Tehran will mete out a powerful response to any “mischief” on the part of the United States or Israel, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Monday.
“The enmity from the U.S. and Israel has always been there. They threaten to attack us, which we don’t think is very probable, but if they commit any mischief, they will surely receive a strong reciprocal blow,” Khamenei said during a televised Eid al-Fitr speech marking the end of Ramadan.
As for threats to the mullahs’ regime from within Iran, Khamenei added that if the Islamic Republic’s enemies “are thinking of causing sedition” in the country, “the Iranian people themselves will deal with them.”
Earlier on Monday, the Tehran Times reported that the Iranian military was prepared to strike “U.S.-related positions” amid the ongoing threats against the country by President Donald Trump.
A “significant number” of “launch-ready” missiles are located in hardened underground facilities around the country, according to the report.
A day earlier on X, the Iranian newspaper wrote that “Opening Pandora’s box will come at a heavy cost for the U.S. government and its allies.”
In an interview with NBC News on Sunday, Trump warned that if no agreement is reached with Tehran to curtail its nuclear program, “there will be bombing—and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”
He recently sent a letter to Iran urging it to agree to a new deal, reportedly allotting it two months to comply and warning that the consequences for failing to do so would be dire.
In a televised Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Tehran in its response—delivered through the sultanate of Oman—ruled out direct negotiations, yet left the door open for indirect talks.
The Islamic Republic has “never shied away from negotiations. It is only the broken promises by the other side that have damaged trust, which must be restored [for negotiations to resume],” the Iranian president said about the response, without disclosing its exact wording.
Future talks depend on the “Americans’ behavior” but “direct negotiations” have been “rejected,” Pezeshkian continued.
Iran has threatened to retaliate against the joint U.S.-U.K. Indian Ocean naval base on Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago if the United States attacks the Islamic Republic, Britain’s The Telegraph reported on Saturday.
“Iran possesses adequate weapons for such an attack from its mainland, such as newer versions of the Khorramshahr missile that have an intermediate range, and the Shahed-136B kamikaze drone with a range of 4,000 kilometers [2,485 miles],” Iranian state media warned, according to the report.
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported that Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, addressing an Al-Quds Day event on Friday, said, “The Americans themselves are aware how vulnerable they are. If they violate Iran’s border, it will be like a spark in the powder keg that would blow up the entire region. Then, their and their allies’ bases will not be safe.”