IRAN PERSPECTIVE

Tehran, May 28, 2026. The night of May 27-28 marked a brutal break with the fragile calm established since the April 8 truce. US strikes targeted the port city of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran, and Iranian drones were shot down by US forces. In response, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) immediately published a statement qualified as a 'severe warning': 'The aggression of enemies will not go unanswered.' This formulation, deliberately open-ended, was interpreted in Tehran as a declaration of principle as much as a tactical threat.

In Parliament, Deputy Ebrahim Azizi reaffirmed the firm stance of the Islamic Republic in a message posted on X: 'Iran will not back down on its red lines, including the right to uranium enrichment, existing uranium stocks, management of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, and the lifting of illegally imposed sanctions.' These four points now constitute the official framework for any possible negotiation, whether or not Washington has rejected the Ormuz framework agreement.

On the diplomatic front, negotiator Ali Baqeri clarified in an interview with Russian news agency RIANOVOSTI that the release of Iran's frozen assets by the United States represents 'the legal right of the Iranian nation' and cannot be subject to any prior concession. This statement comes as the Brent price surged 3.75% to reach $97.83, indicating that markets anticipate a potential disruption to traffic in the Gulf.

The regional situation has simultaneously tightened: Kuwait has activated its defenses, and the IRGC's response to a US base has made this episode the most serious incident since the April truce. For Tehran, the sequence validates its doctrine: any escalation initiated by Washington will be followed by a symmetrical response, in order to deter new preventive actions. President Masoud Pezeshkian, who exchanged Eid al-Adha greetings with his Pakistani counterpart Shahbaz Sharif earlier in the week, is now forced to manage both the security crisis and the economic pressure linked to sanctions.

The Bandar Abbas incident has acutely raised the question of the Ormuz framework: Trump having rejected the agreement, Tehran finds itself without a willing interlocutor to formalize a de-escalation, while needing to demonstrate to its domestic opinion that no strike will go unanswered.