Then there’s Al Jazeera’s take on this:
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has said neighbouring countries that Iran has been attacking will no longer be targeted, unless an attack originates from there, as the
war launched by the United States and Israel, which triggered sustained “retaliation” from Tehran on its neighbors not involved in the attack across the Gulf and beyond, enters its second week. The Iranian interim leadership council approved the motion on Friday, Pezeshkian said on Saturday.
Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran said, The Iranian president’s statement “is a deescalation, however small, in a very escalated situation as it is day eight of the initiation of the US and Israeli strikes across Iran. We have received reports of a continuation of these air attacks in more than 170 cities.”
“That we surrender unconditionally is a dream that they must take with themselves to the grave. What we adhere to are international laws and humanitarian frameworks, ” Pezeshkian said in his statement. US President Donald Trump had issued a maximalist Friday to Iran, demanding “unconditional surrender.”
However, the Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also weighed in. “Following the statements of the president, the armed forces once again declare that they respect the interests and national sovereignty of neighbouring countries, up to a point, and up to this point, have committed no aggression against them,” (???) the statement, which was carried by state media, said.
Maybe something huge was lost in the translation from whatever into English above?
“However, should the previous hostile actions continue, all military bases and interests of criminal America and the fake Zionist regime on land, at sea, and in the air across the region will be considered primary targets and will come under the powerful and crushing strikes of the mighty armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Pezeshkian’s message is overshadowed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)’s dominance, says Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar. “Political figures in Iran are responsible for running state affairs and ‘non-strategic’ affairs. But when it comes to strategic affairs, such as the country’s foreign and security policies, politicians don’t have a say, including the president, who, according to the constitution, is the number two in charge – this is a very well-known fact in Iran,” Serdar said.
The centre of power lies with the office of the supreme leader and with the IRGC, even during peacetime, he added. Now that the country faces what it sees as a war of survival, Pezeshkian is not in a position to stop any attack, and his message to regional countries carries no weight, Serdar said. “The IRGC is now in charge fully, and they will decide whether to attack or not,” Serdar said, adding that IRGC chief, Ahmad Vahidi, is considered one of the “most radical commanders” of the group since its foundation.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations, have been targeted due to the presence of US assets within and around their borders. Iraq, Jordan, Azerbaijan and Turkiye have also been caught in the crosshairs.
In the Gulf, there have been deaths, damage and major disruption to flights, closure of airspace, and a heavy knock-on impact on
oil and gas production reverberating across the world.
Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi, meanwhile, has said exports from the Gulf region could
come to a halt “within weeks”if the war on Iran continues to escalate, throwing global energy markets into turmoil.
Al-Kaabi told The Financial Times (FT) newspaper in an interview published on Friday that if the war continues for weeks, “GDP growth around the world will be impacted. “Everybody’s energy price is going to go higher. There will be shortages of some products, and there will be a chain reaction of factories that cannot supply,” al-Kaabi was quoted as saying.
Arab states in the Gulf and beyond that house US assets have been targeted in Iranian retaliatory strikes in the war.
www.aljazeera.com