Trump links Houthi attacks to Iran, says he will 'never forget'
Iran may be behind renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia aimed at raising oil prices ahead of the US elections, President Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, warning that he would remain in office after the vote and remember the attacks.
“Somebody should explain to them that I’m not running in the Elections, I’ve already won, IN A MASSIVE LANDSLIDE, but I’ll be there after the Elections, and I will never forget!” Trump wrote.
The name Caspian Sea seen on a map on Iran's state TV
Iranian state television has begun referring to the country’s northern sea as Caspian in Persian, a departure from the customary Khazar, after airing claims that the older familiar name serves alleged Israeli ambitions in the Caucasus.
Caspian takes its name from the Caspians, an ancient people who lived along the sea’s southwestern shores in modern Iran. Khazar refers to the Khazars, a medieval Turkic people whose state lay to the north and northwest of the sea and whose ruling elite adopted Judaism.
It remains unclear whether Iran’s state broadcaster has issued a formal directive to change its terminology across programs. However, the name change brings attention to competing arguments over history and national identity.
Supporters of Caspian describe it as a restoration of Iranian heritage, while opponents say Khazar is itself a deeply rooted geographical name whose use does not endorse the people it originally described.
State TV’s website features a segment from IRGC-affiliated Ofogh channel’s “War Headquarters” program with commentator and academic Ahmad Kazemi under the title “The Zionists’ plot to change the name of the Caspian Sea to Khazar.”
In remarks also shared by the IRGC-affiliated Fars News, Kazemi portrayed the use of Khazar as supporting an Israeli historical claim.
“By using the non-Iranian word Khazar today, we are effectively helping Israel’s thesis that seeks to prove the existence of a Jewish empire in the Caucasus,” he said.
The name Caspian Sea in Persian on another Iranian state TV program aired on Tuesday Oct. 13 , 2026.
Kazemi said people outside Iran mocked Iranians for using what he described as a foreign name while others used Caspian. He described the Caspians as an Iranian people who had lived across areas stretching from Kashan to Mazandaran and the Caspian coast.
His remarks did not provide evidence of an Israeli effort to influence the sea’s Persian name.
An appeal to Iranian heritage
For English-speaking audiences, the distinction can be easy to miss: the body of water is already called the Caspian Sea in English. The question is what Iranians should call it in Persian.
Campaigns to replace Khazar predate the television material. A petition addressed to the parliament speaker, the head of state broadcasting and the education minister calls for Caspian to be used in official sources, describing it as an authentic Iranian name.
Mohammad Ebrahim Zarei, then acting head of Iran’s Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, also proposed using Caspi or Caspian at an annual gathering of Iranian archaeologists in 2025, arguing that it was the older name.
Caspian derives from the Caspians, an ancient people who lived along the sea’s southwestern shores. Encyclopedia Iranica identifies them in ancient sources while noting uncertainties about their precise location and linguistic background.
Khazar, meanwhile, derives from the medieval Khazars, whose state lay to the north and northwest of the sea. The name has been used in regional geographical writing for centuries.
The sea has also been known in Iran as the Mazandaran Sea, a name previously used in official contexts. During Mohammad Khatami’s presidency, a 2002 naming decision standardized Khazar for domestic use and Caspian for foreign texts and international agreements.
That policy favored an already established name over alternatives such as Mazandaran, rather than introducing Khazar for the first time.
Objections to replacing Khazar
Political geographer Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh offers a different argument, saying established geographical names should not be changed because of political, ethnic or religious objections to their origins.
He argued that abandoning Khazar over alleged Israeli claims to the region would accept the premise of those claims rather than challenge them. He also warned that changing the sea’s name would undermine Iran’s opposition to attempts to rename the Persian Gulf.
“Would you not, in practice, have justified and endorsed Arab efforts to change the geographical name of the Persian Gulf?” he asked supporters of replacing Khazar.
More recently, objections to the campaign have appeared on the website of the Islamic Revolution Documents Center.
In an August article, Arash Nasiri challenged the argument that the Khazars’ ethnic origins, military history or association with Judaism justified abandoning the name.
Some Khazar rulers adopted Judaism, but treating the entire population as uniformly Jewish oversimplified the historical record, he wrote.
