May 20: Iran warns against any new aggression as Pakistan ramps up diplomacy to end the war

By Press TV Website Staff

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday warned that any renewed US-Israeli aggression would trigger wider-than-ever retaliation, while President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated that the Islamic Republic will never bow to coercion.

Top officials, including Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, underscored Iran’s readiness to confront any new US threats.

Tehran reported increased ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz under newly implemented transit arrangements.

The day also saw intensified diplomatic activity with Pakistan, with the second visit of Pakistani interior minister Mohsin Naqvi in less than a week.

Key developments on day 82 of the war, the forty-second day of the ceasefire:

• The IRGC cautioned that if aggression against Iran is repeated, the war will expand beyond the region, with powerful strikes from unexpected fronts.
• President Pezeshkian reiterated Iran’s position that it will resist coercion aimed at forcing surrender, stressing that engagement with the Islamic Republic should instead be based on mutual respect.
• Pezeshkian discussed the latest developments surrounding the ongoing indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States in a meeting with visiting Pakistani interior minister Mohsin Naqvi.
• Parliament Speaker Qalibaf warned that the enemy’s overt and covert movements indicate it is seeking a new round of war, saying the Iranian armed forces are fully prepared and will make the enemy regret any new aggression against the country.
• Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesman for Iran’s Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, warned Persian Gulf Arab states that they must expel American troops from their territory before any potential US military action against Iran.
• Foreign Minister Araghchi said Iran has "many more surprises" in store for the United States should Washington seek resumption of unprovoked aggression against the Islamic Republic.
• Iran reported increased ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz under new arrangements to facilitate transit via the key Persian Gulf waterway. The IRGC Navy said a total of 26 ships had passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours.
• The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei rejected as totally “baseless” the US Central Command (CENTCOM)’s narrative regarding the missile strike on Minab’s Shajareh Tayyebeh school, saying the US is attempting to shun accountability for the massacre of students and teachers.
• Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said the US and Israel must take responsibility for the war they started and find their way out of the quagmire.
• Pakistan’s Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi arrived in Tehran for the second time this week amid efforts to end the US war against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iranian news agencies reported. 
• Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping jointly condemned the recent US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran, calling for dialogue as the only way to end the destabilising conflict.
• Italy deployed two minesweepers to the Strait of Hormuz as part of an international mission involving several European countries.
• The commander of the 401st Armoured Brigade of the Israeli military was seriously injured in a drone operation conducted by Hezbollah resistance fighters against the occupation forces’ positions in southern Lebanon, Hebrew-language Walla News website reported.
• The fighters of Lebanon’s resistance movement pledged that they will neither rest nor settle until every Israeli occupier is driven from the Lebanese soil.
• Iraqi resistance groups caused the collision of two KC-135 Stratotankers in Iraqi airspace during the recent US-Israeli aggression against Iran, the Atlantic reported.
• Russia blasted the UN and the International Atomic Energy Agency for applying double standards in response to attacks on nuclear facilities, pointing to repeated Israeli-US strikes on Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant that have gone unpunished while the Security Council convened to condemn a drone attack near a UAE reactor.