Newly elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stressed his country’s right to retaliation against Israel in a rare phone call with the United Kingdom. 

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer made clear to Pezeshkian during the 30-minute call that “war is not in anyone’s interest” and urged Tehran to “refrain from attacking Israel.” The call followed a joint statement from the heads of the United States, the United Kingdom and three other European countries. 

The Iranian president, however, insisted that a strong response to an attack “is a right of nations and a solution for stopping crimes and aggression,” Sky News reported. 

“The support of some Western countries for the Zionist regime is irresponsible and contrary to international standards since it endangers regional security by encouraging the Zionist regime to continue its crimes,” Pezeshkian reportedly told Starmer.

BLINKEN POSTPONES MIDDLE EAST VISIT OVER SECURITY CONCERNS, ANTICIPATED IRANIAN RETALIATION

Tensions remain high after Israel’s alleged assassination of Hamas commander Ismail Haniyeh, who was in Tehran at the time of his death. Iran denounced Haniyeh’s murder and blamed Israel, even though Haniyeh died in what was later deemed a localized explosion that killed no Iranian citizens.

International pressure from European and Arab nations alike did not seem to dent Iran’s desire to avenge the commander of one of its most prominent proxy groups. 

Regional sources this week told Fox News foreign correspondent Trey Yingst on Monday that they are concerned Iran and its proxies could attack Israel within the next 24 hours in retaliation for the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month. No attack materialized in that time, but it did not dampen concerns.

BIDEN FOCUSED ON ‘LEGACY’ IN FINAL MONTHS, BUT SKELETON SCHEDULE ‘SIGNALS’ AN EMPTY HOUSE TO RIVALS: EXPERT

Hamas representatives on Sunday declared they would not participate in new negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza unless mediators presented a plan based on previous talks. The representatives insisted that the group had shown “flexibility” throughout the negotiation process but that Israel – through actions such as the alleged assassination of Haniyeh – indicated it was not serious about a cease-fire agreement.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer prepares to greet Haitham bin Tariq, the Sultan of Oman, at 10 Downing Street in London on Aug. 6, 2024. (Carl Court/Getty Images)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered his forces to “harshly punish” Israel for the killing of Haniyeh, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps deputy commander Ali Fadavi told Iranian media last week that the orders would be “implemented in the best possible way,” according to Al Jazeera. 

Israel this week conveyed to the United States and several European allies that any attack from Iran – even if it does not kill any Israelis – will lead to another retaliatory strike on Iranian territory, the Times of Israel reported.

JORDAN REMAINS ‘LAST HOLDOUT’ AS IRAN LOOKS TO CREATE NEW ‘TERROR FRONT’ ON ISRAELI BORDER

The statement aimed to preempt another round of international pressure that would try to stop Israel from responding forcefully.

Iranians pray during a ceremony commemorating assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in Tehran on Aug. 9, 2024. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Tensions continue to slowly ratchet up across the week, with Iranian banks on Wednesday suffering a major cyberattack that all but crippled the institutions, according to Israeli outlet i24 News. Hackers stole information belonging to account holders and hit several other banks.

Iran has not yet blamed Israel, and no other nation or party has claimed credit, but Iran blamed the U.S. and Israel for the last major cyberattack to hit the country.

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and Bradford Betz and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Gena Rowlands, the acclaimed American actress, three-time Emmy winner and Oscar nominee for her vivid portrayals of strong, troubled women in the crime drama Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence, has died at the age of 94.

Rowlands, whose death was reported on Wednesday by Entertainment Weekly citing her son Nick Cassevetes, starred in dozens of films during a career that began on stage and television in the 1950s and included award-winning roles in movies directed by her first husband, actor, writer and director John Cassavetes.

Nick Cassavetes revealed in June that Rowlands had Alzheimer’s, like her own mother and the character she portrayed in the 2004 film The Notebook.

“She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy – we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us,” her son, who directed the film, told Entertainment Weekly.

Rowlands and Cassavetes were the golden couple of independent films in the United States in the 1970s and 80s. Cassavetes was a pioneer in cinema verite, a technique that aimed to capture natural reactions and events, and Rowlands was his muse.

“Independent filmmaking existed before Cassavetes, but Cassavetes, working with Rowlands, managed to make an independent cinema that borrowed from Hollywood – not in plots or styles but in actorly allure and dramatic power,” The New Yorker said in 2016.

The tall, blonde actress made 10 films with Cassavetes before his death in 1989, including the psychological drama Opening Night (1977), the marital saga Faces (1968) and 1984’s Love Streams, in which she played his sister.

“There was always a manic energy to the performances she gave in her late husband’s films, a fear of failure, a desire to love,” the awards website Golden Derby said of Rowlands.

In A Woman Under the Influence, which Cassavetes originally wrote as a play and which is considered among her best performances, Rowlands played Mabel Longhetti, a housewife struggling with mental illness.

As the tough, determined title character in Cassavetes’s 1980 film Gloria, she rescued and protected a young, orphaned boy from mobsters determined to kill him.

Although she did not win an Oscar for either role, Rowlands received an Honorary Academy Award in 2015.

Always wanted to act

Virginia Cathryn “Gena” Rowlands was born on June 19, 1930, in Cambria, Wisconsin. Her father was a banker and politician, and her mother was an actress.

After college, she moved to New York, where she studied drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and met fellow student Cassavetes.

“I always wanted to be an actress; I read so much when I was little, and it revealed to me there were other things to be. You can live a lot of lives and have a lot of fun and see a lot of things,” she told The New York Times in 2016.

Rowlands worked in regional theatre and TV before making her Broadway debut in Middle of the Night in 1956. Two years later she landed her first film role in The High Cost of Loving and appeared in Cassavetes’s directorial debut Shadows.

“It was not like working for anybody else,” she told film critic Roger Ebert about her husband in 2016. “The freedom that John gave his actors was astounding.”

Rowlands continued to work in films, including Woody Allen’s 1988 drama Another Woman, and television following Cassavetes’s death.

She won best actress Emmys for The Betty Ford Story (1987) and the drama Face of a Stranger (1992) and took home a best supporting trophy in a miniseries or movie for Hysterical Blindness (2002).

The independent film icon found a new audience when she returned to the big screen in 2004 as the older version of actress Rachel McAdams’s character in The Notebook.

Rowlands was married to Cassavetes from 1954 until his death. They had three children. In 2012, she wed businessman Robert Forrest.

“It’s a tricky life but it was so exciting and wonderful because you were doing what you really wanted do it,” she said about acting and making independent films.