Motorists drive their vehicles near a large political billboard along Enghelab Square in central Tehran on May 26, 2026. (AFP)
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on May 27 said a return to war with the U.S. was unlikely, while warning that the Islamic republic stood ready against any attack.
The statement came a day after Iran accused the U.S. of breaching the ceasefire in place since April and warned it was ready to retaliate after the most serious strikes since the truce took effect.
In Lebanon, where violence has far from ceased despite a truce in Israel’s war with Hezbollah, Israeli strikes killed 31 people on May 26, four of them children.
“The possibility of war is low because of the enemy’s weakness, the armed forces are lying in wait with full magazines,” said Mohammad Akbarzadeh, deputy political chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying.
“Do not doubt that we will turn the area from Chabahar to Mahshahr into a graveyard for aggressors,” he said, naming places at each end of Iran’s lengthy southern coast.
Iran and the U.S. have for weeks been engaged in a war of words as they negotiate a deal with mediation efforts led by Pakistan.
With no clear winner in the war, neither side appears ready to compromise on the key sticking points in negotiations, which include the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program.
Stock markets were mixed on May 27, with guarded optimism that the U.S. and Iran could reach a deal.
Iranian state media had reported blasts in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, near the Strait of Hormuz, and the Revolutionary Guards said on May 26 its forces downed a U.S. drone entering its airspace and fired at an F-35 fighter jet.
