Khamenei Warns Trump Any US Attack Will Trigger Regional War

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly warned that any US military strike on Iran would trigger a wider conflict, saying such an attack would lead to "a regional war."

“Iran responded to the EU’s blacklisting of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) by proscribing the bloc’s armed forces”

Al Jazeera

The warning came amid heightened tensions after Tehran’s violent response to nationwide protests and US threats of force.

Al Jazeera

US naval assets, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, were deployed to the region as Washington weighed possible strikes.

Iranian officials announced exercises in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

The US Central Command cautioned Iran not to threaten American forces or disrupt commercial shipping.

Military maneuvers on both sides intensified the immediate risk.

Reports said US forces struck three Iranian nuclear sites during the conflict phase.

Al Jazeera

Activity at some sites suggested Iran may be trying to obscure damage from satellites while salvaging what remained.

Iran announced live-fire drills in the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point for roughly one-fifth of global traded oil.

The US Central Command explicitly warned against threats to American forces or disruptions to commercial shipping.

Washington also sent an aircraft carrier group to the Arabian Sea, underscoring the military dimension of the standoff.

Despite escalatory rhetoric, both sides publicly signalled at least the possibility of negotiations.

“Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran will not be intimidated as it prepares a two-day live-fire naval exercise in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic shipping lane about 33 km at its narrowest point where roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil passes”

BBC

President Trump, while declining to confirm whether he would order further action, urged Iran to negotiate what he called a "satisfactory" deal and asserted that Iran was "seriously talking" to the US.

Iran's top security official Ali Larijani wrote that "structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing," even as Supreme Leader Khamenei repeatedly ruled out direct talks and warned against U.S. aggression.

Domestic politics in Tehran coloured the rhetoric.

Iranian parliamentarians staged a show of defiance after the EU listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.

France 24

Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Iran now views all EU militaries as 'terror groups'.

Lawmakers donned Guard uniforms and chanted anti-US and anti-Israel slogans.

Supreme Leader Khamenei framed recent anti-government unrest as akin to a 'coup'.

That stance underscored the regime's security focus and its sensitivity to external pressure amid internal dissent.

Analysts and regional actors offered differing assessments of the risks.

“Iran’s authorities say a coup attempt linked to recent unrest was suppressed; officials accused the plotters of attacking police, government and Revolutionary Guard sites, banks, mosques and even burning copies of the Koran”

Halstead Gazette

Some reports pointed to concrete military preparations and previous strikes on suspected nuclear infrastructure as evidence of a dangerous trajectory, while other coverage framed the naval movements, military meetings and diplomatic posturing as pressure meant to deter rather than the prelude to an inevitable wider war.

Halstead Gazette

Officials on both sides nonetheless warned that any miscalculation could rapidly broaden the confrontation.