{"id":126608,"date":"2026-05-26T18:07:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T13:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=126608"},"modified":"2026-05-26T18:07:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T13:07:02","slug":"iran-supreme-leader-says-regional-nations-will-no-longer-be-shields-for-us-bases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126608\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran supreme leader says regional nations will &#8216;no longer be shields&#8217; for US bases"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tehran(National Times)-  Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement on Tuesday that nations in the Middle East would \u201cno longer serve as shields for US bases\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mojtaba, who has not appeared publicly since being named as the supreme leader on March 8, made these remarks in his Haj message and hours after the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2003162\/us-carries-out-self-defence-strikes-in-iran-despite-ceasefire\">US carried out fresh strikes<\/a>&nbsp;in Iran despite a fragile ceasefire and the two sides engaging in negotiations for a deal to end the almost three-month-long war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe hands of time will not turn back, and the nations and lands of the region will no longer serve as shields for US bases,\u201d the supreme leader said in his message, which was shared on his X account and&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.presstv.ir\/Detail\/2026\/05\/26\/769304\/Iran-Leader-message-region-nations-United-States-dominance-over\">reported<\/a>&nbsp;by Iranian media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said that the US \u201cwill no longer have a safe haven for its mischief and for establishing military bases in the region\u201c, adding that it was \u201cgrowing more distant from its former status day by day\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe future belongs to the Muslim ummah and the new Islamic civilisation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He further stated, \u201cThe Muslim ummah and the nations of the region possess many shared capacities and common interests that will shape the new order and the future architecture of the region and the world.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iran\u2019s state-run&nbsp;<em>Press TV<\/em>&nbsp;further reported that Mojtaba also highlighted the role of the Axis of Resistance, a network of Iran\u2019s regional proxies. He described it as a unified movement extending \u201cfrom Iran to Lebanon and Palestine and Iraq and Syria, from Africa and Yemen to Afghanistan and Pakistan\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report said that Mojtaba noted in his message that this network had \u201cconfronted American influence, challenged Israeli occupation\u201d and fought the militant Islamic State group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He further termed Israel a \u201ccancerous tumor\u201d and an \u201cunstable regime\u201d nearing \u201cthe final stages of its cursed life\u201d,&nbsp;<em>Press TV<\/em>&nbsp;reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It further quoted Mojtaba as stating: \u201cThe Islamic Republic succeeded in rendering the Zionist regime helpless under its heavy blows, delivering a hard slap to the aggressive America, and thwarting the enemy\u2019s goal of forcing Iran into surrender.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report said the supreme leader also lauded the Iranian armed forces and their allied resistance groups for achieving \u201cremarkable victories\u201d against the US and Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The recent conflict between Tehran and Washington began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, which also resulted in the assassination of former supreme leader and Mojtaba\u2019s father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The conflict widened to the rest of the Middle East as Iran targeted US bases and assets in Gulf countries and blocked the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 a maritime corridor that served as a passage for one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil and gas supply in peacetime \u2014 as retaliatory measures. However, Iran has not accepted responsibility for all attacks in Gulf countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And while strikes on Iran and in Gulf nations have largely been paused since a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire on April 8, the US has enforced a naval blockade of Iranian ports as core issues between the two sides remain unresolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hence, indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran are currently focused on ceasefire stabilisation, sanctions relief for Iran, maritime security and sequencing of nuclear concessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, Pakistan, along with other countries, has continued&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2001932\"><u>efforts<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;to mediate between the US and Iran, after&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1991497\"><u>plans<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;for a second round of negotiations in Islamabad&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1995275\"><u>fell through<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first round of historic&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1990743\/dar-urges-us-iran-to-uphold-commitment-to-ceasefire-as-talks-conclude-without-deal\"><u>direct US-Iran talks<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;was held in Islamabad on April 11 and 12. It had ended without an agreement, but also&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1991073\"><u>without a breakdown<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Monday, US President Donald Trump seemingly predicated an emerging peace deal with Iran on Muslim-majority nations across the Middle East and beyond normalising relations with Israel \u2014 a move that is said to risk complicating an already fragile diplomatic process, which is still struggling to move from conflict management towards even a limited political framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2003043\/trump-demands-widespread-sign-up-to-abraham-accords-as-part-of-iran-peace-deal\"><u>called&nbsp;<\/u><\/a>on more Arab and Muslim states to sign up to the Abraham Accords, brokered during his first term in office and aimed at normalising ties between those states and Israel. He said Saudi Arabia and Qatar should immediately sign and Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey should follow suit, calling his request mandatory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tehran(National Times)- Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement on Tuesday that nations in the Middle East would \u201cno longer serve as shields for US bases\u201d. Mojtaba, who has not appeared publicly since being named as the supreme leader on March 8, made these remarks in his Haj message and hours after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Iran supreme leader says regional nations will &#039;no longer be shields&#039; for US bases - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126608\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iran supreme leader says regional nations will &#039;no longer be shields&#039; for US bases - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tehran(National Times)- Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement on Tuesday that nations in the Middle East would \u201cno longer serve as shields for US bases\u201d. Mojtaba, who has not appeared publicly since being named as the supreme leader on March 8, made these remarks in his Haj message and hours after [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126608\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-26T13:07:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-26T13:07:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-29-4.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126608\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126608\/\",\"name\":\"Iran supreme leader says regional nations will 'no longer be shields' for US bases - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126608\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126608\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-29-4.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-26T13:07:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-26T13:07:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126608\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126608\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126608\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-29-4.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-29-4.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126608\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Iran supreme leader says regional nations will &#8216;no longer be shields&#8217; for US bases\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Iran supreme leader says regional nations will 'no longer be shields' for US bases - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126608\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Iran supreme leader says regional nations will 'no longer be shields' for US bases - Nation","og_description":"Tehran(National Times)- Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement on Tuesday that nations in the Middle East would \u201cno longer serve as shields for US bases\u201d. 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