Iran has issued threats of a 'ground invasion' in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain if the US launches a ground attack on the Islamic Republic. Tensions between the US and Iran continued to escalate this week after President Donald Trump extended a ceasefire while maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports.
Now, the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency has outlined what would happen should the war, which started following a major offensive by US and Israeli forces on February 28, continue. The news agency said that if the US were to put boots on the ground in Iran, neighbouring Gulf states should expect retaliation.
'Iran has no need to negotiate to bring the confrontation to an end; it is sufficient for the enemy to understand the 'rules of the game'. If there is a ground attack, Bahrain and the UAE are mutual targets for a ground attack,' Fars warned. It added that 'if Iran's infrastructure is targeted, the entire region's power and oil facilities will be put at risk.'
It also said that 'assassinations also have their own specific response, which has already been officially announced.' The warning comes as hopes for further peace talks have continued to dwindle after the regime shared footage claiming to show naval forces seizing a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
On Thursday, the US military seized another tanker associated with the smuggling of Iranian oil, ratcheting up a standoff with Iran a day after its paramilitary Revolutionary Guards took control of two vessels in the crucial Strait of Hormuz. The Defence Department released video footage of U.S. forces on the deck of the oil tanker Majestic X, which was seized in the Indian Ocean.
'We will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate,' a Pentagon statement said. Ship-tracking data showed the Majestic X in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia, roughly the same location as the oil tanker Tifani, earlier seized by American forces. It had been bound for Zhoushan, China. There was no immediate response from Iran on the news of the seizure.
The seizure comes a day after Iran attacked three cargo ships in the strait, capturing two of them, in a move that intensified its assault on shipping in the key waterway through which 20 per cent of the world’s traded oil passes in peacetime. The Majestic X is a Guyana-flagged oil tanker. It previously had been named Phonix and had been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in 2024 for smuggling Iranian crude oil in contravention of US sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Earlier this week, Trump extended a ceasefire while maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports. The standoff between the US and Iran has effectively choked off nearly all exports through the Strait with no end in sight. The conflict has already sent gas prices skyrocketing far beyond the region and raised the cost of food and a wide array of other products. The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, nosed over $100 per barrel, marking a 35 per cent increase from prewar levels, but stock markets still appear to be shrugging it off.
