Iran has indicated it is preparing for a new round of war with the United States and has made public threats against Washington and its allies in an apparent bid to dissuade President Donald Trump from restarting the current conflict.
Over the past month, Iranian military commanders have stepped up a series of public messages claiming that Iran has built up large stockpiles of new weapons ready to be dropped on targets beyond the region if the United States resumes hostilities that began in February.
Iranian officials have threatened to broaden their targets if conflict resumes, offering options such as cutting underwater internet cables, striking AI data centers and attacking regional oil and gas facilities.
“The world will be stunned,” Iranian Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said late last month. “We have new targets that have not yet been attacked,” he added.
Nearly nine months after the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran, the conflict has stagnated in a stalemate that leaves everyone uncertain about Trump’s ultimate outcome and the world grappling with economic turmoil. Both sides claimed victory – Tehran emphasizing its survival and Washington the damage inflicted on the Iranian regime. Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to test 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 for a long-term war. »
As Iranian commanders demonstrate strength and preparation, ordinary Iranians, long burdened by conflict and economic uncertainty, are once again bracing for the realities of war on the ground.
“Every day and every night we wait for the bombing to resume,” a 70-year-old Tehran resident told CNN last week. “I charged all my external batteries, stocked up on water and prepared everything, because the attacks could start again at any time, any day.”
A mother of two described to CNN the fear she lives with as she sends her children to school each morning, on streets where the Revolutionary Guards are visible and military bases remain active.
“I would like to know exactly what else the United States is planning to bomb? she said. “They couldn’t even eliminate (Iran’s leaders). You couldn’t negotiate either. So what’s the point of starting another war?”
Iranians are “convinced” that war will resume, another Tehran resident told CNN.
“It’s all anyone can talk about…you just have it in your head, is tonight the night? Is it tomorrow? I think it’s even worse that there’s all this conversation about it, you can’t even take a break,” the resident told CNN.
The Iranians spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity to freely express their fears of a new war.
Over the past few weeks, White House advisers have held meetings to discuss various options for Iran. While Trump publicly announced he would not take further action before the midterm elections, several advisers privately told CNN they were unsure whether that statement was final or if it could change before Election Day on Nov. 3.
The U.S. military has drawn up new strike plans that potentially include using the so-called “mother of all bombs” to target Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites if Trump issues the order to resume combat operations before or after the midterm elections, according to several U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The GBU-43/B Massive Airburst Bomb or MOAB is the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal and would mark a notable escalation.
“These are propaganda tools intended to intimidate the Iranian people,” Alireza Sheikh, an Iranian army commander, said Saturday. “The Iranian people are the father of all bombs. »
Iran has announced a new, more offensive military doctrine that suggests it will not wait to be hit and could even launch pre-emptive strikes. Last week, Revolutionary Guard social media accounts reported that Iran had conducted military exercises across the country, including launching 30 ballistic missiles in one go.
Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute think tank specializing in US foreign policy in the region, said that if an emboldened Tehran decided to test its new long-range missiles against Europe in an attack, targets could include US forces based at air bases in England, or the logistics center in Ramstein, Germany, the largest US military installation outside the United States.
“However, Iran would likely reserve this possibility at a very high level of escalation,” Nadimi said.
The United States repatriated all of its long-range bombers stationed in the United Kingdom to its American bases earlier this month after a new, unspecified threat, officials said. Days before this decision, the British government arrested a number of individuals in connection with an alleged Iranian plot to target the British airbase where American bombers were stationed.
To increase their chances of hitting their targets, Nadimi said Iran could potentially launch more sophisticated and coordinated swarms of AI-based drones, equipped with cameras and data links that can communicate with each other, adjust flight paths and speed to evade jamming and air defenses.
“They have not yet demonstrated these capabilities, but they have discussed the development of such technologies in the past,” Nadimi said.
Iran could also seek to upgrade its cruise missile capabilities to include supersonic propulsion to better evade interceptions and attempt to jam military communications and surveillance satellites, he added.
Iranian commanders are preparing for what they see as an inevitable resumption of hostilities, while trying to deter Washington by highlighting the costs of an attack, Ali Vaez, deputy program director for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group, told CNN.
“Tehran wants to make clear that the next round will take place on a much larger battlefield, with fewer constraints and potentially deadlier consequences,” Vaez said. “But the danger is that what Iran intends as deterrence could be interpreted by Washington as provocation, making more likely the war Tehran hopes to avoid. »
When the United States and Israel launched war against Iran in February, they killed the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, as well as Iranian military commanders, senior officials and civilians, including schoolchildren. Iran’s retaliation has focused primarily on its Arab neighbors, whom it accuses of collusion with Washington.
Iran effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, the only waterway used by neighboring countries to export oil, before striking civilian infrastructure in Arab cities. Dubai, a major tourist destination, was targeted, water plants in Kuwait were hit and attacks on data centers disrupted banking services in several countries in the region.
Iran has fired more than 2,500 missiles and drones into the UAE alone, more than any other country, including Israel. Abu Dhabi intercepted almost all of the projectiles, according to figures from the UAE Ministry of Defense.
Last week, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, warned that Iran would target US assets in the region, including in the United Arab Emirates, in retaliation for any further attacks.
“If a new war breaks out, many submarine cables, data centers, AI facilities and other infrastructure in the region could be destroyed,” Rezaei said.
A senior United Arab Emirates official told reporters on Thursday that his country was better prepared if fighting resumed.
“We don’t want war,” said Ali Al-Nuaimi, chairman of the UAE Federal National Council’s defense, interior and foreign affairs committee. “But if war breaks out today, we are prepared to deal with any threat that comes our way better than we were on February 28.”
“Whatever is necessary to protect our national security, our sovereignty and our people, we will do. »
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