Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Baghaei says any direct or indirect involvement in acts of aggression or inhumane economic terrorism against Iran will be regarded as a hostile and unlawful act

• "Any direct or indirect involvement in acts of aggression or in inhumane economic terrorism against Iran - including the deployment of naval forces, military and logistical support equipment, and personnel - will be regarded as a hostile and unlawful act amounting to participation in the US aggression against Iran"
• "Any state that may participate in such unlawful aggressions, in whatever form, shall bear full responsibility for the resulting repercussions."

Statements of this kind from Tehran follow a familiar pattern in escalation cycles: warnings aimed at third states rather than at the principal adversary, designed to raise the perceived cost of coalition participation and to deter regional basing, overflight, and logistical support before any operation begins. The specific enumeration, naval deployments, equipment, personnel, is the tell: rhetoric that names concrete forms of involvement has historically served to widen the circle of states that must price in retaliation risk, and by extension the circle of shipping and insurance interests exposed to it. The transmission channel in comparable episodes has run less through the statement itself than through what it implies for Gulf maritime traffic, war-risk premiums, and the willingness of regional hosts to be seen facilitating. Iranian foreign ministry language of this register has tended to be calibrated rather than maximal; the distinction worth drawing is between deterrent posturing ahead of an anticipated strike and a declaration issued after one, since the latter has historically carried a higher probability of follow-through against perceived participants. The follow-ons are whether the warning is echoed by the security apparatus rather than only the diplomatic channel, whether specific states are named, and whether commercial routing or insurance terms in the Gulf begin to adjust. As rhetoric without an operational trigger, the immediate read is intent-signalling, not action.