Iran War: New escalation overshadows state funeral in Iran
After the massive air strikes by the US military, the… Iran the fear of a return to open war. According to its own information, the USA bombed around 90 military targets. It was the second night in a row that there were attacks. Iran responded with its own attacks. Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, which host important US military bases, also came under fire again. Meanwhile, the burial of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ends a decades-long political era in the Islamic Republic.
Iranian media reported explosions in several areas along the country’s coast overnight. Civilian infrastructure was also destroyed, as images from state media showed. At least 14 people were killed and 78 others were injured, the government press service said. Passenger traffic came to a standstill on the important Tehran-Mashhad railway line.
During the day, according to government reports, Iran’s armed forces attacked, among other things, US destroyers and US ships off the coast Bahrain with cruise missiles. During the night, the Revolutionary Guards targeted US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain with rockets. These countries are only a few hundred kilometers away from Iran as the crow flies. Jordan’s armed forces, which were the target of attacks for the first time in weeks, said they fired eight rockets.
Khamenei burial in Mashhad
The military confrontation came amid funeral ceremonies for Khamenei. The former head of state was to be buried in the Imam Reza shrine in his hometown of Mashhad on Thursday. But that dragged on into Friday, after midnight (local time) state television showed that the mourning ceremony in the shrine was continuing. According to official estimates, three million people gathered for funeral services on Wednesday in neighboring Iraq, where the Shiite majority live.
Khamenei was killed on February 28 in an Israeli airstrike on his official residence in Tehran. They led for more than five weeks USA and Israel then went to war against Iran until a ceasefire was agreed in early April. Despite the ceasefire and a framework agreement to end the war, mutual attacks occurred several times.
His supporters revere Khamenei as a martyr who, in their view, fell while resisting a militarily superior enemy. However, a large proportion of the country’s approximately 86 million inhabitants are likely to be indifferent or hostile to national mourning.
Speculation about Khamenei’s successor and son Moschtaba
Even before the burial, there was much speculation in Iran about the whereabouts of Khamenei’s successor and son Moschtaba. He was appointed the new head of state a week after his father’s death. However, he has not appeared in public since then. This sparked rumors about his health and there was talk of serious injuries.
Although messages are regularly published on Khamenei Junior’s website, there are still no video recordings or audio messages from him. His absence is also likely to cause tensions within the political and military leadership. The first conflicts between the political camps have already been resolved publicly.
Trump threatens even more violent attacks
US President Donald Trump Meanwhile, threatened Iran with even more violent attacks. The attacks were retaliation for ships fired at by Iran, he wrote on the Truth Social platform. “If something like this happens again, it will get much worse!” Iran’s Revolutionary Guard also threatened: If the US military repeats its aggression, it will expand its own “devastating reactions” to other US bases in the region, it said in a statement.
A major point of contention between the US and Iran is the Strait of Hormuz. The strait, which is important for global trade in oil, gas and fertilizer, has turned out to be Iran’s strongest economic and military means of pressure in the conflict. The reopening of the strait is a central element of the framework agreement on which Washington and Tehran had communicated in mid-June. Iran’s military leadership insists it is solely responsible for managing the strait under the deal. Shipping traffic remains severely restricted.
Strait of Hormuz an important means of pressure for Iran
The US Institute for War Studies (ISW) wrote in a situation analysis that Iran is prepared to enter into a comprehensive conflict with the USA if this is necessary to secure its control over the Strait of Hormuz.
According to information from the US news portal “Axios”, the White House is preparing for a possible military conflict with Iran in the Strait lasting several days or even several weeks. The duration and intensity of the new attacks depend on Tehran’s next steps, it said, citing US officials.
Whether the USA tolerated the new attacks to a certain extent, escalated the situation militarily or reached an agreement with Iran – there are disadvantages to every option, said Richard Fontaine from the think tank Center for a New American Security to the New York Times. The most likely scenario is a continuation of “low-level skirmishes” followed by “hectic diplomacy by mediators, the emergence of a new and fragile ceasefire and then probably another round of attacks,” Fontaine said.
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