The Japan Times - Iran leader says dealt enemies 'decisive blow' in Middle East war

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei's message, read out by a prayer leader at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of the Islamic republic's founder, came after the US House of Representatives passed a resolution seeking to halt American military action in Iran.

Weeks of talks marked by threats and flare-ups of violence have failed to secure a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key conduit for global energy flows.

The US and Iran have sent divergent messages, with Tehran insisting on steep conditions for progress, even as President Donald Trump again voiced optimism, telling reporters a deal "could happen... over the weekend".

In his message, Khamenei said his country's enemies, after "facing a decisive blow", were now "experiencing a deeply meaningful and profound humiliation".

Khamenei has not been seen in public since being wounded in strikes that killed his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli bombing campaign on February 28.

Every June 4 since 1989, the elder Khamenei had delivered a speech at the commemoration of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's death.

This year, however, an empty chair bearing his portrait stood at the mausoleum, according to footage broadcast from the site.

- Rebuke to Trump -

Trump is under pressure to find a way out of the war, which has delivered a shock to markets and proven unpopular at home as midterm elections loom.

But in spite of a ceasefire that has largely held since April, progress towards a final deal has been halting and punctured by sporadic episodes of violence.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said Wednesday that "communications with the Americans have not been cut off... but no tangible progress has been made in the negotiation process".

Four lawmakers from Trump's Republican party joined Democrats on Wednesday to vote 215-208 in favour of a resolution ordering the withdrawal of American troops from the Iran war.

"This is a loud and unambiguous message to Donald Trump on behalf of the American people: it's time to end his deeply unpopular and illegal war of choice in Iran," Democrats posted on X.

The resolution was largely symbolic, however, as the US president can veto it if it gains Senate approval.

At a congressional hearing, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpiles were at the centre of discussions with Tehran.

The UN's nuclear agency said in a confidential report seen by AFP on Thursday that a lack of access to verify nuclear material in Iran posed a "proliferation concern", calling on the Islamic republic to "engage the agency constructively".

Washington insists Tehran must turn over its near-weapons-grade enriched uranium, agree to curb its nuclear activities and reopen Hormuz.

Iran, however, has long claimed a right to enrichment, and has also preconditioned a deal on halting the parallel conflict in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting the Tehran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

- Lebanon violence -

Israel and Lebanon agreed on Wednesday to implement a new conditional ceasefire after two days of direct talks in Washington, but Hezbollah's leader rejected the truce just hours later.

The agreement called for a "complete cessation" of fire by Hezbollah, and for "pilot zones" in which the Lebanese armed forces "will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors".

But Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem demanded Thursday that any ceasefire be "comprehensive", vowing that "as long as our villages are unsafe -- being bombed, destroyed and our people killed -- the settlements (north Israel) are unsafe".

Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that the "initial condition for accepting a ceasefire in the regional war has been a ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon", demanding Israel withdraw.

A previous truce was meant to have taken hold in Lebanon on April 17 but has never been observed, with the violence only escalating since.

Earlier Thursday, the Israeli military said air raid sirens sounded in northern Israel due to an incident involving a "suspicious aerial target", while Hezbollah claimed several attacks on Israeli troops who have invaded south Lebanon.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported strikes in more than 20 locations in Lebanon's south and east.

Israel is staging its deepest ground offensive into Lebanon in two decades, and even after the announcement of the conditional truce, its defence minister Israel Katz had said its troops would stay where they are "while continuing to dismantle terrorist infrastructure".

K.Nakajima--JT