TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday (May 27) said a return to war with the United States was unlikely, while warning that the Islamic republic stood ready against any attack.
The statement came a day after Iran accused the US of breaching the ceasefire in place since April, and warned it was ready to retaliate after the most serious strikes since the truce took effect.
In Lebanon, where violence has far from ceased despite a truce in Israel’s war with Hezbollah, Israeli strikes killed 31 people on Tuesday, four of them children, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
The Middle East war erupted in late February with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, spreading swiftly across multiple fronts and engulfing the region while throwing global energy markets into chaos.
“The possibility of war is low because of the enemy’s weakness, the armed forces are lying in wait with full magazines,” said Mohammad Akbarzadeh, deputy political chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, as quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying.
“Do not doubt that we will turn the area from Chabahar to Mahshahr into a graveyard for aggressors,” he said, naming places at each end of Iran’s lengthy southern coast.
Iran and the US have for weeks been engaged in a war of words as they negotiate a deal with mediation efforts led by Pakistan.
With no clear winner in the war, neither side appears ready to compromise on the key sticking points in negotiations, which include the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear programme.
Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that is vital to global energy flows, in retaliation for the war, while the US responded with a counterblockade of Iranian ports.
Stock markets were mixed on Wednesday, with guarded optimism that the US and Iran could reach a deal.
