Iran vows retaliation for US strikes and warns energy sites are exposed

Iran has issued a blunt warning after renewed attacks in the Gulf: any new US strike on Iranian assets will bring a response, and the region’s energy infrastructure is exposed.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator, wrote on X that the oil and gas production chain was “sprawling, accessible and exposed,” adding that American oil and gas companies across the region shared that exposure. “Strike our assets and you get struck. We’ve already proven it. Ask the bases that are no longer viable,” he wrote, referring to Iranian attacks on US military bases during the conflict.

The warning followed US and Iranian strikes on shipping over the weekend that briefly pushed oil prices to six-week highs. US Central Command said US forces struck three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday, including one off Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub. The strikes followed attacks by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on US warships in the region.

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Strike our assets and you get struck. We’ve already proven it. Ask the bases that are no longer viable.

Iranian security official Mohsen Rezaei said Tehran would soon announce a restricted zone in the Gulf and approve maps for a new shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has stopped traffic through the strait since the war began with US and Israeli strikes on February 28. Rezaei said the zone would start where the US naval blockade begins and extend into the Gulf. Ships entering it would be placed on an Iranian sanctions list.

“We will only commit to the Strait of Hormuz being open when they (the Americans) stop the sabotage, threats and attacks on Iran,” Rezaei said. The strait carried one-fifth of global oil and gas shipments before the war. After a pause in fighting for much of August, tit-for-tat strikes resumed when an interim ceasefire reached in June unraveled. President Donald Trump has not achieved the aims he set for the operation, including ending Iran’s nuclear program and creating conditions for its leadership to fall. Iran’s clerical rulers remain in power and are seeking sanctions relief and fees from ships using the strait.

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We will only commit to the Strait of Hormuz being open when they (the Americans) stop the sabotage, threats and attacks on Iran.