Iran Vows 'Apocalyptic War' if US Strikes Again and Bars American Warships From the Gulf

TEHRAN — Iran warned on Saturday that any renewed attack by the United States and Israel would trigger what its military called an “apocalyptic war”, barred American warships from entering the Persian Gulf, and rejected reports that it had offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to the American naval blockade. The warnings, delivered hours apart by two of Iran's most senior military voices, landed a day after President Donald Trump said Washington could strike Iran as soon as Sunday — or reach what he called a “beautiful deal” instead.

The exchange has pushed an eight-month war that began on February 28 back to the edge of a third phase. Tehran's language was its starkest since the fighting began, and it was aimed as much at the monarchies across the Gulf as at Washington.

A warning in the starkest language yet

“Preserving the country's territorial integrity and safeguarding its national and religious identity are among the most important responsibilities of the Iranian nation today,” Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said in Tehran, according to state-run Press TV. If attacked, Iran “will achieve absolute victory in this apocalyptic war”, he added — and the war would “decide the fate” of other nations in the region, a reference to the Persian Gulf monarchies.

In a separate statement, Major General Ali Abdollahi, chief of the general staff of Iran's armed forces, said American naval forces were no longer capable of approaching the Persian Gulf. “The US president must only dream of their military and army entering the Persian Gulf again. They will take this wish to their graves,” Abdollahi said. “We will under no circumstances and at no time allow rusty US military vessels to enter the Persian Gulf.”

Abdollahi challenged Washington's repeated claim that Iran's military capabilities have been destroyed. “If Iran's military capabilities have been eliminated, then why have US warships and military forces not dared approach the Strait of Hormuz or Iran's maritime and land borders,” he asked. In the first and second phases of the war, Iran retaliated by striking American bases and energy facilities in Gulf kingdoms, and Tehran has warned in recent days that Gulf states would again be in the line of fire if attacks resume. Readers following the shipping crisis can track the running developments on our Hormuz crisis live coverage.

Trump's Sunday deadline — and the deal offer

Trump spoke to reporters on Saturday after casting his midterm ballot early in Florida. Asked whether the United States would attack Iran, he said: “Do you really think I'd tell you that? Maybe tomorrow... There's a possibility I will. There's also a possibility we'll have a nice, big, beautiful agreement. They want to make a deal, but the problem is, will they hold the deal?”

Trump defended his administration's conduct of the war and praised American forces, saying they had “knocked out every jet fighter of Iran” and that “259 ships are at the bottom of the sea”, leaving Iran with record inflation. On Friday he had told a Florida rally that Washington “may do another little Epic Fury”, and earlier in the week his ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said a strike this weekend was possible. “Could there be a strike this weekend? Absolutely,” Barrack said in an interview on Friday.

Trump has swung between threats and deal-making throughout the war, and his own earlier statements had pointed away from major action before the November 3 midterm elections. Former president Barack Obama criticised the conflict as unnecessary, according to news reports.

The Hormuz offer Tehran says it never made

Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya reported on Saturday, citing sources, that Iran had offered through Pakistan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for lifting the American blockade of Iranian ports, and had expressed willingness to resume negotiations with Washington. Within hours, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted an informed source denying that Tehran had submitted any new proposal to the Pakistani mediator.

According to Tasnim, Iran rejected any arrangement linking the reopening of the strait to lifting the blockade, and stood by seven previously announced conditions conveyed through intermediaries. Pakistan and Qatar helped broker a June interim agreement aimed at restoring shipping through the strait, lifting the blockade and opening negotiations on a broader agreement covering Iran's nuclear programme. The strait — the world's most important oil chokepoint — remains the sharpest point of leverage in the confrontation. The threat to Gulf infrastructure was spelled out days earlier, when Tehran warned that undersea data cables could be targeted; our earlier reporting covered Iran's warning over Gulf internet cables.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian separately called for an end to what he described as a state of “neither war nor peace”, saying many Iranians were struggling to afford food as the war and restrictions on Iranian oil exports squeeze the country's economy.

Gulf states brace as flights stop and a speaker stays home

The diplomatic fallout spread beyond Tehran on Saturday. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf cancelled his trip to New Delhi to attend the meeting of speakers of the BRICS parliaments, citing what his office called unforeseen circumstances, days before India hosts the forum on October 26 and 27.

Airlines, meanwhile, extended their retreat from Saudi airspace. Air India and Air India Express suspended flights to Riyadh and Dammam until November 7 and to Jeddah until October 31. IndiGo cancelled services to Jeddah, Dammam and Madinah until October 31, and Akasa Air extended its suspension of Riyadh services until November 30. The extensions, announced on Friday and Saturday, followed weeks of attacks on Saudi airports and the American order for non-emergency diplomats and their families to leave the kingdom. That evacuation was covered in our report on the US departure order from Saudi Arabia.

What happens next

Three dates now frame the crisis. The first is Sunday itself, Trump's stated window for either a strike or a deal. The second is Tuesday, October 27, when Israel holds its general election. The third is November 3, the American midterm election, which Trump has previously cited as a reason to hold major action.

Markets have already priced in the danger. Brent crude jumped on Friday to hit 117 dollars a barrel despite American claims that a southern transit route through the Strait of Hormuz, protected by the US Navy, remains open for commercial traffic, while the American blockade on Iranian ports continues to choke the country's oil exports.

For now, the pattern of the war holds: Washington threatens, Tehran warns of a wider war, mediators shuttle proposals that one side then denies, and the Gulf waits. What changed on Saturday was the register of Tehran's warning. “Apocalyptic war” is not routine deterrence language, and the explicit naming of Gulf monarchies as states whose fate would be decided by such a war raises the stakes for every capital that has tried to stay out of the fighting. Whether Sunday brings a strike, a deal, or another day of warnings will be the first test of which side was bluffing. More on the region's fast-moving developments is available through our Middle East coverage.