Iran tells Washington it will hit back “with everything we have” if attacked again

Iran’s foreign minister has delivered a blunt warning to Washington: any renewed military strike on Iran will be met with full-force retaliation.

In an opinion piece published by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would respond without restraint if it comes under attack, a day after United States President Donald Trump once again issued threats against the country.

“Our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” Araghchi wrote, referring to the 12-day war launched by Israel against Iran in June last year.

He insisted the message should not be read as sabre-rattling.

“This is not a threat,” he wrote, “but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war.”

Araghchi warned that any major confrontation would spiral far beyond the scenarios being sketched out in Washington and Tel Aviv. “An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House,” he said, adding that it would “engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe”.

The warning comes amid visible military and diplomatic movement. Last week, Iran temporarily closed its airspace, widely seen as a precaution against a possible US strike. Diplomats from several Middle Eastern countries, particularly in the Gulf, have reportedly been lobbying Trump not to escalate.

At the same time, the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has moved from the South China Sea through the Strait of Malacca into the Indian Ocean, according to ship-tracking data. US defence officials have not confirmed its destination, but its current position puts it only days away from the Middle East.

Trump’s rhetoric has remained incendiary. Speaking in a News Nation interview aired on Tuesday, he repeated that Iran would be wiped “off the face of this earth” if it ever succeeded in assassinating him.

“I have very firm instructions. Anything happens, they’re going to wipe them off the face of this earth,” Trump said.

Iranian military officials echoed Araghchi’s message. Earlier on Tuesday, General Abolfazl Shekarchi was quoted by Iranian state media as saying Tehran would not hesitate to retaliate if its leadership were targeted.

“Trump knows that if a hand of aggression is extended toward our leader, we will not only sever that hand, and this is not a mere slogan,” Shekarchi said. “But we will set their world on fire and leave them no safe haven in the region.”

Trump issued similar warnings last year shortly after returning to the White House, telling reporters at the time, “If they do it, they get obliterated.”

All of this unfolds as Iran continues to deal with the aftermath of one of the deadliest waves of antigovernment protests since the 1979 revolution. Human rights groups estimate that thousands were killed and tens of thousands arrested, though exact figures remain contested and difficult to verify amid internet shutdowns.