Gulf states may be covertly encouraging attacks by US, Iran’s foreign minister says

Some Gulf States hosting US forces may be covertly encouraging the slaughter of Iranians, Iran’s foreign minister has claimed in a thinly-veiled attack on Saudi Arabia.Abbas Araghchi demanded clarification on reports that Mohammed bin Salman was in regular private conversations with Donald Trump urging the US president “to continue hitting the Iranians hard”.Araghchi was responding to the second US media report in a week claiming the Saudi crown prince’s public opposition to the US attacks on Iran did not reflect his private position. “Stances should be promptly clarified,” he said in a post on X.Iran’s foreign minister said hundreds of civilians had been killed in US-Israeli attacks, including more than 200 children.Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, issued an appeal directed at Muslim populations in the Gulf States urging them to ask themselves which side were they on in the war and why no Islamic country had stood by the Iranian people.Defending Iran’s attacks on Gulf States, he said: “Are we being asked to stand idly by while US bases in your countries are being used to attack us? The confrontation today is between America and Israel on the one hand, and the Muslim Iran and the forces of resistance on the other.”The warnings came as Iranian attacks escalated on Monday, with drone strikes in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, in one of its most comprehensive sets of assaults since the war started.Iran also vowed to keep the strait of Hormuz closed indefinitely to “enemies and those supporting their aggression”, amid signs that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (ICRG) were tightening their grip inside the country after the appointment of an uncompromising hardliner, Mohsen Rezaee, as military adviser to the supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.Rezaee, a former commander of the IRGC for 16 years, played a key role during the bloody Iran-Iraq war. He said at the weekend there should be no ceasefire until the US agreed to vacate its military bases in the Middle East. His appointment consolidates the grip that the IRGC achieved with the recent appointment of Khamenei.The Iranian death toll headed towards 1,500 on Monday after neighbourhoods across Tehran suffered one of the most intense bombardments since the start of the war, with electricity grid infrastructure being hit and power being temporarily lost in easten parts of the capital.The mayor of Tehran, Alireza Zakani, said the capital had suffered 13,000 separate attacks, more than half of the total attacks on Iran. Parts of the Tehran metro were suspended.Censorship inside Iran, including the internet blackout, has become more intense over the past 48 hours with newspapers and telegram channels becoming largely inaccessible.Speaking at his weekly morning press conference, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said that “vessels belonging to countries not involved in the war have been allowed to transit the strait of Hormuz with coordination and permission from Iran’s military.”Two Indian flagged gas tankers ships bound for Gujaraet have been allowed to pass through the Strait after direct talks between Iran and India, but no blanket agreement has been reached for future passage for Indian ships.Araghchi said the deal was a one-off due to his history of engagement with India. There are reports Iran in return is asking for access to medicines and the release of three of its ships captured by India.Iranian officials were delighted that Trump had received a largely negative response with his call to seven countries, including China, France and the UK to join a US-led coalition in helping to open the strait of Hormuz.Any fissures in the US-European relations are being seized upon by Iranian officials and media as a sign that Trump’s unilateral war, in which no country but Israel had any prior input, will not be endorsed.