WarSclerotic

A day after the U.S. reimposed biting economic sanctions on Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Islamic republic has nothing to be worried about, according to a report on his official website.

The new sanctions, the first of two stages in the reimposition of sanctions on Iran, took effect on Monday night and have already led banks and companies around the world to scale back dealings with the country. the second stage is scheduled to take effect in November.

Companies doing business with Iran will be barred from the United States, President Donald Trump declared on Tuesday.

Trump tweeted on Tuesday that the reinstated sanctions were the most biting sanctions ever imposed.

But Khamenei’s website quoted one of his speeches in recent weeks, saying, “With regard to our situation, do not be worried at all. Nobody can do anything.”

The sanctions had been lifted under the 2015 international nuclear accord with Iran, which the U.S. pulled out of in May.

Iran has denounced the renewed sanctions and Trump’s decision to pull out of the international nuclear deal as “U.S. unilateralism.”

In Britan’s Guardian newspaper on Wednesday, Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Gholamali Khoshrou said Trump was making history by violating a U.N. Security Council resolution the U.S. had voted for three years ago.

The resolution calls on U.N. member states to refrain “from actions that undermine implementation of commitments” under the nuclear accord between Iran and six world powers.

In recent weeks, U.S. officials have said they aim to pressure countries to stop buying oil from Iran in a bid to force it to halt its nuclear and missile programs and involvement in regional conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the U.S. plan to reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero will not succeed.

“If the Americans want to keep this simplistic and impossible idea in their minds, they should also know its consequences,” Zarif said. “They can’t think that Iran won’t export oil and others will export.”

President Hassan Rouhani hinted last month that Iran might block the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route, if the U.S. attempted to stop Iranian oil exports.

Trump responded by saying Iran could face serious consequences if it threatened the United States.

“The Americans have assembled a war room against Iran,” Zarif said. “We can’t get drawn into a confrontation with America by falling into this war room trap and playing on a battlefield.”

Last month, Trump offered to meet Iran’s leaders “without preconditions.” But Rouhani said on Monday there can be no talks as long as Washington reneges on the deal.

Zarif said that Oman and Switzerland have acted as mediators in talks with the Americans in the past but there are currently no direct or indirect talks being held with the U.S.

Speaking at a meeting with North Korea’s foreign minister on Wednesday, Rouhani said the U.S. cannot be trusted, according to the state news agency IRNA.

“Today, America is identified as an unreliable and untrustworthy country in the world which does not adhere to any of its obligations,” Rouhani said.

Meanwhile, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East said Wednesday that an Iranian naval exercise involving at least 100 small boats in and around the Strait of Hormuz last week was intended as a message to the U.S. for reimposing economic sanctions on Iran.

Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, told Pentagon reporters that Iran was showcasing its military capabilities, amid the threats by Rouhani to close off the strait.

“It’s pretty clear to us that they were trying to use that exercise to send a message to us that, as we approach the period for the sanctions here, they had some capabilities,” said Votel.

He said the U.S. message back to Iran was: “We are aware of what’s going on and we remain ready to protect ourselves.”

Votel also condemned Iran for its continued efforts to destabilize other countries in the region, including Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Iran routinely operates small boats in the Strait of Hormuz and the surrounding area, and has often threatened to shut it down. About a third of all oil traded by sea passes through the strait.

Votel said Iran has the ability to plant mines and explosive boats in the waterway, as well as use missiles and radar along the coast. But he said the U.S. and its allies routinely train for that possibility and are prepared to ensure that freedom of navigation and commerce continues in those waters.

He said much of the Iranian activity in the strait and in the region is being led by Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“Wherever you see Iranian activity, you see Qassem Soleimani,” Votel said, adding that the Quds Force is the principal threat in the region.

Iran has been active in Syria, backing the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, while also stoking violence in the southern part of the country and triggering military counterattacks from Israel.

Israel has warned Iran against building up a military presence along its border. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have repeatedly condemned Iran for providing missiles to Yemeni Houthi rebels, who have fired toward Riyadh.

Israeli jets bombed dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip as Palestinian terrorists fired more than 180 rockets and mortar shells into Israel in a fierce burst of violence overnight Wednesday and well into Thursday, despite efforts to broker a truce to end months of simmering violence.

A Thai farm worker in her 20s sustained moderate to serious injuries in Israel’s Eshkol Regional Council when a rocket struck a packing facility there Thursday morning. Another employee was lightly hurt and at least 20 others were wounded in separate incidents.

The Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba issued a statement Thursday saying, “The woman’s condition has improved, she is conscious and breathing independently. She is still hospitalized in the ICU. The other victim from the same incident has been released.”

Three people were reported killed in the Gaza Strip: a member of Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group that rules Gaza, as well as a pregnant woman and her 18-month-old child. At least five civilians were wounded, local medical officials said.

Most of the rockets fired into Israel struck in open and unpopulated areas, with only a fraction hitting communities along the Gaza border. Six projectiles exploded in the southern Israeli city of Sderot and one rocket directly hit a home in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.

Israel’s Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted some 30 projectiles headed for populated areas.

A Palestinian official said on Thursday that armed groups in Gaza would stop the latest round of fighting with Israel if Israel ceased its attacks on the enclave.

Speaking at a joint command center in Gaza, the official said the territory’s militant groups had been “responding to crimes” committed by Israel – a reference to Tuesday’s IDF tank shelling that killed two Hamas gunmen.

“Factions of the resistance consider this round of escalation over as far as we are concerned, and the continuation of calm depends on the behavior of the occupation,” the official said, using militant factions’ term for Israel.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the official’s remarks.

The flare-up comes as Egypt is trying to broker a long-term cease-fire between the two sides.

The latest fighting has stayed within familiar parameters. The rocket fire from Gaza has not targeted Israel’s heartland and the Israeli military said its airstrikes were limited to Hamas installations.

Likud minister Yuval Steinitz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner cabinet, told Israel Radio before the Palestinian official’s comments that Israel was “not eager to enter a war” but would make no concessions to Hamas.

Kulanu minister Yoav Gallant remarked that “whatever is needed to be done to defend our civilians and soldiers will be done, no matter the price in Gaza.”

Netanyahu was due to hold a security cabinet meeting later in the day after consultations with security officials.

Rocket warning sirens sounded almost nonstop in the southern Israeli town of Sderot and other border communities from sunset on Wednesday. Many residents have reinforced rooms in their homes where they can take shelter.

Ambulance sirens echoed through the night in Gaza, where families huddled at home as powerful explosions shook buildings. The Israeli military said its aircraft struck more than 150 facilities belonging to Hamas.

U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov said in an overnight statement: “I am deeply alarmed by the recent escalation of violence between Gaza and Israel, and particularly by today’s multiple rockets fired towards communities in southern Israel.”

He said the United Nation has engaged with Egypt in an “unprecedented effort” to avoid serious conflict, but cautioned that “the situation can rapidly deteriorate with devastating consequences for all people.”

Gaza has been controlled by Hamas for more than a decade, during which time it has fought three wars against Israel, the latest in 2014.