Iran has warned that it could strike American military bases in Europe if they are used to launch attacks against Iranian territory, in a sharp escalation of its rhetoric as the war with the United States and Israel continues.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, issued the warning in an interview with the Lebanon-based broadcaster Al Mayadeen on Wednesday, 11 November, and repeated it in a post on X.

“If American aircraft take off from an American military base, even one located in a European country or some other distant region, to bomb Iran, we will strike those bases as well,” Rezaei said, according to AFP and ANI.

What Rezaei said

Rezaei said Iran would not limit any retaliation to American bases close to its borders. He said Tehran could also target distant bases it had not attacked before, and islands that Washington believed were beyond the range of Iranian missiles.

“If the Americans make a mistake and attack us, we will not only target nearby bases; we will target all nearby bases, and we will also attack distant American bases. I mean distant American military bases that we have not attacked so far,” he said.

In his post on X, Rezaei wrote that “every military base involved in the aggression, from West Asia to Europe, will be a legitimate target” if the United States launched another war against Iran.

He did not name any specific base or installation, and Iran has not published an authenticated list of potential targets, Gulf News reported. The warning is conditional: it applies to bases used to launch aircraft against Iran, rather than an announcement that any particular base has been selected for attack.

Stronger capabilities, Tehran claims

Rezaei also said Iran’s defensive and offensive capabilities were now much greater than on the first day of the war. He offered no evidence in the interview that could independently verify that claim.

Iran’s Defence Ministry spokesperson, Reza Talaei-Nik, made a similar argument on X, dismissing American assessments of Iran’s military strength and saying the country’s defence production continued despite heavy bombardment.

Nuclear material and talks

In the same interview, Rezaei ruled out sending any of Iran’s enriched nuclear material abroad, saying not a single particle would leave the country and that the stockpile would be kept for domestic uses, including nuclear-powered ships.

He also said Iran was waiting for a clear American response to seven conditions it has set for further negotiations, and rejected reports that talks between Tehran and Washington were already under way. The conditions, as reported by Al Jazeera, include lifting sanctions, ending the American naval blockade, unfreezing Iranian assets and reducing the regional American military presence.

Washington has said the nuclear issue must be part of any preliminary talks aimed at ending the war, while American officials have played down the need for further military strikes, Reuters reported.

Strait of Hormuz still shut

Rezaei linked any reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to the same conditions, saying the waterway would not reopen until they were implemented. The strait, through which a large share of the world’s seaborne oil passes, has been disrupted by attacks on shipping and a continuing American naval blockade.

On the same day, G7 foreign ministers meeting in Paris condemned Iran’s attacks against its neighbours and the obstruction of transit through the strait, and called on Tehran to stop attacks on civilian vessels.

The warning comes more than eight months into a war that began on 28 February 2026, when American and Israeli forces launched coordinated strikes against Iran. Whether Tehran intends to act on Rezaei’s warning, and which bases it might consider targets, remains unclear.

Sources: ANI; Reuters; Press TV.; Institute for the Study of War (ISW) — Iran Update, November 11, 2026