3 hours agoIran’s IRGC forces ‘lying in wait’ if Trump restarts combat; nuclear deal outlook remains hazy
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned Wednesday that its forces are “lying in wait” if President Donald Trump restarts combat operations, leaving the outlook for a nuclear deal between Washington and Tehran uncertain.
“The possibility of war is low because of the enemy’s weakness; the armed forces are lying in wait with full magazines,” Mohammad Akbarzadeh, deputy political chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, said, according to the Tasnim news agency.
“Do not doubt that we will turn the area from Chabahar to Mahshahr into a graveyard for aggressors.”
Those cities are near opposite ends of Iran’s long southern coastline as the Strait of Hormuz blockade remains a stressor on global oil supply.
The warning came as Iranian officials continued to cast doubt on diplomacy with the U.S., with one senior official saying Tehran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile is not on the table in current negotiations.
Trump has said the U.S. will not allow Iran to keep its reported 440-kilogram stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, a level below weapons-grade but close enough to remain a major sticking point in talks.
Iranian officials also accused the U.S. of “gross violations” of a fragile ceasefire and said there is “zero trust” after new attacks on southern Iran, while the region remains volatile amid intensified Israeli strikes in Lebanon and continued warnings from Tehran over what it describes as enemy pressure, cyberattacks and covert operations.