Fmr. Iranian FM calls on Tehran to kidnap thousands of US soldiers from military bases

Last week, Mottaki said that the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding talks between the US and Iran were a "deception plan."

"If the negotiating team still does not believe this, hold a meeting and explain it to them," state-aligned media cited Mottaki as saying.

"Islamabad was a plan, a broader scheme of deception and maneuvering by the United States. The Americans had a plan that they thought they could finish within two or three days and achieve their goal, which was to bring an end to the Islamic Republic. They failed," he added.

He also called for "vengeance," both domestically and internationally, following the strikes that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, anti-regime London-based Iran International reported this month.

He claimed that the regime's aims to prosecute Netanyahu and Trump were communicated from Khamenei to the head of Iran's judiciary "very clearly" following the June 2025 conflict.

In May, Iranian state news agency WANA cited Mottaki as saying that Bahrain is acting as a US puppet by drafting an anti-Iran resolution regarding the management of the Strait of Hormuz at the UN Security Council.

"Due to their lack of foresight and understanding, the leaders in Manama fail to realize that just as they should not play games with the Americans, they must certainly not play games with the Iranians," Mottaki said.

"In other words, the Bahrainis, acting as American puppets, have initiated a move that was already on the White House agenda. This will undoubtedly be their final anti-Iran effort," he added.

Mottaki served as foreign minister from 2005 until 2010 and has served as a member of parliament since 2024, representing the Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat, Eslamshahr and Pardis region.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) called on Kuwaitis and Jordanians to expel US forces from military bases in their countries, according to the IRGC-run Fars News Agency.

"Honorable and noble people of Kuwait and the holy land of Jordan, it is expected of you, Muslim and noble nations, to expel these child-killers and occupiers from your soil," the IRGC said.

"The pure soil of the land of Kuwait and the sacred land of Jordan, the sanctuary of the prophets, must not remain under the occupation of criminals who, in just the past two years, have martyred seventy thousand Palestinians, including twenty thousand children, in heroic Gaza and perpetrated the Minab School massacre," the terror group continued.

"We expect you not to miss any opportunity to destroy the aggressive American institutions and to liberate the Islamic lands from the bases of the American occupiers," the IRGC concluded.

"We're going to hit them very hard tonight. We're going to hit them very hard tomorrow night. We're going to hit them very hard the night after," said Trump. "Will save energy targets for last. Next week it gets really bad for them."

"We're gonna knock out all their power plants," he said. "We're gonna knock out all their bridges, unless they get to the table and negotiate."

Trump also alluded to the effect of recent US Central Command (CENTCOM) strikes on the Islamic regime along the Strait of Hormuz.

"We're beating them up really badly," Trump said. "They have to be beaten up."

"We're hitting them very, very hard," he added. We're hitting every single thing they have along the [Hormuz] shore," he added.

Regarding Iranian claims of not pursuing a nuclear weapon, Trump responded that "everything" Iran says "is a lie."

Trump said that his decision to launch Operation Epic Fury on February 28 was because Iran's effort to obtain a nuclear weapon "just never stops."

"We knew they wanted a nuclear weapon," he said. "If they had a nuclear weapon, Israel wouldn't be here."