The Independent67%
Iran-US war latest: Tehran says conflict will go on ‘until enemy’s surrender’ after Trump says US will withdraw soon 0%
By Stuti Mishra89% Rachel Dobkin0% Maryam Zakir-Hussain0%
4/4/2026, 12:40:48 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 27 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Appeal to Emotion, and Anecdotal, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 30.8% saturation with 426 hits. Analysis detected 2,193 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,383 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 0% and a BS Rank of 0% (0 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 100.00% of the article peer group.
Iran has vowed to press on with the war until the “permanent surrender” of Israel and the United States, after Donald Trump said the military would conclude its operations “very shortly”.
Military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaqari said in an address on Thursday that the enemy “must pay the price for the aggression they initiated against the honourable and Muslim nation of Iran”.
He said the war would continue “until the enemy's inevitable and permanent humiliation, disgrace, regret, and surrender”, warning of “more extensive and devastating actions” to come.
The comments followed a rambling address from the US president on Wednesday night - his first to the nation since the conflict started - promising to “hit them extremely hard” over the next few weeks and complete “all of America’s military objectives shortly”.
The president earlier told reporters that the US could withdraw from the conflict as “within two weeks, maybe two weeks, maybe three” but later refused to give a timeline.
On Thursday, the UK’s foreign secretary Yvette Cooper condemned “Iranian recklessness” for “hitting global economic security” in talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz alongside a coalition of countries including France and Germany.
Key points recap: Donald Trump's address to the nation on Iran
On Wednesday night President Donald Trump delivered a 17-minute national address on Iran.
Here’s a recap of key points in case you missed it:
* Trump announced that the U.S. military’s “core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” though offered no further information on those objectives.
* The president appeared to slur his words on several occasions during the speech.
* He claimed the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign, dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” had “delivered swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the battlefield, victories like few people have ever seen before.”
* Trump repeated many of his same justifications for the month-old bombing campaign against Iran, including his claim there was an imminent threat of Tehran producing a nuclear weapon.
* He paid tribute to the 13 U.S. service members killed in the conflict and claimed their families had all told him to “finish the job.”
* Trump also once again blamed the rise in gas prices in the U.S. on the Iranian conflict and boasted the economy he had cultivated was strong enough to withstand it.
How Iran is recruiting children to 'defend the homeland'
Iran is recruiting children as young as 12 into military-aligned roles in a desperate effort to mobilise the population and bolster its war effort, human rights groups have warned.
A senior official with the IRGC called on the public to step up and ‘defend the homeland’ in comments to state-affiliated media last week.
He said there were volunteer roles for children to support in a number of roles.
Rights groups have said the military recruitment and use of children aged 15 and under constitutes a war crime.
Wayne Jordash KC, president of international law foundation Global Rights Compliance, told The Independent such a move would ‘unequivocally’ be a war crime.
“International law is clear on the recruitment and use of children, that is those under 15, in hostilities.
This is not even about whether Iran has signed or ratified particularly conventions ...
It is about customary international law, that is law which is legally binding on all states, even without being written into domestic law and which prohibits these practices.”
Read the full story:
Secret passwords and crypto payments: Inside Iran’s mysterious new ‘tollbooth system’ in the Strait of Hormuz
The Iranian navy is escorting foreign tankers through the Strait of Hormuz in return for significant fees paid in Chinese currency and crypto, according to a report.
The regime is still enforcing a selective blockade of the vital waterway, cutting traffic by 90 per cent and forcing up oil prices around the world.
Several countries have already cut deals to guarantee unimpeded transit.
One Iranian lawmaker said last week that Tehran was charging $2 million for a journey.
But people with knowledge of the situation say that a more formal system is now emerging to offer certain ship operators safe passage in return for a variable fee.
'Locked.
Loaded and standing tall.
Bring it on', says Iranian parliamentary speaker Ghalibaf
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has issued a lengthy statement on an account generally associated with him on X on Thursday, writing: “You come for our home...
You meet the whole family.”
“Back when I was eighteen years old, I grabbed my rifle and ran straight into the fight to defend the soil of my beloved, unbreakable Iran, the only home I ever knew,” he wrote in the post shared on social media.
He went on to describe his brother’s death “for our homeland”.
“My own brother, Hassan, he laid it all on the line in that same fight for our homeland.
He never came home.
To this day, I still ache to wrap my arms around him one more time.
That kind of pain never leaves a man.”
He hit back: “We are not warmongers.
But when the time comes to defend our homeland, every last one of us becomes a soldier.”
Ghalibaf claimed that a “powerful national campaign” had swept across the country bringing forward “around seven million Iranians” who have joined the country’s armed forces in less than a week.
“Iranians don’t just talk about defending their country, we bleed for it.
We’ve done it before, and we’re ready to do it again,” he continued.
“You come for our home… you’re gonna meet the whole family.
Locked, loaded, and standing tall.
Bring it on.”
Is it safe to travel to Jordan?
The UK government’s updated advice as strikes continue
The UK government has changed its travel advice for Jordan, advising against all but essential travel for the entire country, apart from its border with Syria where it advises against all travel.
Here’s what it means for you:
Ships being asked to pay Hormuz toll in Chinese currency: report
The Iranian navy is escorting foreign tankers through the Strait of Hormuz in return for large fees paid in Chinese currency and crypto, according to a report.
People with knowledge of the situation say that a more formal toll system is now emerging to offer certain ship operators safe passage in return for a variable fee.
Sources told Bloomberg that approved oil tankers pay a fee starting at $1 per barrel of oil, paid in yuan or cryptocurrency.
Successful payment grants ships access to a route and a secret passcode they can broadcast on approach to the Strait, summoning a patrol boat for escort through the channel.
UK foreign secretary Cooper condemns Iran's 'recklessness' amid Strait of Hormuz chaos
British foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has condemned Iran’s “recklessness” in not allowing ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz as she met with a coalition of countries seeking to reopen the vital shipping route through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passes.
She blamed Iran for “hitting global economic security” as she seeks to lead a diplomatic initiative including countries such as France, Germany and some Gulf nations in order to restore access to the waterway.
Inside Iran's 'unsinkable aircraft carrier' guarding the Strait of Hormuz
A large island housing anti-ship missiles in the Strait has been briefed as a possible target of a ground offensive to break Iran’s grip, alongside key oil export hub Kharg Island.
Qeshm is a 558sq mile stretch off mainland Iran that has been fortified with an underground missile “city” that is used intermittently to attack ships passing through the waterway.
Iran has fortified the island with missiles, drones and fast-attack boats.
Exact details are kept confidential, but retired Lebanese Brigadier-General Hassan Jouni, a military and strategic expert, told Al Jazeera that the island has the ability to strike from an underground “missile city”.
Here’s the full story:
Pictured: Aftermath of 'drone strike' in Iraq's Erbil
Iraq has seen its share of attacks since hostilities erupted in February.
The picture below shows the aftermath of a suspected drone strike on an oil warehouse on the outskirts of Erbil on Wednesday.
Security sources have reported a string of attacks near Erbil Airport in Iraqi Kurdistan in recent days.
Analysis
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