Tehran, May 6: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held a phone call with Iraqi Prime Minister-Designate Ali al-Zaidi, during which Pezeshkian said Iran is ready for dialogue within the framework of international law, but will not acquiesce to force.

Pezeshkian said that “our problem is that on the one hand, the United States is pursuing a policy of maximum pressure against our country, and on the other hand, it expects Iran to come to the negotiating table and ultimately surrender to its unilateral demands … such an equation is impossible,” read a statement published by Pezeshkian’s office on Tuesday (Local time).

He noted that Iran fundamentally does not consider war and insecurity to be favourable options, reports Xinhua news agency.

Pezeshkian stressed that Iran must not deprive itself of nuclear technology, saying the United States speaks in a way as if Iran must not have a nuclear industry, and imposes extra pressure on the country by putting forward excessive demands.

He added that in all previous negotiations, Iran was fully ready to provide, within the framework of international regulations and global monitoring, whatever was deemed necessary under international norms to ensure the peaceful nature of its nuclear activities.

Al-Zaidi, for his part, voiced Iraq’s readiness to mediate between Iran and the United States to contain regional crises, read a statement from Al-Zaidi’s media office.

According to the Iraqi statement, the two sides also agreed to exchange official visits in the coming period to strengthen bilateral ties.

On February 28, Israel and the United States launched joint attacks on Tehran and other Iranian cities, killing Iran’s then Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, senior commanders and civilians. Iran responded with waves of missile and drone strikes targeting Israel and U.S. bases and assets in the Middle East.

A ceasefire was reached between the warring sides on April 8, followed by peace talks in Pakistan’s Islamabad on April 11 and 12, which ended without an agreement.

Tehran, May 5: Five civilians were killed in US attacks on cargo boats, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday.

Following the claim by the US military that it had targeted six Iranian speedboats, and given that none of Iran’s combat vessels was hit, local sources were consulted to verify the nature of the incident, according to Xinhua, which quoted the report.

It was determined that US forces had attacked two small civilian cargo boats, which were travelling from Khasab along the Omani coast toward Iran, killing five civilian passengers onboard, it said.

Brad Cooper, chief of US Central Command, said on Monday that the US military had sunk six Iranian small boats in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranian boats were struck by US Apache and MH-60 Seahawk helicopters, Cooper told a news conference.

Meanwhile, two US Navy destroyers have passed through the Strait of Hormuz and entered the Gulf after navigating an Iranian barrage, US media outlet CBS News reported.

The USS Truxtun and USS Mason, supported by Apache helicopters and other aircraft, faced a series of coordinated threats during the passage, said the report, citing Pentagon officials, who spoke under condition of anonymity, on Monday night (local time).

No US warship was struck, though Iran launched small boats, missiles and drones against them as a sustained barrage, the officials were quoted as saying.

None of the projectiles launched by Iran reached the US vessels, they said, adding that the US military’s assisting efforts, bolstered by air support, successfully intercepted or deterred each incoming threat, reports Xinhua news agency.

US President Donald Trump told Fox News on Monday that the Iranians are “more malleable” than they were before.

In a phone interview with Fox News, the president threatened that if Iran targets US ships in the Strait of Hormuz as the Pentagon begins operations to restore commercial shipping transit through the strait, they would be “blown off the face of the Earth.”

However, in another phone interview with ABC News on Monday, Trump stopped short of saying Iran’s Monday attacks had violated the US-Iran ceasefire.

“[It was] not heavy firing,” Trump said, downplaying the attacks.

Brad Cooper, chief of the US Central Command, told reporters earlier on Monday that Iranian forces had launched “multiple cruise missiles, drones, and small boats at ships we are protecting.”

US forces have sunk six Iranian small boats targeting civilian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and intercepted several Iranian missiles and drones, said Cooper.

Iran later rejected the US claims, saying that “no commercial vessels or oil tankers” have transited the Strait of Hormuz, the semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported.

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Tehran and other Iranian cities, killing then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, senior military commanders and civilians. Iran responded with waves of missile and drone attacks on Israel and US targets across the region and restricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz for vessels linked to Israel and the United States.

A ceasefire took effect on April 8, followed by talks between Iranian and US delegations in Islamabad that ended without a deal.

Tehran, May 4: The Navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) on Monday claimed that it hit a US Navy frigate with two missiles that sought to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The US frigate, which had set sail near Iran’s southern port city of Jask to cross the Strait of Hormuz “in violation of the traffic and shipping security,” was hit after ignoring the Iranian naval forces’ warning, Fars cited local sources as saying.

It added that after being struck, the frigate was forced to retreat and flee from the region.

However, according to a subsequent report by Axios, a senior US official denied that a US ship was hit by Iranian missiles, Xinhua news agency reported.

Iran has repeatedly announced that no movement is possible through the Strait of Hormuz without its official permission, and ignoring this warning will be met with a decisive response from the Iranian armed forces, according to Fars.

US President Donald Trump said Sunday the United States will guide ships stranded in the Strait of Hormuz safely out of the restricted waterway on Monday.

In response to Trump’s claim, Iran’s main military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, warned on Monday that “any foreign armed forces, especially the aggressive US army, will be attacked if they intend to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz,” according to the official news agency IRNA.

Iran tightened its grip on the Strait of Hormuz beginning February 28, when it barred safe passage to vessels belonging to or affiliated with Israel and the United States following joint strikes on Iranian territory.

The United States imposed its anti-Iran blockade on the Strait of Hormuz after post-ceasefire negotiations with Tehran on April 11 and 12 failed to lead to an agreement.