Iran Vows Retaliatory Attacks Across the Region and Beyond

Following President Donald J. Trump’s July 23 interview with Axios, in which he said he was “seriously considering restarting major combat operations in Iran,” Iran’s armed forces threatened retaliatory strikes across the region – and even against Royal Air Force Fairford in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. The Iranian statements may be intended to deter Trump from resuming major combat operations, but they also signal the Iranian leadership’s determination to continue fighting for its survival.

• July 24: Major General Mohsen Rezaei, senior military advisor to the supreme leader, posted on X:
  • “The delusional U.S. president, through his fatal miscalculations, has moved from playing the ‘madman’ to playing the ‘desperate man.’ The attack on pilgrims in Shalamcheh and the threat of strikes against infrastructure are nothing but signs of desperation and helplessness. Iran’s response to attacks on its infrastructure will be escalating and severe.”
• July 24: Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters, the operational headquarters of Iran’s armed forces, wrote in a statement released by Tabnak News Agency, which is affiliated with Rezaei:
  • “The Strait of Hormuz remains closed. If any vessel is permitted to pass through the strait, it must travel exclusively along the designated route and in accordance with the previously announced procedures. Should the United States carry out its threats, the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not permit even a single drop of oil to be exported, and the region’s oil, gas, electricity, and economic infrastructure will be targeted. The repeated threats by the criminal United States and the terrorist military of that rogue country will have no result other than the expansion of the war across the region – and even beyond it.”
• July 24: In a statement released by the official Islamic Republic News Agency, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned the United Kingdom against assisting the U.S. bombing campaign against Iran:
  • “The invading U.S. military, which had used its vessels in the Indian Ocean to launch cruise missiles following the official resumption of the war, resorted yesterday to deploying B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom after those vessels exhausted their missile stocks. As Foreign Ministry officials have also made clear, any base used to attack Iranian territory is a legitimate target for us.”

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