Iran Threatens Wider War as Nuclear Talks Stall

Iran has threatened to widen any renewed confrontation with the United States and Israel, and it refuses to give up its enriched uranium stockpile as talks on a permanent ceasefire remain stalled. Iranian officials have described possible strikes on Israeli cities and U.S. bases. The country’s new defense minister says the military is prioritizing air defenses and new technologies.

Iran’s Threats and Military Preparations

Former IRGC commander Hossein Kanani Moghaddam said a response to a new attack could go beyond the reciprocal strikes seen in previous conflicts, hitting U.S. bases and Israeli positions across the region, along with sites farther away. He cited possible strikes on Haifa, Tel Aviv and the Dimona nuclear facility. He also mentioned weapons Iran hadn’t previously deployed, including powerful electromagnetic bombs and a missile called Rastakhiz, or Resurrection. Claims about those weapons haven’t been independently verified.

Iranian military chief Ali Abdollahi warned of a harsher response, claiming Tehran had developed missiles that could not be detected or intercepted. Senior security official Mohsen Rezaei said Iran had prepared a plan more destructive than those used in the previous two wars, but offered no details. IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi suggested Iran could target seven major undersea internet cables through the Strait of Hormuz. He warned that even a limited U.S. operation could trigger a serious global energy crisis.

Iranian military expert Mohammad Sadegh Alizadeh told The New Arab that lessons from the 12-day war in June 2025 and the 40-day war that began on February 28 had changed the tactics of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ aerospace and naval forces, as well as the army’s air defenses. He said Iran had upgraded parts of its missile arsenal, converting some missiles capable of reaching Israel into modular systems that could be activated faster and with fewer logistical requirements. Coastal anti-ship missiles had also received technical improvements, he said, and recent exercises tested them.

Alizadeh cited reports that Iran may buy arms from allied countries, including hypersonic anti-ship missiles. He said those weapons would follow more complex flight paths and be harder to intercept, but would have shorter range than Iran’s ballistic missiles.

Nuclear Stockpile Blocks a Deal

Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile remains a central obstacle to diplomatic efforts. Rezaei said “even a particle of enriched uranium will not exit Iran at all,” according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency. He called the uranium a major national asset for domestic use. Washington has sought the transfer of some enriched uranium abroad, while U.S. President Donald Trump has previously called for the stockpile’s removal.

The June 17 Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran said Iran “shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons.” The agreement set downblending under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision as the minimum approach to handling enriched uranium, but left the quantity, target enrichment level and timetable unspecified. The parties didn’t reach a final deal before the MoU expired in mid-August.

Trump has demanded “zero uranium enrichment.” Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iran wasn’t seeking to produce nuclear weapons and argued that “Iran’s enrichment activities are unrelated to the US.” U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Washington was seeking a “long-term” and “verifiable commitment” that Iran wouldn’t rebuild its nuclear programme. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “The US will not support any deal that creates a pathway for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Regional Escalation and Defense

A future conflict could draw in Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iraqi militias. Netanyahu and Israeli government ministers warned Lebanon of serious consequences if Hezbollah joined the war alongside Iran. Those consequences could include an expansion of the occupation of southern territories and renewed bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs. U.S.-Israeli strikes had hit multiple bases belonging to Shia armed factions, which then targeted U.S. interests in Iraq and the Gulf.

The New Arab reported that Israel had prepared a multi-day bombing campaign for the weekend of October 10, aimed at Iranian power plants, nuclear facilities and sites associated with the Iranian government. According to the report, the campaign was shelved after Trump opposed reigniting the conflict before the November 3 U.S. midterm elections. The proposed campaign was intended to be more intense than the previous round of fighting that began in February. Whether the United States was expected to participate directly remained unclear.

Iran’s newly appointed defense minister, Mehrdad Akhlaghi, said he had focused on the needs of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force and the regular military’s air-defense branch. “For us, responding to repeated threats is not a contest of rhetoric; it means turning threats into greater readiness and more effective defensive capabilities,” he said in a statement carried by Iranian news agency ISNA. The United Nations sanctioned him in 2007 over involvement in Iran’s ballistic missile programme.