Pentagon warns Iran and proxies

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Iran would face bombing if it did not agree to a new nuclear deal, prompting a senior advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to moot the pursuit of a bomb in the event of an attack.

The Republican Study Committee (RSC) in a press conference advocated a series of new acts it said would increase pressure on Tehran in line with Trump's policy of stepping up sanctions in a bid to force the Islamic Republic to the negotiating table.

It named ten proposed pieces of legislation including the Free Iraq from Iran Act, Stop Corrupt Iranian Oligarchs and Entities Act and the No Sanctions Relief for Terrorists Act.

"This package is the strongest Iran sanctions and security package delivered to date.
The Iranian people are not the target," Congressman August Pfluger of Texas told reporters.

"It's the leadership that wants to gain a nuclear weapon and wants to continue that pariah state of sowing chaos and terrorism throughout the world," he added. "If I were them, I would make the choice of announcing loud and clear that they will not attain a nuclear weapon."

The US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said last week that Washington assessed Iran is not building nuclear weapons but that a taboo in Iran on discussing nuclear weapons in public was eroding.

The RSC is a conservative caucus for house Republicans founded in 1973.

"Right now, Tehran has a very clear offering, and that's to enter into negotiations in good faith with President Trump, who has laid out not only a roadmap for the Persian Farsi people to be successful, but for Iran to have a future," Representative Zach Nunn of Iowa said.

"It simply means stop funding terrorism, stop avoiding the sanctions regime, come to the table, de-escalate and end a nuclear regime that only ends in death for potentially hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East."

Trump told NBC News on Sunday that if a deal was not reached, "there will be bombing — and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before." Khamenei vowed retaliation to any attack.

An attack, a veteran nuclear negotiator and advisor to the Supreme Leader said on Monday, would push Iran toward acquiring nuclear weapons to ensure its defense,

Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons and Khamenei has issued a religious injunction against them, but the United Nations nuclear watchdog says Iran has enriched more uranium than any state lacking a bomb.

"Not only are they pursuing a nuclear weapon to vaporize Israel and ultimately the United States, they're developing ICBMs, which can only be for one purpose, and that is to deliver a nuclear attack against the American people," Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina said.

"And there must be verification, not the charades we've had with the previous administrations."

Trump withdrew from a 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran in his first term after bashing it as too lenient. Khamenei said talks were pointless if a new deal could easily be broken.

The US military has deployed long range bombers at a strategic Indian Ocean airbase, a spokesperson told Iran International last week, a move which presaged major bombing campaigns against Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.

“From March 14 to March 31, we recorded 704 deaths from 582 fatal crashes,” said Brigadier General Teymour Hosseini, head of Iran’s Traffic Police.

“In the same period, more than 16,000 people were injured, and we registered over 84,000 accidents overall.”

Traffic officials say 400 million vehicle movements were logged during the holiday period. Provinces with the highest death tolls included Kerman with 65 fatalities, followed by Fars, Khorasan Razavi, Khuzestan, and Sistan and Baluchestan.

Police attribute nearly half of fatal crashes to drivers failing to keep their eyes on the road. Sudden lane changes and loss of vehicle control each accounted for another 15 percent of deadly incidents.

Every year, the Nowruz holidays (Mid-March to early April) witness hundreds of deaths on Iran's roads as the country's population embarks on journeys for the festive season.

A combination of factors, including poor road conditions, inadequate vehicle domestically made vehicle quality and maintenance, as well as dangerous driving practices, contribute to making the period the most fatal of the year for Iranian citizens.

While poor road conditions and poor vehicle quality are significant factors contributing to road accidents, Iranian authorities often attribute the majority of incidents to human factors, placing blame on drivers.

However, concerns persist regarding the need for comprehensive measures to address the underlying causes of road accidents and enhance road safety across the country.

The move marks part of a stepped-up enforcement effort under a recent presidential directive ordering a “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions on Tehran.

“Iran’s proliferation of UAVs and missiles—both to its terrorist proxies in the region and to Russia for its use against Ukraine—continues to threaten civilians, US personnel, and our allies and partners,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

“Treasury will continue to disrupt Iran’s military-industrial complex and its proliferation of UAVs, missiles, and conventional weapons that often end up in the hands of destabilizing actors, including terrorist proxies,” he added in a statement.

“The United States will use all available means to expose and disrupt Iran’s growing UAV and missile development programs and weapons proliferation,” the State Department said in support of the sanctions. “We will continue to act against the complex schemes Iran uses in third countries to conceal its acquisition and its transfers of sensitive technology.”

"We will continue to act against the complex schemes Iran uses in third countries to conceal its acquisition and its transfers of sensitive technology. Iran uses this technology and the proceeds from arms sales to bolster its military industrial base to build missiles and UAVs, which are used against fellow countries, as well as exported to Russia, terrorist proxy groups around the Middle East, and to other actors of concern," added Tammy Bruce, the State Department Spokesperson.

The designated entities include Rah Roshd, an Iran-based supplier linked to the Mohajer-6 drone, and Chinese manufacturer Zibo Shenbo, which allegedly shipped tens of thousands of motors to Iran. UAE firms, including Infracom and Diamond Castle, were named as intermediaries.

