DUBAI — Iran has signaled that it is preparing for another round of war with the United States and has issued public threats against Washington in an apparent bid to deter President Donald Trump from restarting the current conflict.The comments came after Trump warned that the United States could “soon finish the job” against Iran unless Tehran changes course.Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi issued a defiant response to Trump on Sunday, challenging the United States to launch another attack and warning that Tehran was prepared to retaliate.“Last time you wanted to ‘finish the job,’ Iran emerged even stronger,” Araghchi said in a post on X.“Want to try your luck again? Be our guest. But be careful; we have unfinished jobs too,” he warned.Araghchi also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pushing the United States toward another war to avoid prosecution.“Netanyahu is driving America into another war to stay out of jail, whatever the consequences for Israel — let alone POTUS,” he said.Netanyahu also vowed Sunday to bring down the Islamic Republic, saying he had instructed Israel’s security agencies to pursue that goal. Trump gave Netanyahu his “complete and total endorsement” for reelection Sunday.Over the past month, Iranian military commanders have intensified a series of public messages claiming that Iran has built large stockpiles of new weapons ready to be unleashed on targets beyond the region should the US resume hostilities that began in February.Iranian officials have threatened to broaden their targets if the conflict resumes, floating options that include cutting undersea internet cables, striking AI data centers, and attacking regional oil and gas facilities.“The world will be amazed,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi said late last month. “We have new targets that have not yet been attacked,” he added.Several US embassies in the Middle East have issued identical security alerts for American citizens in the Middle East, citing potential threats from Iran or the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.“Iran and groups supportive of Iran may target other US interests overseas or at locations associated with the United States and Americans throughout the world, including US businesses and other institutions,” the advisory said.It warned Americans to “be aware of potential flight cancellations, airspace closures, and travel disruptions” and “exercise heightened vigilance due to the complex security environment”.The advisory covered 12 Middle East countries, including the Gulf Arab states, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Yemen and Iran.Nearly nine months after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran, the conflict has stagnated into a stalemate that has left everyone uncertain about Trump’s endgame and the world grappling with economic unrest. Both sides have claimed victory – Tehran pointing to its survival and Washington the damage inflicted on the Iranian regime.Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues testing new economic and military measures to force Iran into capitulation, which Tehran has stubbornly resisted.“The war is not over,” Mohebbi said. “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has prepared itself for a long-term war.”Over the last few weeks, White House advisers have held meetings to discuss various options for Iran. While Trump announced publicly that he would not take new actions before the midterm elections, several advisers told CNN privately they didn’t know whether that statement was definitive or could change before election day on November 3.The US military has developed new strike plans that include potentially using the so-called “mother of all bombs” to target Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites should Trump give the order to resume combat operations either before or after the midterm elections, according to multiple US officials familiar with the matter. “These are propaganda tools intended to intimidate the Iranian people,” Alireza Sheikh, an Iranian army commander said on Saturday. “The Iranian people are the father of all bombs.”Iran has signaled a new, more offensive military doctrine that suggests it will not wait to be struck and could even launch pre-emptive strikes. Last week, Revolutionary Guards social media accounts reported that Iran conducted military exercises across the country, including launching 30 ballistic missiles in one go.Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow with The Washington Institute think tank focused on US foreign policy in the region, said if an emboldened Tehran decided to try its new long-range missiles against Europe in an attack, targets might include US forces based at airbases in England, or the logistics hub in Ramstein, Germany, the largest US military installation outside of the US.“However, Iran would likely reserve that possibility to a very top level of escalation,” Nadimi said.The US moved all of its long-range bombers stationed in the United Kingdom back to their American home bases earlier this month after an unspecified new threat, officials said. Days before the move, the British government arrested a number of individuals in connection with an alleged Iranian plot to target the UK airbase where the US bombers had been stationed.To increase their chances of hitting targets, Nadimi said Iran may potentially launch more sophisticated and coordinated swarms of AI-enabled drones fitted with cameras and datalinks that can communicate with each other, adjust flight paths and speed to evade jamming and air defenses.“They haven’t demonstrated these capabilities yet, but they discussed developing such technologies in the past,” Nadimi said.Iran may also seek to advance its cruise missile capabilities to include supersonic propulsion to better evade interception and try jamming military communication and surveillance satellites, he added.Last week, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, warned that Iran will target US assets in the region in retaliation for any fresh attacks“If another war breaks out, numerous undersea cables, data centers, AI facilities and other infrastructure across the region could be destroyed,” Rezaei said.
Keep Up to Date with our Weekly Newsletter