Nasiri also argued that using a geographical name did not mean endorsing the conduct or beliefs of the people from whom it originated. Khazar had become an established part of Persian usage, extending beyond its association with a medieval people.
Caspian was historically valid, he wrote, but presenting the choice as “Iranian Caspian” versus “foreign Khazar” reduced a complex history to a political distinction.
Surveillance footage shows people in a queue right before the moment of an attack at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, October 10, 2026, in this screengrab from a handout video. Saudi Ministry of Media
The deadly attacks on Riyadh’s main airport mirror Iranian warnings to disrupt regional air travel in response to US sanctions, analysts say, while serving the Houthis’ own goal of pressuring Saudi Arabia over its support for rival forces in Yemen.
A Houthi missile strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on Saturday killed 13 people and injured more than 300, according to Saudi authorities. A follow-up attack on Sunday killed one and wounded 11 others, prompting officials to extend flight suspensions on Monday.
Among the dead were an Indian national traveling with his family for Umrah, an Egyptian flight attendant and a Saudi pilot. Footage released by Saudi authorities shows passengers waiting inside a terminal before an explosion sends them fleeing through smoke and debris.
The attacks came weeks after Tehran warned it would disrupt regional aviation if US sanctions isolated Iranian airlines. No public evidence has established that Iran ordered the strikes, but analysts said they were consistent with its threats.
Yemeni-American analyst Fatima Abo Alasrar described the escalation as part of a familiar pattern in which Tehran seeks to export its economic hardship to its neighbors.
"Just as the United States said that it's going to conduct Operation Economic Outcast and impose sanctions on Tehran, Tehran is also doing economic outcast for Saudi Arabia through this pressure," said Abo Alasrar, a scholar at Ideology Machine.
A combination picture shows surveillance footage of people in a queue right before the moment of an attack (top), and people reacting amid smoke at the moment of an attack (bottom), at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, October 10, 2026, in these screengrabs from a handout video.
Tehran's aviation threats
Senior Iranian officials issued the warnings as Washington intensified its economic campaign against Tehran.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently announced measures aimed at shutting Iranian airlines out of global airspace, warning foreign airports, ground crews and fuel suppliers that aiding Iranian carriers would trigger exclusion from the dollar-based financial system.
"If they land, you cannot provide them with fuel, you cannot provide them with landing services, you cannot sell them tickets, or you will be knocked out of the dollar system," Bessent said.
Tehran responded with direct threats.
"If Iran cannot fly and receive airport services, no country in the region will have that possibility either," Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, wrote on social media.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, similarly warned that neighboring airports would be forced to shut down if they complied with US restrictions.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran Program director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, placed the subsequent airport attacks within Tehran’s broader efforts to recover regional influence.
"This is a game of cross-domain escalation," he told Iran International.
"We can't forget that the strategic backdrop is Iran losing leverage in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz and trying to gain it back via proxy."
Surveillance footage shows smoke and fire as people react at the moment of an attack at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, October 10, 2026, in this frame from a handout video. Saudi Ministry of Media
Iran has played a major role in developing the Houthis’ military capabilities since the group seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014.
A 2024 United Nations report found that the Houthis’ transformation into a powerful military organization was made possible by weapons transfers, training and technical assistance from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi specialists.
In July, Reuters reported that Iran had flown IRGC commanders, military advisers and missile- and drone-related equipment into Yemen during the current war, according to sources familiar with the transfers.
Tehran has repeatedly denied supplying the Houthis with weapons, while the group maintains that it makes its own military decisions."
The battle for Bab al-Mandab
The airport attacks coincide with military setbacks for the Houthis along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, where Saudi-backed government forces have recaptured territory near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Abo Alasrar said the Houthis have an immediate objective of their own: forcing Riyadh to reconsider its support for Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
"The Houthis have both Tehran's intentions and their own aims on the ground," she said.
In her assessment, a sustained government advance toward Hodeidah, a major port on Yemen’s western coast, could threaten Houthi access to the sea and restrict routes used to move weapons and military components into their territory.
Losing their remaining coastal access could leave the Houthis effectively landlocked, a development Abo Alasrar described as a worst-case scenario for both the group and Tehran.
While Riyadh has strong incentives to de-escalate, she warned that concessions intended to secure a short-term settlement could allow the Houthis to rebuild their military capabilities.
