Trump Administration Warns Iran of 'Consequences' as G20 Discusses Hormuz and Energy Security

The US Trump administration has warned Iran that there ‘will be consequences’ if Tehran continues its malign activities. The warning came amid concern over a potential new round of US-Iran hostilities after the midterm elections.

State Department principal deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott told Fox News Digital on Friday that the Iranian regime has had a choice — to pursue the path towards normalcy, towards prosperity for its people, the path towards diplomacy — or it can continue its malign activities, but there will be consequences for that, and the president has been seen taking concrete action.

Pigott was responding to reports that US officials have warned regional partners to prepare for the possibility of heightened US military action against Iran after Tuesday's elections, as well as potential Iranian retaliation.

President Donald Trump has not made a final decision on renewed strikes. But according to an Associated Press report citing two diplomats briefed on the warnings, US diplomats and defence officials have privately urged several Middle Eastern countries and regional allies to prepare for the possibility of new military action and Iranian retaliation.

The warnings come amid heightened concerns about Iranian threats against Americans overseas. According to Scripps News, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton wrote in an unclassified memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the US had received intelligence that Iran had ‘substantially increased efforts to target US personnel’ and that lethal Iranian plots had reached ‘advanced stages’ in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Asked whether those threats were being discussed with G20 counterparts and whether the US was sharing intelligence with allies to disrupt potential plots, Pigott declined to discuss intelligence matters. But he said the US was working with international partners against transnational threats, and would work with partners to make sure any transnational threat has the appropriate transnational response to protect its citizens.

The prospect of renewed fighting with Iran loomed over the G20 foreign ministers' meeting. Foreign ministers from the world's largest economies gathered in Atlanta, Georgia ahead of the G20 leaders meeting in December. Rubio has put energy security, secure supply chains and freedom of navigation among the US priorities there.

Rubio opened the two-day gathering on Friday by warning that the world's largest economies face ‘interconnected economic and geopolitical crises’ threatening energy and food supplies, trade, global supply chains and freedom of navigation.

Pigott said the administration's position remains that there cannot be a situation where a country decides that it can control an international waterway and charge tolls over that waterway. In the aftermath of the war, Iran began asserting greater authority over the Strait of Hormuz and insisting on the right to collect fees from ships for services including navigation and environmental protection. Asked what the US wants G20 countries to do to keep the strait open, Pigott pointed to the broader principle that international waterways must remain free from coercion and that secure supply chains are essential.