Iran threatens US bases in Europe if they are used for strikes on Iran

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, has threatened to strike US military bases in Europe and other distant regions if American aircraft use them to attack Iran. He made the warning in an interview broadcast on Wednesday, 11 November, with the Lebanese channel Al Mayadeen, which was recorded in Tehran. Rezaei said Iran would target bases it has not yet attacked and could also hit islands that the United States believes lie beyond the reach of Iranian missiles.

Conditions for ending the war

Rezaei also set out what Iran wants before the fighting stops. He listed a settlement covering all fronts in the Middle East, with Lebanon named in particular, the lifting of the naval blockade, the release of frozen assets and guarantees that attacks on Iran will not resume. Tehran wants unfrozen assets and lifted sanctions in return for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which Iranian forces have kept blocked since the war began. Rezaei also said Iran will keep its stock of enriched uranium inside the country, where it will be used, among other things, as fuel for future nuclear-powered ships. The war began on 28 February with US and Israeli strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and Qatar and Pakistan are mediating between the sides without visible progress.

Washington says the war is winding down

On Monday, 9 November, US President Donald Trump described the Iran war as effectively over and said Washington was keeping the current status quo at the urging of neighbouring countries. In a post on Truth Social he said he saw a positive dynamic toward ending the conflict. Alongside that, the United States is pursuing a new operation called Iron Gate, which is meant to extend the naval blockade to arms shipments by land and across the Caspian Sea and to block imports of technology with both civilian and military uses. On Friday, 6 November, the US military offered a reward of up to $20 million for information about Iran's nuclear programme, an offer Tehran called repulsive.

Bases, charges and military rhetoric

Trump cited Iranian threats as the reason the United States pulled B-1 bombers out of RAF Fairford in Britain, aircraft that had been used in strikes on Iran. In September a senior adviser to the supreme leader raised the possibility of widening the war to the Indian Ocean, where the US-British base of Diego Garcia lies roughly 4,000 km from Iran's coast. Germany hosts several US bases, including Ramstein near Kaiserslautern, the largest in the country. In March Iran's ambassador in Germany, Majid Nili, asked Berlin for clarification on whether Ramstein could be used for the war, and the federal government did not comment in detail. The US Justice Department has charged three people suspected of organising attacks on Iran's behalf in the United States and Europe, including a conspiracy concerning RAF Fairford.

Military warnings from Tehran

Iran's armed forces chief of staff, General Ali Abdollahi, issued a statement marking the 15th anniversary of the death of Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, one of the architects of Iran's missile programme. In it he called the strikes on the United States and Israel only the beginning and warned that every further miscalculation by the adversary would bring a far harsher response. He claimed Western air defences had been paralysed by the speed of Iranian missiles and drones, and that underground facilities continue to produce weapons despite heavy bombing.