The sanctions freeze US-based assets and bar transactions with US persons. Concurrently, the Justice Department charged two Iranians with conspiring to smuggle US technology to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian transnational paramilitary group the US classifies as a foreign terrorist organization.

Western powers accuse Iran of providing drones and missiles to Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Iranian drones have repeatedly been deployed in attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure and other civilian targets. The Shahed 136 drone is typically launched alongside cruise and ballistic missile attacks to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses.

Speaking to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) affiliated Tasnim, the head of the country’s space agency said that the first phase of the space launch site, focused on solid-fuel rockets, is expected to become operational this year.

Hassan Salarieh said the second phase, now underway with the groundbreaking, follows extensive studies and the preparation of necessary contracts.

He emphasized the strategic importance of the Chabahar facility, located in southeastern Iran, noting its potential to become Iran's "space gateway" for accessing international markets due to its geographical advantages for launching satellites into various orbits, including sun-synchronous and geostationary orbits.

Chabahar’s proximity to open waters and the equator offers benefits in terms of launch efficiency and fuel consumption.

The development of the Chabahar Space Center is a key component of Iran's ten-year space program.

While Iran asserts its space program is for scientific advancement, it acknowledges the dual-use nature of its technologies, which have raised concerns in Western countries, particularly the United States, due to their potential link to the development of long-range ballistic missiles.

Despite international scrutiny and technical challenges, Iran says it has been steadily advancing its space capabilities, with the Chabahar facility poised to become its primary launch site, surpassing existing centers like the Imam Khomeini Space Center in Semnan province.

President Masoud Pezeshkian recently stated that Iran's space and missile technologies serve a deterrent purpose, while Defense Minister General Aziz Nasirzadeh has linked the ballistic missile program to the country's satellite launch efforts, highlighting plans to potentially offer launch services to friendly nations.

Iran’s threats have also included the far-fetched idea of targeting the US base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean—a claim dismissed by military analysts, who argue that Iran lacks the capability to strike such distant targets. Still, Iran’s defense doctrine is rooted in asymmetrical warfare, and its commanders have often warned they could strike in unexpected ways.

Following Khamenei’s sharp response to Trump’s threat, Iran’s air force commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh noted that there are dozens of US targets within close range in the Persian Gulf region.

As tensions rose further, senior Khamenei adviser Ali Larijani suggested that Trump’s threats could push Iran toward building nuclear weapons. That message was quickly echoed by hardline MP Ahmad Naderi, a member of the parliament’s presidium, who argued that nuclear weapons have secured North Korea’s safety—and questioned why Iran should not follow the same path.

Larijani’s statement, however, carried a different weight. He has long been seen as a measured political figure—unlike the more impulsive military commanders or obscure ultraconservative lawmakers. As speaker of Iran’s parliament (Majles) for 12 years and one of the key architects of the 2015 nuclear deal with the West, Larijani played a central role in shaping Iran’s diplomacy. Hardliners still recall, often with resentment, how he pushed the JCPOA agreement through a predominantly hardline parliament in just 20 minutes.

At the same time, Larijani is a US-educated politician and a former IRGC officer, trusted by Khamenei both for his background and his lineage—he is the son of one of Iran’s highest-ranking clerics. He once oversaw Tehran’s nuclear file and only stepped down as Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council due to a personality clash with ultraconservative former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

By allowing someone like Larijani to voice support for building nuclear weapons, Khamenei revealed one of the key complexities of Iranian politics. He is signaling to both Trump and the Iranian public that pressure to pursue the bomb is coming not just from hardline agitators in parliament, but also from figures seen as moderate and pragmatic. In doing so, he effectively sidelines his much-publicized fatwa banning nuclear weapons—though few ever believed it was an absolute or irreversible stance.

At the same time, Larijani’s statement—as a politician who often echoes Khamenei’s broader policy positions—renders previous threats about Iran leaving the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) largely redundant. Once a country openly talks about building a nuclear bomb, it effectively signals its departure from the NPT, regardless of any formal announcement.

In a commentary on Larijani’s statement, Nour News—a media outlet affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council—wrote on Tuesday that Trump’s talk of bombing Iran has triggered serious concerns about national security. According to the commentary, this growing anxiety could shift public opinion in favor of changing Iran’s nuclear policy. It added that the United States should be held accountable for accelerating Iran’s potential turn toward developing nuclear weapons.

Nour News quoted Larijani as warning that any US or Israeli military strike aimed at ending Iran’s nuclear program could instead push Tehran toward the very path it has so far avoided.

The outlet also claimed that with the backing of Russia and China, Iran is no longer isolated on the international stage. Echoing Larijani’s remarks, it suggested that Yemen is now capable of responding to US aggression in ways that would prove costly for Washington and its allies.

According to Nour News, “The United States now faces two choices: either continue its hostile behavior and drag the region into an unprecedented security crisis, or change course to ease rising tensions.” The commentary added that Trump’s threats risk further complicating the situation, noting that “Iran has many options to defend its national security.” It concluded by stating that “Iran’s final decision will depend on future US actions.”

Meanwhile, Larijani’s brother-in-law, Ali Motahari, told the press that “there is nothing wrong with negotiating with the United States.” He went further, saying that “President Massoud Pezeshkian should have accepted Trump’s offer to negotiate”—though he did not mention that Pezeshkian lacked Khamenei’s approval to do so at the time.