TEHRAN/ WASHINGTON: The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Wednesday warned the United States that Iran's new strategy will shatter its foundation as the President Donald Trump said he would not force Tehran to the negotiating table. Trump also told reporters that the renewed US campaign against Iran would not continue for too long. Major General Mohsen Rezaei said in a statement posted on 'X' that the US's desperate attempts to salvage the ongoing imposed war will fail and a newly adopted Iranian strategy will dismantle its regional presence.
General Rezaei addressed the mounting panic in Washington and Tel Aviv as the war of aggression against Iran stretches into its seventh month without achieving any of its strategic objectives. "With this desperate flailing, not only will you fail to climb out of the depths of the hell you have created for yourselves, but you will soon witness how Iran's new strategy in the battlefield, diplomacy and countering the economic blockade will shatter your foundations." Meanwhile, President Donald Trump called on the Iranian people to "rise up and fight." "I'm not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
"I couldn't care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement. I like our position now much better," he said, adding that the US was in almost total control of the Strait of Hormuz and that Iran's economy was "totally collapsing." "They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?" Trump also suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz as "Trump Strait" despite the fact that the crucial waterway remains contested amid the war with Iran.
"Now that we have it under USA control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be 'hotter' than ever before!" Trump said on his Truth Social network. It is the latest geographical name change floated by Trump and comes a week after he ordered Lake Ontario to be renamed as "Lake America" amid a trade war with Canada.
Trump also renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America" on his first day back in office in January 2025. Neither Mexico nor Canada have accepted the changes. Trump's comments came as the US military said that it completed its latest wave of strikes on Iran, saying it struck Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets as the Iran war escalated following a weekend exchange of fire.
US forces struck IRGC targets "including air defence sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities and communications sites," the US Central Command said on 'X'. In retaliation of Tuesday night's US strikes on the southern Iranian provinces of Hormozgan and Sistan and Balouchestan, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) launched a ballistic missile strike targeting American drone hangars at Prince Hassan air base in Jordan.
The IRGC Public Relations Department announced in statement on Wednesday morning that a heavy attack by the IRGC's ballistic missiles on the RQ-4 and MQ-9 drone hangars at Prince Hassan base destroyed a number of drones and killed a number of pilots and flight crew. Also, several of their technical infrastructures were set on fire. The IRGC announced that four IRGC Aerospace Force servicemen have been martyred in a US attack on parts of Iran's western Kermanshah Province.
Iran's Army also announced a fresh wave of drone attacks against US military bases in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, saying dozens of 'Arash' loitering munitions targeted radar systems and US troop positions in response to attacks on innocent Iranian civilians. The Army said the attacks were carried out from the early hours of Wednesday as the 30th stage of Operation Thunderbolt. "Dozens of the Army's loitering munitions targeted radar systems and the locations of US forces at the Al Dhafra and Al Minhad bases in the UAE," the Army said in a statement.
It added that radar installations and gathering points of US forces at Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain were once again subjected to heavy attacks by Arash loitering munitions. The Army described Al Dhafra as one of the "important operational centres" of the US in the region, saying the base is used for air operations, reconnaissance, surveillance and support missions. The statement stressed that the Army's response to US attacks on civilians would continue.
"The enemy's attack on residential areas and its targeting of a wedding ceremony is a clear instance of a war crime and exposes the evil nature of 'American human rights,'" the Iranian Army said. It warned that the Army's response to those crimes "will certainly be extensive and widespread." The IRGC also targeted the living quarters and command post of the US commander at Ali Al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait in a retaliatory attack early Wednesday.
The IRGC, in its attacks on the US Ali Al-Salem base in Kuwait early this morning, successfully targeted the living quarters and command post of the American commander of that important base. No information has yet been released regarding the fate of the commander of the US base at Ali Al-Salem. Meanwhile, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has called the Iranian attacks "heinous".
"These Iranian attacks represent a blatant violation of the sovereignty of states and a direct threat to their security and stability," GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi said. The council includes six countries in the Arabian Peninsula: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Saudi Arabia earlier released its own criticism of Iranian strikes on an oil tanker, urging all parties to "halt the escalation".