Restoring access to airports or coastal territory, she argued, could reopen routes for smuggling missile components and other military supplies, setting the stage for another round of escalation.
A battle for public opinion
The killing and endangering of civilians in Saudi Arabia also risk undermining the Houthis’ efforts to portray themselves as defenders of Muslims, Abo Alasrar said.
"It exposed the hypocrisy of the Houthis, who have continuously been saying death to America, death to Israel, but then they're lobbing the missiles towards Muslim population," she said.
Images of passengers fleeing explosions have also become part of an information war unfolding alongside the military confrontation.
"The Saudi news channel Al Arabiya has adopted an unusually graphic approach, broadcasting harrowing footage of explosions and destruction reportedly inside Riyadh airport," Middle East political analyst and journalist Mohamed Fahmy told Iran International.
Fahmy said footage of the attacks, along with social media clips of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman offering condolences to a slain pilot’s father, appeared intended to prepare Saudis for further confrontation and reinforce confidence in the kingdom’s leadership.
Increased firepower alone was unlikely to end the confrontation, he said. A durable outcome would require deterrence, intelligence cooperation, political engagement and a military strategy for ending Yemen’s civil war.
Diplomacy amid escalation
Even as the Houthis continue their attacks, Tehran has sought to present itself as a potential diplomatic intermediary.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, on Sunday about the conflict.
A senior Houthi official subsequently claimed that Saudi Arabia had considered proposals for a temporary ceasefire, although the group rejected them.
Fahmy said Tehran’s diplomatic outreach allows it to project an image of regional engagement while distancing itself from the actions of its armed partners.
Amnesty International on Tuesday condemned Iran’s execution of five men in cases linked to the January protests within one week and called for coordinated international pressure on Tehran to halt further executions.
The five men were Ali Hemmati Sistanian, Alireza Raisi, Alireza Sepahi, Majid Nikandish and Siavash Jamshidi Kheirabadi. They were executed between September 30 and October 5.
“The arbitrary executions of these five young men serves as another chilling reminder of how the Iranian authorities weaponize the death penalty,” Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said.
Amnesty said the cases followed a recurring pattern in which defendants were denied lawyers during interrogations, allegations of torture were not investigated and televised confessions were used as evidence in trials before Revolutionary Courts.
Five executions in six days
Alireza Raisi and Alireza Sepahi were executed in Isfahan on October 5 over the Alikhani Square case, a mass prosecution stemming from clashes during the January 8 protests in the city.
Iran’s judiciary said defendants in the case were accused of offenses including blocking roads, damaging property, arson and involvement in the deaths of four members of the security forces.
Amnesty said Sepahi had reported prolonged solitary confinement, beatings and electric shocks while in detention and had been denied access to a lawyer during the investigative stage.
Majid Nikandish and Ali Hemmati Sistanian were executed in Mashhad on September 30 over protests there on January 8. Amnesty said televised confessions obtained while the men lacked access to lawyers were later used against them.
Siavash Jamshidi Kheirabadi was executed in Shahr-e Kord on October 3 after being convicted of charges including moharebeh, or “waging war against God,” over accusations that he fired a weapon during protests.
Amnesty calls for international pressure
Amnesty said at least 34 people have been executed in cases related to the January protests and warned that scores of others remain at risk of politically motivated executions.
The group called for coordinated diplomatic pressure on Tehran to halt further executions and urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Iran to the International Criminal Court.
A protest over the name of a newly created county in central Iran turned violent after security forces moved to disperse demonstrators, with videos sent to Iran International capturing gunfire, tear gas and injured protesters.
The gathering took place on Sunday in Meymeh, a city in Isfahan province, where residents have objected to the new administrative district being named “Meymeh and Vazvan” rather than simply “Meymeh.”
Videos received by Iran International show demonstrators in the streets, tear gas in the area and people with bloodied clothing receiving medical treatment. Gunshots can also be heard, although it was not immediately clear what type of ammunition was used.
The number of people injured or detained remains unclear.
Local dispute over county name
Residents of Meymeh had campaigned for around two decades for their district to be upgraded to county status. The government eventually approved the change but in August 2024 named the new county Meymeh and Vazvan, combining the names of two cities.
Some Meymeh residents argue that their city’s historical identity should be reflected in the county name and have repeatedly called for the decision to be reversed. Officials have said the name should also recognize Vazvan.
