Qatari foreign minister visits Tehran to discuss regional de-escalation

Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, a political activist and a daughter of the late Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said the Islamic Republic needs to fulfill what the people demand if it wants to survive.

In an audio file obtained by IranWire, she said, “If we are concerned about preserving Iran, we reject foreign intervention and do not want to be eliminated, there is no way but to meet the demands of the majority, especially young people, who were the main victims of the recent bloody events."

She said the Islamic Republic is fully responsible for the massacre of protesters during what she called the recent "revolution".

Rafsanjani added that citizens cannot be blamed for pinning their hopes on foreign intervention by the United States or Israel.

She called for a referendum conducted in a way that is accepted and trusted by the public, so that citizens can choose their leaders. Hashemi said, “Change is on the way.”

"We hope the other side has also come to understand that Iran cannot be forced into negotiations through threats or the use of force," Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian told his Egyptian counterpart in a phone call on Saturday.

"Any aggression or attack on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be met with a firm and decisive response," he said, according to Iran's presidency.

"Iran has never sought war and does not seek it in any way. We firmly believe that war would benefit neither Iran, nor the United States, nor the region."

The Egyptian presidency reported that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Pezeshkian discussed recent developments regarding Iran’s nuclear program and regional issues.

A video report released by a local newspaper in southern Iran shows a man in military uniform injured in the mysterious blast that hit Bandar Abbas on Saturday morning.

State media had attributed the blast to a gas leak, and the Revolutionary Guard had denied that its navy chief was killed.

Israel also denied any involvement in a series of blast that hit Iran, including the one in Bandar Abbas.

US President Donald Trump on Saturday confirmed that Washington cannot share its Iran plan with its Persian Gulf allies.

“We can’t tell them the plan. If I told them the plan, it would be almost as bad as telling you the plan – it could be worse, actually," he told Fox News.

"But look, the plan is that [Iran is] talking to us, and we’ll see if we can do something, otherwise we’ll see what happens… We have a big fleet heading out there, bigger than we had - and still have, actually - in Venezuela.”

US President Donald Trump on Saturday posted a video showing a heavy police presence in Tehran and reposted a comment that said, “HAPPENING NOW – Tehran. The IRGC are in panic mode. Fully sh*tting their pants.”

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