Iran warned Monday it would use “new weapons with new capabilities” if the U.S. launched a fresh assault after President Donald Trump ramped up the rhetoric against Tehran over the weekend.
“If a new aggression takes place, we will definitely change the weapons and geography of the war,” Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.
Mohebbi did not provide details on what the new weapons were or which new locations could be hit.
Earlier, Trump said he would “probably” be open to meeting with his Iranian counterpart, President Masoud Pezeshkian, during the United Nations General Assembly this week, Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reported Sunday.
The possibility of a meeting offered a glimmer of hope for a resolution to the nearly seven-month war with Iran, which has resulted in Iran blocking the key Strait of Hormuz, and its Yemeni allies bombing a crucial east-west oil pipeline and threatening another crucial waterway. Resultant economic shock waves have hit the U.S. and the world economy, driving up oil and diesel prices and fueling inflation.
Trump also said he was still deciding how to proceed with the war, describing his options as “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically, or making a deal.”
“My question is, if and when do I blow the entire nation up,” he said.
“They better behave,” Trump warned.
The president has previously said he did not believe the Iran war would end until after November’s midterm elections. He has also said oil prices would not come down until then.
Oil prices slid to their lowest point in more than a week Monday as hopes for renewed talks between the U.S. and Iran grew, while signs of a recovery in Saudi crude exports eased supply concerns, despite continued attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis.
Trump told Fox News that Washington was in constant communication with the Houthis — and that the Yemeni rebel group had agreed not to fight with the U.S., Yingst reported.
Trump has said that the administration had been in touch with the Houthis, but did not say when.
“The Houthis called us, and they don’t want to fight with us,” he said earlier this month. “They would much prefer not having us involved, and they’re letting most ships go through.”
Violence escalated over the weekend, with the Houthis saying they had used missiles and drones to attack “sensitive” sites in Riyadh on Saturday, as well as an Aramco facility in the Red Sea city of Yanbu, a key oil export hub.
Meanwhile, fighting flared in southwest Yemen as the rebel group made gains against Saudi-backed forces.
The New York Times reported Monday that the president had considered, but ultimately decided against on Sunday joining Saudi Arabia in joint strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
NBC News was not immediately able to independently confirm the newspaper’s reporting. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“This is a really fluid situation,” Adam Baron, a fellow at the New America think tank who follows Yemen and the wider Gulf region, said Monday.
He cautioned that he would not “rule out anything” when it comes to Trump’s stance on whether to help Saudi Arabia in its fight against the Houthis.
Shipping data showed 17 commodity vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, down from 37 a week earlier, though Middle Eastern producers continue to export oil on tankers with their transponders off, Reuters reported.
A total of 22 tankers, mainly very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, exited Hormuz in the week of Sept. 13, with Saudi Arabia and Iraq each accounting for 43% of the volume, the outlet reported, citing data from tracking group Kpler, which maintains the MarineTraffic website.
Meanwhile, at least 51 vessels made the crossing along the Bab el Mandeb, with 33 vessels exiting the waterway over the weekend as the Houthis tightened their grip over the strait, the outlet reported. That was down from 57 vessels in the previous weekend.
The Yemeni Health and Environment Ministry accused Saudi Arabia of launching airstrikes targeting telecommunications towers in the Khabb wa ash-Sha’af district of Al-Jawf Governorate on Sunday that killed four telecommunications workers and injured three others.
“Targeting essential service infrastructure, including telecommunications towers, constitutes a flagrant violation of international and humanitarian laws,” the ministry said in a post on Telegram. “It reveals the aggressor’s determination to disrupt basic services and exacerbate the suffering of the Yemeni people,” it said.
