Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday warned of a “regional war” in the Middle East if the US attacks Iran. “The Americans should know if they start a war, this time it will be a regional war,” he wrote on X.
He said that Iran is not affected by US threats of war. “That Americans sometimes talk about war, saying we will come with warships and aircraft, is nothing new. The Iranian nation is not affected by such talk. They shouldn’t try to intimidate the Iranian nation with such things.”
The Iranian Supreme Leader asserted that Iran is not the initiator of war but will give a decisive response if anyone tries to cause harm to the country.
“We are not the initiators of war. We do not seek to oppress anyone. We do not seek to attack any country. However, anyone who seeks to attack or cause harm will face a decisive blow from the Iranian nation,” he said.
Khamenei’s remarks came amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran over the death of anti-government protesters. So far, 6,713 anti-government demonstrators have been killed in a violent crackdown by security forces in Iran.
US President Donald Trump had warned that the US would intervene militarily if Iran continued to kill the protesters. When the protests were at their peak, he even assured the protesters that “help is on the way”.
The US is believed to have positioned warships and aircraft carriers near Iran amid Trump’s warnings. “We’re watching Iran… you know we have a lot of ships going that direction just in case… we have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we’ll see what happens… we have a big force going towards Iran… I’d rather not see anything happening… we have an armada, a massive fleet heading in that direction,” Trump had said earlier this week.