Iran Warns Gulf Neighbors Of 'Corresponding' Military Response

In a stark warning following the seventh night of US strikes against Iran, the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said that the country's Gulf neighbors must be ready to receive a “corresponding and proportional” response.

In the statement, the IRGC warned the “host nations” with US military bases to activate their civil defense units and relocate civilians away from potential military targets, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on July 18.

The IRGC warning came hot on the heels of an apparent shift in US military strategy, with strikes expanding from targets near the Strait of Hormuz to multiple sites across central and southern Iran on July 18.

Quoting the IRGC, Iran’s ISNA news agency reported that the groups's fresh warning is Iran’s direct response “to a shift in the US military strategy” over the past 24 hours.

Referring to the ongoing US strikes in its statement, the IRGC justified its warning by stating that Iran is executing the “reciprocal defense” following the “failure of international bodies to halt these actions.”

On July 17, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the fresh strikes are designed to continue degrading Iranian military capabilities at the direction of the commander in chief (US President Donald Trump).

CENTCOM said it "hit surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities” employing fighter aircraft, aerial drones, and warships in addition to other assets.

Earlier, Iran’s top military officials had threatened “full-scale offensive operations” if the US continued striking Iran for another two or three days. Quoting Major General Mohsen Rezaei, who is a senior military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Iranian news agency IRIB reported that "Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses...and no political border will be safe."

Meanwhile, Tehran continued firing drones and missiles toward neighboring Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar on July 17, resulting in damage to infrastructure.

Al-Jazeera reports that the security threat level was elevated in Qatar amid sounds of loud explosions in the capital, Doha, early on the morning of July 17. Quoting the Qatari Interior Ministry, the TV channel said a child was injured by falling shrapnel during the attacks.

Qatar hosts a major US military base and has been the target of regular Iranian drone and missile strikes since the beginning of the conflict in late February.

In Kuwait, the country’s Electricity, Water, and Renewable Energy Ministry said in a July 17 statement that a power and water desalination plant was hit in the Iranian strikes that sparked a fire, damaging a large number of electricity generation units.

As hostilities continue with risk of further expansion of the war, there are fresh calls for an immediate cease-fire and a resumption of dialogue.

On July 17, the foreign ministers of China and Pakistan, in a joint appeal, called for a return to the cease-fire agreed upon between Iran and the United States last month.