Iran’s top security official is now threatening American military bases in Europe, and on the same day, the United Nations General Assembly voted to give Iran another term on the committee that helps set the organization’s priorities.
This is an update on the Iran story I have been following with you all week, and the news has turned darker.
The threat
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told the Hezbollah-aligned channel Al Mayadeen on Wednesday that Iran would not limit itself to nearby targets if the United States strikes again. “We may even target some American military bases in European countries,” he said, according to Iran International. He added that Iran might hit “some islands they think our missiles cannot reach.”
He repeated the threat in English on X Wednesday evening: “If the US launches another war against Iran, every military base involved in the aggression—from West Asia to Europe—will be a legitimate target for Iran’s lethal strikes.”
Rezaei also denied that Iran is negotiating with Washington. Reports that he would meet Vice President JD Vance were “lies,” he said, and the Strait of Hormuz will stay closed until Iran’s seven conditions are met. He said again that “not even a particle” of Iran’s enriched uranium would leave the country.
American commanders are taking the danger seriously. The U.S. military moved refueling tankers and aircraft out of RAF Mildenhall in England this week over a threat from Iran, Iran International reported, citing Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.
Tankers and a U.N. seat
On Thursday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy said two supertankers carrying more than 4 million barrels of oil were stopped after explosions while crossing what it called an “unauthorized” route through the strait. The Guards warned that any vessel cooperating with the U.S. military would meet the same outcome. The ships have not been identified, and the cause of the explosions has not been independently confirmed.
At the U.N., the General Assembly on Wednesday elected Iran to its Committee for Programme and Coordination with 144 votes, giving Tehran another three-year term on a body that reviews U.N. programs and recommends priorities, including on human rights, women’s rights, disarmament and counterterrorism. “SHAME,” wrote Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, who called the regime “murderous.”
President Trump, speaking at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day, said America has already won. “We won. It’s just a question of when we end it,” he said. “I want to make sure we have a total victory, not a 93 percent victory.”
The bottom line
A regime that threatens missile strikes on bases in Europe, and whose Revolutionary Guards boast that tankers defying them ended up burning, has just been handed a voice in steering U.N. priorities on human rights and counterterrorism by 144 governments. I find that hard to stomach, and so should every American taxpayer who helps fund that demonic, corrupt institution.
Rezaei’s words should also end any talk of an easy deal. Iran says it will keep its uranium, keep the strait closed and keep threatening our allies, and it says it is not even talking. The President is right to hold out for total victory and to keep the blockade in place until Tehran gives way.
Europe should take note as well. Some European governments, France among them, have opposed this war. The same regime they hoped to calm is now naming their soil as a target, and they should stand with us accordingly.