Iran
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi and Russian Ambassador to Tehran Alexey Dedov have warned against a US scheme to extend anti-Iran measures into the Caspian Sea. Gharibabadi said in a post on X that he stressed “the need for coordination and cooperation in the face of shared threats” during his meeting with Dedov. The interests of the Caspian coastal states depend on preserving stability and security in the strategic waterway, he added.
The talks came after the terrorist US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on November 7 the formation of the so-called Task Force Iron Gate, reportedly tasked with restricting the movement of goods across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea. On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei mocked the scheme, describing it as an attempt by American military officials to cover up their failures against Iran. “The CENTCOM commander apparently will be changing careers very soon,” Baghaei said, adding that “After his ‘glorious achievements’ for his country in Minab, Lamerd and Sirik, he has turned to producing podcasts, and now apparently plans to produce a new episode of ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.’”
During the early hours of US-Israeli aggression against Iran, On February 28, 2026, US strikes hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab and the Shahid Haj Khalil Naimi sports hall in Lamerd, southern Iran, killing at least 177 people, including 120 schoolchildren, 26 teachers and members of a girls’ volleyball team. On September 1, 2026, a US strike hit a residential building in Kuhestak, in Sirik County, Hormozgan Province, where a wedding celebration was taking place, killing four people and injuring at least 68 others.
Russian military analyst Igor Korotchenko warned on Tuesday that Washington’s attempt to extend its aggression against Iran into the Caspian Sea poses a serious threat to the entire region. “The American statement that they will exert influence in the Caspian Sea regarding the delivery of various goods to Iran, including striking them, is a very serious challenge and threat,” Korotchenko told Russian outlet NEWS.ru. “It must be considered and neutralized, including possibly at the political level,” he said, urging the five Caspian coastal states to adopt an unequivocal position against the US plan.
Korotchenko stressed that the Caspian Five — Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan — should firmly reject Washington’s attempt to extend its aggression against Tehran into their shared waterway. He also warned that the Caspian Sea contains oil-drilling and gas-production platforms, which could suffer devastating consequences if strikes hit such facilities. “Then it will not simply be material damage, but an environmental catastrophe on a regional scale,” he warned.
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