Iran will produce nuclear weapons if attacked, says Khamenei adviser

Tehran officials condemn Trump's threats to bomb country

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks as then-parliament speaker Ali Larijani listens, during a ceremony in Tehran in 2018. EPA

Iran has vowed to retaliate if it is attacked by the US or its allies, with top Iranian officials condemning US President Donald Trump's threats to bomb the country if a nuclear deal is not reached and warning an attack would push the country to acquire nuclear weapons.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Monday of a forceful response if the Islamic republic was attacked. “If it is carried out, they will definitely receive a strong counterattack,” he said.

A senior adviser to Mr Khamenei, Ali Larijani, said an attack by the US or its allies would push Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. “If the US or Israel bomb Iran under the nuclear pretext, Iran will be compelled to move towards producing an atom bomb,” Mr Larijani said in a televised interview on Monday.

“The leader’s [Mr Khamenei's] fatwa prohibits nuclear weapons, but if the US makes a mistake, Iran, under public pressure, would be forced to move towards building nuclear weapons.”

In a telephone interview with NBC News on Sunday, Mr Trump had said if Iran does not reach a deal to curb its nuclear programme “there will be bombing” and “it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before”. He added that no deal would also result in secondary tariffs, “like I did four years ago”.

Gen Amirali Hajizadeh, a senior commander in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who is in charge of the country's ballistic missile programme, warned about US interests in the Middle East.

“The Americans have at least 10 bases in the region around Iran, and they have 50,000 troops,” he said on state television on Monday.

“Someone who is in a glass room shouldn't throw stones at anyone.”

Later on Monday, Mr Trump warned that the “real pain” was still to come for Iran and their Houthi allies in Yemen, which have been subjected to weeks of US strikes.

“The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran,” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei called Mr Trump's comments a “shocking affront” to international peace, in a post on X. The ministry said it summoned the charge d'affaires of the Swiss embassy, which represents US interests in Iran, “following the threats by the US President”.

Iran also complained to the UN Security Council on Monday about “reckless and belligerent” remarks by US President Donald Trump, describing them as “a flagrant violation of international law” and the founding UN Charter.

In his first term in office, Mr Trump withdrew the US from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed strict limits on Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. Mr Trump also reimposed sweeping US sanctions against the country.

Since then, Iran has abandoned the uranium enrichment limits set out in the initial agreement. Mr Khamenei has said that the Trump administration's departure from that deal was the reason he did not want Iran to enter direct negotiations.

Mr Trump sent a letter to the supreme leader last month, calling for a return to negotiations on the deal. Tehran ruled out direct talks, in a response communicated through Oman.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was among Iran's negotiators on the previous deal, said the agreement could not be revived in the same format because of advances in Tehran's nuclear development and increased US sanctions. However, Mr Araghchi suggested the deal could serve as a base for a potential agreement in the future.

Western powers have accused Iran of aiming to develop nuclear weapons by continuing to enrich uranium to higher levels. Tehran says its nuclear programme is only for civilian purposes.