TEHRAN, Iran: Iran sent mixed signals Thursday as tensions with the US appeared to ease, with President Hassan Rouhani warning of a “very dangerous response” if the US makes “another mistake” and a senior commander vowing “harsher revenge” for the killing of a top Iranian general.
Both sides appeared to step back on Wednesday after Iran launched a series of ballistic missiles at two military bases housing American troops in Iraq without causing any casualties. Iran said the attack was retaliation for the US strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the architect of its regional security strategy, in Iraq earlier this week.
Rouhani said the strike on the bases was a legitimate act of self-defense under the UN Charter, but he warned that “if the US makes another mistake, it will receive a very dangerous response.”
In addition to launching the missile attack, Iran also abandoned its remaining commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, which President Donald Trump had walked away from in May 2018. But Rouhani said Thursday that Iran would continue to cooperate with UN inspectors.
Senior Iranian military commanders struck a more defiant tone.
Abdollah Araghi, a member of Iran’s joint chiefs of staff, said the country’s Revolutionary Guard “will impose a more severe revenge on the enemy in the near future,” according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Tasnim also quoted Gen. Ali Fadavi, the acting commander of the Guard, as saying the missile attack was “just one of the manifestations of our abilities.”
“We sent dozens of missiles into the heart of the US bases in Iraq and they couldn’t do a damned thing,” he was quoted as saying.
On Wednesday, Trump signaled that he would not retaliate militarily for the strike on the bases. That raised hopes that the current standoff, which brought the two countries to the brink of an all-out war, may be winding down.
Rouhani spoke by phone Thursday with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, urging Britain to denounce the killing of Soleimani.
As head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Soleimani had mobilized armed proxies across the region and was blamed for deadly attacks against Americans going back to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. In Iran, he is seen by many as a national hero who played a key role in defeating the Daesh group and resisting Western hegemony.
Without Soleimani’s efforts leading forces in Syria and Iraq against IS, “you would not have peace and security in London today,” Rouhani was quoted as saying by Vice President Alireza Moezi, who tweeted about the call with Johnson.
Downing Street confirmed the call, saying Johnson called for “an end to hostilities” in the Gulf. It said the UK stands by the nuclear deal and is urging Iran to return to full compliance.
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Iran sends mixed signals as tensions with US ease
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Iran sends mixed signals as tensions with US ease
- Hassan Rouhani said the strike on the bases was a legitimate act of self-defense under the UN Charter
- US President Donald Trump has signaled that he would not retaliate militarily for the strike on the bases
US touts ‘New Gaza’ filled with luxury real estate
Davos, Switzerland: US officials on Thursday presented their vision for a “New Gaza” that would turn the shattered Palestinian territory into a glitzy resort of skyscrapers by the sea, saying the transformation could emerge in three years.
The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, left much of the Palestinian territory damaged or destroyed and forced most of its residents to flee their homes.
A US-brokered ceasefire took effect last October, reducing the level of bombing and fighting, but for most Gazans, the humanitarian disaster has endured three months on.
“We’re going to be very successful in Gaza. It’s going to be a great thing to watch,” President Donald Trump said while presenting his controversial “Board of Peace” conflict-resolution body in Davos.
“I’m a real estate person at heart... and I said, look at this location on the sea. Look at this beautiful piece of property. What it could be for so many people,” he said at the World Economic Forum.
His son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has no official title but is one of Trump’s envoys for the Gaza ceasefire, said his “master plan” aimed for “catastrophic success.”
With a slide showing dozens of shiny terraced apartment towers overlooking a tree-lined promenade, he promised a Mediterranean utopia rising from the scarred Gaza landscape.
“In the Middle East they build cities like this, you know for two or three million people, they build this in three years,” Kushner said.
“And so stuff like this is very doable if we make it happen.”
He touted investments of at least $25 billion to rebuild destroyed infrastructure and public services.
Within 10 years, the territory’s GDP would be $10 billion, and households would enjoy average income of $13,000 a year thanks to “100-percent full employment and opportunity for everybody there,” he said.
“It could be a hope. It could be a destination, have a lot of industry and really be a place that the people there can thrive.”
’Amazing’ opportunities
Kushner said the so-called National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) had enlisted help from Israeli real estate developer Yakir Gabay.
“He’s volunteered to do this not for profit, really because of his heart he wants to do this,” Kushner said.
“So the next 100 days, we’re going to continue to just be heads down and focused on making sure this is implemented.”
