statement<\/a> on Sunday emphasising \u201cthat Iran\u2019s defensive operations against US military bases and installations in the region should by no means be construed as enmity or hostility towards the countries of the region\u201d.<\/p>\nKhalid al-Jaber, executive director of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs in Doha, says different Iranian officials have sent several \u201ccontradictory\u201d messages to countries in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know which one is true. We don\u2019t think now, in war, that Iran is going to stop attacking some infrastructure in the Gulf,\u201d al-Jaber told Al Jazeera, citing the attack on the water desalination plant in Bahrain a proof of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the attack on Ayatollah Khamenei, it seems like there is no institute or a person or leadership we can talk to, or we can make a deal with, to try to understand what their perspective is, what their point of view is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
How should Iran\u2019s messages be interpreted?<\/h2>\n
According to Al Jazeera\u2019s Resul Serdar, Pezeshkian\u2019s apology was overtaken by the Revolutionary Guard\u2019s dominance.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolitical figures in Iran are responsible for running state affairs and nonstrategic affairs. But when it comes to strategic affairs, such as the country\u2019s foreign and security policies, politicians don\u2019t have a say, including the president, who, according to the constitution, is the number two in charge. This is a very well-known fact in Iran,\u201d Serdar said.<\/p>\n
The centre of power lies with the office of the supreme leader and with the IRGC, even during peacetime, he added.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Serdar said Iranians were interpreting Pezeshkian\u2019s statement that his remarks had been misconstrued as one not meant for Gulf countries but instead for Azerbaijan and Turkiye.<\/p>\n
\u201cAzerbaijan because of the ethnic tensions. There are tens of thousands of Azeri [people] living in Iran, so an attack on them could backfire, and for Turkiye, it is a NATO member,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Azerbaijan has sought Iran\u2019s apology after a drone attack targeted its autonomous Nakhchivan exclave on Thursday. Tehran, however, has insisted that it was not behind the attack.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Turkiye\u2019s Ministry of National Defence said a \u2060ballistic missile fired from \u2060Iran towards Turkish airspace had been intercepted and destroyed by NATO. But Iran\u2019s \u2060armed forces have also denied firing \u2060any missile towards Turkish territory.<\/p>\n
Ali Vaez, director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that Pezeshkian\u2019s occasional off-key remarks have underscored his limited political instincts and experience in navigating high-stakes moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in wartime, rhetorical missteps by civilian officials are ultimately beside the point: The only voice that truly matters is the IRGC\u2019s,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
How has the Gulf reacted?<\/h2>\n
After an apology and threats from Iranian officials, strikes on countries across the Gulf have continued.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, an Iranian drone attack caused material damage to a water desalination plant in Bahrain, its Ministry of Interior said.<\/p>\n
That came a day after Araghchi said the US attacked a desalination plant on Qeshm Island off southern Iran, setting a \u201cprecedent\u201d. There has been no immediate comment from Iran since Bahrain\u2019s statement. A majority of Gulf countries depend largely on desalinated water for their inhabitants\u2019 consumption.<\/p>\n
Also on Saturday, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE reported incoming missiles and drones in their territories. On Sunday, Kuwait said two Ministry of Interior personnel were killed while on duty and attacks on its international airport and social security office caused fires.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia said Sunday that an attack on Riyadh\u2019s diplomatic quarter was foiled and several drones were downed in its airspace.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the Gulf Cooperation Council said Iran\u2019s continued attacks against Bahrain and Kuwait are \u201cdangerous acts of aggression\u201d that threaten regional security and stability. The bloc comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.<\/p>\n
So far, countries in the Gulf have intercepted and destroyed most of the Iranian missiles and drones but have not yet launched strikes against Tehran.<\/p>\n
Vaez told Al Jazeera that the Gulf states can certainly retaliate but that is likely to lead to even more aggressive Iranian retaliation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSiding with Israel to bomb another Muslim state would also entail political consequences for the Gulf states,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
How has the US reacted?<\/h2>\n
After the Iranian president\u2019s apology on Saturday, US President Donald Trump said in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Iran has surrendered to its neighbours.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran is no longer the \u2018Bully of the Middle East,\u2019 they are, instead, \u2018THE LOSER OF THE MIDDLE EAST,\u2019 and will be for many decades until they surrender or, more likely, completely collapse!\u201d Trump posted.<\/p>\n
\u201cSiding with Israel to bomb another muslim state would also entail political consequences for the Gulf states,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday, Hamidreza Gholamzadeh, director of the Iranian think tank Diplo House, said Trump\u2019s interpretation of Pezeshkian\u2019s comments as a \u201csurrender\u201d is \u201ctotally false\u201d.<\/p>\n
Gholamzadeh said Iran is asking its neighbours \u201cthat they stop cooperating with the United States or the Israeli regime and do not allow them to use their land or their airspace to attack Iran\u201d, describing the request as something \u201cvery normal\u201d and \u201clegal\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has offered an apology to neighbouring countries that have been subjected to Tehran\u2019s retaliatory strikes since the United States and Israel launched a military offensive on the country. But Iran\u2019s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) expressed its disapproval of the president\u2019s remarks on Saturday, warning neighbouring countries that Tehran would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explained"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}