As speculation grows that the Trump administration could strike Iran again after the U.S. midterm elections, Tehran has made clear it has no intention of shifting its position on the Strait of Hormuz even if another war breaks out.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told diplomats in Tehran on Oct. 25 that Iran's policy would remain the same regardless of whether a new conflict occurs, according to the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. "There is talk these days about a new war, but I am already thinking about what comes after," he said, according to the reports. He added that the United States and Israel had already waged war twice and seen the results, and that they would know a renewed attempt would end no differently than before.
Araghchi stressed that Iran's policy on the Strait of Hormuz and related matters would not change. He said a new reality was taking hold and that the way shipping lanes and the strait are managed would no longer be what it was in the past.
His remarks followed President Donald Trump's suggestion that the United States could strike Iran again. At a midterm campaign rally in Fort Myers, Florida, on Oct. 23, Trump said Washington could carry out another small version of the "Epic Fury" operation, the name given to the massive air campaign the United States launched alongside Israel in late February of this year at the start of its war against Iran.
Separately, Iran's Tasnim and Mehr news agencies reported that the Iranian military said it shot down a U.S. Lucas drone over the southern port city of Bandar Abbas on the same day. The Lucas is a low-cost, single-use attack drone that the United States is said to have developed by reverse-engineering Iran's Shahed suicide drones.