Iran Says It Can Target Any US Ship in Gulf Waters
Crude rose to about $117 a barrel as shipping lanes near the Strait of Hormuz stayed under attack.
By Katherine Barnes ·
Iran's top general said on Saturday that US warships cannot come back into Iranian waters and their surroundings, because Iranian forces can reach any vessel in the area. Ali Abdollahi, chief of general staff of Iran's armed forces, delivered the message through state media. He added that President Donald Trump "can only dream of their soldiers and military again entering the Persian Gulf." The statement followed Trump's Friday rally in Florida, where he said the US military "may do another Epic Fury", naming the bombing campaign that opened the war. Trump has not picked between large strikes and letting the naval blockade and sanctions press Tehran. Abdollahi also said American claims that Iran's military is largely destroyed do not hold up, since Washington has kept its aircraft carriers and support ships away from Iranian territory. He said Iranian forces plan to "drown" the US and Israel in a "quagmire" for the February 28 attack that started the eight-month war. The fighting has not stopped elsewhere in the region. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reported seven tankers hit or struck mines overnight into Thursday, and on Friday claimed two supertankers struck mines. Brent crude rose to about $117 a barrel, its highest level since April. The Houthis in Yemen hit Riyadh on Saturday, after strikes on Dammam's airport and the Shaybah oilfield, and Saudi forces bombed Houthi-held areas including Marib and Taiz. In southern Lebanon, reported Israeli strikes hit near Nabatieh. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose election falls on October 27, ordered a lockdown of the West Bank after a Palestinian attack killed two soldiers in Hebron. Mediated talks between Tehran and Washington have produced no progress. On Friday, diplomats from Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, the UK, France, Germany and Italy met in Istanbul without US or Iranian officials present. Turkiye's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said a new attack on Iran "would widen the war and spread the conflict across the region", and added that "no one is endorsing it at this point." Iranian state-linked media and analysts say Iran has activated a doctrine that would keep attacks on US, Israeli and regional targets running from all 31 provinces if senior leaders are killed again. Axios, citing US intelligence, reported on Saturday that Iran has "substantially increased" efforts to strike American officials in the Middle East and elsewhere.
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Source: Al Jazeera
