Iran warns war could spread to Indian Ocean if US attacks again

Tehran, Sep 24 (UNI) Iran has warned that any renewed US or Israeli attack could widen the ongoing Middle East conflict to the Indian Ocean, as tensions remain high over the Persian Gulf and Red Sea.

Maj Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, said Iranian forces has prepared for a range of scenarios, including the possibility of further attacks on the country's facilities or national interests. "We do not know what is going on in the minds of (US President) Trump and (Israeli Premier) Netanyahu," Safavi said in remarks carried by Iran's Fars News Agency.

He said Iran's armed forces are ever ready for the worst-case scenarios and warned that any further escalation could significantly broaden the geographical scope of the conflict. "Now that the war has spread from the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea, it is possible that, in the next stage of a potential war with the US, this front could expand further, to the Indian Ocean or elsewhere," he said.

Safavi's warning comes as the conflict has already extended beyond the immediate Gulf theatre, with heightened tensions around the Red Sea and the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, a key maritime route linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the wider Indian Ocean. Yemen's Houthis, who are fighting Saudi-backed government forces, have recently tightened their control along parts of Yemen's Red Sea coastline, increasing pressure around the strategically important waterway.

The Islamic Republic has also restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, off its southern coast, following US-Israeli strikes that triggered the latest phase of the Middle East war at the end of February. Hormuz is one of the world's most important energy corridors, carrying a substantial share of global oil and gas shipments. Any prolonged disruption in the strait has the potential to affect international energy markets and maritime trade. Safavi's comments signal that Tehran could consider widening the conflict beyond the Gulf and Red Sea if it comes under another attack, although he did not specify what military measures Iran might take or identify any particular targets in the Indian Ocean.

The warning comes as US President Trump at the UNGA called Iran "the number one sponsor of terror," the President devoted much of his speech to the Islamic Republic, arguing that his Administration had confronted a threat that previous leaders - in the US and abroad - had failed to address.

He told world leaders gathered in the Assembly Hall for the annual General Debate that for 51 years, "the fanatical Iranian regime" had spread "carnage and chaos" across the entire Middle East and beyond."I will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon," he said. Trump said his administration had offered Iran economic cooperation in exchange for ending its nuclear programme and support for terrorism, but that Tehran had rejected the proposal.

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