• Ghalibaf calls Islamabad MoU diplomatic ‘victory’
• Iran offers $30,000 bounty for capturing US soldiers
• Qatar urged to facilitate on-site Iranian probe into pilots case
TEHRAN: Iran’s Army Chief Major General Amir Hatami warned the United States on Sunday that it would regret any attempt to “annex” the Strait of Hormuz, vowing that Iranian forces remained prepared to counter hostile moves and defend the country’s interests, IRNA reported.
His remarks came as senior Iranian officials portrayed the outcome of the war with the United States as a military and diplomatic victory and reiterated Tehran’s increasingly assertive position over the strategic waterway.
Meanwhile, Iranian parliament speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran had achieved a “true victory” in the war with the United States, according to ISNA.
He also described the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding as a document reflecting victory on the diplomatic front.
Meanwhile, newly released footage showed the moment the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force downed a US MQ-1C drone on May 31 using an advanced air defence system.
An IRGC official said more than 85pc of the force’s air defence production capacity remained undamaged during the war, the Fars news agency reported.
The official said that despite attacks on Iran’s military production infrastructure, the production and delivery of missiles and air defence systems had not fallen below pre-war levels.
Bounty on US soldiers
Iran’s military also announced on Sunday that it was offering a bounty equivalent to $30,000 for killing or capturing US soldiers, with the reward doubled if the action was carried out by a woman.
Gen Hatami said the plan had been drawn up following a “large number of requests” to participate, according to IRNA.
There has been no known deployment of US ground forces in Iran during the Middle East war, with the exception of a rescue mission in April for a downed American airman.
Gen Hatami did not provide details on where or when the killing or capture of US soldiers was expected to take place.
“Anyone who kills or captures and hands over an invading American military personnel will receive a reward equivalent to $30,000 or 5 billion tomans from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army,” he said, using an informal monetary unit equivalent to 10,000 Iranian rials.
“Courageous Iranian women who carry out such an action will receive double the reward,” he added.
Gen Hatami also repeated Iran’s call for US forces to leave the Middle East, saying “they no longer have permission to enter the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman or the Strait of Hormuz”.
Doha-Tehran tussle over pilots
Meanwhile, Iran accused Qatar of obstructing efforts to determine the fate of three Iranian pilots Tehran says were captured during the Middle East war, although Doha has denied detaining them.
Iran had previously reported that one pilot was killed and others were missing after a sortie to Qatar in March, but had not at the time claimed that any of them had been captured.
“A team of experts from the Iranian Air Force has been waiting for several months to travel to Qatar to conduct an on-site investigation,” said Gen Mohammad Bagherzadeh of the Iranian armed forces.
“However, due to persistent delays by Qatari authorities, the return of our brave pilots to their homeland remains impossible,” he added, according to Tasnim news agency. He called on Doha to authorise the Iranian team to travel to Qatar.
Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2026
