TEHRAN – Iran’s top military officials looked relaxed and in high spirits as they gathered for an annual meeting marking National Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Day. Speaking to an IRIB reporter who managed to gain access to the gathering, the commanders commented on the growing prospects of another war with the United States with visible confidence.

Current and former generals of the IRGC and the Army (Artesh) convened in a grand hall adorned with portraits of Iran’s martyred generals on Friday. Among the images were those assassinated during the US-Israeli war against Iran in June. The succeeding generals, appointed less than 24 hours after those assassinations, told the reporter that while they miss their comrades, they are certain that their sacrifices were not in vain.

Israel and the United States launched a bombing campaign against Iran on June 13, 2025, while Tehran and Washington were still engaged in nuclear negotiations. Their attacks targeted nuclear, military, and civilian infrastructure, resulting in the deaths of over 1,100 Iranians. President Donald Trump stated his goal was to “prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons”—an agenda neither he nor the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ever managed to prove Iran harbored, despite the most vigorous inspection regime in history. It remains a capability Iran can still acquire if it decides to change its military doctrine, with experts suggesting the country’s nuclear program was merely postponed by two years at best. 

Trump’s primary objective was likely to topple the Iranian government, given his fruitless targeting of a meeting attended by top Iranian officials, including the president, parliament speaker, and judiciary chief. Following the conflict, Israel’s war minister admitted that the two regimes had also attempted to assassinate the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, but failed to locate him. The war ended after 12 days at the request of the U.S. and Israel, following Iran’s pummeling of the occupied territories as well as a U.S. base in Qatar.

In recent weeks, Trump has threatened multiple times to attack Iran again to assist with protests-turned-riots that have now completely fizzled. His administration has begun a military buildup in the Persian Gulf, a pattern also observed prior to the June war. U.S. Vice President JD Vance, however, attempted to mask any potential hostile intent, telling reporters on Friday that they are merely ensuring they have “resources to respond” if Iranians strike their assets. “We just want to make sure we have options,” he claimed.

When asked for a response to Washington’s renewed threats, the Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, Brigadier General Majid Mousavi, said Trump “talks a lot” but will receive his answers “on the ground.” IRGC Navy Commander General Alireza Tangsiri remarked that the U.S. President must “take a look at history” before making a move. Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, a senior IRGC commander during the Iran-Iraq war, added that Trump has chosen the “wrong path.”

The riots that convulsed Iran on January 8 and 9 were designed to establish insecurity across the nation and pave the way for foreign military aggression, according to former CIA agents and Iranian intelligence circles. The riots were unprecedented in their volume of violence, as armed agents wreaked havoc across Iranian cities, killing security forces and civilians alike.

Protests initially began in December by shopkeepers demanding economic reforms to soothe the debilitating effects of years of Western sanctions. The demonstrations remained peaceful until the deposed Shah’s son used Western-based Persian-language TV channels and social media to incite his “followers” to take to the streets and topple the Islamic Republic over the weekend. Israeli and American figures also took to social media to announce that “Mossad agents” were on the ground to help bring down the government. Over 3,100 individuals were killed during the unrest, with security personnel and ordinary civilians making up the majority of the dead.

Iran’s security apparatus managed to quickly quell the riots through heavy internet restrictions that cut contact between the armed terrorists and their foreign handlers, followed by operations that resulted in the arrest of hundreds of suspects and the discovery of large caches of smuggled weapons and ammunition nationwide. American experts have warned that given the failure of the riots, any attack on Iran would be meaningless and too costly, as it would fail to cause the Islamic Republic to collapse and would entail serious consequences.

Statements by the Chief Commander of the IRGC and the Defense Ministry’s spokesman on Saturday affirmed that Iran’s “finger is on the trigger” and that the country possesses superior missiles and defensive capabilities compared to last summer.

Furthermore, Reuters quoted a senior Iranian official stating that Iran is ready for the “worst-case scenario” and that any attack, however limited, will be treated as an “all-out war.”

Iran’s Security Chief Ali Larijani previously warned that Tehran will look to kill American soldiers in the event of a new war, a measure it refrained from during previous military engagements with Washington. Approximately 40,000 to 50,000 American soldiers are stationed in West Asia, leaving them vulnerable to the Iranian missiles and drones that the country has shown it can fire by the hundreds simultaneously. The growing consensus in Tehran is that the Trump administration must be made to pay a heavy price at home to be reined in within West Asia, the Tehran Times understands. 

Another option for Iran is to constrict the flow of energy through the Strait of Hormuz, a move floated by Parliament Speaker Qalibaf this month, which would cause oil prices to skyrocket and trigger global economic repercussions. Iran has also reportedly warned its neighbors that it will strike their strategic assets if they allow the U.S. or Israel to use their airspace to attack Iran. 

Analysts say the occupied territories would also be targeted by barrages of Iranian missiles, with Israeli officials and experts warning in recent days that the regime lacks the capacity to withstand such attacks, even for the 12 days it endured back in June. According to American reports, Israel was already running out of air defense missiles during the previous confrontation.