Iran Threatened a Harsh Response if the U.S. Continues Escalation

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday, March 7, once again warned of possible retaliatory actions against the United States amid the continuing escalation in the Middle East following strikes carried out last week.

“If [President Trump] seeks escalation, then that is precisely what our powerful armed forces have long been prepared for—and exactly what he will get,” Araghchi said in a message published on the platform X.

According to him, “responsibility for any further intensification of Iran’s actions in self-defense will rest entirely with the U.S. administration.”

Earlier, the minister said Iranian forces “expect” that the United States could launch a ground invasion of the country.

“We are confident that we are capable of resisting them—and that it would turn into a major catastrophe for them,” Araghchi said in an interview with NBC News journalist Tom Llamas on Thursday.

After the United States, together with Israel, carried out military strikes against Iran last Saturday, Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of a ground operation. In a post on the platform Truth Social, he wrote that Iran would be “hit very hard.”

During the initial phase of the operation, the country had already lost its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In response, Iranian forces carried out strikes against U.S. bases located in neighboring countries.

Iranian drone attacks also led to the deaths of six U.S. service members in Kuwait over the weekend.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian apologized to neighboring countries for strikes carried out on their territory, but stressed that Tehran does not intend to comply with Trump’s demands for “unconditional surrender.”

Araghchi also said on Saturday that Trump had underestimated the capabilities of Iran’s armed forces.

“The willingness of President Pezeshkian to de-escalate in our region—provided that the airspace, territory, and waters of our neighbors are not used for attacks against the Iranian people—was almost immediately undermined by how President Trump misinterpreted our capabilities, resolve, and intentions,” the foreign minister said.

The Iranian minister also criticized the United States for its involvement in “costly dead-end conflicts in the Middle East” alongside Israel.

“This is a war of choice pursued by a small group of advocates of the ‘Israel First’ principle—and ‘Israel First’ always means ‘America Last’,” he said.