Iran-Trump latest: Two explosions leave five dead as regime denies military leader targeted – UK Times

Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that US, Israeli and European leaders had exploited Iran’s economic problems, incited unrest and provided people with the means to “tear the nation apart” in recent protests.

Foreign leaders tried to “provoke, create division, and supplied resources, drawing some innocent people into this movement,” Pezeshkian said in a live state TV broadcast.

Trump, Netanyahu and Europeans “rode on our problems, provoked, and were seeking — and still seek — to fragment society,” he said.

“They brought them into the streets and wanted, as they said, to tear this country apart, to sow conflict and hatred among the people and create division,” Pezeshkian said.

An explosion occurred at Iran’s southern port of Bandar Abbas on Saturday, Iranian media reported, without giving a cause for the blast.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency said that social media reports alleging that a Revolutionary Guard navy commander was targeted in the explosion were “completely false”.

Iranian media said the blast was being investigated but gave no further information. Iranian authorities could not immediately be contacted for comment.

The port of Bandar Abbas lies on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway between Iran and Oman which handles about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil.

The Trump administration approved the $9bn sale of Patriot defence missiles to Saudi Arabia and another series of weapons sales totalling $6.67bn to Israel yesterday amid escalating tensions with Iran.

The Saudi kingdom plans to buy 730 Patriot missiles from Washington, according to the US state department.

The sale to Israel includes 30 Apache attack helicopters equipped with rocket launchers and advanced targeting gear, the state department said.

US allies in the Middle East are reportedly urging both Tehran and Washington to exercise restraint as president Donald Trump announced the buildup of naval assets closer to Iran.

The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Oman and Qatar are all making the case with both the US and Iran that escalation by either side could destabilise the entire region, ABC News reported citing an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.

Saudi Arabia’s defence minister Khalid bin Salman posted on X that he discussed “efforts to advance regional and global peace and stability” yesterday.

That came after Trump threatened impending US military action against Iran, stating that his “armada” in the Gulf was “even larger than what we had in Venezuela”.

“Hopefully we’ll make a deal. If we do make a deal, that’s good. If we don’t make a deal, we’ll see what happens,” the American president said.

The US warned Iran that it “will not tolerate unsafe” actions in the Strait of Hormuz after Tehran announced a two-day live-fire naval exercise there.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) urged the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to conduct its naval exercise “in a manner that is safe, professional and avoids unnecessary risk to freedom of navigation for international maritime traffic”.

“Any unsafe and unprofessional behaviour near US forces, regional partners or commercial vessels increases risks of collision, escalation, and destabilisation,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

“We will not tolerate unsafe IRGC actions, including overflight of US military vessels engaged in flight operations, low-altitude or armed overflight of US military assets when intentions are unclear, high-speed boat approaches on a collision course with US military vessels, or weapons trained at US forces,” it said.

Iranian president Masoud ‌Pezeshkian said says ‌Donald ‍Trump, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and ‍Europe as a whole are responsible for stirring tensions in the recent protests that gripped ‌the ​country and “provoked” people to take to the streets.

Iran’s protests began last year as a response to soaring inflation, with people struggling to make ends meet as the Iranian currency crashed.

Earlier Pezeshkian was quoted by state media as saying Iran welcomed dialogue and did not seek war with the US, but would respond immediately to “any aggression”.

The Trump administration has approved a massive new series of arms sales to Israel totalling $6.67 billion and to Saudi Arabia worth $9 billion.

The State Department announced the sales to America’s allies in the Middle East late Friday as tensions rise in the region over the possibility of US military strikes on Iran.

They were made public after the department notified Congress of its approval of the sales earlier Friday.

The sales also come as president Donald Trump pushes ahead with his ceasefire plan for Gaza that is intended to end the Israel-Hamas conflict and reconstruct the Palestinian territory after two years of war left it devastated, with tens of thousands dead.

While the ceasefire has largely held, big challenges await in its next phases, including the deployment of an international security force to supervise the deal and the difficult process of disarming Hamas.

As we reported earlier, the EU has agreed to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, which she said will put the regime “on the same footing” with al-Qaida, Hamas and the Islamic State group.

The group is often touted as one of the most powerful forces in the Middle East – but how powerful are they really?

Unlike the ordinary military, which comes under the Defence Ministry in the elected government, the IRGC answers directly to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Formed soon after the revolution, the IRGC’s role defending the Islamic system greatly expanded during the 1980-88 war with Iraq and it is now the strongest and best-equipped section of Iran’s armed forces.

Over the decades, the Guards have extended their influence through the worlds of politics and business, gaining in power at home and abroad.

Members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) giving a military salute during a military parade in Tehran

The Quds Force, an elite Guards unit, has spearheaded Iran’s regional strategy of supporting affiliated Shi’ite groups across the Middle East, most notably in Lebanon and Iraq. That strategy was hard-hit by the U.S. assassination of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in a 2020 air strike in Iraq, and by Israel’s pummelling of Lebanon’s Hezbollah in a 2024 war.

The Basij militia, a part-time paramilitary force under Guards control, is often used to quell protests inside Iran.

Since the early 2000s, the Guards’ economic power has grown as its contracting company Khatam al-Anbiya won projects worth billions of dollars in Iran’s oil and gas sector.