IRAN PERSPECTIVE

Tehran refuses to play the part assigned to it. Facing the threat to seize Kharg, Iranian diplomacy answers in the register of wounded dignity and violated international law. The foreign ministry warns against a 'new US miscalculation in the Persian Gulf' and reminds that the Islamic Republic 'reserves the right to respond to US aggression.' To the nighttime strikes, the official narrative opposes retaliation: the Revolutionary Guards say they hit American bases and launched a drone at the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. On the deal Trump calls 'finalized,' Tehran stays evasive, even dismissive — refusing to publicly endorse a capitulation its adversary is announcing on its behalf. The framing is constant: America is the 'global arrogance' coveting the oil of a sovereign people, and Trump's Venezuela parallel is received as the confession of a neocolonial logic of resource predation. The critical diaspora, via Iran International, complicates the picture by noting that the leadership is pushing the country toward an economic cliff while the partial return of the internet reveals a deteriorating daily life. But on Kharg, the two Irans converge: the island is not just a terminal, it is the country's lifeline — nicknamed the 'Forbidden Island' — and any notion of foreign occupation touches a national nerve far beyond the regime-versus-opposition divide.