Iran Warns US and Allies Against New Attack as Middle East Tensions Mount

Iran's military central command warned on Sunday that any major new attack by the United States and its allies would provoke sustained retaliation against American bases and interests, and that Washington's regional partners would be treated as parties to the conflict. Tehran said it possessed information that such a strike was being prepared, though it did not detail what that intelligence involved.

The warning came a day after the US State Department issued a security alert citing the potential for unforeseen escalation in the Middle East. Americans were urged to exercise greater vigilance and to prepare for possible flight cancellations and airspace closures. The alert specifically referenced hostilities by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports.

The region remains on edge nearly seven months into the US-Iran war, with neither side appearing ready to make the concessions needed to end the fighting. Global energy markets, already strained, continue to feel the spillover as the conflict feeds into other crises across the region.

On Saturday, the Houthis claimed strikes on the Saudi capital Riyadh and on a major oil facility at the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Video footage showed a large plume of black smoke rising near Riyadh's main international airport after loud booms were heard overnight. Saudi Arabia did not comment on the incident or the claims, though a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said it had intercepted other attacks.

The Houthis have made significant advances along Yemen's Red Sea coast since the country's civil war reignited this month, positioning their forces on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. That gives the group greater control over shipping between the Red Sea and Asia and the ability to blockade the vital waterway. With Iran already having blockaded most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, energy exports from the oil-rich Gulf are now almost entirely cut off from global markets, adding further pressure on oil prices. A US blockade of Iranian ports is simultaneously preventing Iran from selling its own oil, deepening economic problems inside the Islamic Republic.

Despite the damage being inflicted on all sides, there is little indication of a return to the interim ceasefire agreed in June, which collapsed in July amid disputes over its terms. Iran reiterated on Sunday that it would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the June agreement, as it interprets it, is fulfilled. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Iran would need to continue both fighting and negotiating, to push back its adversaries and to lock in any gains through diplomacy.