Iran warned on Wednesday that war in the Middle East war will spread far beyond the region if the United States and Israel resume their attacks, amid US President Donald Trump’s latest threats to strike again if a deal is not reached to halt the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
“If the aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will this time spread far beyond the region, and our devastating blows will crush you,” said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in a statement on its Sepah News website.
“The American-Zionist enemy… must know that despite the offensive carried out against us using the full capabilities of the world’s two most expensive armies, we have not deployed the full power of the Islamic revolution,” it continued.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened renewed military action, saying Monday that he’d called off imminent strikes against Iran at the request of Gulf states, which he said were optimistic about a deal.
Still, on Tuesday he said Tehran had mere days to reach an agreement, amid a Pakistani-mediated diplomatic process that has so far failed to bear fruit.
On Tuesday, US Vice President JD Vance told reporters that “a lot of good progress is being made” in the efforts to reach a deal, adding, “We’re just going to keep working at it.” At the same time, he warned Iran that the US military was “locked and loaded.”
Also Tuesday, the US Senate advanced a war powers resolution, as a fourth Republican joined Democrats in their efforts to assert authority over the conflict, though support for passing the measure remains short of a majority.
Amid the tension, Pakistan’s interior minister headed to Iran on Wednesday for the second time this week, Iranian state media reported.
“Mohsin Naqvi traveled to Tehran to meet officials from the Islamic Republic,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported, citing diplomatic sources in Islamabad.
Pakistan has been mediating between Iran and the US, with Naqvi previously in Tehran on Saturday to “facilitate” the process, according to Iranian media.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, said further hostilities in the Middle East would be “inadvisable,” calling for a ceasefire, as he spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Wednesday, according to Chinese state media.
“A comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency, resuming hostilities is even more inadvisable and maintaining negotiations is particularly important,” Xi told Putin, the Xinhua news agency reported.
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