Trump had earlier in the conflict floated his vision of turning Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” sparking outrage around the world.
Notably absent from Kushner’s presentation was Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, whose country had spearheaded in 2025 a reconstruction plan for Gaza supported by Arab nations and welcomed by the European Union.
According to a brief statement from his office, El-Sisi flew home at dawn on Thursday, hours after he and Trump exchanged praise in a tete-a-tete, with the US president calling him “a great leader, a great guy.”
Ali Shaath, Gaza’s recently appointed administrator under Trump’s “Board of Peace,” has said the Egyptian plan was the “foundation” of his committee’s reconstruction project.
A top UN official warned this month that Gazans were living in “inhumane” conditions even as the US-backed truce entered its second phase.
Entire neighborhoods, hospitals and schools have been heavily damaged or destroyed, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to live in makeshift shelters.
Kushner said 85 percent of Gaza’s economic output had been aid for a long time.
“That’s not sustainable. It doesn’t give these people dignity. It doesn’t give them hope,” he said.
He insisted that the full disarming of Hamas, as called for in the October ceasefire, would convince firms and donors to commit to the territory.
“We’ll announce a lot of the contributions that will be made in a couple of weeks in Washington,” he said.
“There’ll be amazing investment opportunities.”
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, and 251 people were taken hostage that day, including 44 who were dead.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 71,562 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
The ministry also said 477 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.
The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, left much of the Palestinian territory damaged or destroyed and forced most of its residents to flee their homes.
A US-brokered ceasefire took effect last October, reducing the level of bombing and fighting, but for most Gazans, the humanitarian disaster has endured three months on.
“We’re going to be very successful in Gaza. It’s going to be a great thing to watch,” President Donald Trump said while presenting his controversial “Board of Peace” conflict-resolution body in Davos.
“I’m a real estate person at heart... and I said, look at this location on the sea. Look at this beautiful piece of property. What it could be for so many people,” he said at the World Economic Forum.
His son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has no official title but is one of Trump’s envoys for the Gaza ceasefire, said his “master plan” aimed for “catastrophic success.”
With a slide showing dozens of shiny terraced apartment towers overlooking a tree-lined promenade, he promised a Mediterranean utopia rising from the scarred Gaza landscape.
“In the Middle East they build cities like this, you know for two or three million people, they build this in three years,” Kushner said.
“And so stuff like this is very doable if we make it happen.”
He touted investments of at least $25 billion to rebuild destroyed infrastructure and public services.
Within 10 years, the territory’s GDP would be $10 billion, and households would enjoy average income of $13,000 a year thanks to “100-percent full employment and opportunity for everybody there,” he said.
“It could be a hope. It could be a destination, have a lot of industry and really be a place that the people there can thrive.”
’Amazing’ opportunities
Kushner said the so-called National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) had enlisted help from Israeli real estate developer Yakir Gabay.
“He’s volunteered to do this not for profit, really because of his heart he wants to do this,” Kushner said.
“So the next 100 days, we’re going to continue to just be heads down and focused on making sure this is implemented.”
Trump had earlier in the conflict floated his vision of turning Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” sparking outrage around the world.
Notably absent from Kushner’s presentation was Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, whose country had spearheaded in 2025 a reconstruction plan for Gaza supported by Arab nations and welcomed by the European Union.
According to a brief statement from his office, El-Sisi flew home at dawn on Thursday, hours after he and Trump exchanged praise in a tete-a-tete, with the US president calling him “a great leader, a great guy.”
Ali Shaath, Gaza’s recently appointed administrator under Trump’s “Board of Peace,” has said the Egyptian plan was the “foundation” of his committee’s reconstruction project.
A top UN official warned this month that Gazans were living in “inhumane” conditions even as the US-backed truce entered its second phase.
Entire neighborhoods, hospitals and schools have been heavily damaged or destroyed, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to live in makeshift shelters.
Kushner said 85 percent of Gaza’s economic output had been aid for a long time.
“That’s not sustainable. It doesn’t give these people dignity. It doesn’t give them hope,” he said.
He insisted that the full disarming of Hamas, as called for in the October ceasefire, would convince firms and donors to commit to the territory.
“We’ll announce a lot of the contributions that will be made in a couple of weeks in Washington,” he said.
“There’ll be amazing investment opportunities.”
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, and 251 people were taken hostage that day, including 44 who were dead.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 71,562 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
The ministry also said 477 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.
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