Washington/Tehran: The standoff between the United States and Iran grew far more tense on Sunday after President Donald Trump delivered a tough warning to Tehran, telling it to halt further attacks on US interests. He promised that any additional aggression would trigger a US response with military force never witnessed before in its scale or intensity, reports said.
This sharp escalation can be traced to killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday in strikes carried out US and Israeli forces — an event that has reshaped regional politics and sparked unrest beyond Iran’s borders.
Trump’s words followed close on the heels of Iran’s latest announcement to unleash another round of missile and drone attacks on US bases and Israeli facilities in the region.
Sharing his message on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever been hit before.”
“They better not do that, however, because if they do, we will hit them with a force that has never been seen before!”
The post concluded with the full statement released by Trump: “Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever hit before. THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE! Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Shortly after Trump’s remarks, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced it started a sixth wave of retaliatory operations targeting Israel and US military installations across the region. Iranian reports claimed hits on as many as 27 American bases, along with Israel’s Tel Nof airbase, the military command center at HaKirya in Tel Aviv, and a major defence industrial complex in the same city.
The IRGC promised more pain, saying they would deliver “a different and harsh step of revenge, with successive, regrettable slaps,” signalling the possibility of both sides digging in, raising fears of a wider conflict.
