Tehran: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian Tuesday said his country’s answer to an attack would be harsh, which appeared to be in response to a warning by US President Donald Trump over the reconstruction of Iran’s nuclear programme.
“Answer of Islamic Republic of Iran to any cruel aggression will be harsh and discouraging,” Pezeshkian said on the social media platform X.
Pezeshkian did not elaborate, but his statement came a day after Trump suggested the US could carry out military strikes if Iran attempts to reconstitute its nuclear programme.
Trump made the comment during wide-ranging talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again,” Trump said during a news conference with Netanyahu after their meeting. “And if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening.”
The two leaders discussed the possibility of renewed military action against Tehran months after a 12-day air war in June that killed nearly 1,100 Iranians, including senior military commanders and scientists. Iran’s retaliatory missile barrage killed 28 people in Israel.
Trump suggested Monday that he could order another US strike against Iran.
“If it’s confirmed, they know the consequences, and the consequences will be very powerful, maybe more powerful than the last time,” Trump said.
Pezeshkian said Saturday that tensions between the sides had already risen.
“We are in a full-scale war with the US, Israel and Europe; they don’t want our country to remain stable,” he said.
Iran has insisted it is no longer enriching uranium at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic programme.
US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency assessed Iran last had an organised nuclear weapons programme in 2003, though Tehran had been enriching uranium up to 60 per cent, which is a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.