Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that his country had become engaged in a full-scale war with the United States, and that Tehran should accept the consequences of the conflict. “The reality is that today the Islamic Republic of Iran is engaged in a full-scale war,” a statement from the president’s office said. “We must be realistic and accept the natural consequences of this resistance.”
Pezeshkian made the declaration as a ceasefire signed last month lay in a fragile state amid tit-for-tat strikes, with no significant progress reported from the diplomatic efforts under way to end the fighting. Iran’s interior minister, Eskandar Momeni, was due to visit Pakistan, a mediator in the peace process, on Monday. A ministry source told AFP the Iranian minister would hold talks with Pakistani officials, though it gave no details on whether this was connected to the ongoing conflict.
The situation in the Middle East is deteriorating further amid the exchange of strikes. On Monday the governments of Bahrain and Kuwait said Iran had launched fresh attacks on their countries, which their air-defence systems had intercepted or destroyed. On the attack in Kuwait, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) said US military targets in the country had been hit. Alongside Iran’s counterstrikes, tension has also built between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Against this backdrop, South Korea has advised its ships operating in the Red Sea to take extra precautions. Amid these warnings, a ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz was reportedly fired on Monday.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report