network is one of its most profitable engines,” adding that the Treasury were shutting down the financial infrastructure that allowed the regime to continue its threats to US national security and global shipping.
❗️ China urged the US and Iran to immediately restore safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a statement from Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian.
🔹 Lin Jian said: “Restoring normal and safe passage through the Strait as soon as possible is a shared aspiration of the international shipping community,” adding that Beijing would ‘make unremitting efforts to help de-escalate the situation.’
🔹 The appeal came as the US carried out strikes on Iran for a third night in the early hours of Tuesday morning, along with an announcement by President Donald Trump that a future fee of 20% on cargo would be imposed for vessels transiting the Strait.
🔹 Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) said in a statement: “Before the recent provocation actions by US forces in the region, which led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, more than 200 non-Iranian vessels coordinated with the PGSA during the three weeks following the signing of the memorandum of understanding, and most of them received transit permits and insurance coverage.”
❗️ The IRGC published a statement announcing it had launched drone and missile strikes on Tuesday afternoon, allegedly destroying weapons depots and parts of boats and aircraft at Sheikh Issa Air Base in Bahrain, as well as the targeting of the MQ-9 drone deployment area of the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, claiming to have damaged or destroyed several drones.
🔹 According to the statement, the attacks were in retaliation to earlier US strikes that hit Iranian coastal military positions, while warning that further US attacks would be met with ‘unexpected responses.’
🔹 The statement also threatened that, as long as US forces remained in the region, ‘not a single drop of oil or gas will be exported,’ and ‘reopening the Strait will be further delayed.’
🔹 Following the attack, Kuwait’s army reported they had intercepted 33 drones, 5 cruise missiles and one ballistic missile during the barrage, adding that Iranian attacks targeted ‘several vital and civilian facilities,’ with shrapnel falling in various locations across the country, causing material damage.
🔹 A naval vessel of the Kuwait Naval Force was targeted by Iran on Tuesday evening, resulting in injuries to four service members, who received the necessary treatment and are described to be in a stable condition.
🔹 Soon after the strikes by the IRGC, CENTCOM followed up, as Iranian media reported at least five explosions in Bandar Abbas and Sirik in southern Iran, along with several explosions around Ahvaz County in southwestern Iran, while planes were reported flying over Tehran, most likely Iranian Air Force attempting to intercept drones and cruise missiles.
🔹 CENTCOM confirmed that US forces initiated another series of strikes against Iran, which was aimed at further weakening Iran’s capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait, stating the strikes were occurring as US forces prepared to resume the naval blockade against Iranian ports and coastal areas.
🔹 An hour after the strikes had begun on Iran and US CENTCOM published a second statement, announcing that the naval blockade was back in force, with more than 20 US Navy warships and hundreds of military aircraft operating across the Middle East.
🔹 US attacks resumed around the same time as the blockade enforcement began, with strikes reported in locations of Hamgam Island, Bandar Abbas, and Bushehr Power Plant in southern Iran, along with explosions heard in Bampur and Chabahar in southeastern Iran.
🔹 Hormogzan province’s Governor confirmed the sounds heard in Bandar Abbas were as a result of ongoing clashes along coastal areas and the Persian Gulf: “There is currently an engagement at sea and an exchange of fire,” the governor said.
🔹 The Deputy Governor of the Khuzestan province for Security Affairs issued a statement saying that early this morning, a wheat storage silo in Hoveizeh and a location in the Arvand Free Zone were targeted and struck by projectiles, adding that no casualties were reported.
🔹 Footage released by social media appeared to show US strikes allegedly hitting the Coast Guard station in Sirik, along with strikes on Bampur, while clashes and exchanges of fire began to be reported around the Strait of Hormuz.
🔹 Iran retaliated against the US forces, striking targets in Bahrain with ballistic cluster missiles for the first time since the war began on February 28, with alleged air defence activity footage published from Jordan, followed by an image that allegedly showed a missile impact (later Jordan said they intercepted 3 missiles, but locals reported 3 impacts on the Muwaffaq al-Sultani base).
🔹 Waves of Shahed and other drones were also launched towards Kuwait, some of which reportedly struck a warehouse, while simultaneous reports suggested that low-altitude MIM-104 Patriot interceptors were being launched in Juffair, near NSA Bahrain.
🔹 Sources claimed that two ballistic missiles had been launched from Tabriz in northwestern Iran, along with missiles launched from Urmia.
🔹 The IRGC later claimed in a statement to have severely damaged or destroyed large warehouses of military equipment and fuel storage facilities at the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet Command and Control Centre.
🔹 IRGC’s Public Relations Department issued another statement addressing the citizens in Kuwait, stating that the satellite communication centre, anti-missile and air defence radar, Patriot air defence complex, and the US military base staging area, as well as the Mars missile launch platforms, have ‘all been destroyed.’
🔹 Addressing the people of Jordan, the IRGC claimed the hangars of F-15, F-16, and F-35 fighter jets, along with a number of American MQ-9 drones, were destroyed at the Al-Azraq base in the country.
🔹 According to one report, the IRGC entered a ‘new phase of targeting’ the US in the region, launching concentrated attacks against radar and surveillance systems in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, and Qatar, noting that Iran had dealt a significant and impactful blow.
🔹 Sources: Tasnim, IRIB, Bloomberg, CNN, NYT, PGSA, IRNA, Reuters, Central Command, IRGC, Mehr, Sabereen, Naya, Warfront Witness, Tabz Live, Nova Rerum,
