Ghalibaf Says Iranian People Give Their Lives and Do Not Surrender

Iran’s leadership framed the conflict as entering a new phase of war while rejecting surrender, with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf telling the Iranian people in a second audio message that “The Iranian people give their lives and do not surrender.” In that message, Mehr News Agency said Ghalibaf described an enemy plan to exert economic pressure and politicize the media through a maritime blockade, while also saying the enemy’s plan includes weakening Iran from within. On the U.S. side, Pete Hegseth told the House Armed Services Committee that negotiations with Iran and Lebanon face “significant complexities,” and that both sides will not concede on their terms. The Wall Street Journal, as cited in the report, said President Donald Trump directed aides to prepare for imposing a long-term naval blockade on Iran as a least-risk option compared with renewed air strikes or stepping back from the confrontation.

Iranian officials and lawmakers continued to harden their stance as talks and pressure measures moved through multiple channels. Mahmoud Nabavian, a member of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said, “We are not people of settlement or surrender; we are a people of war until final victory.” The same report quoted Iran’s Defense Ministry spokesperson Reza Talayi-Nik saying, “Today, more than a thousand types of weapons are being produced,” including missiles and drones, and said the capability is tied to “more than 25 years of investment and preparation.” On the U.S. side, the report said U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would operate within the “Economic Anger Campaign” to systematically weaken Iran’s financial capabilities, and that the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned several crypto wallets linked to Iran, freezing crypto assets worth $344 million. It also described a parallel diplomatic track, saying Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan supported continuing talks between Iran and the United States and called for avoiding a return to military confrontation.

As the standoff persisted, multiple reports described competing expectations about whether Iran would yield and what comes next for regional escalation. Anadolu Ajansı quoted Israeli military analysts saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports resuming the war against Iran and that there are “no expectations that Tehran will surrender to pressure from Washington and Tel Aviv.” The same Anadolu report said the Israeli army announced it was “monitoring the situation in the region in light of the escalation in the Gulf,” with air defense systems on high alert. In parallel, the report said U.S. President Donald Trump extended a temporary ceasefire with Tehran while affirming that the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s southern ports would continue, and it added that Trump rejected an Iranian proposal that would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz and delaying the nuclear issue. Iran International also reported that Iranian authorities said they would not participate in a new round of negotiations, citing continued what they described as the “Hormuz Strait blockade” by the U.S. military and “violation of the ceasefire.”