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DUBAI, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Iran’s leadership warned of a regional conflict on Sunday if the United States were to attack it, stoking tensions between Washington and Tehran, designating EU armies as “terrorist groups” in a retaliatory move.
The United States has increased its naval presence in the Middle East after President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened Iran with intervention if it did not agree to a nuclear deal or failed to stop the killing of protesters.
Despite the standoff between Iran’s clerical leaders and the Trump administration, both sides have shown they are willing to resume talks, and regional allies such as Turkey have sought the reduction.
An Iranian official denied an earlier report by state-run Press TV that Revolutionary Guards naval forces would conduct live-fire drills in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and Monday, telling Reuters they have no such plans and the media reports are wrong.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted on state media as saying that although Trump says he has sent ships to the region, “the Iranian nation should not be afraid of these things, the Iranian people will not be swayed by these threats”.
“We are not the initiators and we do not want to attack any country, but the Iranian nation will give a strong blow against anyone who attacks and strengthens them,” he said.
The US Navy currently has six destroyers, one aircraft carrier, and three littoral combat ships in the region, raising the risk of war after Iran’s deadly crackdown in January on nationwide protests against the Iranian leadership.
Trump has been weighing options against Iran that include targeted attacks on security forces, Reuters reported, citing multiple sources.
On Saturday Trump told reporters that Iran was “talking seriously” with Washington, hours after Tehran’s top security official Ali Larijani said on X that arrangements were underway for negotiations.
Trump also said: “I hope they negotiate something acceptable. You can make a negotiated agreement that will be satisfactory without nuclear weapons.”
Tehran says it is ready for “fair” negotiations that do not seek to reduce its defensive capabilities.
The protests, which started due to economic hardships but became the most acute political challenge to the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979, have now subsided following the crackdown.
Official numbers put the death toll related to the unrest at 3,117, while US-based rights group HRANA said on Sunday it had so far verified the deaths of 6,713 people. Reuters could not independently verify the numbers.
In a symbolic change in response to the crackdown on protests, the European Union on Thursday designated the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.
In return on Sunday, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said that the EU armies will also be designated as such, and that the authorities will deliberate on the dismissal of the military attachés of the EU states.
“By trying to hit the Revolutionary Guards… the Europeans actually shot themselves in the foot” the speaker told his fellow lawmakers, who all wore IRGC uniforms in support of the elite force.
After his address, the legislators shouted “Death to America, Shame on you Europe”.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Alexander Smith, Jane Merriman and Hugh Lawson)