Iran Warns US of ‘New Strategy’ as Trump Threatens More Strikes

Iran and the United States traded increasingly hostile warnings on Wednesday as renewed fighting across the Middle East intensified, marking one of the most serious escalations in weeks and prolonging the six-month conflict between the two countries.

President Donald Trump said US forces had launched a “very heavy attack” against Iranian targets overnight, adding that Washington was “prepared to do another one any time we want”.

Iran responded with a warning from its top security official, who said Tehran had adopted a “new strategy” spanning the battlefield, diplomacy and its response to economic sanctions.

“You will soon see that Iran’s new strategy on the battlefield, in diplomacy and in confronting the economic blockade will shatter your foundations,” Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said in a post on X.

The warning came as Washington moved to tighten its economic campaign against Iran. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said a proposed expansion of sanctions against Tehran’s economic partners would impose “absolutely maximum pressure”.

Trump also raised the possibility of giving the Strait of Hormuz a new name, suggesting it could be called “Trump Strait”. The strategic waterway, crucial to global oil supplies, has effectively been shut by Tehran for six months.

“Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT???” Trump wrote on Truth Social, although he later indicated that he may not have been serious about the suggestion.

Iranian forces responded to Tuesday’s extensive US bombardment by striking American bases in Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.

Tensions escalated further after Iran’s Red Crescent reported that a US strike on a wedding in southern Iran killed four people, including a child, and wounded more than 50 others.

“The truth of this unlawful war of choice — and the true face of the war crime — is in Sirik, where a wedding ceremony was brutally bombed as part of America’s desperate struggle to conceal its failure,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei wrote on X.

CENTCOM spokesman Tim Hawkins rejected the allegation, saying “the US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC,” referring to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Iran Calls US ‘Satan’

Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf strongly condemned Washington over the reported attack on the wedding, accusing the United States of acting like “Satan.”

“If a power acts like Satan, picks targets like Satan, and kills like Satan, it’s Satan,” Ghalibaf posted on X.

The latest cycle of violence started Sunday when the United States launched strikes against Iranian targets, the first known US attacks in several weeks.

Iranian forces subsequently attacked US troops in Jordan and the UAE, while two oil tankers were struck by projectiles in attacks that have not been claimed. According to a Saudi shipping company, one of the attacks killed two Filipino sailors.

Trump said the American strikes were retaliation for an alleged Iranian attempt to lay sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz and for missile attacks on a US military base in Jordan.

The return of hostilities has sparked anxiety among ordinary Iranians.

Hossein Moazami, a 50-year-old self-employed man, described the renewed attacks as “truly distressing.”

“I hope they all return to the negotiating table because the only people suffering from this are the Iranian people,” he said. “The Americans are on the other side of the world and nothing happens to them.”

An Iranian government account also released video showing debris and damage at what it identified as the wedding venue in Sirik. People could be heard screaming in the background.

“It is a very saddening incident…Thank God the casualties were not higher,” Ali Mallahi, the bride’s father and owner of the building struck in the attack, said in a video broadcast on state television.

The conflict began on February 28 when US and Israeli forces attacked Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A fragile ceasefire subsequently broke down after attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial passage that previously carried around one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies.

Israel has also issued a warning amid the escalating tensions. Defence Minister Israel Katz said his country was ready to respond “with great force” if Iran attacked during the Jewish high holiday season beginning in mid-September.

“For now, they are striking throughout the region except us,” Katz told a conference organised by Israeli media outlets.

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