PARIS: Iran threatened Thursday to instantly strike US bases and aircraft carriers in response to any attack, after US President Donald Trump warned time was running out for Tehran and the EU blacklisted its Revolutionary Guards as a terror group.
As Brussels and Washington dialled up their own rhetoric and Iran issued stark threats, UN chief Antonio Guterres called for nuclear negotiations to “avoid a crisis that could have devastating consequences in the region”. An Iranian military spokesman warned Tehran’s response to any US action would not be limited — as it was in June last year when American planes and missiles briefly joined Israel’s short air war against Iran — but would be a decisive response “delivered instantly”.
READ MORE: Trump says Iran wants talks as US aircraft carrier deploys
Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia told state television US aircraft carriers have “serious vulnerabilities” and that numerous American bases in the Gulf region are “within the range of our medium-range missiles”. “If such a miscalculation is made by the Americans, it will certainly not unfold the way Trump imagines — carrying out a quick operation and then, two hours later, tweeting that the operation is over,” he said.
An official in the Gulf, where states host US military sites, told AFP that fears of a US strike on Iran are “very clear”.
“It would bring the region into chaos, it would hurt the economy not just in the region but in the US and cause oil and gas prices to skyrocket,” the official added.
Qatar’s leader Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian held a call to discuss “efforts being made to de-escalate tensions and establish stability,” the Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.
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