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DUBAI (Reuters) - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Irans elite Revolutionary Guards on Sunday to develop more advanced and modern weapons, amid increasingly tense disputes with the United States and Gulf Arab states.

FILE PHOTO: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gives a speech to a group of scholars and seminary students of religious sciences in Tehran, Iran September 17, 2019. Official Khamenei website/Handout via REUTERS

Tensions in the Gulf have risen to new highs since May 2018, when the Trump administration withdrew from a 2015 international nuclear accord with Tehran that put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the easing of sanctions.

As U.S. sanctions have been reimposed, there have been a series of attacks in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf that Washington and its allies have blamed on Iran, which denies responsibility.

The Guards should have advanced and modern weapons ... Your weapons should be modern and updated. It should be developed at home. You need to develop and produce your weapons, Khamenei said in a speech at Imam Hossein Military University in Tehran.

Today the Guards have a powerful presence inside and outside Iran ... Americas hostile approach has increased the Guards greatness, Khamenei said, according to state TV.

Washington and Riyadh have accused Iran of being behind attacks on Saudi oil facilities on Sept. 14, which temporarily knocked out half Saudi oil output. Tehran denies any role in the strikes which were claimed by Yemens Iran-backed Houthi forces.

Amid the tensions, Washington plans to deploy about 3,000 troops to Saudi Arabia, including fighter squadrons, an air expeditionary wing and air defense personnel.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in Tehran on Sunday, saying he would continue efforts to defuse the row between Tehran and Riyadh, which have been locked in proxy conflicts in the Middle East.

Khan, who also met Khamenei, is visiting Tehran after he said U.S. President Donald Trump had asked him to help reduce tensions with Iran.

Pakistan does not want conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Khan told a joint news conference with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, broadcast on state television.

I am happy to facilitate talks between Tehran and Riyadh, said Khan, saying he had constructive talks with Rouhani and planned to visit Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

Khamenei told Khan that U.S.-allied Gulf Arab States were under the will of the United States and warned that any attacker would regret taking action against Iran, according to state television. Ending the war in Yemen will have a positive impact on the region.

Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir said on Sunday that Riyadh had not asked Islamabad to mediate.

The minister told reporters in Riyadh the Pakistani prime minister was acting on his own initiative and said Iranians needed to change their behavior, their policies if they want countries to deal with them as with normal countries.

Irans foreign ministry said before Khans visit that Tehran was ready for talks with Riyadh with or without a mediator.

Rouhani told the news conference after meeting Khan that any effort based on goodwill is welcomed ... during the meeting, we agreed that the regional issues can be resolved through diplomacy and through dialogue between countries.

Writing by Parisa Hafezi, additional reporting by Olesya Astakhova in Riyadh; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Edmund Blair

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Netanyahu recently eclipsed David Ben-Gurion as Israels longest-serving prime minister, but once again he is fighting for political survival, with another vote to determine his future as prime minister set for Sept. 17. In a wrinkle of history, some of his opponents are the same people who vigorously opposed his push to strike Iran several years ago.

Regardless of the outcome of the election, the landscape of the current Iran crisis could change quickly, and Trump even said during the recent Group of 7 summit that he might meet in the coming weeks with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. That prospect has set off alarms in Israel, where some officials raise fears in private that the American president in whom they had invested so much hope has gone wobbly. But Netanyahu, at least publicly, says he isnt worried. In an interview in August in his office in Jerusalem, he acknowledged the possibility that Trump, like Obama before him, might try to avoid a war and instead attempt to reach a settlement over Irans nuclear program.

But this time, Netanyahu said, we will have far greater ability to exert influence.

The first public revelation about a clandestine uranium-enrichment program in Iran came in the summer of 2002, as America was preparing for war with Iraq. Western intelligence services had found that scientists at a nuclear facility near Natanz, in north-central Iran, had begun an effort to enrich uranium ore. A dossier of these findings leaked to a group affiliated with the M.E.K., which went public with the information at a news conference in Washington. The Bush administration, preoccupied with Iraq, chose to pursue a path of negotiation with Iran, coupled with sanctions. For many Israeli officials, the revelation reinforced a conclusion that they had already drawn: The United States was making war on the wrong country.

