Iran's Supreme Leader on Sunday warned against what he called an enemy plot to impose a harmful “no war, no peace” situation on Iran, over two months after a US-brokered ceasefire halted Israeli attacks but left public fears of renewed conflict.
"The enemy wants to impose a 'no war, no peace' situation on Iran," Ali Khamenei said in a meeting with President Masoud Pezeshkian and his cabinet members in Tehran.
"One of the harms and dangers facing the country is precisely this state of 'no war, no peace,' which is not good."
Iran's foreign policy was defined for years by Khamenei’s famous line — “neither war nor negotiations”. Yet this year Iran both entered talks with the United States and endured a 12-day war with Israel that killed most of its top military commanders.
Israel launched a surprise military campaign on June 13 targeting Iran's military and nuclear sites, killing 1,062 people including 276 civilians. Iran responded with missile strikes that killed 31 civilians and one off-duty soldier.
While a US-brokered ceasefire paused hostilities on June 24, neither officials of the two countries nor the Iranian public consider the war to be over.
Last month, Iran's top security official and Khamenei's representative Ali Larijani said Tehran must remain prepared for a fresh round of conflict as the war with Israel is not over.
'Muslims must further isolate Israel'
In his Sunday remarks, Khamenei called Israel "the most isolated government in the world." At the same time, he called on Islamic countries to sever all their business and even political ties with Israel.
"Countries that are protesting (against Israel) today, whether Islamic or non-Islamic, especially Islamic countries, must completely cut their commercial relations with the Zionist regime and even sever political relations, isolating it more than it already is," he said.
"Today, of course, the vile Zionist regime is the most isolated government in the world. There is no doubt about this. It is the most hated government in the world. However, it can be isolated even more."
He then ordered the Pezeshkian administration's foreign ministry to advise other governments to sever their relations with Israel.
Khamenei has in recent years, especially following the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords, advised Islamic countries against normalizing their relations with the Jewish State.
In May, he warned Riyadh against rapprochement with Israel, saying that cooperation with Washington and Tel Aviv amounted to “oppression.”
'Iran lagging behind in oil production'
Khamenei on Sunday also complained about what he called low oil production and sales, without acknowledging the impact of international isolation and sanctions on its energy sector.
"Oil production in Iran, despite its importance to the national economy, is at a low level. Our production methods are outdated. The tools and techniques are old," he said.
"We are lagging behind many other oil-rich countries of the world."
"In oil exports too, we need greater dynamism. The issue of having a wider range and diversity of oil customers is an important matter that must be pursued," Khamenei added.
US sanctions have isolated Iran in the global energy market, forcing the country to sell almost all of its crude oil to China at heavily discounted prices. A small portion of the remaining oil is also sold to Iran's allies like Venezuela, often in exchange for economic assistance or other goods.
Ranked as the 11th largest consumer of petroleum products globally, Iran also grapples with an increasingly unprofitable and outdated crude oil refining sector.
The majority of its petroleum products, approximately 85 percent, are sourced from refineries established before the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
According to an official document, prepared by Iran’s oil ministry and seen by Iran International, only three of its nine crude oil refineries have been operationalized after 1979, with combined capacity of less than 265,000 barrels per day.
Originally constructed based on Western licenses, these refineries now rely on domestic or Chinese technologies for upgrades.
Speaking to Channel 12, Cohen said: “I always wanted to be proactive, identify threats, neutralize them. But the prevailing approach was avoidance—‘Oh, what will happen next?’ For example, I had a full plan to eliminate Qassem Soleimani in Syria. Everything was ready—intelligence, surveillance, logistics—but I was told I couldn’t carry it out because it would spark a war with Iran.”
During the interview, aired Saturday evening, he recalled then US President Donald Trump accusing Netanyahu of cowardice for backing out of the strike.
Cohen said Israeli reluctance “wasn’t because of the prime minister -- but because [Netanyahu] accepted the army and military intelligence’s position,” referring to then chief of staff Aviv Kohavi.
He recalled a security meeting in which he proposed that the IDF strike a site linked to Qassem Soleimani that the military had itself labeled a serious strategic threat, without giving a date. “The chief of staff opposed me, right there,” he said. “I told the prime minister: ‘Instruct him.’ But no directive was given.”
Cohen said Netanyahu sided with the generals, a stance he described as a “policy of consequences.”
Asked if the generals intimidated the premier, he said: “Absolutely.”
On June 13, Israel launched surprise attacks on Iran, killing many senior military leaders and nuclear experts, and triggering a 12-day war that brought destruction to both sides.
After Cohen’s remarks were aired Saturday evening, Kohavi issued a statement saying the IDF had opposed a different operation proposed by Cohen to kill Soleimani, and had backed what proved to be a successful operation.
Asked if Netanyahu might have acted differently in another environment, Cohen replied: “Yes, absolutely.”
Under Cohen's tenure, from 2016-2021, Operation House of Cards saw Israel target dozens of Iranian targets in Syria in 2018.
During his Saturday interview, Cohen said one of his major successes was acquiring Iran’s nuclear archive.
He said he devised the “exploding beepers” tactic used against Hezbollah last year, when pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to the Iran-backed group were rigged to detonate simultaneously, killing and wounding hundreds of its fighters across Lebanon.
“I’m the father of the concept," the long-time agent said. "In 2004, I told then-Mossad chief Meir Dagan I wanted a special operations center that would also handle equipment sales.”
The prime minister’s office said the committee, composed of relevant government agencies, will review information and reports pointing to corruption and suspicious operations in Iraq’s ports and territorial waters.
The US Treasury on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a vast network accused of blending Iranian oil with Iraqi crude and selling it as exclusively Iraqi, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the Islamic Republic.
Washington said the network covertly blended Iranian and Iraqi oil through ship-to-ship transfers in the Persian Gulf and in Iraqi ports.
The sanctions target Waleed Khaled Hameed al-Samarra’i, based in the United Arab Emirates, along with his firms Babylon Navigation DMCC and Galaxy Oil FZ LLC, and nine Liberia-flagged tankers.
The Treasury estimated the operation generated about $300 million annually for both Iran and al-Samarra’i.
“Iraq cannot become a safe haven for terrorists, which is why the United States is working to counter Iran’s influence in the country,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“By targeting Iran’s oil revenue stream, Treasury will further degrade the regime’s ability to carry out attacks against the United States and its allies.”
The measures follow sanctions announced in July against another network accused of blending Iranian and Iraqi oil.
