Iran’s leader warns US any attack will spark ‘regional war’

Iran’s supreme leader has warned the United States that if “they start a war, this time it will be a regional war”.

The comments from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported online by Iranian state television on Sunday, are the most direct threat he has made so far.

The report added that Khamenei, 86, said: “We are not the instigators and we do not seek to attack any country. But the Iranian nation will deliver a firm blow to anyone who attacks or harasses it.”

It comes as tensions are high in the Middle East as US President Donald Trump weighs a possible military strike against Iran.

Earlier on Sunday, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said the Islamic Republic now considers all European Union militaries to be terrorist groups, lashing out after the bloc declared the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard a terror group over its bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.

Khamenei compared those protests, which challenged the country’s theocracy, to “a coup” – hardening his position after earlier acknowledging some people had legitimate economic grievances that sparked their protests.

“The recent sedition was similar to a coup,” he said. “Of course, the coup was suppressed.

“Their goal was to destroy sensitive and effective centres involved in running the country, and for this reason they attacked the police, government centres, (Revolutionary Guard) facilities, banks and mosques – and burned copies of the Koran. They targeted centres that run the country.”

Tens of thousands of people are reportedly detained in Iran after the protests. Seditious charges in the country can carry the death penalty, renewing concerns about Tehran carrying out mass executions for those arrested.

Iran conducting mass executions is one of the red lines laid down by Mr Trump for potentially using military force against the country.

He has increasingly begun discussing Iran’s nuclear programme as well, which the US negotiated over with Tehran in multiple sessions before Israel launched a 12-day war with Iran back in June.

For his comments to parliament, Qalibaf, a former Revolutionary Guard commander, and other parliamentarians wore Guard uniforms in support of the force. The Guard, which also controls Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal and has vast economic interests in Iran, answers only to Khamenei.

“By seeking to strike at the (Guard), which itself has been the greatest barrier to the spread of terrorism to Europe, Europeans have in fact shot themselves in the foot and, once again through blind obedience to the Americans, decided against the interests of their own people,” Qalibaf said.

Parliamentarians at the session later chanted: “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” at the session.

The Islamic Republic has planned a live fire military drill for Sunday and Monday in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes.

Mr Trump on Saturday night declined to say whether he has made a decision on what he wants to do regarding Iran.

Speaking to reporters as he flew to Florida, the president sidestepped a question about whether Tehran would be emboldened if the US backed away from launching strikes on Iran, saying: “Some people think that. Some people don’t.”

Mr Trump said Iran should negotiate a “satisfactory” deal to prevent the Middle Eastern country from getting any nuclear weapons, but added: “I don’t know that they will. But they are talking to us. Seriously talking to us.”

Ali Larijani, a top security official in Iran, wrote on X late on Saturday that “structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing”. However, there is no public sign of any direct talks with the United States, something Mr Khamenei has repeatedly ruled out.