Washington
\nThe United States and Israel on Thursday confirmed the death of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\u2013Navy commander Admiral Alireza Tangsiri in an airstrike.
\n\u201cThe death of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps\u2013Navy (IRGC-N) commander, Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, from an Israeli airstrike makes the region safer,\u201d said a statement on X from US Central Command.
\nThe statement further added that \u201cTangsiri had commanded the IRGC-N for eight years, during which time the IRGC harassed thousands of innocent merchant mariners, attacked hundreds of vessels with one-way attack drones and missiles, and killed countless innocent civilians.\u201d
\n\u201cHe was designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Treasury in June 2019, with additional secondary sanctions added in 2024 related to drone development,\u201d the statement continued.
\nUS Centcom further stated that, since the commencement of Operation Epic Fury, 92% of the large ships in the Iranian Navy had been eliminated. \u201cAs a result, the IRGC-N had completely lost its ability to project power in the Middle East or around the world. Now, with the loss of their long-time leader, the IRGC-N was on an irreversible decline.\u201d
\n\u201cUS military strikes on the IRGC-N will continue. Therefore, we call on every Iranian serving in the IRGC-N to immediately abandon their post and return home to avoid further risk of unnecessary injury or death,\u201d the statement concluded.
\nPresident Benjamin Netanyahu also confirmed in a post on X that Israel had eliminated Tangsiri last night.
\nHe described him as a man with \u201ca lot of blood on his hands\u201d and noted that he was also responsible for leading the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
\nPentagon getting ready for huge \u2018final blow\u2019 in Iran war: report
\nThe Pentagon prepared military options for a \u201cfinal blow\u201d in the Iran war, involving the use of ground forces and massive bombing, according to a report by Axios, citing two US officials and two sources with knowledge of the matter.
\nAccording to the report, a \u201cdramatic military escalation\u201d had been expected if there was no progress in talks between Tehran and Washington.
\nThe sources said that options such as invading the strategically important islands of Kharg, Larak, Abu Musa, and others, along with a blockade of ships carrying Iranian oil east of the Strait of Hormuz, were on the table.
\nThe report stated that some US officials believed that a \u201cshow of overwhelming force\u201d to end the conflicts would give the US greater leverage in negotiations.
\nA source familiar with the negotiation efforts had noted that T\u00fcrkiye, Pakistan, and Egypt were continuing their attempts to organise talks between the parties.
\nThe source added that Iran had rejected the US\u2019s initial demands but had not completely withdrawn from the negotiations.
\nDespite the sources\u2019 statement, US President Donald Trump had reportedly not reached a decision yet on any of these scenarios.
\nAny potential ground operations were seen as \u201chypothetical\u201d by White House officials.
\nPakistan relaying messages in US-Iran indirect talks, foreign minister says
\nForeign Minister Ishaq Dar said that indirect communication between the United States and Iran is underway through messages being relayed by Pakistan, with T\u00fcrkiye and Egypt also assisting diplomatic efforts aimed at easing tensions in the Middle East.
\nIn a post on X, the Dar said media speculation about formal peace negotiations was misplaced, clarifying that the current engagement involved indirect exchanges rather than direct talks.
\n\u201cThere has been unnecessary speculation in the media regarding peace talks to end ongoing conflict in the Middle East. In reality, US-Iran indirect talks are taking place through messages being relayed by Pakistan,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington The United States and Israel on Thursday confirmed the death of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\u2013Navy commander Admiral Alireza Tangsiri in an airstrike. \u201cThe death of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps\u2013Navy (IRGC-N) commander, Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, from an Israeli airstrike makes the region safer,\u201d said a statement on X from US Central Command. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":95462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95492,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95484\/revisions\/95492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}