Iran live updates: IRGC ready for 'counteroffensive' if US attacks, spokesperson says

President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government and infrastructure sites.

Delegations from the U.S. and Iran entered negotiations in June aimed at a war-ending deal based on a memorandum of understanding signed by both countries.

Those talks broke down as the U.S. and Iran continued to exchange strikes, with the strategic Strait of Hormuz as the primary flashpoint. Trump then said in August that the U.S. would launch a "crushing economic operation" to force Tehran into submission.

The Saudi General Directorate of Civil Defense on Tuesday issued a safety alert for the region of Najran, in the southwest of the kingdom close to the border with Yemen, where Saudi-backed government forces are fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The safety alert was lifted shortly after it was announced, with the directorate saying in a post to X that the danger "has passed."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian departed Tehran for the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, the country's semi-official media outlets said, telling reporters he would "defend our positions with strength."

Referring to the ongoing conflict with the U.S. and the standoff centered on the Strait of Hormuz, Pezeshkian said, "Nations cannot be forced into submission through force," as quoted by the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will also be part of Tehran's delegation, having already arrived in New York on Monday, according to state media.

Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told Iranian state TV Sunday night that “the war has not ended” and the IRCG is “prepared for a long-term war.”

Mohebbi added, “We will certainly change the geography of the war. There will be changes in the weapons and military equipment … and the world will see the power and precision of our weapons and the world will be astonished."

He also said Iran’s “targets are no longer necessarily the same as before.”

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Centre reported that a tanker was "struck by an unknown projectile" in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday morning, with at least two crew members injured.

"The vessel is reported to be continuing to its next port of call under its own power. There is no reported environmental impact at this time," the UKMTO said in its alert.