Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that any U.S. attack on Iran would trigger a regional war, state media reported, as Washington moves additional naval assets into the Middle East and both sides signal that indirect talks are underway.
Khamenei dismissed President Donald Trump’s repeated threats and the U.S. carrier-led deployment as psychological pressure. “The Iranian nation shall not be scared by these things,” he said. “We are not the initiators and do not want to attack any country, but the Iranian nation will strike a strong blow against anyone who attacks and harasses them.”
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The U.S. Navy has concentrated six destroyers, an aircraft carrier and three littoral combat ships in regional waters, with the USS Abraham Lincoln leading a flotilla positioned off Iran’s shores. Trump told Fox News that “(Iran is) talking to us,” adding: “We’ll see if we can do something, otherwise we’ll see what happens.”
Ali Larijani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said “structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing,” even as Tehran’s military establishment issued fresh warnings. Defense chief Amir Hatami said Iranian forces were at “full defensive and military readiness,” cautioning the United States and Israel against any strike. President Masoud Pezeshkian told Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in a call that war would serve neither Iran nor the U.S., according to the Iranian presidency.
Tensions are especially acute in the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic chokepoint for global energy flows. U.S. Central Command said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) planned a two-day live-fire naval exercise there, warning against “unsafe and unprofessional” behavior near U.S. forces. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded that Washington was attempting to dictate how Iran conducts drills “in their own turf.”
The United States designated the IRGC a terrorist organization in 2019. The European Union followed suit on Thursday, prompting Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf—appearing in a Guards uniform—to declare European armies “terrorist groups” under a new Iranian law. It was not immediately clear what practical effect Iran’s designation would have.
Domestic unrest forms the backdrop to the standoff. Protests that began in late December over economic pain widened into the most serious challenge to Iran’s clerical leadership since 1979 before abating after a crackdown. Officials put the death toll at 3,117. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said it has verified 6,713 deaths, including 137 children. The competing figures could not be independently confirmed. Khamenei likened the unrest to a “coup,” calling it “sedition” that sought to strike at the country’s centers of governance.
Amid the security clampdown, Iranian authorities moved to tamp down speculation over a series of incidents, including an explosion in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas that local firefighters attributed to a gas leak. Iran has warned it would answer any U.S. attack with missile strikes on American bases, warships and allies across the region, notably Israel.
Regional mediation continued alongside the saber rattling. Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met Larijani in Tehran to try to “de-escalate tensions in the region,” Doha said. Iran has said it is ready for nuclear talks provided its missile and defense programs are off the table. Trump, for his part, has argued Iran will choose a deal over confrontation.
With warships massing near Iran and diplomatic channels flickering open, both escalation and off-ramps are in view. As Pezeshkian urged his government to “serve the people,” voices from Iran’s borders underscored the human cost of the turmoil. “They were shooting us in the back,” said one woman at Turkey’s Kapikoy crossing, giving her name as Shabnan. “Everyone has lost loved ones, friends, neighbors.”
What happens next may hinge on whether the dueling messages—deterrence at sea, dialogue in private—can narrow into a framework that avoids the wider conflict Khamenei warned about and the White House insists it does not seek.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
