Trump on Iran: “We may do another little Epic Fury”; Tehran threatens undersea cables in the Gulf

US President Donald Trump left open the possibility of a new round of American strikes on Iran, speaking on Friday, October 23 at a campaign rally at the Alico Arena of Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida. “We may do another little Epic Fury, or they will make a deal,” he said, referring to the US military operation against Iran.

“If they are smart, they will just say: ‘Let’s get to work.’ But, you know, I doubt they will, because maybe they are not smart,” he added.

Distancing from Barrack

A few hours earlier, US ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack had said in an interview that a US strike on Iran was “absolutely” possible within the weekend. Asked about it as he landed in Florida, Trump replied: “Was that my ambassador? He’s a pretty strong man, I guess.” He added that if anything of the kind is true, he himself knows nothing about it.

The rally remark contrasts with what Trump himself said earlier this month on Truth Social, that the US would not attack Iran before the November 3 midterm elections. On Thursday White House press secretary Anna Kelly had expressly ruled out strikes before the vote, although officials point out that Trump keeps military options open. The US and Israel have already drawn up plans for new strikes after the elections.

Tehran threatens infrastructure beyond its borders

Iran is preparing its response to a possible new round of attacks, with threats increasingly aimed at infrastructure outside its borders. Two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters that Tehran has drawn up plans to strike undersea communications cables in the Persian Gulf if the US and Israel resume operations. One added that Iran could also obstruct repairs, to prolong the outage.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Tehran has threatened to hit airports, pipelines and other civilian and economic infrastructure in neighbouring Gulf states. A senior Revolutionary Guard commander, Yadollah Javani, warned that Iran would become a “killing field” for American soldiers in the event of a ground invasion, while Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebbi circulated an image of a burning tanker with the oil price climbing to $117 a barrel. The Guards’ navy also claimed that two supertankers struck mines in the Strait of Hormuz. These are claims by one of the parties and have not been independently verified.

Meanwhile, Turkey hosted the foreign ministers of Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Britain, France and Germany in Istanbul on Friday for talks on Iran, freedom of navigation and Yemen. The meetings produced no announceable progress towards a US-Iran agreement. The previous day Trump had accused Tehran of inventing fake attacks on tankers.