Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Monday that any attack on his country by the United States of America would be met with a strong response.
The threat is coming after US president, Mr. Donald Trump was quoted over the weekend to have threatened to bomb Iran if it did not reach a deal on its nuclear program as called for in a letter sent by Trump to Khamenei in early March.
According to Reuters, Switzerland’s ambassador, who represents U.S. interests and acts as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran, was summoned on Monday by the Iranian foreign ministry, which expressed Tehran’s determination to respond “decisively and immediately” to any threat.
“The enmity from the U.S. and Israel has always been there. They threaten to attack us, which we don’t think is very probable, but if they commit any mischief they will surely receive a strong reciprocal blow,” Khamenei said.
“And if they are thinking of causing sedition inside the country as in past years, the Iranian people themselves will deal with them,” he added.
Moreover, Iranian authorities blame the West for recent unrest including protests in 2022-2023 over the death in custody of Jina Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained for allegedly violating rules on female attire, and nationwide demonstrations in 2019 over fuel price rises.
Also, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei made even stronger remarks than Khamenei in response to the threat by Trump.
“An open threat of ‘bombing’ by a Head of State against Iran is a shocking affront to the very essence of International Peace and Security,” he wrote on social media.
“Violence breeds violence, peace begets peace. The US can choose the course …; and concede to CONSEQUENCES”.
Last week, Iran responded to the U.S. letter, with President Masoud Pezeshkian explaining on Sunday that Tehran would not enter direct negotiations with Washington but was willing to continue talks indirectly in line with an injunction from Khamenei.
In his first 2017-21 term, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed strict limits on Tehran’s disputed nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
However, since then, Iran has far surpassed that deal’s limits on uranium enrichment.
Western powers accuse Iran of having a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy program.
Tehran said its nuclear programme is wholly for civilian energy purposes.
