By - Adviser to Iran’s supreme leader says the Middle East conflict could expand as far as the Indian Ocean if the US launches fresh strikes
- Warning marks the first explicit mention of the Indian Ocean, home to the US-British base at Diego Garcia, by a senior adviser to Khamenei
- Comes as US and Iranian officials hold talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week
A senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader has raised the stakes in the ongoing Middle East conflict, warning that renewed American strikes could push the fighting beyond its current boundaries and as far as the Indian Ocean.
Yahya Rahim Safavi, an adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made the warning in a video released by Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency on Thursday. He said the conflict had already spread from the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea, and suggested that further American military action could see the front widen even beyond the Indian Ocean.
The remarks come against the backdrop of shifting frontlines in the wider regional conflict. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have been fighting Saudi-backed government forces, have recently tightened their hold on the Red Sea coastline, strengthening their control over the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a critical corridor connecting Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal. Iran has consistently backed the Houthis with military support, though Tehran denies any direct involvement in the Yemen war itself.
On its own coastline, Iran has maintained a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a step it took in retaliation for the joint US-Israeli strikes that ignited the broader Middle East war at the end of February. Since then, Washington and Tehran have effectively been competing for control of the strait, a waterway that once carried a substantial share of the world’s oil and gas shipments before the conflict began.
First Explicit Mention of Diego Garcia’s Backyard
While Iranian officials have previously warned they could widen the conflict’s geography if attacked again, Thursday’s statement was the first time a senior adviser to Khamenei explicitly named the Indian Ocean as a potential new front. The region is home to the strategic US-British military installation at Diego Garcia, located nearly 4,000 kilometres from Iranian territory.
The warning lands in the middle of a fresh diplomatic push to end the war. American and Iranian officials met this week in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly in what both sides have described as a further attempt to find a way out of the conflict. Iran has set out its terms for a ceasefire, chief among them the lifting of sanctions crippling its economy and the unconditional release of Iranian assets frozen abroad.
Separately, a spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Mohebi, told AFP in an interview on Tuesday that ending the parallel war in Yemen was also part of Tehran’s broader calculations, though he did not elaborate on specific terms.
With talks ongoing and threats escalating in parallel, it remains unclear whether the New York discussions will yield any breakthrough before tensions in the region flare further.
