Iran warns it will retaliate without 'geographical limitations' if attacked

Ayatollah Khamenei tells military commanders response will be 'immediate' as Qatari mediators seek to avert a feared US-Israeli bombing campaign

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has warned that Iran's response to any renewed US-Israeli attacks would be "immediate, effective" and "without any geographical limitations".

"Should the enemies once again embark on military or terrorist attacks, it will be the armed forces of the Islamic republic and the Iranian nation who will determine the time and conditions for ending it," Iran's supreme leader said in a meeting with commanders, according to remarks carried by local media on Saturday.

Khamenei added that the "data bank of targets should be updated so that the armed forces could hit all kinds of financial and non-financial assets of the US-Zionist enemies".

The meeting took place as Iranian officials held discussions in Doha on Saturday with Qatari mediators, a person briefed on the talks said, in an effort to broker an interim deal between Tehran and the Trump administration to avert another round of hostilities after next week's US midterm elections.

A Qatari delegation also held talks with Iranian officials in Tehran on Friday

Concern is mounting in Tehran as well as in western and regional capitals that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are preparing a large-scale bombing campaign against the Islamic republic after Americans go to the polls on Tuesday.

Tehran responded to the US-Israeli attack in February by closing the Strait of Hormuz and striking Gulf Arab states that hosted US military bases.

"Iran has now officially gone beyond the 'regional war doctrine' and shifted to 'a war without geographical limitations'," Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, wrote in an analysis of Khamenei's remarks.

"Experience shows that when the supreme leader makes such comments, it means there is determination and the possibility of acting on them," it added.

Khamenei has been in hiding since February 28 when his father Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening hours of the war.

Over the past week, local media have reported a series of meetings between him and senior officials. Khamenei met Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of parliament, as well as Mohsen Rezaei, the top security official.

He also held discussions with Major General Ali Abdollahi, chief of the joint armed forces; Major General Ahmad Vahidi, commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards; and Major General Amir Hatami, commander of the regular army.

Abdollahi and Vahidi's predecessors were also killed at the start of the conflict, fuelling speculation in Tehran that another round of hostilities could entail more assassinations.

"This warning by the supreme leader shows that the armed forces have all their targets ready to be hit without any co-ordination with commanders should they be assassinated like their predecessors," said a person close to the regime.

"The chances of a peace deal are low because the US will not accept its hegemony being challenged."

In an indication that Iran could resort to pre-emptive strikes, Abdollahi wrote on X: "Whenever indications of hostile action by the enemy are confirmed, the armed forces will not wait for the enemy to initiate an attack before deciding when and how to respond."

Khamenei also praised "the resistance front" -- Iran's network of allied armed groups in the region including Lebanon's Hizbollah, Iraq's Hashd al-Shaabi and Yemen's Houthis -- and called for unity to help "form a new political and security order" in the region and establish a "modern Islamic civilisation".