Khamenei orders unrestricted response to any US or Israeli attack

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ordered commanders on Saturday to prepare an unrestricted response to any attack while Tehran floated a two-day Hormuz reopening plan, Times Now News said in an Oct. 31 news report.

The report put the warning beside a diplomatic opening: Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said mediators had a proposal to cut full Hormuz reopening to two days from a one-week plan last month.

Times Now cited Iran’s official IRNA news agency as saying Khamenei met senior military commanders and ordered readiness for any US or Israeli attack. “Any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response,” Khamenei said, according to a statement on his website cited in the report.

Khamenei also called for updating the target bank, a military list of potential targets, for the US and Israel, the report said. The order came as Iranian officials warned against renewed strikes and US officials said they were still open to talks.

The report said Mojtaba Khamenei became supreme leader after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in joint US-Israeli strikes in February. It said the younger Khamenei has not appeared in public since then and has often communicated through statements.

Earlier Saturday, Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia wrote on X that another US attack would widen the war, according to the report. He said that if the US president again pursued “regional adventurism” under pressure from Israel, “the flames of war” would spread across a wider area.

Araghchi told Al Jazeera that Tehran was prepared for all scenarios, including another attack, the report said. He said there were no current plans for meetings with US officials, while describing a letter from Vice President JD Vance seeking dialogue as a “positive step.”

Araghchi said Iran had reviewed the letter and that direct or indirect negotiations would depend on Washington accepting Iran’s conditions, according to the report. Times Now said Araghchi had previously proposed reopening the Strait of Hormuz within one week if the US lifted its blockade of Iranian ports, released frozen Iranian assets and waived sanctions on Iranian oil sales, among other conditions; Washington reportedly rejected that plan.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Iran of threatening global maritime security by targeting commercial vessels, including ships carrying Indian sailors and energy supplies, the report said. Rubio also accused Tehran of destabilising the Middle East through support for Hezbollah, the Houthis and armed groups in Iraq, and said the US would not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.

Rubio said diplomatic conversations with Tehran were continuing directly and through intermediaries, with President Donald Trump preferring a peaceful resolution where possible, according to the report. No date for direct US-Iran talks or for a Hormuz reopening mechanism was reported.

Source: news report, Times Now News, Oct. 31, 2026