Iran threatens to widen war with 'new weapons' if Trump attacks again

Tehran's shadowy Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has issued a chilling warning it will use new weapons to envelop more countries in war if the US attacks again. The IRGC’s spokesman Hossein Moheibi warned Tehran’s military will “change the geography” of the war after US President Donald Trump renewed his threats against Iran. Moheibi said: “There will certainly be significant changes in our defence and our counteroffensive. We will introduce new weapons with new capabilities into the battlefield, and the world will be surprised. Our targets will not necessarily be the same as before either. We have new targets that have not yet been attacked.” He added: “Iran is prepared for a long-term war, and from our perspective, war has different stages. War does not end, but continues. The IRGC was already prepared for war, and it is now even more prepared.” The threat followed Trump saying his options for the war range from “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal.” Trump has then followed up with: “My question is: ‘when do I blow the entire nation up?’ They had better behave.” Threat of escalation in the ongoing conflict happened amid growing concerns that pro-Iranian Iraqi forces will join forces with the Yemeni Houthis against Saudi Arabia. Moheibi’s warning echoes many observers suspicion that Iran had prepared for decades for this war, knowing it could leverage control of the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump’s war on Iran is increasingly unpopular in the United States because it has gone on for months longer than was expected and has led to soaring fuel prices. The two countries are at war over navigation in the strategic waterway the Strait of Hormuz through which about a ⁠fifth of global oil consumption flowed before the war. It is also feared pro-Tehran Houthi fighters in Yemen are trying to close a similarly important waterway the Bab al-Mandab Strait which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. The US and Israel launched large-scale attacks against Iran on Feb. 28, targeting government buildings, military sites, missile infrastructure, and air defences. Iran responded with missile and drone attacks against Israel and US bases across the region. The war paused with a ceasefire in April, and a memorandum was signed in June for a final peace deal within 60 days. The deal, however, collapsed weeks later. Still, efforts to end the conflict have been underway through mediators Pakistan and Qatar. And it appears many US allies in the Middle East who are allies of the US feel abandoned by Washington, which Iran has dragged into the war. American former FBI Middle East expert Ali Soufan hinted that the US, along with others, is abandoning its ally Saudi Arabia. His US -based security and geopolitical thinktank The Soufan Centre says: “Despite years of building multiple, overlapping security alliances, Saudi Arabia’s leaders have been left alone to face a security crisis brought on by Houthi territorial gains along Yemen’s Red Sea coast and a resumption of their missile and drone attacks on Saudi infrastructure.”