Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatolá Ali Khamenei, said on Monday that the United States would receive a strong blow if he acts on the threat of President Donald Trump to bombard unless Tehran reaches a new nuclear agreement with Washington.
Trump reiterated his threat on Sunday that they will be bombarded if he does not accept his offer for the conversations described in a letter sent to Iran’s leadership in early March, giving Tehran a two -month window to make a decision.
“The enmity of the United States and Israel have always been there. They threaten to attack us, which we do not believe it is very likely, but they commit any mischief they will surely receive a strong reciprocal blow,” Khamenei said.
“And if they are thinking of causing sedition within the country as in recent years, the Iranian people will deal with them,” he added.
Iranian authorities blame the West for recent recent disturbances, including the protests of 2022-2023 for death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained for allegedly breaching the rules of the Hijab and protests throughout the country in 2019 due to increases in the price of fuel.
Last week, Iran responded to the United States letter, with President Masoud fishshkian explaining on Sunday that Tehran would not go into direct negotiations with Washington, but was willing to continue conversations indirectly according to a court order of Khamenei.
“An open threat of ‘bombing’ by a head of state against Iran is an impressive affront to the very essence of international peace and security,” spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaeil Baghaei on Monday.
“Violence generates violence, peace engenders peace. The United States can choose the course and grant the consequences.”
In his first 2017-21 mandate, Trump withdrew the United States from a 2015 agreement between Iran and the world powers that placed strict limits in the disputed nuclear activities in Tehran in exchange for relief of sanctions. Trump also reimputed the US sanctions.
Since then, Iran has far exceeded the limits of that agreement in uranium enrichment.
The Western powers accuse Iran of having a clandestine agenda to develop the capacity of nuclear weapons enriching uranium to a high level of fisrosil purity, above what they say it is justifiable for a civil atomic energy program. Tehran says that its nuclear program is totally for civil energy purposes.
