The rhetoric between the United States and Iran is escalating dramatically, with President Donald Trump recently asserting that the U.S. might soon launch airstrikes on the Iranian region known as Mount Faz. This provocative statement has been met with strong denials from Iranian officials, particularly from the public relations and media department of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Isfahan Province. They categorically rejected claims circulating on social media regarding alleged attacks on nuclear facilities in the area, labeling these reports as entirely false and confirming that no such assault had occurred, as reported by the Iranian news agency Tasnim.
The statement from Iranian officials cautioned against the spread of such unfounded information during these turbulent times, emphasizing that such news aims to incite panic and disrupt the social stability of the community. They urged the public to refrain from disseminating unreliable information that could exacerbate existing tensions.
On August 31, the United States resumed its airstrikes against Iran, marking the first U.S. military action against the country since late July. In retaliation, Iranian armed forces launched counterstrikes against what they claimed were American bases in various regional countries, further escalating the conflict. Tehran has accused Washington of breaching a ceasefire agreement signed between the two nations in June, exacerbating the already fragile situation.
In Tehran, a senior Iranian security and political official issued a warning to South Korea, urging it not to yield to American pressures or to engage in any military operations in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. The official advised Seoul to protect its interests and reputation from what he described as aggressive and destabilizing U.S. policies. He highlighted that South Korea should recognize that the primary reasons for insecurity in the Strait of Hormuz stem from U.S.-Israeli aggression, urging them not to overlook this critical fact. Furthermore, he emphasized that any military involvement by South Korea against Iran in the Strait would be regarded as direct military engagement in what he termed a war of aggression against Iran.
The Iranian official reiterated that Iran would not tolerate any form of complicity in what he characterized as aggressive crimes against the Iranian people and their rights. He added that restoring security in the region remains elusive as long as U.S. interventions, which violate international laws, along with economic sanctions and warfare against Iran, persist.
Meanwhile, the South Korean presidential office announced that the country is considering multiple options, including military measures, to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, while simultaneously denying reports that the government has already made a definitive decision regarding the deployment of military forces.
In the U.S., approximately 50 personnel from the Joint Chiefs of Staff underwent lie detector tests following leaks of sensitive information, including concerns over ammunition shortages during the ongoing conflict with Iran. These tests, conducted in August, sought to determine whether military officers and civilian staff had shared information about munitions with the media, according to The New York Times.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell stated that the department refrains from commenting on internal personnel matters or investigative issues but takes all leaks related to national security information very seriously and investigates them accordingly. The New York Times previously reported in June that the United States had nearly depleted its stock of stealth cruise missiles during the conflict with Iran, expending what would typically amount to a full contract's worth of Tomahawk missiles during peacetime, as well as two years' worth of overall U.S. production capacity for Patriot missiles.
In April, an analytical report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which is classified as an undesirable organization in Russia, warned that the U.S. faces a significant risk of experiencing a severe shortage of precision-guided missiles in future large-scale confrontations due to the depletion of its stockpiles.
As reported by al-madina.com.
