Iran army chief warns against US invasion

Iran’s army chief warned US forces would face total annihilation if they land in Iran. Irish PM criticized Trump’s threats to civilians. Tehran insists on secret arms stockpiles. Former foreign minister Kamal Kharazi wounded in airstrike amid ongoing US-Israel strikes

Dubai: Iran’s army chief warned Thursday that should the US military land in the Islamic Republic, “not a single person” will survive among the invaders.

Maj Gen Amir Hatami made the comment in a piece aired by Iranian state television.

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“The shadow of war must be lifted from our country and there must be security for everyone, because it is not possible for places to be safe and our people to be unsafe,” he said.

Irish premier criticises Trump’s bombastic rhetoric on Iran

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin criticised Trump’s vow to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age”.

Martin said the rhetoric was unacceptable and the Iranian people who are playing no role in the war are entitled to safety.

“Every person involved in war has to prioritize civilian protection and innocent civilians,” he told Newstalk radio. “We all know that the Iranian regime was a very oppressive one. But this war is creating death, destruction to people in Iran who had no act or part in the regime.” Martin said it was wrong to threaten civilians, but it was unclear if Trump’s threats were aimed at people or infrastructure.

“(We) could be forever trying to interpret President Trump in terms of what he said and what actually gets done, and that’s always been the feature,” he said.

Iran military spokesman insists Tehran has hidden stockpiles

A spokesman for Iran’s military, reacting to US President Donald Trump’s speech, insisted Thursday that Tehran maintains hidden stockpiles of arms and munitions.

Lt Col Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for the Iranian military’s Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, made the comment.

“The centres you think you have targeted are insignificant, and our strategic military productions take place in locations of which you have no knowledge and will never reach,” he claimed.

Israel and the United States have hit thousands of targets in the weekslong war, targeting military bases, missile launchers and other sites.

Iranian missile fire has dropped, though Tehran is still able to mount attacks.

Former Iranian foreign minister reportedly wounded in airstrike

An airstrike has severely wounded a former Iranian foreign minister who once suggested Tehran could seek a nuclear weapon, Iranian media outlets reported.

The attack on Wednesday wounded Kamal Kharazi, 81, and killed his wife, the reports said.

It wasn’t clear if the airstrikes targeted Kharazi or another site nearby.

Kharazi served as a foreign minister for Iran’s reformist President Mohammad Khatami, then as a foreign affairs adviser to the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In 2022, he told Al Jazeera that Tehran has “the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one,” sparking concern about Tehran’s intentions.

After the war began, Kharazi told CNN: “I don’t see any room for diplomacy anymore. Because Donald Trump had been deceiving others and not keeping with his promises, and we experienced this in two times of negotiations – that while we were engaged in negotiation, they struck us.”