Crowds in Tehran celebrate the ceasefire on April 8, waving Iranian flags and raising a portrait of the Supreme Leader.
A high-ranking Iranian Foreign Ministry official stated that “comfort, welfare, and progress of regional nations” can only be achieved once United States forces depart from the Gulf.
Hossein Noushabadi, director general for parliamentary affairs and law at the ministry, was quoted by the state-run ISNA news agency as saying that “foreigners have always cast greedy eyes” upon the maritime “asset” which he proudly claimed was “part of Iran’s identity and civilisation.”
Citing Iran’s history of “bravery and sacrifice” in driving out colonial powers like Portugal and Britain, Noushabadi vowed that Iran will now stand firm against “the military expeditions of the world-devouring America.”
Representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader in India, Abdul Majeed Hakeem Ilahi on Saturday characterised the ongoing tensions between his country and the Israel-US alliance as a state of “no war, no peace”.
Calling for an immediate halt to the conflict, he said the global stability hinges on those who initiated the war.
He questioned why countries affected by the war and suffering from the energy crisis are not pressuring the US and Israel to stop the aggression.
Addressing a press conference here, Ilahi said Iran did not want the conflict, but was compelled to respond amid continued attacks, even as negotiations were expected to continue.
“Iran didn’t want this war, but Iran was forced by the war and several times Iran tried to avoid this war… I don’t know what is the condition of these people and these countries (US-Israel)… they want to impose on other countries what they want, and who gave them this authority?” he questioned.
Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed at least seven people and wounded others on Saturday as hostilities continued between Israel and Hezbollah despite a ceasefire.
The Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, May 2, came as Israel’s military issued a new warning for residents of nine southern villages to evacuate.
Israel’s military and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have kept up their attacks despite a ceasefire in place since April 17.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported an airstrike on a car in the village of Kfar Dajal that killed two people, while another hit a home in the village of Lwaizeh killing three. NNA also reported a strike on the village of Shoukin that killed two people.
Israel’s military Arabic-language spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ella Waweya, posted on X that the Israeli air force carried out about 50 airstrikes over the past 24 hours, saying that they targeted Hezbollah infrastructure and members.
Hezbollah said that it attacked on Saturday Israeli troops who gathered inside a house in the coastal village of Bayed with a drone.
President Donald Trump has joked that the United States Navy will take on Cuba on the way home from Iran.
“Cuba’s got problems,” Trump said in one of several digressions in his Friday, May 1, evening speech before the non-profit Forum Club of the Palm Beaches.
“On the way back from Iran, we’ll have one of our big, maybe the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier — the biggest in the world — we’ll have that come in, stop about 100 yards offshore, and they’ll say, ‘Thank you very much. We give up’,” he said.
The Trump administration is in the midst of a monthslong campaign to press the Cuban government to make dramatic reforms.
All the while, Trump has repeatedly threatened that the US could take military action against the island to get what he wants.
The United States will withdraw about 5,000 troops from Germany in the next six to 12 months, the Pentagon said Friday, fulfilling President Donald Trump’s threat as he clashes with the German leader over the US war with Iran.
Trump had threatened to withdraw some troops from the NATO ally earlier this week after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the US was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticised Washington’s lack of strategy in the war.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that the “decision follows a thorough review of the Department’s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theatre requirements and conditions on the ground.”
Germany hosts several US military facilities, including the headquarters of its European and Africa commands, Ramstein Air Base and a medical centre in Landstuhl, where casualties from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were treated. US nuclear missiles are also stationed in the country.
The number of troops leaving Germany would be 14 per cent of the 36,000 American service members stationed there.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Saturday announced “new rules” over the state’s coastline in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, at the orders of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
The IRGC stated, according to the state-run Press TV, that it will be exercising control over “nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) of Iran’s coastline,” making the water body ” a source of security and prosperity for the region.”
The US is warning shipping companies that they could face sanctions for making payments to Iran to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
The alert posted Friday by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control adds another layer of pressure in the standoff between the US and Iran over control of the Strait of Hormuz.
About a fifth of the world’s trade in oil and natural gas typically passes through the strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf in peacetime.
Iran effectively closed the strait to normal traffic by attacking and threatening to attack ships after the US and Israel launched a war on Feb. 28. It later began offering some ships safe passage by detouring them through alternate routes closer to its shoreline, charging fees at times for the service.
That “tollbooth” effort is the focus of the US sanctions warning.
The payment demands could include transfers not only in cash but also “digital assets, offsets, informal swaps, or other in-kind payments,” including chartibale donations and payments at Iranian embassies, OFAC said.
“OFAC is issuing this alert to warn US and non-US persons about the sanctions risks of making these payments to, or soliciting guarantees from, the Iranian regime for safe passage. These risks exist regardless of payment method,” it said.
The US responded to Iran’s closure of the strait with a naval blockade of its own on April 13, preventing any Iranian tankers from leaving and depriving Iran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy.
The US Central Command said 45 commercial ships have been told to turn around since the blockade began.
Iran on Saturday said it hanged two men convicted of spying for Israel.
The Iranian judiciary’s news outlet, Mizanonline, identified the men as Yaghoub Karimpour and Nasser Bekrzadeh. It said they were hanged after the country’s Supreme Court upheld earlier death sentences.
The news outlet said Karimpour was accused of sending “sensitive information” to an officer in Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, while Bekrzadeh was alleged to have sent details about government and religious leaders as well as information about Natanz. The central Iranian city is home to a nuclear enrichment facility bombed by Israel and the U.S. last year.
Iran has hanged more than a dozen people over alleged espionage and terrorist activities in recent weeks.
Fu Cong, the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, said Friday that maintaining the ceasefire is “the most urgent issue” as well as bringing together the sides to resume good faith negotiations “to make sure that the ground is laid for reopening of Hormuz.”
Foreign Minister Wang Yi “has been on the phone almost constantly” with representatives from all sides, Fu said, adding that China supports Pakistan’s efforts to mediate between the parties.
Fu stressed the root cause of the tremendous suffering in Iran and neighboring countries and the growing turmoil in the global economy, especially in developing countries, “is the illegitimate war by the US and Israel.”
(With agency inputs)
This post was last modified on May 2, 2026 5:53 pm