Iran's Ghalibaf Puts the War's Next Move Squarely on Washington

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's parliament speaker, took the floor of the Consultative Assembly on Tuesday and aimed his remarks straight at the White House. Regional states should know, he said, that Tehran delivered "a strong and rational response to the American side, and now the ball is in the US court to prevent war," according to Breaking The News. In plain terms: Iran says it has played its hand, and it wants Washington to decide what comes next.

The olive branch came wrapped in steel. Ghalibaf insisted Iran is prepared for a renewed round of fighting "with its finger on the trigger," and he warned that any strategic miscalculation by Washington would send US troops marching onto a fresh battlefield. It's a message built to be heard in two capitals at once — one of readiness to negotiate, another of readiness to shoot.

The backdrop is a shooting war that both sides describe as defensive. US media report that Washington struck Iran's Qeshm Island in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on an American aircraft. Axios journalist Barak Ravid reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired a missile at a US aircraft over the Strait of Hormuz, prompting a US fighter jet to destroy the surface-to-air missile launcher in self-defense, and a US official told NewsNation the strike was a defensive measure. The Wall Street Journal says Washington has carried out several smaller strikes against Iran in recent days.

Ground-level reporting from southern Iran remains murky. Multiple explosions shook Qeshm Island on Monday, with unverified accounts describing as many as six blasts near the island and the port city of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan province, along with reports of blasts in Bandar Lengeh. Iranian air defenses were activated at the Omidiyeh Airbase, and the IRGC claimed it had downed an advanced US drone over the Strait of Hormuz. None of those claims have been independently confirmed.

From Washington, President Donald Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity that the US may still have to hit Pickaxe Mountain, a site tied to Tehran's nuclear program. He claimed earlier American strikes had already destroyed Iran's nuclear capabilities but said more action could be necessary, boasting the US could act "at any time we want" and do it "in one hour." Trump also described the conflict as "a very soft war" and voiced optimism about reaching an agreement.

Running alongside the threats is a quieter diplomatic track. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera that Tehran holds no hostility toward Gulf Cooperation Council countries, praising Qatar and Oman for their regional diplomacy. His stated goal: new security arrangements for the region, built and run by the countries of the region themselves, with no foreign military presence in the room.