Syed Zafar Mehdi
31 March 2025•Update: 01 April 2025
TEHRAN, Iran
In his first response to US President Donald Trump’s threat of “bombing” Iran, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned that any “external aggression” would be met with “firm retaliation.”
Speaking to a congregation during Eid al-Fitr prayer in Tehran on Monday, Khamenei said external aggression is unlikely, but the country is prepared for any eventuality.
“We do not believe that any external aggression is likely, but if any act of aggression occurs, they will undoubtedly receive a firm retaliatory blow,” he stated.
“And if they think of inciting sedition within our country—just as they have done in past years—the Iranian people themselves will respond to them.”
His remarks came a day after Trump threatened Iran with bombing and secondary tariffs if it failed to reach an agreement with the US over its nuclear program.
Iran has rejected direct negotiations with the Trump administration but has kept diplomatic channels open to address contentious nuclear issues through indirect negotiations.
Iran’s government responded to Trump’s letter through Oman last week, noting its unwillingness to engage in direct negotiations under military threats, as Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on Thursday.
Trump’s letter reportedly urged Iran to negotiate a new nuclear deal to replace the 2015 accord, which was put on the backburner after the US withdrew from it in May 2018 during Trump’s first presidency.
“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview. “It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”
“There’s a chance that if they don’t make a deal, I will impose secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago.”
On Sunday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian also ruled out direct negotiations with the US but expressed his administration’s willingness to engage in indirect talks.
Khamenei also said this year’s holy month of Ramadan was “bitter” for Muslims worldwide due to events in Gaza and Lebanon, holding the US complicit in Israeli atrocities against Palestinians.
He described Israel as a “proxy force” of Western powers in the West Asia region, asserting that the “criminal group” must be “uprooted from Palestine.”
“Let everyone know that our stance remains the same as before, and the hostility of the U.S. and the Zionist regime remains unchanged,” he stated.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei also took to his X handle on Monday to condemn Trump’s bombing threat against Iran.
He described the threat by a head of state as a “shocking affront to the very essence of international peace and security.”
“Violence breeds violence, peace begets peace. The U.S. can choose the course...; and concede to CONSEQUENCES,” he wrote.
