US President Donald Trump; former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis -Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
Iran’s supreme leader warns that any attack by the US on the Islamic Republic would automatically trigger a regional war amid reports that Tehran threatened to bomb American embassies.
By World Israel News Staff
Iran’s supreme leader warned the United States over the weekend that any attack on the Islamic Republic would automatically spark a regional war, drawing in other countries.
On Sunday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed an event marking the 47th anniversary of the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to Iran in 1979, kicking off the Islamic Revolution that toppled the Iranian monarchy that year.
“The Americans should know that if they start a war this time, it will be a regional war,” Khamenei said amid reports that the Trump administration has already decided to intervene militarily in Iran.
“We are not the initiators of war. We do not seek to oppress anyone. We do not seek to attack any country. However, anyone who seeks to attack or cause harm will face a decisive blow from the Iranian nation.”
Khamenei condemned the unrest in Iran, calling it a failed coup d’état.
“The recent sedition was similar to a coup,” the 86-year-old Shi’ite cleric said. Dissidents, he continued, “attacked the centers that run the country.”
The ayatollah accused President Donald Trump of trying to “intimidate” Iran by referencing the deployment of American military assets to the region, after Trump told reporters on Air Force One that the US has “a lot of very big, very powerful ships sailing to Iran right now.”
“That Americans sometimes talk about war – saying we will come with warships and aircraft – is nothing new. The Iranian nation is not affected by such talk. They shouldn’t try to intimidate the Iranian nation with such things.”
Two days earlier, Iran International reported that the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, contacted officials from American allies in the Middle East a week ago, warning them that should war break out with the US, Iran would strike American embassies in the region.
Larijani reportedly warned officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
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