Iran strongly condemns US airstrikes as violation of MoU

The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Saturday strongly condemned U.S. airstrikes the previous night on multiple targets along Iran's southern coast.

The "brutal" U.S. airstrikes, which targeted Iran's coastal surveillance facilities, are a "flagrant violation" of the United Nations Charter and the recently signed peace memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries, said the ministry in a statement.

It added that Israel also launched strikes on Lebanon in coordination with the United States, blatantly violating the same MoU, noting that Iran's armed forces have carried out retaliatory strikes against targets affiliated with U.S. forces.

Later in the day, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement that its naval forces had struck the U.S. Army's positions in the West Asia region in retaliation for the U.S. airstrikes against southern Iranian regions.

The IRGC said that Iran prevented a ship from sailing through an "unauthorized" route in the Strait of Hormuz, noting that according to the peace MoU, Iran is in charge of managing the maritime traffic in the strait.

The developments came after Iran and the United States signed an MoU on June 18 on ending the war in the region on all fronts, including Lebanon, and are currently in the midst of negotiations to reach a final agreement.

A new high-speed railway, connecting Xi'an and Ankang cities in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, officially entered the joint commissioning and testing phase on Saturday with the running of the first testing train.

During the commissioning phase, the railway department will simulate the actual train operation conditions, and accordingly conduct comprehensive testing, verification and optimization of various systems such as track, roadbed, bridges and tunnels, power supply, communication, and interface matching, to promptly identify and rectify problems in equipment operation.

The Xi'an-Ankang High-Speed Railway is designed for a speed of 350 kilometers per hour. After it opens to traffic, the travel time between the two cities will be shortened from the current three hours to less than one hour.