Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said on Sunday (1st) that recent US threats do not scare the Iranian people and warned that any conflict would result in a regional war.
“The Americans must know that if they start a war, this time it will be a regional war,” Khamenei said during a meeting with thousands of supporters on the occasion of the anniversary of the return of the founder of the current Islamic regime, Ayatollah Ruholá Khomeini, from exile to Iran, ten days before the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran’s highest political and religious authority defended that his country will not start a conflict, but “will deal a firm blow to anyone who attacks it”, in reference to the USA, which sent a large fleet close to Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf and threatened to start a war if it does not reach an agreement with Tehran over its nuclear program.
Khamenei declared that American threats do not scare Iran.
“This gentleman (US President Donald Trump) constantly claims that they sent aircraft carriers and other things. You cannot scare the Iranian people with these threats,” he said.
The Iranian leader also stated that the protests against the regime that took place in Iran between December 28 and January 11 were an attempt similar to a coup d’état, whose objective was to destroy strategic centers of the country’s administration.
“That’s why they attacked the police, government centers, Revolutionary Guard forces, banks and mosques, and they even set fire to the Koran. They attacked the centers that administer the country. This was similar to a coup d’état,” he said.
Khamenei had previously classified the demonstrations as riots and terrorist acts, holding the US and Israel responsible for this, and ordered the use of force against the protesters, which resulted in a harsh repression that caused the deaths of around 3,117 people, according to the official report, a number that the NGO HRANA, based in the US, raises to 6,713 deaths, while it says it is investigating 17,000 reports of homicides.
Faced with this wave of repression, Trump threatened to intervene militarily and sent a fleet led by the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to the Middle East, along with its escort group. However, in recent days he has declared that his goal is to reach an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program.
“Iran is negotiating with us and we’ll see if we can do something, and if not, we’ll see what happens,” Trump said last night.
In turn, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday, during a phone call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, that “a war would benefit neither Iran, nor the US, nor the region”.
Tehran has shown itself willing to participate in a “meaningful, logical and fair” diplomatic process with the US on the nuclear issue, but rejects any negotiations on its missile systems and military capabilities, as proposed by Washington.
