Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Sunday called the United States and Israel the “sworn enemies” of Muslim unity, accusing both countries of hostility toward the broader Muslim world. “The criminal rulers of the U.S. and the illegitimate Zionist regime are the sworn enemies of this unity and friendship,” Khamenei said in a message marking Islamic Unity Week. He added that even rulers of Muslim countries considered allies of Washington and Jerusalem were not exempt from what he described as their hostility. Khamenei also argued that greater Muslim unity would have strengthened the Palestinians, asking whether they would have been left “so defenseless” if Muslims had acted as “a single, united hand.”
Meanwhile, the United States has gained the upper hand in the battle for the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. officials told Axios on Friday, as the White House separately said in a press release that American forces had reopened international shipping lanes and cut off Iranian oil exports. “That sucker is open. The Iranian response is very mild. They don’t want us to go back at them. That’s the whole ball game. The rest doesn’t matter,” President Donald Trump told Axios reporter Barak Ravid, who wrote that the U.S. officials said “they’ve turned the tide in the strait and believe it could be a watershed moment in the war that brings not only gradual relief to the world economy, but also a better deal with Iran.”
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in a video posted overnight Thursday that “we have successfully cleared sea mines in the strait’s international shipping lanes that were laid months ago by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Internationally recognized transit routes in the strait are free of Iranian sea mines thanks to the incredible work of the U.S. military.” (Read More)
