US, Iran keep up hostile rhetoric ahead of new sanctions - Reuters

Iran on Saturday said that any country participating in the United States’ “economic war” against the Islamic republic would be considered “an enemy”. The warning came after President Masoud Pezeshkian said Friday the war with the US should end because the world had already accepted that Iran had won, based on Iranian state media. Iran on Saturday warned countries against participating in the United States' "economic war" against the Islamic republic, saying they would be considered enemies. "We declare to all countries... do not join the economic war waged by the United States. Any country participating in the imposition of economic restrictions against us is considered an enemy," said Mohsen Rezai, the head of Iran's supreme national security council, on state television. An explosive device detonated on a bus carrying security forces near the Syrian capital on Saturday, resulting in injuries among the passengers, state media noted. "An explosive device targeted a bus carrying Internal Security Forces personnel on the Maarounah-al-Tal road in Damascus countryside, leaving several personnel injured," state news agency SANA noted, adding that the attack was under investigation. Former British and French diplomats are urging action over what they say is Israel’s "erasure"of Palestine. More than 100 of those diplomats have penned a letter to the French President and the British Prime Minister calling for a ban on trade and arms sales to press Israel to accept a Palestinian state. FRANCE 24 speaks to one of the signatories – Sir Vincent Fean, British former Consul-General Jerusalem and current trustee of the Britain Palestine Project to understand what does he hope the letter will achieve? An ⁠Iranian military ​official called on Qatar ​on Saturday to transfer detained Iranian pilots to a hospital ​on ‌land, ⁠saying they were being held ‌on water and were in "poor ⁠physical condition", Tasnim news agency noted. Mohammad Baqerzadeh, ​commander of the ‌Committee for the Search for Missing Persons of ‌Iran's Armed Forces General Staff, said ​the location where the pilots were being held was unsuitable ​and requested that ​the International ​Committee of the Red Cross send ​an air ambulance to Qatar to expedite the return of injured and ⁠sick detainees to Iran. The ⁠repair of ​Iran's South ​Pars Phase 14 gas refinery, hit during an ​Israeli ‌attack ⁠in June last ‌year, is 70% complete, the ⁠Pars Oil and Gas Company's ​chief executive said, according ‌to Iran's oil ministry news agency ‌SHANA. The refinery would ​be fully restored by the end of ​the year, CEO Touraj ​Dehqani said, ​and the damaged ​section will be fully integrated into the production cycle, he ⁠added. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Saturday condemned US ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who is also Washington's point man on Syria, after he criticised an Israeli strike on a Syrian military base near Turkey. Katz wrote on X that Israel had passed on "intelligence information to the authorised parties in the United States" before the strike, and that Barrack's comment was "full of inaccuracies and positions that contradict the stance of US President (Donald) Trump himself regarding the Golan Heights". Syria condemned an Israeli strike southwest of Damascus that wounded one person on Saturday, the second such attack in a week. "This attack constitutes a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic and the integrity of its territory, and a blatant breach of international law, and comes in the context of repeated Israeli attacks on Syrian territory," the foreign ministry said in a statement. Turkey and Israel traded insults on Friday, after Ankara said it was seeking an international arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of "genocide" because of the interception of an aid flotilla bound for Gaza. Netanyahu's office accused Turkey of hypocrisy. Our correspondent in Turkey Jasper Mortimer analyses the situation. The United States and Iran exchanged defiant messages ahead of Monday's scheduled announcement of new US economic sanctions that could impact the Islamic Republic and Tehran's most important trading partners including China. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Saturday ⁠that the imminent US announcement of new