Iran Threatens To Go ON the Offense

Earlier on Monday, Trump repeated on his Truth Social platform that his main goal was to ensure that Iran ​never has nuclear weapons.

Benchmark ⁠Brent crude oil futures have surged since the start of the war in February, hitting a peak of $126 a barrel, roughly 75% above pre-war levels, with choppy trade reflecting concerns over disruptions to Gulf oil supplies and shifting signals on peace talks.

Brent crude edged up on Monday to around $89 a barrel.

Attacks by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have also renewed concerns about a widening regional war and ⁠the economic fallout ​it could bring.

In the latest incident, the Houthis attacked what they called a Saudi military ship and four ​escort vessels in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait with missiles, according to the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree on Telegram on Monday.

The strait is a strategic chokepoint connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and an ​important international shipping route.

Iranian officials to Reuters: Iran will send its deadline to the U.S. and mediating countries about trying to get some kind of diplomacy.

Iran said once the deadline hits and diplomacy fails, then Iran will escalate in the Strait of Hormuz and in regional countries..

DUBAI/WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Iran will shift to a "fully offensive" military ​posture because efforts to negotiate a permanent end to its war with the U.S. have stalled, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday, as ‌Washington ruled out extending a temporary ceasefire agreement.

Progress towards peace talks and a resumption of oil tanker traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz has ground to a halt, with no sign that the warring parties are moving towards ending the conflict that the U.S. and Israel launched with attacks on Iran on February 28.

"Iranian entities must be prepared to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region, as Iran will be ​ready to make decisions and take action on difficult decisions," the Iranian official said, adding that Tehran would conduct a "timely and precise" military attack to break the U.S. ​naval blockade if diplomacy failed.

Monday marked the day by which Iran and the U.S. were expected to reach a final peace agreement ⁠under a memorandum of understanding signed in June and aimed at ending the war.

Signed on June 17, the MoU set a 60-day timeframe for the U.S. and Iran to reach a ​broader deal on Iran's nuclear programme and U.S. sanctions.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-threatens-go-offensive-strait-hormuz-if-diplomacy-with-us-fails-2026-08-17/

The agreement, which declared the "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts", quickly unravelled over a dispute about control of the ​Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the war.

Asked by reporters on Monday if the U.S. was seeking to extend June's interim agreement, U.S. President Donald Trump said no.

TRUMP THREATENS TO BOMB OMAN

Iran said point 5 of the MoU gave it the right to manage the strait, which it shares with Oman, while the U.S. rejected that ​interpretation. Hostilities resumed as Iran began firing on vessels it said were trying to sail through Hormuz on an unapproved route, and Trump said on July 7 that the ​pact was "over".

"Within the short period of a few weeks set by Iran, all the agreement's provisions must be implemented by the U.S. This is a precondition for further negotiations with the U.S.," the Iranian ‌official told ⁠Reuters, adding that mediators would share Tehran's deadline with Washington and regional states.

Iran has separately been negotiating an agreement with its neighbor Oman across the strait over managing Hormuz, seen as a key component of a wider deal, and says they are close to agreement, although progress has been slow.

"If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the shit out of them," Trump told Fox.

HOUTHI ATTACKS STOKE CONCERNS OVER WIDER WAR

Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran at the end of ​February. Iran has bombed U.S. military bases and infrastructure in countries ​including Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, Israel, the United ⁠Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Trump warned Americans in a speech at a rally on Friday to prepare for continued high fuel prices as a result of the war, while also saying that "after we finish defeating Iran ... pretty soon I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of ​the United States".

BREAKING: Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has ordered the IRGC to be in offensive form, saying "from now on, every action we take, although it has a defensive character, must take on an offensive form," Deputy for Political Affairs of the IRGC Javani tells IRIB.

Javani adds the US "must learn from these decrees and their messages that our armed forces will have transformative approaches" and directly warns the US "should know that it cannot carry out surprise actions against us and make us surprised," instead the US and Israel should expect "strategic surprises."

