A senior Iranian official vowed that the regime would launch massive attacks against Israel if the U.S. decides to strike Iran, after U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday renewed his threats, as well as his calls for the regime to return to the negotiating table.
Writing on 𝕏 both in Persian and in Hebrew, Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and one of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s closest aides, said, “A limited [US] strike is an illusion. Any military action by America, of any kind and at any level, will be considered the start of a war, and the response will be immediate, comprehensive, and unprecedented, directed at the aggressor, at the heart of Tel Aviv, and at all who support the aggressor.”
The latest Iranian threat from Shamkhani, who survived an Israeli strike last year, followed Trump’s post on Truth Social, in which he noted that a “massive Armada is heading to Iran” while calling the regime to return to the negotiating table and renounce its nuclear program.
However, Iranian officials continued their hardline stance, with the Speaker of Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, saying on Thursday that Iran will respond if it is attacked.
In an interview with CNN, he said, “There will be no negotiations as long as they do not guarantee economic benefits for the Iranian people. We do not consider dictates to be negotiations.”
Western officials are demanding from Iran the end of the nuclear program as well as ending support for regional proxies and limitations on the ballistic missile program, American and European officials told the New York Times (NYT) on Wednesday.
“Trump can start a war, but he has no control over how it will end,” Ghalibaf threatened in another interview, noting that thousands of American soldiers would be at risk.
In previous instances, the Iranian regime attacked U.S. bases in Iraq and Qatar in retaliation. In addition, the Iranian proxy forces in Yemen, the Houthis, have attacked targets in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with Iranian missiles over the past few years.
Despite the U.S. threats and offers to negotiate over the past weeks, there have been no indications that the Iranian regime is ready to make any concessions.
The Iranian leadership is convinced that the cost of a war against the U.S. and Israel would still be less than the cost an agreement, a source at Iran’s Foreign Ministry told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.
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