Iran possesses new weapons capable of expanding “the geography of the war” with the U.S., a top Iranian general warned Monday as President Trump weighs whether to resume attacks against Iran and escalate America’s involvement in a widening Middle East conflict.
The threats from Iranian Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebbi, a key figure in the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, may be bluster. But his warning about new Iranian weapons capable of hitting previously safe U.S. bases comes just days after a major Pentagon inspector general report detailed the significant damage Iran has already inflicted on U.S. installations across the region using its drones and ballistic missiles.
Those Iranian threats will fuel suspicion that other American adversaries and members of the so-called “Axis of Authoritarians,” perhaps including China and Russia, may be helping Iran develop new weapons to target U.S. assets.
Should Mr. Trump order new attacks, Iran says it will expand the scope of the war.
“If another aggression takes place, there will certainly be significant changes in our defense and our counterattack,” Gen. Mohebbi said, according to the country’s state-run Fars News Agency.
“We will definitely change the geography of the war,” he said, according to English-language translations of his comments.
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The general also said “the world will be astounded” by the new weapons Iran has available.
The strong comments Monday come as world leaders gather in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting. The U.S.-Iran war is expected to be a key topic there.
All eyes will be on Mr. Trump, who over the weekend said he’s deciding whether to launch a catastrophic military attack on Iran.
“My question is, if and when do I blow the entire nation up? They better behave,” Mr. Trump told Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst in a phone interview Sunday morning.
The president’s threat followed his sudden return Saturday to the White House from Camp David, which cut short a weekend getaway.
Mr. Trump said he’s in “deciding mode” on Iran and “very big things [will happen] in the not too distant future.”
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Resuming U.S. attacks on Iran would represent a response to escalation across the region. Saudi Arabia confirmed over the weekend that Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen attempted to attack its capital with ballistic missiles.
Coalition forces spokesperson Major-General Turki al-Maliki said Saturday that Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces “successfully intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile” launched by the Houthis and aimed at Riyadh.
The Houthis have also captured a strategic island in the southern Red Sea, giving them greater control over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, another critical chokepoint for shipping traffic coming from the Red Sea. Global oil prices are already high because of Iran’s hold on the Strait of Hormuz, the critical channel through which oil shipments leave the Persian Gulf.
The Pentagon will surely take the Iranian warnings seriously. Just last week, the Pentagon’s inspector general reported that Iranian missile and drone attacks on U.S. outposts in the Middle East have damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and dozens of American combat aircraft since the war began in late February.
The Pentagon IG investigators also detailed the U.S. military aircraft destroyed or heavily damaged in the conflict, including F-15E and F-35 fighters, KC-135 refueling aircraft, combat helicopters like the AH-64 and the MH-60, along with drones like the MQ-4C Triton and the MQ-9 Reaper. The Pentagon IG said as many as 30 Reapers have been destroyed in the fighting.
Iran’s ability to target U.S. facilities in the Middle East has sparked new Pentagon initiatives to guard American personnel, buildings and equipment.
• Susan Ferrechio and John T. Seward contributed to this report.
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