Tehran chose the last weekend before the American midterms to sound its loudest warning in weeks. In a written message on Saturday, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei told Iran’s armed forces that any fresh attack must be answered at once, forcefully and with no geographical restrictions on where they strike back.
The setting mattered as much as the words. His office said Khamenei had received the country’s three senior commanders: armed forces chief of staff Ali Abdollahi, army commander Amir Hatami and Revolutionary Guards chief Ahmad Vahidi. Axios described it as the first publicly disclosed gathering of that kind since the war started. Since taking over from his father, who was killed when the conflict began, the new leader has stayed out of sight and speaks to the nation only in writing.
The generals, by his office’s account, briefed him that troops stood ready on the southern coastline, near the strategic strait and along several land frontiers, and that factories were now turning out far more munitions. Khamenei in turn asked them to refresh their so-called target bank so that every kind of US and Israeli asset falls within range, and insisted that Iran alone would decide when any new round of fighting ends.
Diplomacy is moving on a separate track. Qatari envoys spent more than twelve hours in Tehran on Friday, and Iranian negotiators flew to Doha on Saturday to keep talking. A source briefed on the process said Doha stays in frequent touch with US officials. Still, a Qatari idea for seven days of reciprocal confidence-building steps was judged unsatisfactory by Tehran.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi did call a letter from Vice President JD Vance a “positive step”, yet his price is steep: sanctions relief, an end to the blockade of Iranian ports, unfrozen funds and an Iranian-backed shipping lane through Hormuz. Many governments in the region expect Donald Trump, who held back before Tuesday’s vote, to weigh new strikes once the ballots are counted.
