IRAN PERSPECTIVE

Tehran, July 14, 2026. For Iran, the resumption of US strikes is not just a simple escalation of tension, but a blatant violation of an agreement signed less than a month ago. The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs describes the US attacks as "brutal" and a breach of the United Nations Charter, Article 2(4), citing "the most heinous war crimes" against transportation infrastructure, fishing boats, and civilian buildings. Tehran emphasizes that the strikes targeted two railway bridges on the road to Mashhad, where authorities were preparing to bury former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei - a coincidence that several officials deem deliberate to disrupt the funeral proceedings.

On the military front, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claims an unprecedented response: US bases in Jordan (Prince Hassan Air Base), Bahrain (Sheikh Isa, Juffair installations), and Kuwait (Ali al-Salem, Ahmad al-Jaber radar), as well as the Al-Udeid base in Qatar. According to the IRGC, fuel depots, ammunition bunkers, and Patriot systems were destroyed in multiple nighttime waves. In the Strait of Hormuz, the IRGC navy claims to have fired warning shots at a ship that had turned off its tracking system, before closing the waterway "until the cessation of US interventions."

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf cites the Islamabad memorandum, which recognizes Iranian authority over the management of the strait: "The era of one-sided agreements is over." General Mohammad Akraminia asserts that the army has updated its "target bank" and is ready "for all scenarios," recalling that the US has always broken its commitments, from withdrawing from the JCPOA in 2018 to the current ceasefire. On the diplomatic front, Tehran accuses the US of having derailed the Muscat talks through pressure on Oman, characterizing Donald Trump's statements as "pure lies." After nearly four months of conflict, testimonies collected by the Iranian press describe a population exhausted, living "neither in war nor in peace."