The Israeli leadership grew even more concerned in 2005, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president of Iran. Ahmadinejad immediately made known his views about Israel, unleashing fiery rhetoric calling for the end to the nation and calling the Nazi extermination of Jews a myth. He increased support for militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and, American and Israeli analysts agreed, he also began to accelerate the nations nuclear program. In a nation built by survivors of the Holocaust, the moves confirmed for many that Iran presented an existential threat.

Israels leadership at that time was going through an uncertain moment. In January 2006, Ariel Sharon, Israels prime minister, suffered a stroke that left him in a vegetative state. A deputy, Ehud Olmert, stepping up to replace him, gave a free hand and endless resources to the clandestine campaign that the Mossad, Israels civilian intelligence agency, was running to stop, or at least delay, the Iranian nuclear project. In 2007, Ehud Barak, a former prime minister, became Olmerts defense minister and issued a written order to the Israeli militarys general staff to develop plans for a large-scale attack on Iran. But Olmert thought that many were exaggerating the immediacy of the Iran threat. His own position, he recalls now, was that it was not Israel that should lead a military operation, even with the knowledge that Iran might indeed succeed in getting a bomb. Just as Pakistan had the bomb and nothing happened, Israel could also accept and survive Iran having the bomb.

Netanyahu, then in the leadership of the conservative Likud party, took a starkly different position. He had gone to high school and college in the United States, earning a business degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and working at the Boston Consulting Group, where he became friends with the future Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. During his first term as prime minister from 1996 to 1999 he warned a joint session of Congress that only the United States could prevent the catastrophic consequences of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Now the Likud leader was once again enlisting Israels closest ally into what Uzi Arad, one of his former top advisers, describes as a personal crusade against the Iranian threat. Speaking at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac, in Washington in 2007, Netanyahu demanded more sanctions on Iran. He also met with Dick Cheney, then the vice president, and, according to Arad, warned that if the West failed to present a credible threat of military action, Iran would surely get the bomb.

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The Secret History of the Push to Strike Iran

Tehran Iran has seized almost 10 tons of narcotics destined for Europe and uncovered one of the country's largest trafficking rings, police said Thursday. "This huge narcotics shipment, which was hidden in a petrol tanker and reached here via Iran's eastern border, was supposed to be offloaded and then smuggled to European countries," state television reported from the northwestern city of Urmia, not far from the Turkish border.

Iran's deputy police chief Ayoub Soleimani said the shipment comprised 3.9 tons of morphine and 5.8 tons of opium. He said that nine suspected traffickers were arrested with an additional 44 pounds of heroin and 130 firearms in their possession.

Neighbouring Afghanistan produces some 90% of the world's opium, which is extracted from poppy resin and refined to make heroin and morphine.

Iran is a major transit route for Afghan-produced opiates headed to Europe and beyond. The illegal drugs are often first shipped from Iran and other Asian nations to east Africa, where smuggling networks help move it into Europe and even into the U.S. black market.

Iran confiscates and destroys hundreds of tons of illicit narcotics every year. According to the latest UN figures, Iran accounted for 91% of the world's opium seizures and 20% of heroin and morphine seizures in 2017, amounting to 694 and 43 tons respectively.

Iran has repeatedly threatened Europe that if it does not do more to mitigate the impact of U.S. sanctions imposed on its economy after President Trump's unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, it could invest less in combating drug trafficking.

Washington pulled out of the landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers last May and re-imposed sanctions on key sectors including as oil and banking, in addition to targeting Iranian military units and senior politicians.

Mr. Trump said the moves were necessary to force Iran to renegotiate what he has called the "worst deal" ever negotiated. He believes the agreement gave Iran far too much economic reward for too little oversight of its nuclear program, and no promise to reign in its conventional weapons program.

But the moves by Washington have enraged Iran, seemingly leading the country to lash out with attacks on shipping, a U.S. military drone and, the U.S. and its allies say, the recent assault on Saudi Arabian oil facilities.

Iran has sought to demonstrate that it has multiple means of responding to any perceived aggression, including proxy forces across the Middle East. With the seizure of narcotics on Thursday, Tehran clearly wanted to highlight yet another way it could chose to show its displeasure.

