Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has called out Western nations, specifically pointing to France, for instructing other countries on human rights while backing Israeli genocide in Gaza and aggression against Iran.
Araghchi posted a statements on X, addressing Western governments directly on their foreign policy positions.
“The hypocrisy is blatant and embarrassing. Your backing of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and aggression against Iran has destroyed whatever moral high ground you imagined you had,” Araghchi wrote.
The foreign minister’s remarks coincided with broader statements from Tehran regarding regional security, maritime environmental damage and escalating tensions with the United States (US).
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei addressed the environmental impact of commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, linking recent oil contamination near Qeshm Island to a foreign bulk carrier. The contamination spanned three coastal sites and areas of the sea surface.
Baqaei stated that parties profiting from shipping through the passage share responsibility for ecological damage in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.
“As the country with the longest coastline along the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, Iran cannot remain indifferent. Every party that benefits from commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz carries both a legal and a moral obligation to remediate the environmental harm inflicted upon the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman,” Baqaei said.
Baqaei questioned whether energy-consuming nations, shipping insurers, or military forces operating in the region bear the financial burden for decades of environmental degradation that has cost Iran trillions of dollars.
Concurrently, US President Donald Trump declared on Truth Social that American forces maintain command over the strategic waterway.
“The US has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I think we will keep it!” Trump wrote. “Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, a wall of steel, and there is nothing Iran can do about it.”
A spokesperson for the Iranian Armed Forces responded to military threats by warning that future US actions would jeopardize regional and global systems, according to state media outlet IRIB.
“In the event of renewed US aggression against Iran, energy transmission lines, power plants, all American and non-American systems, and even global internet-connected infrastructure are at risk,” the spokesperson said.
Regarding talks of a pause in military action, a senior Iranian source told international media outlet that Tehran and Washington DC have not held negotiations to extend a ceasefire, noting that Iran views the current arrangement as lacking a formal start date.
Amid regional friction, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei met with Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in Tehran to reinforce diplomatic relations. According to state news agency IRNA, Rezaei described Pakistan as a primary asset in the Islamic world and called for expanded bilateral, political, and defense ties.
