Iranian adviser warns war could spread from Gulf to Indian Ocean

In a video posted by the state news agency Fars, adviser Yahya Rahim Safavi warned that the ongoing war, now stretching from the Persian Gulf and Hormuz Strait into the Red Sea, could see the front move further into the Indian Ocean and possibly beyond. The conflict erupted at the end of February after US and Israeli attacks, which were justified by claims that Tehran was close to developing nuclear weapons. Those initial strikes killed the country's highest authority, ayatolla Ali Khamenei, whose son Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed as his successor but has not appeared publicly.

Although Iran and the United States reached a tentative cease-fire deal in June, hostilities resumed within weeks. Since the fighting began, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been severely limited as Iran blocks the passage and the US restricts Iranian vessels, while the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen has tightened control over the Bab al-Mandab strait leading to the Red Sea.