Iran says only Tehran will demine Strait of Hormuz

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Iran's former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would still be in power if Israel had accepted Hamas's terms for ending the war in Gaza.

“If we had done that, Deif, Sinwar, Haniyeh, Nasrallah, Khamenei, Assad – everyone would still be in place,” Netanyahu said during a multi-front military assessment. “With all their weapons, with all their organization, in the exact same place.”

Netanyahu said he had rejected calls to withdraw from Gaza in exchange for the release of all hostages, arguing that doing so would have amounted to “a massive defeat.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday he had ordered the military to prepare an independent strike plan against Iran, warning that Israel could go to war with Tehran “tomorrow” if it fired missiles at Israeli territory.

“If Iran fires missiles at Israel, Israel will strike Iran with force,” Katz told military and diplomatic reporters. “There is no equation we will accept in which Iran fires at Israel. This has also been made clear to the Americans. The IDF is just waiting for it and is on alert. There are targets.”

“My directive to the IDF is to prepare for a blue-and-white operation in Iran,” he added, referring to an operation carried out independently by Israel.

Katz said Israel did not want to disrupt US President Donald Trump’s diplomatic efforts with Iran but added: “When it comes to defending ourselves, there are no compromises, not in Lebanon and not in Iran.”

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will travel to Doha on Monday for meetings this week on the Iran deal, Axios reported, citing a White House official.

Witkoff and Kushner are expected to meet Qatar’s prime minister and other officials on Tuesday to discuss the deal, the report said.

US and Iranian technical teams will meet separately with Qatari and Pakistani mediators on Wednesday, the report added.

Qatar advised the temporary suspension of sailing, fishing boats, jet skis and some other maritime activities until further notice, the transport ministry said Monday.

The ministry said the measure was precautionary and exempted vessels subject to international maritime conventions. It did not give a reason for the suspension.

The advisory came a day after Qatar said one of its nationals was killed after sustaining shrapnel injuries due to “military operations in the region” after his vessel went missing.

Iranian journalist Omid Faraghat was detained and transferred to prison after being charged with “disturbing public opinion” and “acting against national security,” the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported on Monday.

According to HRANA, Faraghat, who lives in the city of Karaj near Tehran, was summoned by Iran’s security police before being taken to the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office, where a judge issued a temporary detention order.

HRANA said Faraghat had previously faced legal action over his journalism.