"Despite the international pressure and economic sanctions, Iran is still the world's bulwark against drug trafficking," state television reminded the world on Thursday.

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Iran says it stopped 10 tons of heroin and opium reaching ...

ABQAIQ, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Friday took media on a tour of oil facilities damaged by attacks that Washington and Riyadh blame on Iran, showing melted pipes and burnt equipment, as Tehran vowed wide retaliation if heightened tensions boil over into hostilities.

The kingdom sees the Sept. 14 strikes on its Khurais and Abqaiq facilities the worst attack on Gulf oil infrastructure since Iraqs Saddam Hussein torched Kuwaiti oilfields in 1991 as a test of global will to preserve international order.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday the United States was imposing sanctions on Irans central bank over the attack. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the bank was Tehrans last source of funds.

Asked about the possibility of a military response on Iran, Trump said the United States was always prepared and that a military strike was always a possibility.

Iran denies involvement in the attack, which initially halved oil output from Saudi Arabia, the worlds largest petroleum exporter. Responsibility was claimed by Yemens Houthi movement, an Iran-aligned group fighting a Saudi-led alliance in Yemens four-year-old conflict.

At Abqaiq, one of the worlds largest oil processing plants, reporters saw a punctured, blackened stabilizer tower that Khalid Buraik, Saudi Aramco vice-president for southern area oil operations, said would have to be replaced.

As reporters examined a shattered separator dome draped with a red tape labeled Danger, Buraik said 15 towers and facilities had been hit at Abqaiq, but it would regain full output capacity by the end of September.

At Khurais oilfield to the west, which the Saudi defense ministry says was hit by four missiles, Reuters reporters were shown repair work under way, with cranes erected around two burnt-out stabilization columns, which form part of oil-gas separation units, and melted pipes.

We are confident we are going back to the full production we were at before the attack (on Khurais) by the end of September, Fahad Abdulkarim, Aramcos general manager for the southern area oil operation, told reporters.

We are working 24/7...This is a beehive.

Workmen wearing red high visibility jackets and white helmets moved through the site, a large compound the size of several football stadiums containing interconnected structures of piping and towers.

A mound of blackened debris lay on the ground. An executive said the scorched mess once covered much of the surface of the facility but now only a small mound is left.

Some workers sprayed what appeared to be water on the ground. Mobile cranes and water trucks stood near the crumpled, mangled remains of a fire-damaged stabilization tower.

The Sept. 14 attacks intensified a years-long struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, who are locked in a sometimes violent contest for influence in several flashpoints around the Middle East.

Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir said on Thursday the attacks were an extension of the Iranian regimes hostile and outlawed behavior.

Iran has warned the United States against being dragged into a war in the Middle East and said it would meet any offensive action with a crushing response.

Tehran amplified that message on Friday when a senior Revolutionary Guards commander said Iran would respond from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean against any U.S. plots.

If the Americans think of any plots, the Iranian nation will respond from the Mediterranean, to the Red Sea and to the Indian Ocean, said General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, a senior adviser to Irans supreme leader, state news agency IRNA reported.

Lebanons Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement warned Saudi Arabia against betting on a war against Iran because they will destroy you, its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said.

Your house is made of glass and your economy is made of glass. Like the glass cities in the UAE, he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had called the attacks an act of war but on Thursday he said Trump, who has ordered more sanctions on Iran, wants a peaceful solution to the crisis.

Irans foreign minister on Friday questioned Pompeos remarks and listed repeated Iranian diplomatic initiatives.

Coalition for Peaceful Resolution?, Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter, and listed eight diplomatic initiatives by Iran since 1985, including a peace plan for Yemen in 2015.

He later said Saudi Arabia and its ally the United Arab Emirates seemed to wish to fight Iran to the last American.

Oil prices were on track for their biggest weekly jump since January, lifted by rising Middle East tensions after the attack. Brent crude was up more than 7% from last Fridays close at $64.69 a barrel, U.S. West Texas Intermediate was $58.47.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told Saudi King Salman in a phone call that China condemned the attack and called on all parties to avoid escalating the situation, Xinhua reported.

