DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Iran\u2019s supreme leader warned Sunday that any attack by the United States would spark a \u201cregional war\u201d in the Mideast, further escalating tensions as President Donald Trump has threatened to militarily strike the Islamic Republic. <\/p>\n
The comments from the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are the most-direct threat he\u2019s made so far as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated American warships are in the Arabian Sea, sent by Trump there after Tehran\u2019s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests. <\/p>\n
It remains unclear whether Trump will use force. He\u2019s repeatedly said Iran wants to negotiate and has brought up Tehran\u2019s nuclear program as another issue he wants to see resolved. <\/p>\n
But Khamenei also referred to the nationwide protests as \u201ca coup,\u201d hardening the government\u2019s position as tens of thousands of people reportedly have been detained since the start of the demonstrations. Seditious charges in Iran can carry the death penalty, which again renews concerns about Tehran carrying out mass executions for those arrested \u2014 a red line for Trump.<\/p>\n
Iran had also planned a live-fire military drill for Sunday and Monday in the strategic Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. The U.S. military\u2019s Central Command had warned against threatening American warships or aircraft during the drill or disrupting commercial traffic. <\/p>\n Khamenei warns US<\/p>\n Iranian state television reported Khamenei\u2019s comments online before airing any footage of his remarks. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Americans should know that if they start a war, this time it will be a regional war,\u201d Khamenei was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n It added that Khamenei said: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Khamenei also hardened his position on the demonstrations after earlier acknowledging some people had legitimate economic grievances that sparked their protests. The demonstrations began Dec. 28, initially over the collapse of Iran\u2019s rial currency. It soon grew into a direct challenge to Khamenei\u2019s rule. <\/p>\n \u201cThe recent sedition was similar to a coup. Of course, the coup was suppressed,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir goal was to destroy sensitive and effective centers involved in running the country, and for this reason they attacked the police, government centers, (Revolutionary Guard) facilities, banks and mosques \u2014 and burned copies of the Quran. They targeted centers that run the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Parliament speaker says EU militaries considered terrorist groups.<\/p>\n The speaker of Iran\u2019s parliament, meanwhile, said that the Islamic Republic now considers all European Union militaries to be terrorist groups, lashing out after the bloc declared the country\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard a terror group<\/a> over its bloody crackdown on nationwide protests<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf<\/a>, a former Guard commander, announced the terror designation, which will likely be mostly symbolic. Iran has used a 2019 law to reciprocally declare other nations\u2019 militaries terror groups following the United States declaration of the Guard a terror group that year. <\/p>\n Qalibaf made the announcement as he and others in parliament wore Guard uniforms in support of the force. The Guard, which also controls Iran\u2019s ballistic missile arsenal and has vast economic interests in Iran, answers only to Iran\u2019s 86-year-old Khamenei. <\/p>\n \u201cBy 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,\u201d Qalibaf said. <\/p>\n Lawmakers at the session later chanted: \u201cDeath to America!\u201d and \u201cDeath to Israel!\u201d at the session. <\/p>\n Trump says Iran is \u2018seriously talking\u2019 to US<\/p>\n Trump has laid out two red lines for military action: the killing of peaceful protesters or the possible mass execution of those detained in a major crackdown over the demonstrations. He\u2019s increasingly begun discussing Iran\u2019s nuclear program as well, which the U.S. negotiated over with Tehran in multiple sessions before Israel launched a 12-day war with Iran<\/a> back in June. <\/p>\n The U.S. bombed three Iranian nuclear sites<\/a> during the war. Activity at two of the sites suggests Iran may be trying to obscure the view of satellites<\/a> as it tries to salvage what remains there. <\/p>\n Trump on Saturday night declined to say whether he\u2019d made a decision on what he wanted to do regarding Iran.<\/p>\n Speaking to reporters as he flew to Florida, Trump sidestepped a question about whether Tehran would be emboldened if the U.S. backed away from launching strikes on Iran, saying, \u201cSome people think that. Some people don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump said Iran should negotiate a \u201csatisfactory\u201d deal to prevent the Middle Eastern country from getting any nuclear weapons, but said, \u201cI don\u2019t know that they will. But they are talking to us. Seriously talking to us.\u201d<\/p>\n Ali Larijani, a top security official in Iran, wrote on X late Saturday that \u201cstructural arrangements for negotiations are progressing.\u201d However, there is no public sign of any direct talks with the United States, something Khamenei has repeatedly ruled out.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press writer Will Weissert aboard Air Force One contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Iran\u2019s supreme leader warned Sunday that any attack by the United States…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":558322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[66557,3492,3495,7838,69,10102,8697,57,235499,83,3461,8132,220040,50,80,402,235115,5343,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-558321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-abraham-lincoln","9":"tag-ali-khamenei","10":"tag-ali-larijani","11":"tag-diplomacy","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-energy-industry","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-international-incidents","17":"tag-iran","18":"tag-iran-government","19":"tag-military-and-defense","20":"tag-mohammad-bagher-qalibaf","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","24":"tag-send-to-apple-news","25":"tag-terrorism","26":"tag-world","27":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115994670149558904","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}