ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said Saturday that the country had yet to establish adequate wartime preparedness, urging state institutions to adapt their policies and operations to wartime conditions amid concerns over renewed hostilities between Tehran and Washington.
Ejei said during a meeting with a number of the country’s economists that Iran has yet to put the necessary wartime preparations in place, stating that current measures in places were not adequate in case hostilities break out.
The chief justice said that Iran cannot act as it does in peacetime, rhetorically asking, “During war, the people, officials, laws, regulations, policies and programmes must be wartime-oriented, right?” state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) quoted him as saying.
His remarks preceded his alleged meeting with Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Saturday evening. The aim of the meeting was “to discuss judicial reforms, expanding justice, combating corruption and crime, enforcing laws more effectively, and using modern technology to improve the judiciary’s efficiency and transparency,” according to another state-backed outlet, Tehran Times.
This comes as Washington has signaled that if negotiations yield no results, strikes on Iran could happen as early as this weekend.
“Could there be a strike this weekend? Absolutely. The President has been clear. I'm giving you American policy,” United States Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy for Syria and Iraq, Tom Barrack said on Friday in an interview with podcast host Mario Nawfal.
The envoy further added that US president Donald Trump “is very clear. He's open and available and accessible to a deal and we've been at the table for months and months and months.”
One of Washington’s main objectives throughout the war is Iran’s highly enriched uranium. Trump has frequently reposted on X that Iran cannot be allowed to obtain the resource.
Several countries have stepped up to mediate between Tehran and Washington. The most recent is the Pakistani Army Chief, Asim Munir who arrived in Tehran last Tuesday.
Munir met Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei, who said Tehran would not give up “even a particle” of its enriched nuclear material and stressed that there would be no negotiations with the US until Washington meets Tehran’s conditions.
In addition to Ejei’s meeting with Khomanei, Tehran-backed media have reposted a statement on Saturday from the Russian Ministry of Foreign affairs that refutes accusations that a Moscow-backed nuclear power plant located on the Persian Gulf has been evacuated.
Tehran Times was one of multiple outlets which covered Russia’s statement. “Neither the embassy staff nor the Russian specialists stationed at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant intend to evacuate,” the Russian Foreign Ministry Saturday statement read.
“We confirm that there are no plans to evacuate embassy staff or specialists at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant. Operations continue as usual. Any claims to the contrary are misinformation originating from a known source,” the ministry said, without identifying the “known source” it was referring to.
The nuclear plant, managed by the Russian State corporation Rostatom, was previously evacuated in response to sustained military attacks during the early months of the US-Israeli war with Iran.
These accusations and subsequent rebuttal come in the same week as United State special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
