Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that the U.S. will be hit hard unless Tehran reaches a new nuclear deal with Washington.
Trump reiterated his threat on Sunday that if Iran does not accept the negotiations outlined in his letter to the Iranian leadership in early March, it would give Tehran a two-month window to make a decision.
State media said Iran warned Trump on Monday of threats to the Swiss embassy, which represents the interests of the United States and acts as a intermediary between Washington and Tehran. Tehran expressed his determination in the warning to respond decisively to any threat.
“The hate between the United States and Israel has been there. They threatened to attack us, and we think it’s unlikely, but if they commit any mischief, they will definitely be hit with a strong reciprocity.”
He added: “And if they want to create incitement at home as they have been in the past few years, then the Iranian people themselves will deal with them.”
Iranian authorities blamed the West for the recent unrest, which included protests against the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022-2023, a young woman who was detained for allegedly disguising the rules of hijacks, and protests nationwide in 2019, rather than rising fuel prices.
Last week, Iran responded to a U.S. letter, Masoud Pezeshkian explained on Sunday that Tehran would not negotiate directly with Washington but would be willing to negotiate indirectly with Khamenei’s ban.
“The public threat to the ‘bombing’ of Iran’s head of state is a shock to the nature of international peace and security,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Twitter on Monday.
“Violence breeds violence, and peace comes with peace. The United States can choose courses and recognize the consequences.”
Revolutionary Guards aerospace commander Amirali Hajizadeh threatened U.S. troops in the Middle East and told the media: “Americans have at least 50,000 soldiers in the region with 10 bases in the region. They are in glass houses and should not throw stones.”
During his first 2017-21 term, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 agreement between Iran and the world’s major powers, imposing strict restrictions on Tehran’s controversial nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump has also reimposed full sanctions.
Since then, Iran has exceeded the agreement’s limit on uranium enrichment.
Western powers accuse Iran of having a secret agenda to develop nuclear weapons capabilities by enriching uranium to high levels of fission purity, which is more than they say, and that is reasonable for civilian atomic energy programs. Tehran said its nuclear program is for civilian energy purposes only.
