Iran warns UAE and Bahrain bases will be hit if US strikes again

Iran will hit back at the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain if the United States uses their bases for fresh attacks, an adviser to the Revolutionary Guards commander warned Wednesday. Hamidreza Moghaddamfar said the response would not stop at the launch point. "This time, we will not only strike the source of the attacks, meaning the bases. Iran's response will go further," he said.

Moghaddamfar also raised the stakes on assassination, warning of "surprising attacks" if Iranian political or military officials are killed. According to the official's account, Tehran has scrapped its earlier limits on proportional retaliation and on how far its reach extends — a notable break from the constrained playbook it had stuck to.

He wasn't the only Iranian official reading the US midterm results as a verdict on the war. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Wednesday that Americans had rejected the conflict, posting that voters said NO TO WAR on grounds of "conscience or the cost of living," a message he said Iran endorses. Ghalibaf told the US administration not to "betray the public will."

President Donald Trump has partly blamed the war against Iran — launched February 28 — for Republican losses in the midterms, but insisted he "would have done it again." In an interview with the Financial Times, he said Washington has no immediate plans to strike Iran and that the US appears to be getting "everything" it wants. "We're locked and loaded if we need to go, but there may be no reason for it," he said.

Trump added that more oil is moving through the Strait of Hormuz than before the war and described the US blockade as successfully disrupting Iran's economy. "It's a brilliant situation," he said, in comments that landed hours before the midterm results came in.