Iran has warned the United States that it is prepared to carpet bomb its own territory to kill any American soldiers who land there, according to diplomats from a third country who relayed the threat to Washington.
The warning comes as the US moves thousands of ground troops into West Asia, with analysts widely expecting Kharg Island, a small but critical Iranian oil export terminal in the Persian Gulf, to be a likely target for a potential invasion aimed at breaking Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran has made clear it is willing to destroy its own infrastructure there, or elsewhere, to target American forces, calculating that any landing party would have limited missile defences and would face devastating casualties.
“Iran says that they don’t care that they will have to blow up their own territory,” a diplomat involved told The Guardian. “They will do it to kill American soldiers.”
The presence of US troops on Iranian soil would cross a new red line for Tehran. Beyond Kharg, other options being considered by US military planners include deploying forces along Iran’s coastline or seizing one of several smaller islands.
Iranian officials have responded with initial disapproval to a US ceasefire proposal, even as intermediaries indicated that direct talks between the two sides could begin as early as this weekend.
Pakistani representatives who reportedly delivered the plan to Tehran described it as a 15-point proposal covering sanctions relief for Iran, the dismantling of its nuclear programme, restrictions on its missile capabilities, and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20 per cent of the world’s oil passes.
An Egyptian official indicated the plan would also curtail Iran’s support for armed groups across the region, a demand that had been a sticking point in pre-war negotiations.
A senior Iranian official speaking to Al Jazeera dismissed it as “extremely maximalist and unreasonable,” though other officials said Tehran was still reviewing the proposal. Iran had previously mocked the diplomatic effort, claiming Washington was negotiating with itself.
The Israeli military said Wednesday afternoon, March 25, it had completed several waves of airstrikes on Tehran, and disclosed that strikes a day earlier had targeted an Iranian submarine development centre in Isfahan.
For civilians in Tehran, the relentless bombardment has become a fixture of daily life. “There have been some days when the bombings are so intense you can’t do anything,” a 26-year-old graduate student said, speaking anonymously for security reasons, adding that most of his friends had stopped leaving home.
Missile alert sirens sounded repeatedly across Israel as Iran launched retaliatory strikes. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, continued firing rockets into northern Israel around the clock, severely disrupting life for hundreds of thousands of residents in the country’s north.
Iran also kept up its pressure on Gulf neighbours. Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said it had destroyed at least eight drones over the kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province, while sirens sounded in Bahrain. Kuwait said it shot down multiple drones, though one struck a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sending a massive column of smoke into the sky.
The war’s death toll continues to climb. Iran’s Health Ministry has confirmed over 1,500 deaths. Israel says 20 people have been killed, including two soldiers in Lebanon. At least 13 US military personnel have died, along with more than a dozen civilians across the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states.
In Lebanon, where Israel has been targeting Hezbollah, authorities say more than 1,000 people have died. In Iraq, where Iranian-backed militant groups have also entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have been killed, according to senior security adviser Khalid al-Yaqoubi.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has left around 2,000 vessels and 20,000 seafarers stranded, the head of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has said, warning of a deepening humanitarian crisis at sea.
“We have 20,000 seafarers stranded inside the Strait of Hormuz and around 2,000 vessels that are not able to sail,” IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez told Al Jazeera. He warned that the longer the situation persists, the greater the mental stress, fatigue and supply shortages facing the crews. Insurance companies, he added, have either cancelled contracts or sharply raised premiums, refusing to absorb the mounting risks.
He described US President Donald Trump’s plan to escort vessels through the strait as simply “unsustainable,” given that there are no assurances against merchant ships being targeted and seafarers being killed.
Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the Iranian strike on fuel tanks at its international airport, calling it a “serious violation of international humanitarian law” against a civilian facility.
Acting Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Rahim al-Deihani said the attack constituted “a flagrant violation” of Kuwait’s sovereignty and “a dangerous escalation that undermines regional and international peace and security.” He handed a formal protest note to Iran’s ambassador in Kuwait – the third time since the war began that Kuwait has summoned the Iranian envoy – and called for an immediate halt to the attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israeli forces are expanding the area they control along the southern Lebanese border, as fighting with Hezbollah grinds on and troops push deeper into villages in the region.
Netanyahu made the remarks during a meeting with community leaders from northern Israel, which has endured near-daily rocket fire from Lebanon.
Israel moved several thousand troops into southern Lebanon in recent weeks, describing it as a defensive measure to protect border communities, and has since pushed further north in an operation it says is aimed at removing Hezbollah from the area.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered a sharply-worded rebuke on Wednesday, saying the conflict had “broken past limits even leaders thought imaginable” and calling on the United States and Israel to end the war they launched against Iran last month.
“Human suffering deepens, civilian casualties mount, and the global economic impact is increasingly devastating,” Guterres said, directing his call to halt the fighting squarely at Washington and Tel Aviv. He also urged Iran to “stop attacking their neighbours.”
This post was last modified on March 25, 2026 11:12 pm