Despite being a relatively low-profile diplomatic player in the Middle East, China has close economic and energy relations with both Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said groundless accusations against Iran over the attacks were inflaming tensions, Interfax news agency reported.

Additional reporting by Meg Shen and Twinnie Siu in Hong Kong, Writing by William Maclean; Editing by Maher Chmaytelli and by Jon Boyle

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Iran is ready to destroy any country that launches an attack on its territory, a senior military official has said, after the US announced it was sending troops to support Saudi Arabia.

"Be careful and make no mistake," said the head of the Revolutionary Guards.

Iran denies the accusations by the US and Saudi Arabia that is behind recent attacks on two Saudi oil facilities.

A top Saudi official said "necessary measures" would be taken after the investigations were concluded.

Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir did not give details of possible actions, but vowed to release the full findings of the investigations.

Yemen's Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran, have said they were responsible for the attacks on 14 September.

Tensions between the US and Iran have escalated since US President Donald Trump abandoned a deal limiting Iran's nuclear activities and reinstated sanctions.

"Our readiness to respond to any aggression is definitive," Maj-Gen Hossein Salami told state media on Saturday. "We will never allow a war to enter our land."

"We will pursue any aggressor," he continued. "We will continue until the full destruction of any aggressor."

Maj-Gen Salami, who was speaking at the opening of an exhibition of captured drones in the capital, Tehran, added that "they will hit anybody who crosses" Iranian borders.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are an elite branch of the country's military and have been designated a terrorist organisation by the US.

The US decision to send troops to Saudi Arabia was "defensive in nature", Defence Secretary Mark Esper told reporters on Friday.

He said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had requested military assistance, adding that the total number of troops who will be sent is yet to be decided.

The US forces would focus on boosting air and missile defences and would "accelerate the delivery of military equipment" to both nations, Mr Esper added.

Later on Friday, President Trump announced new sanctions against Iran while signalling that he wanted to avoid military conflict. The fresh sanctions, which Mr Trump described as "highest level", will focus on Iran's central bank and its sovereign wealth fund.

But he struck a more conciliatory tone in comments made in the Oval Office. "I think the strong person approach, and the thing that does show strength, would be showing a little bit of restraint," he said.

Analysis by Sebastian Usher, BBC Arab Affairs Editor

Iranian officials - both political and military - have issued a series of fierce warnings about any potential attack on their territory.

The US has adopted a less confrontational tone, but has continued with the Trump administration's policy of applying maximum pressure.

New sanctions targeting Iran's national bank and the mobilisation of more US troops in the Gulf are all part of this strategy.

What seems clear is that this remains a game of brinkmanship, with all sides still hoping to be able to pull back from a direct military confrontation.

But the pattern of dangerous escalation over recent weeks does not bode well for this strategy.

Strikes hit the Abqaiq oil facility and the Khurais oil field in Saudi Arabia a week ago, affecting the global oil supply.

On Wednesday, the kingdom's defence ministry showed off what it said were the remains of drones and cruise missiles proving Iranian involvement. The country was still "working to know exactly the launch point", a spokesman said.

The US has also said Iran was responsible. Senior officials have told US media outlets they had evidence the attacks originated in the south of Iran.

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Iran has repeatedly denied any role in the strikes, with President Hassan Rouhani calling the attacks a reciprocal act by the "Yemeni people".

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the strikes "an act of war".

Mr Zarif warned on Twitter that Iran had no desire for war but "we will not hesitate to defend ourselves".

Meanwhile, the Saudi state oil company, Aramco, said it expects oil output to return to pre-attack levels by the end of September.

The Houthis have repeatedly launched rockets, missiles and drones at populated areas in Saudi Arabia. They are in conflict with a Saudi-led coalition which backs a president who the rebels had forced to flee when the Yemeni conflict escalated in March 2015.

Iran is the regional rival of Saudi Arabia and an opponent of the US, which pulled out of a treaty aimed at limiting Tehran's nuclear programme after Mr Trump took power.

US-Iran tensions have risen markedly this year.

The US said Iran was behind attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf in June and July, as well as on another four in May. Tehran rejected the accusations in both cases.

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