Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated Friday that the world has accepted an Iranian victory in the ongoing conflict with the United States. The remarks, reported by the IRNA news agency, come nearly six months after the U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran, resulting in the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran maintains that its continued control over the waterway and its refusal to meet U.S. demands constitute a victory.
The U.S. government, led by President Donald Trump, is concurrently preparing a significant financial campaign described as an "economic D-Day." The administration announced it will impose unprecedented economic isolation and warfare on Iran. The stated goal of these measures is to pressure Iranian leadership to terminate its nuclear program and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil and natural gas tankers.
In a separate development, Tom Barrack, the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, described the Golan Heights as occupied Syrian territory during a Friday interview. These comments appear to contradict the official U.S. position established in 2019, which recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the region. While the U.N. considers the area occupied, Colombia recently joined the U.S. as the second country to recognize Israel's claim to the territory.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are scheduled to meet Sunday in Paris to discuss the impact of the Strait of Hormuz closure. The two-day visit will focus on establishing alternative routes to bypass the waterway. Proposed plans include expanding trade through Omani ports, doubling the capacity of pipelines in Saudi Arabia, and developing new rail links to maintain energy and logistics connections between the Middle East and Europe.
The proposed infrastructure projects between France and Saudi Arabia represent a large-scale shift in regional logistics. If implemented, the expansion of pipelines and rail links would require billions of dollars in investment and years of construction, fundamentally changing how Saudi Arabia moves its oil to Europe. For French companies, this creates specific roles in strategic projects and secured financing through a joint task force. These developments could set a precedent for permanent transit routes that bypass traditional maritime chokepoints, potentially reducing the long-term strategic leverage of any nation controlling the Strait.
What happens next depends on the ministerial meeting of the joint task force scheduled for Monday. This group will identify specific strategic projects and formalize the roles of French corporations in the proposed energy and rail networks. Meanwhile, the U.S. economic campaign is expected to intensify as the administration seeks to force the reopening of the Strait. Further clarification on U.S. policy regarding the Golan Heights may also follow, given the public disagreement between the U.S. ambassador and established presidential proclamations.