Iran Warns U.S. of Wider War as Trump Weighs Next Move, Hormuz Tankers Hit

TEHRAN/WASHINGTON — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned Sunday that any new U.S. assault would be met with different weapons and an expanded battlefield, as President Trump said he was in a “deciding mode” over the nearly seven-month war.

IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said Tehran was prepared for a long conflict. “If a new aggression occurs, we will certainly change the weaponry and the geography of the war,” he said, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency. He also claimed the United States had suffered strategic setbacks, including its failure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and the vulnerability of regional bases, adding that “America has not lost a war; America has lost a system.”

Trump told Fox News on Sunday that he was weighing options that included “wiping Iran out,” “letting them rot economically,” or trying again to strike a deal. He said he would “probably” be open to meeting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of this week’s U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Yet the diplomatic window appeared narrow. Iranian state media reported Monday that the United States had refused visas for members of Pezeshkian’s communications team, calling it an “unprecedented hostile move.” Pezeshkian is still expected to leave Tehran on Tuesday for the U.N. gathering, where he is slated to address the summit and hold bilateral meetings.

A widening regional front

U.S. embassies across the Middle East issued security alerts early Sunday, warning Americans of a complex security environment and the potential for unforeseen escalation. The alerts, issued by missions in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, cited possible flight cancellations, airspace closures and travel disruptions as fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis intensified. The State Department had warned Americans on Saturday against traveling to the region.

Iraq said it would suspend flights by Iranian airlines after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that sanctioned Iranian carriers would be “shut down” worldwide. Two Iraqi government sources told AFP that Baghdad would enforce the ban starting Tuesday at dawn, with one warning that countries that do not comply risk sanctions.

“If they land, you cannot provide them with fuel, you cannot provide them with landing services, you cannot sell them tickets or you will be knocked out of the dollar system,” Bessent told CNBC. He said all Iranian airlines would be shut down around the world on Sept. 23.

Iran’s airspace had been completely closed after U.S. and Israeli attacks in late February. Some travel has resumed since then, but only for flights operated by Iranian carriers.

Tankers struck in Hormuz

Maritime authorities reported two tanker incidents in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, underscoring the danger to shipping in the vital waterway. The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center said an inbound tanker was struck by an “unknown projectile,” leaving two crew members with minor injuries. The vessel was continuing under its own power.

British security firm Vanguard Tech said the U.K.-flagged tanker La Stephanie was hit by a drone while sailing toward the Gulf, with two crew members lightly injured. Later, UKMTO said an LPG tanker was hit by debris from unknown projectiles; no casualties were reported.

Iran has sought to maintain a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz as leverage in its war with the United States, while Washington has imposed a counterblockade of Iranian ports. Both sides have struck ships they accuse of noncompliance. The standoff has kept the strait largely closed and left oil markets on edge.

Iran’s top negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Tehran had conveyed through mediators its conditions for reopening the strait. “As long as the conditions are not met ... and the U.S. commitments are not honored, it will be impossible to return to the situation from before the negotiations and to an open strait,” he said, according to state television. Mohsen Rezaei, head of Iran’s supreme national security council, said the conditions included an end to the war on all fronts, the release of frozen funds and an end to the naval blockade.

Yemen’s escalating crisis

In Yemen, the head of the Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, spoke by phone with Trump on Sunday and requested American support against the Iranian-backed Houthis, a source in his office told AFP. The source said Trump did not promise military support, but the call was intended as a show of solidarity with Yemen’s internationally recognized government after the Houthis seized the country’s entire Red Sea coast in a lightning offensive.

Sources familiar with the discussions told CBS News that Trump weighed striking the Houthis over the weekend but held off late Saturday. During discussions with national security advisers on Wednesday, he leaned against strikes, but after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Thursday to ask for assistance, Trump told the Pentagon to prepare for air strikes. By late Saturday, the decision was made to hold off for now, with the White House reluctant to expand the battlefield.

Yemen’s national negotiating delegation met with U.N. Special Envoy Hans Grundberg in Muscat, Oman, on Monday, according to the state-run Saba News Agency. The delegation outlined its position on what it described as Saudi “aggression,” the continued blockade of Houthi-controlled areas and Saudi military mobilization. It attributed the current escalation to a Saudi strike on Sana’a International Airport on June 13 and said Saudi Arabia had rejected ending restrictions on Yemeni airports and ports, lifting economic and humanitarian restrictions, and paying salaries.

The humanitarian toll is mounting. The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said Monday that 129,438 people from 21,573 households had been displaced across seven regions of Yemen. The figure rose by 11,352 people in just three days. “These are families who have lost their homes and their income,” said Othman Belbeisi, the IOM’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. “They are arriving in towns that were already struggling. Host communities are sharing the little they have, but they cannot do it alone.”

As of Sept. 20, another 3,106 people had crossed the Red Sea from Yemen to Djibouti, the IOM said.

Diplomacy and markets

The week’s U.N. gathering in New York is drawing both Trump and Pezeshkian, feeding cautious optimism that a meeting could alter the war’s trajectory. Trump said Sunday he would “probably” meet Pezeshkian. He is also scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping later in the week, an engagement that could touch on ways to lessen the war’s impact on oil supply.

Stocks rose early Monday as oil prices retreated. About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2% at 51,768.81. The S&P 500 gained 0.6% to 7,698.74, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.1% to 26,804.02. A dip in U.S. Treasury yields also supported equities.

“Lower crude prices and bond yields seem to be a tailwind for markets, but this also means that if you are realistic to those factors, this could reverse at any point,” said Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management.

Brent crude fell more than 3% to less than $100 a barrel Monday, though it had traded around $72 a barrel in late February before the war began. Tanker traffic and energy flows through Hormuz picked up slightly, but the strait remained largely closed, and uncertainty over U.S.-Iran diplomacy persisted. Saudi Arabia’s closure of a key oil pipeline hit by drones more than a week ago also continued to pressure global supplies.

Regional condemnations and mediation

Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait condemned a Houthi attack on Riyadh, saying it threatened regional security and stability and violated international law. The Muslim World League also denounced the attack on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Saudi Arabia said the attack was intercepted. Some Riyadh residents heard an explosion, and later saw smoke near the airport, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

It was the first time the Saudi capital had been targeted since fighting with the Houthis opened a new front in the Iran war. In recent weeks, the Houthis have taken control of vast stretches of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline and several islands in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, intensifying pressure on global oil supply. The Houthis have also attempted a blockade on Saudi ports since July.

Pakistan’s interior minister, Senator Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi, arrived in Tehran on Monday for meetings with senior Iranian officials, Iran’s IRNA state news agency reported. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Iran and Pakistan had maintained “very good and growing” relations and rejected speculation that Naqvi was carrying a special message from Washington. Pakistan, like Qatar, has acted as a mediator in the Iran war.

Separately, CIA Director John Ratcliffe met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on Sunday, a rare visit that included discussion of the wars in Iran, Gaza and Sudan, as well as attacks on Gulf countries and threats to maritime security. Sisi stressed the importance of resolving regional crises through political and diplomatic channels, according to a presidency statement. Ratcliffe praised Egypt’s role in supporting peaceful, comprehensive settlements.

With Trump weighing military and economic pressure against a possible diplomatic opening, the coming days in New York and the Strait of Hormuz may shape whether the war widens further — or edges toward a negotiated pause.

— CBS/AFP/AP