Iran adviser warns Indian Ocean next if US attacks — SkimNews
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- Yahya Rahim Safavi, adviser to supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, said in a Fars news agency video on September 24, 2026 that since the conflict has already spread from the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea, the front 'will expand even further, reaching the Indian Ocean and perhaps beyond' in response to more U.S. attacks.
- It is the first explicit Indian Ocean mention by a Khamenei adviser; the article notes the ocean is home to the U.S.-British military base at Diego Garcia, roughly 4,000 km from Iran.
- Iran locked down the Strait of Hormuz off its coast in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli strikes that triggered the war at the end of February, and Tehran and Washington now compete for control of the chokepoint that once carried much of the world's oil and gas.
- Yemen's Houthis recently seized the Red Sea coastline, tightening their grip on the Bab al-Mandab Strait that links Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal; Iran supplies them militarily but denies involvement in the Yemen conflict.
- U.S. and Iranian officials held talks in New York this week on the UN General Assembly sidelines, with Iran demanding lifting of sanctions and unconditional release of frozen assets abroad.
- Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi told AFP on September 22, 2026 that ending the war in Yemen was also on the table.
Why it matters: A Khamenei adviser placing Diego Garcia's Indian Ocean waters in Tehran's crosshairs extends the war's threat surface beyond the already-blocked Hormuz and Red Sea corridors — chokepoints through which much of the world's oil and gas once flowed — and raises the stakes for the sanctions-relief negotiations underway at UNGA, where Iran is demanding asset releases as its price for peace.
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