Iran Leader Orders Unrestricted Response to Any New U.S. or Israeli Attack as Rubio Says Trump Has Not Decided on Strikes

Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has ordered the country’s armed forces to respond at once, and without geographic limits, to any new attack by the United States or Israel, according to a statement carried by Iran’s IRNA news agency on Saturday. He told senior military commanders that any kind and level of threat should face an immediate and strong response, and he ordered them to update Iran’s target list to include all types of tangible and intangible assets belonging to what he called the American-Zionist enemy, according to reports of the statement. He also said that if attacks resume, Iran, not its enemies, will decide when and on what terms the fighting ends.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Atlanta on Saturday that President Donald Trump has not made a decision on new strikes. Rubio said the United States can achieve military objectives if it seeks to, but the president has not decided, and he added that if Trump had wanted to act that way, he would have done so weeks or months ago, according to reports of his remarks. Rubio said talks through mediators, including Qatar, have never stopped, and that Washington remains open to a deal that protects U.S. security and deals with the core issues behind the conflict.

Trump points to one or two sites, and a pause since September

Trump said on Saturday at his residence in Florida that the United States has knocked out much of Iran’s military but still has to take care of one or two targets. “We’ve knocked out their nuclear. We still have to take care of, I would say one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes,” Trump told reporters, according to the report. He named Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected underground nuclear complex near Natanz, and said the United States is not in a hurry to take offensive action. He said negotiations with Iran were going fine, but added that Iran was not very reliable, according to the report.

U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran have been paused since September 1, according to Zark News. On October 8, Trump said there would be no new attacks before the November 3 midterm elections. Iran’s army issued its own warning on Saturday that any new U.S. attack would spread the war wider, and army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said on social media that the flames of war would engulf a much wider geographical area, according to the report.

The Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries around one-fifth of global oil consumption, is part of that risk, according to the report. Iran has restricted shipping through the strait since the war began in February, and it has previously warned it could consider cutting undersea cables there. Iranian state television reported on Saturday that a ship traversing the strait struck a mine and caught fire, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Friday that three oil tankers had been halted after encountering unspecified incidents or hitting mines, according to the report.

Iran has ruled out direct talks with the United States for now. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said there are currently no plans for meetings with American officials. Senior security official Mohsen Rezaei said Iran is debating whether to keep its long-standing ban on nuclear weapons if fighting resumes, but no change of policy has been announced. Rezaei also said he had read a letter from Vice President JD Vance, sent through Qatari mediators, and had not yet responded, adding that the tone had completely changed, which he called a good sign, according to the report. European officials at the G20 meeting in Atlanta urged both sides not to escalate, according to reports from the meeting.

Reporting based on coverage by Zark News and The Good Morning News.