War may reach Indian Ocean if US attacks again, warns Iran

Iran on Thursday warned that the ongoing West Asia war may spill over to the Indian Ocean if it is attacked again by either US or Israel.

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said it is possible that the war front may expand further, reaching as far as the Indian Ocean, AFP reported citing Iran’s Fars news agency.

“Since the conflict has spread from the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea, it is possible that, in response to more war, the front will expand even further, reaching the Indian Ocean and perhaps beyond,” Yahya Rahim Safavi said in a video message.

The war had spilled into the Indian Ocean in March when a US strike sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena off Sri Lanka. Reuters had reported that the ship went down about 19 nautical miles from Galle, inside Sri Lanka’s exclusive economic zone.

Iran’s latest warning comes at a time when Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is in US for the UN General Assembly. The Iranian President earlier accused US President Donald Trump of a “bullying mentality”, saying Iran would not surrender in the war with US but remained open to diplomacy to end the conflict.

In a wartime address to the 193-member UN General Assembly, Pezeshkian said threats would only harden Iran’s resolve, rejecting Trump’s warning that he could annihilate Iran if no deal were reached.

“The remarks made by the US president yesterday … are a sign of a bullying mentality. … The Iranian people will not bow to pressure. … Those who are terrorists and train terrorists call us terrorists,” he said, referring to Trump’s description of Iran as the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.

Earlier too, Iran’s armed forces accused Trump of using the United Nations podium to justify US “aggression” against Iran. “Such words demonstrate America’s strategic deadend in its aggression against the Iranian nation,” the statement said, cited by Al Jazeera.

It added that Trump’s repeated threats were “not a sign of power but a sign of their strategic desperation”.

The Strait of Hormuz, conduit for a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas, has become a focus of tensions between Iran and US.

Tehran has conveyed its conditions to reopen the strategic waterway to the United States through mediators, Iranian sources told Reuters on Tuesday.