Iran’s Mojtaba Khamenei vows revenge for father’s killing

Israeli police said they arrested four people on Saturday after they allegedly attacked a vehicle carrying foreign journalists in the occupied West Bank.

US broadcaster CNN said that the incident took place near the village of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, as its team was trying to leave after covering the first anniversary of the killing of a Palestinian-American man who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers.

“A group of four settlers blocked the road with their car and tried to keep the vehicles from moving forward,” the network said in a report on its website.

“The four settlers were wielding wooden and metal rods and stones. One settler brandished a knife and tried to puncture the tires of CNN’s vehicle,” it added.

In a statement, Israeli police said IDF forces “secured the journalists’ passage and detained four suspects believed to have been involved in the incident.” 

“The Israeli police and the military view any act of violence or damage to property with the utmost severity, particularly when it targets members of the media carrying out their professional duties,” the police said.

The attack comes after US lawmaker Ro Khanna said he was “detained” by armed Israeli settlers during a visit to the West Bank earlier this week. 

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A US congressman said on Saturday he was “detained” by armed Israeli settlers during a visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine,” Ro Khanna, a Democratic US lawmaker from California, said in a post on X.

He added that when the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) arrived at the scene, “they sided with the settlers & continued our detention. They made a huge mistake.” 

In a statement to the AFP news agency, the Israeli military denied Khanna’s claim that IDF soldiers were involved in blocking the road.

Footage and accounts shared with The New York Times by Khanna and his team show a group of armed men blocking the road in the southern West Bank and hurling insults in Hebrew and Arabic.

“Imagine how people feel every day, Palestinians under the occupation, if they could make an American congressperson feel powerless for 90 minutes,” Khanna told the Times.

The congressman said he was eventually allowed to pass after contacting the US embassy and Israeli police.

Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, the United Nations has reported a rise in violence that they attribute to Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

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A US military delegation met with Lebanon’s army in Beirut on Saturday to discuss implementing Israel’s planned withdrawal from southern Lebanon under a framework agreement reached last month, a Lebanese military official told the AFP news agency.

The June 26 deal involves a gradual Israeli withdrawal from areas occupied during its military campaign against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group that has long battled Israel, with the Lebanese army taking full control of two designated “pilot zones.”

“The American military delegation arrived and began meetings with the Lebanese army command to discuss the mechanisms for implementing the first pilot zone from which the Israelis will withdraw, allowing the Lebanese army to deploy,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“This is the main objective the American military delegation is bringing to Lebanon… it is the translation and implementation of the framework agreement,” the official added.

The agreement, rejected by Hezbollah, sets no timetable for Israel’s withdrawal.

Israeli officials have said that their troops will remain in a self-declared “security zone” 10 kilometres (six miles) deep inside Lebanese territory as long as Hezbollah remains armed.

Lebanon is pressing for Israeli forces to leave the two “pilot zones” ahead of their next round of talks in Rome on July 15 and 16.

Mojtaba Khamenei has vowed to exact revenge on the United States and Israel for the killing of his father and predecessor as Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei was killed in an airstrike on February 28, at the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran.

“Revenge is the demand of the nation and must certainly be carried out,” according to a written statement attributed to Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, which was broadcast on state television.

“We ⁠pledge ​to avenge ​the blood of the ​martyred leader and all ‌the martyrs of these two ​wars ⁠from the criminal and disgraced killers,” Mojtaba said, adding that Iran’s “vengeance” was “inevitable.”

Mojtaba Khamenei’s statement on Saturday comes as Iran held funeral ceremonies for the slain supreme leader that lasted several days.

Mojtaba has not been seen in public since the strike that killed his father. The US claims that he sustained severe injuries in that attack in late February.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in the Omani capital, Muscat, on Saturday to discuss arrangements to guarantee the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state media. 

The waterway has been largely closed by Iran since the United States and Israel launched their war on the Islamic Republic in February, and has again become the center of global attention since a temporary ceasefire between Iran and the US collapsed.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has said Berlin is working with Paris to hammer out a new Franco-German policy initiative on Lebanon.

In an interview with the daily newspaper Tagesspiegel ahead of next week’s meeting of the German-French Ministerial Council, Wadephul said: “We want to formulate a joint policy on Lebanon with France in order to increase the chance of peace in the Middle East.”

The situation in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been fighting Iran-backed militants Hezbollah, has been a major sticking point in peace talks between the US and Iran.

The diplomat also said cooperation between the European capitals aims to end “confusion over competencies” when it comes to foreign policy decisions within the EU, adding that the bloc would continue to push for an end to the wars in Iran as well as Ukraine.

“We should now make a very serious attempt to settle both conflicts,” said Wadephul, adding that neither would end on the battlefield “but at the negotiating table.” 

US President Donald Trump once again threatened to bomb Iran, this time accusing the country of threatening to assassinate him. 

“1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow,” he said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

He said Iran threatened, “in many Corners of the Globe,” to assassinate him.

Should that occur, Trump wrote: “Orders have already been given, and the U.S. Military is ready, willing, and able, for a one year period of time, subject to extension, to completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran – PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!” 

The funeral of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saw open calls for his death and people holding signs that read “Kill Trump.”

Iran has respected its commitments in a ceasefire with the United States, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in a post on X.

“Iran has so far kept its word, unlike the so-called U.S. Treasury Secretary who is violating Para 9 of the MoU. That violation follows other violations and missteps by the United States. Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance,” Araghchi said.

The US and Iran have traded accusations of violating the ceasefire.

Washington is demanding that Tehran publicly vow to end attacks on vessels in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, unnamed senior US officials told media outlets on Friday.

The officials, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said they were making progress in negotiations with top Iranian leaders.

But they stressed they wanted Iran to issue a statement saying its forces would stop attacking ships in the strait to help ensure the progress of negotiations.

“What ​we’re demanding is that the Iranians issue a public statement that acknowledges all channels of the Strait of Hormuz are open ​and they’re not shooting at ships anymore. They’re either going to give us that statement ​or we’re ‌not having a good outcome for them,” one official was quoted as saying.

US President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire between Iran and the United States over last week when three Qatari and Saudi commercial tankers came under fire in the strait.

A senior US official told reporters on Friday that Iran said the attacks were from “an errant part of their system.”

Welcome to DW’s coverage of the latest developments in the ongoing conflict between Iran and the United States.

Late on Friday, news outlets cited anonymous US officials as saying that Washington had requested Iran publicly pledge to stop attacks in the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, Iran denied earlier statements by US President Donald Trump, who had claimed that Tehran had requested peace talks with Washington.

Stay with us as we provide updates throughout the day.