Senior Iranian officials on Monday warned that hostilities with Israel could restart without notice, insisting the two countries never entered a formal cease-fire after their brief but intense June war. Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and now a top military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Iranian media that Tehran and Jerusalem remain "in a stage of war." "No protocol, treaty or agreement has been signed," he said, adding that a new round of fighting "may happen at any moment" and could be decisive. First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref echoed the assessment in separate remarks to university presidents, describing the current lull as merely a "halted fire," not a truce. While saying Iran prefers negotiation, Aref stressed that the country must be prepared "for the worst-case scenario" and vowed that if conflict resumes "its end will be in our hands." Their comments follow a 12-day conflict in June during which Israel bombed Iranian nuclear and military sites and Iran retaliated with drone and missile strikes that reached Tel Aviv. The fighting killed more than 1,000 people in Iran and dozens in Israel before the United States announced an undeclared halt on 24 June, two days after it joined the war by striking Iranian facilities. Since then, Western governments have threatened to re-impose sanctions over Iran's uranium enrichment to 60 percent—far above the 2015 nuclear accord's 3.67 percent limit—while Israel has warned it could launch further pre-emptive attacks. Safavi said Iranian forces are updating missile, drone and cyber capabilities in anticipation of "the next phase" of the confrontation.