This comes as the 60-day US-Iran MOU formally expires.

BREAKING: Iran's IRGC has finished planning massive preemptive strikes against US and Israeli targets, accelerating missile production and an escalation plan that includes cutting the 7 main undersea internet cables in the Persian Gulf and a potential ground incursion in Kuwait to seize US bases, as Iran concluded the June MoU was a US tactic to buy time for a bigger attack, per WSJ.

The IRGC has developed capabilities to attack the deep-sea fiber-optic cables in the Persian Gulf carrying 30% of global internet traffic (over 90% of Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and UAE operations), which would cause an "economic earthquake," stranding the AI and cloud computing hubs Gulf states have built with Amazon, Google, and Meta data centers overnight.

The plans also expand the IRGC's target bank beyond military sites to economic and strategic infrastructure, and include the option of a ground raid via southern Iraq into Kuwait.

IRGC spokesman Mohebbi directly said in July "we took full advantage of the ceasefire period.

We enhanced our capabilities, accelerated our missile production rate and improved missile accuracy," with the IRGC saying all ceasefire periods and negotiations are "purely for rebuilding and not for peace."

THE HORMUZ LETTER https://x.com/HormuzLetter

BREAKING: Iran gives the US an ultimatum of "3-4 weeks" to meet all of its demands or it will "severely escalate in the Strait of Hormuz" and launch its planned preemptive strike on US-backed Gulf infrastructure, and US & Israeli assets, a senior Iranian source in Tehran familiar with the matter says.

Iran's demands include:

1. $300 billion in reconstruction funds

2. Full release of Iran's frozen assets of up to $120 billion

3. Lifting of the U.S. naval blockade

4. End to the war across all fronts, including Gaza and Lebanon

5. Accepting Iran's permanent control of the Strait of Hormuz, including up to 7% of transit fees

6. The lifting of all US sanctions on Iranian oil, petrochemical products, and gas

BREAKING: Iran's IRGC categorically rejects Trump's claims of a US-IRGC backchannel as "delusions and nightmares resulting from defeat and desperation in the war," the IRGC Spokesman Commander tells Tasnim.

The IRGC says "there are no talks between IRGC officials and Americans.

This lie from Trump is simply fantasies that he is experiencing due to delusions and nightmares resulting from defeat and desperation in the war."

"Trump is trying to temporarily control the price of oil and energy in the world with these statements.

But he only has one real path ahead of him, and that is to accept defeat and implement the conditions that Iran has set," the statement adds.

The IRGC concludes "the sooner the Americans accept their failure and make decisions based on that, the more they will save their country from greater and more significant losses."

BREAKING: Iran directly rejects Al Arabiya's report that the US and Iran have agreed to extend the 60-day ceasefire that was set to expire today, per Iran's Foreign Ministry.

Iran says "There is no such thing as a 60-day ceasefire, and the US never abided by a single one of the MoU terms.

Therefore, there is nothing to extend, and the issue of the '60-day ceasefire' is completely void and irrelevant."

Iran adds "There was supposed to be a period of cessation of hostilities for 60 days in which the US and Iran would try to reach a deal.

If it did not succeed, but provided the US abided by its commitments, this could have been extended.

But the US blew it, and no serious talks began."

BREAKING: Iran directly rejects Trump's and Axios's claims of a secret US-Iran meeting in Erbil and an IRGC-US backchannel through the Kurdistan region as "fabricated" and "a psychological and media warfare tactic intended to stir up disagreement among Iran's decision-making bodies," calling it "the result of the other party's desperation," per Iran's Foreign Ministry.

This directly rejects Trump's new claim an hour ago that "we have a backchannel with the IRGC" and "we are speaking directly with the IRGC officials in Iran," as well as the Axios claim that since mid-May 2026 there is a direct communication channel to IRGC Commander-in-Chief General Ahmad Vahidi through the Kurdistan region.

This comes as Iran continues to completely rule out any negotiations with the Trump administration until at least January 20, 2029, the end of Trump's term.

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