(Reuters) – Tehran would strike U.S. bases in the region if Washington follows through on its warning of military consequences for Iran in the absence of a new nuclear deal, the speaker of the Iranian parliament said on Friday.
U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this month that he had sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warning that “there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal.”
“If the Americans attack the sanctity of Iran, the entire region will blow up like a spark in an ammunition dump,” Parliament Speaker Mohammad Qalibaf said.
“Their bases and those of their allies will not be safe,” Qalibaf said in a live speech at the annual Al-Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, that marks the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.
Khamenei has called Trump’s message deceptive, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday talks were impossible unless Washington changed its “maximum pressure” policy. Iran had thoroughly examined Trump’s letter and had sent “an appropriate response” through Oman, Araqchi said.
On Friday, Araqchi was reported by state media as saying that while Trump’s letter contained threats, it also left the door open to diplomacy. He did not elaborate.
In his first 2017-21 term, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed strict limits on Tehran’s disputed nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
Iran subsequently breached the deal by surpassing limits in its uranium enrichment, especially after Trump reimposed sweeping U.S. sanctions.
Western powers accuse Iran of having a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability. Tehran says its programme is wholly for civilian energy purposes.
(dubai.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com, Editing by William Maclean)
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