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Iran has signaled that it is preparing for another round of war with the United States, issuing public threats against Washington and its allies in what appears to be an effort to deter President Donald Trump from restarting the conflict.
Over the past month, Iranian military commanders have stepped up public messages claiming Iran has accumulated large stocks of new weapons that could be used against targets beyond the region if the United States resumes hostilities that began in February, according to CNN.
Iranian officials have threatened to expand their target list if fighting resumes, raising the possibility of cutting undersea internet cables, striking AI data centres and attacking regional oil and gas facilities.
“The world will be amazed,” Revolutionary Guards spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi said late last month. “We have new targets that have not yet been attacked,” he added.
Nearly nine months after the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran, the conflict has settled into a stalemate. The deadlock has left uncertainty over Trump’s objectives and contributed to economic disruption around the world. Both sides have claimed victory: Tehran points to its survival, while Washington cites the damage inflicted on the Iranian regime. The Trump administration continues to test new economic and military measures to force Iran to capitulate, while Tehran has resisted.
“The war is not over,” Mohebbi said. “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has prepared itself for a long-term war.”
Iranian residents prepare for renewed attacks
As commanders project strength and readiness, Iranians already burdened by conflict and economic uncertainty are again preparing for the possibility of war, CNN reported.
“Every single day and every night, we’re waiting for the bombing to start again,” a 70-year-old Tehran resident told CNN last week. “I’ve charged all my power banks, stocked up on water, and got everything ready, because the attacks could start again at any moment, any day.”
A mother of two described her fear as she sends her children to school each morning, passing streets where Revolutionary Guards are visible and military bases remain active.
“I would like to know exactly what else the US is planning to bomb?” she said. “They couldn’t even take [Iranian leaders] out. You couldn’t negotiate either. So, what’s the point of starting another war?”
Another Tehran resident told CNN that people were “convinced” the war would start again. “It’s all anyone can talk about… you just have it in the back of your head, is tonight the night? Is it tomorrow? I think it makes it worse that there is all this conversation about it, you can’t even take a break,” the resident said.
The Iranians spoke to CNN anonymously so they could discuss their fears freely.
US strike plans and potential targets beyond the region
White House advisers have held meetings in recent weeks to discuss options for Iran. Trump has publicly said he would take no new action before the midterm elections, but several advisers privately told CNN they did not know whether that position was final or could change before election day on November 3.
The US military has developed new strike plans that could involve using the so-called “mother of all bombs” against Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites if Trump orders combat operations to resume before or after the midterms, according to multiple US officials familiar with the matter. The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, or MOAB, is the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal and would mark a notable escalation.
“These are propaganda tools intended to intimidate the Iranian people,” Iranian army commander Alireza Sheikh said on Saturday. “The Iranian people are the father of all bombs.”
Iran has signaled a more offensive military doctrine, suggesting it may not wait to be attacked and could launch pre-emptive strikes. Last week, Revolutionary Guards social media accounts said Iran had conducted military exercises across the country, including the launch of 30 ballistic missiles in a single salvo.
Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute think tank who focuses on US foreign policy in the region, said an emboldened Tehran could test its new long-range missiles against targets in Europe. These could include US forces at airbases in England or the logistics hub at Ramstein, Germany, the largest US military installation outside the United States.
“However, Iran would likely reserve that possibility to a very top level of escalation,” Nadimi said.
Earlier this month, the United States moved all its long-range bombers stationed in the United Kingdom back to their American home bases after an unspecified new threat, officials said. Days before the move, the British government arrested several people in connection with an alleged Iranian plot to target the UK airbase where the US bombers had been stationed.
Nadimi said Iran could seek to improve its chances of hitting targets by deploying more sophisticated, coordinated swarms of AI-enabled drones equipped with cameras and data links. Such drones could communicate with one another, adjust their flight paths and speed, and evade jamming and air defences.
“They haven’t demonstrated these capabilities yet, but they discussed developing such technologies in the past,” Nadimi said.
Iran could also seek to develop cruise missiles with supersonic propulsion to make them harder to intercept, and try to jam military communications and surveillance satellites, he added.
Iran warns of wider regional consequences
Iranian commanders are preparing for what they consider an inevitable resumption of hostilities, while seeking to deter Washington by stressing the costs of an attack, Ali Vaez, deputy program director for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group, told CNN.
“Tehran wants to make clear that the next round will be fought on a much wider battlefield, with fewer restraints and potentially more lethal consequences,” Vaez said. “But the danger is that what Iran intends as deterrence could be interpreted in Washington as provocation, making the very war Tehran hopes to avert more likely.”
When the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran in February, they killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei along with Iranian military commanders, senior officials and civilians, including schoolchildren. Iran’s retaliation focused mostly on its Arab neighbours, which Tehran accuses of colluding with Washington.
Iran effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, the only maritime route used by neighbouring countries to export oil, before striking civilian infrastructure in Arab cities. Dubai, a major tourist destination, was targeted; water plants in Kuwait were hit; and attacks on data centres disrupted banking services in several countries across the region.
Iran fired more than 2,500 missiles and drones at the United Arab Emirates alone, more than at any other country, including Israel. The UAE defence ministry said Abu Dhabi intercepted nearly all of the projectiles.
Last week, Mohsen Rezaei, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned that Iran would target US assets in the region, including those in the UAE, in retaliation for any new attacks.
“If another war breaks out, numerous undersea cables, data centers, AI facilities and other infrastructure across the region could be destroyed,” Rezaei said.
A senior UAE official told journalists on Thursday that the country was better prepared in case fighting resumed.
“We don’t want war,” said Ali Al-Nuaimi, chairman of the Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee of the UAE’s Federal National Council. “But if a war starts today, we are ready to deal with any threat that comes our way better than we were on February 28.”
“Whatever is needed to protect our national security, sovereignty and people, we will do it.”
