Iran’s army spokesperson said Thursday that the military is ready for a conflict, if that is what the US wants, the official Student News Network reported, as the two countries prepare to hold talks aimed at staving off a clash.

US President Donald Trump has warned that “bad things” would probably happen if a deal could not be reached, ratcheting up pressure on the Islamic Republic in a standoff that has led to mutual threats of airstrikes and stirred fears of a wider war.

Commenting on the addition of 1,000 drones to the Iranian military, Iranian Brig. Gen. Mohammad Akraminia said Thursday: “We have always announced that we are ready to confront any option and any scenario that the enemy considers, and if the enemy chooses the option of war, we are ready for any option in war conditions.”

Trump “must choose between compromise or war,” he added, warning that if a war breaks out, “its scope will encompass the entire geography of the region and all US bases — from the occupied territories to the Persian Gulf and the Sea of ​​Oman, where the US has bases. Our access to US bases is easy, and this has increased their vulnerability.”

Meanwhile, in a move that could further strain tensions, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized two oil tankers with their foreign crews in Gulf waters for “smuggling fuel,” the Tasnim news agency reported Thursday.

It was not immediately clear what flags the tankers were carrying, nor the nationalities of the crews.

Amid the saber-rattling,........

© The Times of Israel