live Iran closes Strait of Hormuz again over U.S. blockade, state media says- Saturday 18 April
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a Saturday statement that the Strait of Hormuz has...
Iran reacted to the UN Security Council resolution condemning attacks on U.S. bases in regional countries, saying it neglected Tehran’s right to self-defence and demonstrated that the world body is being misused as an instrument to serve Washington’s interests.
“The UNSC resolution on Iran is ultra vires and utterly unlawful; nothing can override a nation’s inherent right to self-defence,” the state IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei as saying on Thursday.
The move, he added, “signals a profound deterioration of the UNSC system as a result of the United States’ instrumentalisation of the Council for its unlawful interests and malign whims.”
“The Council should have unequivocally and firmly condemned the American–Israeli aggression against Iran. Instead, it condemned Iran!” the spokesman said.
The Israel–U.S. war on Iran is nearly two weeks old, and the warring parties have intensified exchanges of tit-for-tat attacks as well as rhetorical threats.
Iranian officials have issued stern warnings following U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement about possible strikes on the Islamic Republic’s energy infrastructure.
The spokesman for Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Ebrahim Zolfaqari, warned that any attack on Iran’s oil and gas facilities or ports would trigger a severe retaliatory response targeting energy infrastructure across the region.
In a statement read on state television, he said: “If such an aggression occurs, all oil and gas infrastructure in the region affiliated with the U.S. and its Western allies will be set ablaze.”
Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, also warned that the entire region could face a blackout within 30 minutes if Iran’s power grid were attacked.
Responding to Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s power grid within an hour, Larijani wrote in an Arabic post on X: “The entire region would be blacked out within half an hour.”
In New York, Iran’s UN mission strongly rejected the UNSC resolution on Wednesday, saying: “We consider it unjust and unlawful, inconsistent with the United Nations Charter and international law.”
“Make no mistake: today it is Iran; tomorrow it could be any other sovereign state,” Ambassador Amir-Saeid Iravani said in a statement, as the U.S.–Israel war against Iran approaches its third week.
The past 24 hours of the Russia-Ukraine war have seen a drastic escalation in both aerial bombardment and frontline losses.
Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping on Friday (17 April) for the first time since the U.S. and Israel killed Iran's ex-Supreme Leader in air strikes, triggering the Middle East conflict, at the end of February. A U.S. blockade on Iranian ports, however, remains in force.
Russia published addresses of manufacturers allegedly producing drones or components for Ukraine on Wednesday (15 April), warning European countries against plans to step up UAV supplies to Kyiv.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a Saturday statement that the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its "previous state" under the control of its "armed forces," citing the ongoing U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.
Netflix shares fell sharply on Friday after the streaming group issued a weaker-than-expected outlook and said chairman and co-founder Reed Hastings will step down from the board.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Armenia and Russia have agreed to continue implementing previously reached agreements in the military-technical sphere following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Global leaders have gathered in Antalya Diplomacy Forum, with discussions centred on geopolitical uncertainty and international cooperation.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has said his country could provide a “safe corridor” and “alternative route” for regional energy shipments, as supply disruptions continue to affect the wider Middle East.
An average of at least 47 women and girls were killed each day during the war in Gaza, according to new figures released by UN Women.
China is seeking to strengthen and upgrade its cooperation with Turkmenistan, focusing on what officials describe as “high-quality development” across a range of sectors.
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