Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Monday that any attack on his country would be met with a strong response.
Khamenei's remarks came after US President Donald Trump threatened in a television interview on Saturday 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.
What did Khamenei say?
"They [the US and Israel] 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 of the threat during a speech on Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
"If it is carried out, they will definitely receive a strong counterattack," he 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.
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.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei made even stronger comments 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."
Trump applies 'maximum pressure'
Since Trump took office in January, he has resumed his declared policy of "maximum pressure" on Iran over its nuclear program, which Western countries believe is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, something Tehran has always denied.
During Trump's first term, he withdrew the US from a landmark 2015 deal that required Iran to curb its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions, and reimposed economic and trade penalties on Tehran.
Since the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal in 2018, Iran has far surpassed the limits on uranium enrichment that the agreement stipulated.
On March 7, the US leader said he had written to Khamenei to call for nuclear negotiations and warned of possible military action if Tehran refused.
President Masoud Pezeshkian responded to the letter on Sunday, saying that Tehran would not enter direct negotiations with Washington but was ready to continue talks indirectly as Khamenei had ordered.
Tehran says its nuclear program is wholly for civilian energy purposes.
