Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Sunday that any attack by the United States would spark a “regional war” in the Middle East, raising tensions amid threats by President Donald Trump to attack the Islamic republic.
“The Americans should know that if they start a war, this time it will be a regional war,” Khamenei said in comments on Iranian state television, according to the Associated Press news agency.
“We are not instigators and we are not trying to attack any country. But the Iranian nation will deal a heavy blow to anyone who attacks or harasses it,” Iran’s supreme leader said.
The 86-year-old Iranian leader’s comments are the most direct threat he has yet made in response to Trump’s dispatch of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and other U.S. warships to pressure Iran amid the country’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests that erupted in late December 2025 against Iran’s currency collapse and economic woes, according to the AP.
Khamenei claims the death toll has risen
However, Khamenei called the nationwide protests a “coup”.
“The recent uprising was similar to a coup. Of course, the coup was suppressed,” Khamenei said further, adding: “Their (demonstrators’) aim was to destroy the sensitive and effective centers involved in the governance of the country, and for this reason they attacked the police, government centers, (Revolutionary Guard) facilities, banks and mosques – and burned copies of the centers of the country that governed the Koran.
In response, the Iranian government detained tens of thousands of protesters and killed as many as 30,000 people, according to local health officials contacted by TIME.
The government says the death toll is just over 3,000, while the US Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRNA) has confirmed nearly 5,500 dead.
Trump’s next move
Despite Trump’s threats of military strikes against Tehran in support of the protesters, it remains unclear whether the US president will resort to the use of force.
Trump has repeatedly said Iran wants to negotiate, with the US president calling on Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Trump has already bombed Iran in his second term, with the US carrying out strikes against three of the country’s nuclear facilities, namely the Fordow uranium enrichment plant, the Natanz nuclear facility and the Isfahan nuclear technology center, and it remains to be seen what the US president will do next.
As of Saturday night, however, Trump has declined to say whether he has decided to do anything about Tehran.
