IRGC warns it will ‘change the geography of the war’ if US escalates the conflict
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps warned it would “change the geography of the war” if the US escalates the conflict, after Donald Trump issued fresh threats against the Islamic Republic.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Trump said “very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future”, adding that the options he was considering were “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal”.
A spokesperson for the IRGC, Hossein Mohebbi, responded with a warning that if the US were to launch fresh attacks against Iran, Tehran would use “new weapons with capabilities into the battle”. “If a new aggression takes place, we will definitely change the weapons and geography of the war,” Mohebbi was quoted as having said.
“Our targets will no longer necessarily be the same as before,” he said, according to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, adding that Iran has targets that have not yet been struck.
The comments come as the US and Iran remain locked in an impasse over the strait of Hormuz and after attacks on the Saudi capital, Riyadh, by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
The Houthis, who operate independently of Iran’s instructions, have seized territory along the country’s Red Sea coastline, including near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital shipping route that links Asia to Europe via the Red Sea and Suez canal. Saudi Arabia has used it as an alternative route for oil exports bypassing disruption in the strait of Hormuz.
The Houthis have also attacked oil facilities and other types of infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, in response for Saudi airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The attacks have further disrupted energy markets, pushing up global fuel prices, including in the US, where consumers have been hit hard.
Iran hugely benefits from the Houthis fighting Saudi Arabia, as the Saudis are more likely in turn to put pressure on the US to relent over Iran, which has insisted it will not allow the reopening of the strait of Hormuz until all its conditions have been met.
With diplomatic negotiations stalled, traffic in the strait continues to be severely disrupted, with Iran firing on commercial ships and demanding it first approve passage along its authorised route.
In response, the US, which started the war on Iran alongside Israel in February, is maintaining a counter-blockade of Iranian ports while intensifying economic pressure. The US has also fired on commercial shipping in the region and has killed Iranian civilians in its strikes.
Key events
The statement comes ahead of the first debate of the annual UN General Assembly in New York, where representatives from 193 countries are gathering for an intense period of high-stakes diplomacy.
The debate opens on Tuesday, runs through to Saturday, and concludes on Monday, because no sessions are held on Sunday.
Today’s morning session (from 1300 GMT time) is due to be kicked off by an address from the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, and will be followed by a speech from the US president, Donald Trump.
Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian is due to speak at the UN meeting tomorrow. On his way to New York this morning, he vowed to “firmly defend” his country’s positions.
“We emerged with our heads held high, and this is a source of dignity and pride for all of us. Therefore, we will firmly defend our positions in international forums,” he said.
“We will make the best possible use of this opportunity to convey Iran’s plight to the international community. We will firmly tell our adversaries that, despite all the unfairness and injustices, the Iranian people have stood their ground,” he said.
Pezeshkian will be the highest-ranking Iranian official to set foot on American soil since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran, which began on 28 February 2026.
In a joint statement, the Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers called on Iran to end military support to Houthi forces in Yemen.
The ministers representing Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US said “we call on the Houthis to immediately cease all military actions”.
“All threats and attacks against civilian shipping, and to return to the political process in good faith,” it added.
They also called on Iran “to end its arming of and support for the Houthis,” alleging Tehran is in violation of past UN security council resolutions.
Iran denies arming the Houthis, which would violate a UN embargo, and has said it only supports the group politically.
However, smuggled Iranian weapons have been seized from shipments bound for Yemen, and a report by UN experts in 2024 documented extensive military ties between the Houthis, Iran and its other allies.
Trump reportedly calls off airstrikes against Houthis
According to a report in the New York Times, the US president, Donald Trump, has wavered for weeks over whether to act on appeals from Saudi Arabia for military help in fighting the Houthis.
On Wednesday, the president had reportedly met with advisers and said he did not favour strikes.
But the following day, his close ally, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, called Trump again to ask for his help to halt the Houthi’s rapid advance, the outlet reported, citing administration officials.
After this phone call, Trump reserved his position and told the Pentagon to prepare for airstrikes against the Houthis, according to the report. But by Sunday, Trump had changed his mind again and said there would be no US airstrikes against the Iranian-backed rebel group, at least for now.
The US bombed the Houthis for two months in early 2025, but Trump called off those strikes after reaching a ceasefire with the group, as it agreed to stop targeting shipping in the Red Sea. The US has directly kept out of the conflict ever since.
Fighting in Yemen between the Houthis and government forces supported by Saudi Arabia has killed 154 people in the past two days, military sources told the AFP news agency, and has sparked a refugee crisis.
“The death toll from Saudi airstrikes, clashes and artillery fire in the governorates of Taiz, Al-Jawf, Marib and Saada stands at 118,” Houthi military sources said, while government sources reported 36 killed in their “ranks”, according to AFP.
Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that started in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the internationally recognised government from Sanaa, the country’s capital, driving it south towards Aden.
A Saudi-led coalition of Arab states subsequently intervened on behalf of the ousted government, with a mostly aerial campaign that was condemned for its deadly impact on the civilians of Yemen.
Neither side was able to gain much ground in Yemen’s mountainous terrain, and the Houthis remained in control over the northwest, where most of the population lives.
The two sides agreed to a UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022, which, despite some skirmishes, largely held until July, when a Saudi airstrike hit the runway of the airport in Sanaa, preventing the landing of an Iranian flight carrying a high-ranking Houthi delegation.
The already shaky UN-brokered ceasefire has since completely collapsed, with the two sides exchanging missiles, drones and air strikes.
IRGC warns it will ‘change the geography of the war’ if US escalates the conflict
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps warned it would “change the geography of the war” if the US escalates the conflict, after Donald Trump issued fresh threats against the Islamic Republic.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Trump said “very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future”, adding that the options he was considering were “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal”.
A spokesperson for the IRGC, Hossein Mohebbi, responded with a warning that if the US were to launch fresh attacks against Iran, Tehran would use “new weapons with capabilities into the battle”. “If a new aggression takes place, we will definitely change the weapons and geography of the war,” Mohebbi was quoted as having said.
“Our targets will no longer necessarily be the same as before,” he said, according to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, adding that Iran has targets that have not yet been struck.
The comments come as the US and Iran remain locked in an impasse over the strait of Hormuz and after attacks on the Saudi capital, Riyadh, by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
The Houthis, who operate independently of Iran’s instructions, have seized territory along the country’s Red Sea coastline, including near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital shipping route that links Asia to Europe via the Red Sea and Suez canal. Saudi Arabia has used it as an alternative route for oil exports bypassing disruption in the strait of Hormuz.
The Houthis have also attacked oil facilities and other types of infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, in response for Saudi airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The attacks have further disrupted energy markets, pushing up global fuel prices, including in the US, where consumers have been hit hard.
Iran hugely benefits from the Houthis fighting Saudi Arabia, as the Saudis are more likely in turn to put pressure on the US to relent over Iran, which has insisted it will not allow the reopening of the strait of Hormuz until all its conditions have been met.
With diplomatic negotiations stalled, traffic in the strait continues to be severely disrupted, with Iran firing on commercial ships and demanding it first approve passage along its authorised route.
In response, the US, which started the war on Iran alongside Israel in February, is maintaining a counter-blockade of Iranian ports while intensifying economic pressure. The US has also fired on commercial shipping in the region and has killed Iranian civilians in its strikes.
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