Iran Warns About Expanding Regional Conflict If American Military Attacks

Ayatollah Khamenei on Sunday warned that any American military action against Iran will be met with expanding across the Middle East, a warning that the Islamic regime will attempt to strike Israel if tensions escalate.In remarks Sunday on the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s return to Iran 47 years ago, marking the victory of the Islamic revolution, the Supreme Leader said Iran will defend itself aggressively with attacks on other nations in the region.“If America attacks or harms Iran the Iranian nation will deliver a strong blow and any war started by America will spread across the region.”As the regime announces upcoming naval drills next month in the Indian Ocean with Russia and China but denies planning two days of live-fire exercises in the Strait of Hormuz — a prospect that prompted a warning from U.S. Central Command based in the Persian Gulf — the ayatollah also suggested that President Trump’s vagaries about the buildup of an American armada are nothing more than empty rhetoric.“This person constantly boasts about deploying aircraft carriers and the like. Such rhetoric does not intimidate the Iranian nation, nor does it influence the Iranian people,” he said in public remarks, adding that American and Israeli efforts last June to kill Iran’s nuclear program did not achieve its goals either. “According to the statements of an influential American figure within the U.S. government, the CIA and Mossad brought all their capabilities into play against Iran during the recent unrest,” he added.On Saturday night, Mr. Trump demurred on whether he has made a decision to trigger military action in the Gulf region, saying that the Iranians love to negotiate so he’s negotiating.“If you could make a negotiated deal that would be satisfactory with no nuclear weapons they should do that. But I don’t know that they will. But they are talking to us. Seriously talking to us,” the president said.The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the president has sent additional air defenses to American air bases in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, adding measures to protect assets should an offensive be met with an Iranian response.Separately, Iran’s parliament on Sunday voted to declare all European militaries as terrorist organizations and announced that it plans to expel all military attachés from Europe. The decision is a response to the European Union’s blacklisting of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, said the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.“Europeans have in fact shot themselves in the foot and, once again through blind obedience to the Americans, decided against the interests of their own people,” Mr. Qalibaf said.Iran’s courts plan to try tens of thousands of protesters currently in prison after protests last month that expanded nationwide over anger at corruption and mismanagement of Iran’s economy and its free-falling currency. As many as 30,000 people were killed in the peak two days of three weeks of protests. Tehran claims fewer than 6,000 were killed, and says most were military or agitators paid by the West.“The ringleaders, many of whom have been arrested, confessed that they were paid for their actions and trained in how to attack centers and mobilize and direct young people. However, some of the other rioters were impulsive youths, and we do not have significant problems with them,” the Supreme Leader said.On Saturday, a semi-official Iranian news agency, Iran Military Monitor, shared an image of a mass grave being built outside Tehran, claiming that the 5,000-large cemetery is being built as a temporary morgue for “American soldiers who may be killed in a potential attack on Iran.”The agency, a mouthpiece for the military-security agencies of the regime, also mapped out oil tanker traffic through the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, and suggested Iran’s retaliation to any efforts to attack it would result in an environmental conflagration.“Everyone will feel the heat if we light up a match!” it wrote.With the buildup of an American armada in the region, including a destroyer now docked in Israel’s southern port city of Eilat, officials from the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are communicating with American officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Mr. Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, in an attempt to reduce tensions. All four nations have publicly stated that they will not permit the use of the air space for an American attack.

Iran Warns About Expanding Regional Conflict If American Military Attacks

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