Iran's IRGC declares 'offensive' doctrine, threatens to invade attackers amid Strait of Hormuz attacks

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on Wednesday that it has scrapped its long-standing defensive military posture and replaced it with an 'offensive and asymmetrical' doctrine — a direct warning to the United States and Israel that any future strike on Iranian territory will be met not just with retaliation, but with invasion of the attacking country and strikes on bases used in US military operations.

Our defence doctrine was previously defensive; we used to say that if a country attacks us, we will respond. Now we say that if a country attacks us, we will both respond and launch an offensive.— Hossein Mohebi, IRGC spokesman

The announcement landed on a day when four vessels accused of illegal oil transfers caught fire in the northern Gulf after being struck, and three more hit mines west of the Strait of Hormuz, according to the IRGC's navy. Brent crude climbed above $110 a barrel on Thursday as fears of further disruption to regional energy supplies mounted.

Since the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June 2025, Iran's missile stockpile has expanded by a factor of 1.5, Mohebi said, with gains in range, accuracy and destructive power. He also said Iranian forces were preparing to unveil what he called the 'father of all bombs,' describing it as 'something new for the enemy.' He did not provide specific figures on the stockpile.

The shift in doctrine comes as US-Iran negotiations appear stalled. Amid Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, Washington has directed some of its diplomatic staff there to depart, and on Wednesday President Donald Trump told reporters that the US had ceased negotiations with Tehran.

We are going to have something one way or the other that'll happen fairly soon.— Donald Trump, US President

Trump also said at a campaign rally in South Carolina that the war could end quickly but that Washington wanted a durable outcome: 'It'll end very soon. We could leave now, but we want to make sure it lasts for a long time,' he said. He had previously pledged not to attack Iran before the November 3 US midterm elections.

Media reports cited by Al Jazeera indicate that the US and Israel are planning possible strikes on Iran within the coming weeks. In a separate development, Axios reported that on Monday dozens of Israeli fighter jets traversed Syrian and Iraqi airspace to reach Iran's western border in a show-of-force training exercise. US officials told Axios they believed Israel may have hoped Iran would target the aircraft, potentially providing justification for retaliatory action.

Threatening Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei anew, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tehran had yet to absorb the lessons of the war. According to trendsmena.com, Netanyahu said Israel had completed '90 percent of the job' against Iran and its allied groups, while contending that stopping Tehran from reconstituting its capabilities posed an ongoing challenge.

Analysts say the doctrine shift is less a declaration of imminent war than a calculated attempt to raise the cost of any future US-Israeli strike. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Negar Mortazavi, senior fellow at the Centre for International Policy, said Tehran was drawing conclusions from the 2025 and 2026 conflicts, during which its earlier approach of retaliation proved insufficient to stop repeated attacks.

Tehran now wants to establish a new equation: Any future attack on Iran will come at a much higher cost for the aggressors.— Negar Mortazavi, Senior Fellow, Centre for International Policy

Mortazavi also said Tehran was working toward a wider strategy of imposing military, economic and political costs on Washington — among them the potential to shape outcomes in the November 3 US midterm elections, where polling points to losses for Trump's Republican Party. She added: 'Iran wants to teach Washington a lesson: Attacking Iran comes with a high price, one that can even cost elections.'

That's one part of the strategy, that the suffering and the damage have to be equal and reciprocal.— Rami Khouri, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Arab Center

Any deepening of the conflict would carry economic repercussions far outside the Middle East, Khouri warned, with energy supplies, transportation, insurance costs and shipments of essential goods all feeling the effects worldwide.

Despite the military posturing, Tehran has not closed the door on diplomacy. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran was prepared to give diplomacy another chance if Washington provided evidence it genuinely wanted a negotiated settlement, in excerpts from an opinion piece published in the Financial Times. He cautioned that opting for war over diplomacy would result in 'an even greater strategic failure for the United States.'

The core obstacle to any deal remains Iran's nuclear programme. Flatly rejecting US demands that enriched uranium be transferred out of the country, Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei declared that 'even a particle of enriched uranium will not exit Iran at all.' Vice President JD Vance has called for meaningful reductions in Iran's enrichment capacity. According to trendsmena.com, a June memorandum of understanding outlined a plan to reduce enrichment levels under international supervision, yet left critical details — among them the quantity of material and the degree to which enrichment would be curtailed — without resolution.

On the diplomatic front, French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Doha brought a joint call with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for a negotiated resolution to the conflict. Their joint statement condemned Iranian military attacks against regional countries, expressed support for verifiably peaceful conditions governing Iran's nuclear programme, and called for unrestricted, fee-free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran, meanwhile, has asked the UN to condemn the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. Iranian ambassador Gholamhossein Darzi urged the UN secretary-general and the Security Council president to demand Washington stop what he called military aggression and lift the blockade. By August, Washington had declared that its restrictions on maritime trade into and out of Iran were fully in place. Washington also announced new sanctions targeting five individuals, four companies and nine vessels, including five people holding Panamanian citizenship, through the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Prior to the war, the Strait of Hormuz served as the passage for a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas supplies. After exporters rerouted shipments through pipelines and other alternatives, volumes returned to pre-war levels last month — though the latest wave of attacks has pushed prices upward once again.

Why it matters — A formal Iranian doctrine shift from defence to offence — backed by a growing missile arsenal and ongoing Strait of Hormuz attacks — raises the potential cost of any US or Israeli strike and threatens global energy supplies at a moment when diplomacy appears stalled and US elections loom.

Sources differ on Whether diplomacy remains viable: Trump said the US is no longer negotiating with Tehran (aljazeera.com) vs Iranian FM Araghchi said Tehran is prepared to give diplomacy another chance if Washington shows genuine intent (trendsmena.com)

Reported by aljazeera.com, trendsmena.com, newarab.com