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DUBAI, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Iran’s leadership warned of a regional conflict on Sunday if the U.S. were to attack it, stoking the tension between Washington and Tehran, and it designated EU armies as “terrorist groups” in a retaliatory move.
The United States has ramped up its naval presence in the Middle East after President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened Iran with intervention if it did not agree to a nuclear deal or failed to stop killing protesters.
Despite the standoff between Iran’s clerical rulers and the Trump administration, both sides have signalled they are ready to resume talks, and regional allies such as Turkey have sought de-escalation.
An Iranian official denied an earlier report by state-run Press TV that the Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces would carry out live-fire exercises in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and Monday, telling Reuters they have no such plan and the media reports are wrong.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted on state media as saying that although Trump says he has sent ships to the region, “the Iranian nation shall not be scared by these things, the Iranian people will not be stirred by these threats”.
“We are not the initiators and do not want to attack any country, but the Iranian nation will strike a strong blow against anyone who attacks and harasses them,” he said.
The U.S. Navy currently has six destroyers, one aircraft carrier, and three littoral combat ships in the region, raising the risk of war after Iran’s deadly crackdown in January on nationwide protests against Iranian leadership.
Trump was weighing options against Iran that include targeted strikes on security forces, Reuters has reported, citing multiple sources.
On Saturday Trump told reporters that Iran was “seriously talking” with Washington, hours after Tehran’s top security official Ali Larijani said on X that arrangements for negotiations were underway.
Trump also said: “I hope they negotiate something acceptable. You could make a negotiated deal that would be satisfactory with no nuclear weapons.”
Tehran says it is ready for “fair” negotiations that do not seek to curtail its defensive capabilities.
The protests, which started over economic hardships but morphed into the most acute political challenge to the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979, have now abated after repression.
Official numbers put the unrest-related death toll at 3,117, while U.S.-based HRANA rights group said on Sunday it had so far verified the death of 6,713 people. Reuters was unable to independently verify the numbers.
In a symbolic shift in response to the crackdown on protests, the European Union on Thursday designated the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.
In retaliation on Sunday, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said EU armies would also be designated as such, and that authorities would deliberate on the expulsion of EU states’ military attachés.
“By trying to hit the Revolutionary Guards… the Europeans actually shot themselves in the foot” the speaker told fellow lawmakers, who all wore IRGC uniforms in support of the elite force.
After his address, lawmakers shouted “Death to America, Shame on you Europe”.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Alexander Smith, Jane Merriman and Hugh Lawson)
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