The dispute culminated in Sunday’s street protest shortly before the new county administration was due to begin operating.
Footage showed some protesters carrying Islamic Republic flags and portraits of late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, underscoring the local nature of the dispute rather than an explicitly anti-government demonstration.
Security presence increases
The protest continued into the evening before security forces intervened and fired tear gas, according to videos and information received by Iran International.
Witnesses told Iran International that several protesters were wounded and detained, including some who were later taken into custody at hospitals. Iran International could not independently establish the number of arrests or verify the circumstances of each reported injury.
Reports from Meymeh on Tuesday indicated an increased security presence following the confrontation.
The Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday that five members of an alleged kidnapping cell and one of its personnel were killed near Zahedan, while separate reports said more than 20 members of an Iran-backed militia were killed or wounded in the area.
The IRGC Ground Force’s Quds regional headquarters said its forces located the group in the Kurin area after an engineer working on construction projects west of Zahedan was abducted a day earlier.
It said five members of the group were killed, the hostage was freed and one member of its forces was killed during the operation.
According to the statement, the kidnappers had links to armed groups and intended to take the engineer across Iran’s border into a neighboring country.
The statement supersedes an earlier report by the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency, which had put the number of people killed in the operation at three.
More than 20 Fatemiyoun fighters reported killed or wounded in Taftan
Haalvsh, which covers developments in Sistan-Baluchestan, said more than 20 Fatemiyoun members were killed or wounded in fighting that continued for more than seven hours on Tuesday in the mountainous Chah Ahmad and Arzan Tak areas of Taftan County.
Citing local sources and eyewitnesses, Haalvsh said the first group sent into the area at around 6 a.m. included Fatemiyoun fighters traveling on about 18 motorcycles from a nearby base.
The outlet said armed men who had taken positions in the mountains opened heavy fire on the group. It said the dead and wounded were later removed in military vehicles.
Fatemiyoun is an Iran-backed Shiite militia made up largely of Afghan fighters and organized with support from the Revolutionary Guards. Its members have fought alongside Iranian forces in regional conflicts.
Haalvsh said reinforcements arrived in more than 40 vehicles, accompanied by reconnaissance and combat drones.
The outlet reported continued mortar and heavy-weapons fire toward the surrounding heights after some of the armed men withdrew from the main area of fighting. It also said residents could hear drones overhead.
The identities and affiliation of the armed men involved in the Taftan clashes remained unclear.
Attacks on police and military personnel
Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, has seen a series of armed attacks and security operations in recent weeks.
On October 9, Iranian state media reported that Nosrat Eftekhari, a senior police official responsible for cultural and social affairs in the province, was killed in a roadside bombing on the Cheshmeh Ziarat road near Zahedan.
A day earlier, a member of a police commando unit was killed in an armed attack near Nosratabad. A separate attack on a vehicle carrying Iranian Army personnel near Nikshahr killed another serviceman.
On September 23, an armed confrontation in Saravan killed Hossein Zarifi, a commander with the IRGC’s Sajjad base, according to the Guards’ Quds regional headquarters. Haalvsh separately reported that another intelligence official was killed and at least 13 other personnel were wounded.
At least five members of the Fatemiyoun, an Iran-backed Shiite militia made up largely of Afghan fighters and organized with support from the Revolutionary Guards, were also reported killed in an armed attack near Zahedan on October 2.
More than 90 killed since March - HRANA
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said Monday that at least 94 people had been killed and 33 wounded in 63 armed incidents across southeastern Iran between March 31 and October 10.
HRANA said attacks on patrol vehicles and military convoys were the most common incidents it recorded, followed by targeted shootings. It also reported increased use of mines, rocket-propelled grenades and heavier weapons by armed groups, while government forces used drones, artillery and armored vehicles in some operations.
The group said the People’s Fighters Front, an alliance formed in December 2025 that includes Jaish al-Adl and several smaller Baluch armed groups, had taken responsibility for six incidents documented in its report. Most attacks remained unattributed or could not be reliably linked to a particular group, HRANA said.
Sistan-Baluchestan, one of Iran’s poorest provinces and home to much of the country’s Sunni Baluch minority, has long seen armed confrontations between government forces and Baluch groups. Recent incidents have increasingly involved attacks on police posts, military vehicles and senior security personnel.
