BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA
Iran’s foreign minister issued his most explicit warning yet to the United States on Wednesday, declaring that the Islamic Republic would respond with overwhelming force if it comes under renewed attack, as tensions escalated following Tehran’s violent suppression of nationwide protests and signs of increased U.S. military activity near the Middle East.
In a sharply worded statement, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran’s armed forces would have “no qualms about firing back with everything we have” if the country is attacked again. His comments came amid growing international outrage over the scale of deaths during Iran’s recent crackdown on demonstrators and as U.S. naval and air assets appeared to be repositioning closer to the region.
Araghchi’s remarks were published in an opinion column in The Wall Street Journal, days after his planned appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos was withdrawn following reports of thousands of deaths linked to the unrest. In the article, he sought to downplay the duration of the violence, claiming the most intense phase of unrest lasted less than three days, and again blamed armed demonstrators for the bloodshed.
However, videos that have circulated outside Iran despite a sweeping internet shutdown appear to show security forces repeatedly firing live ammunition at crowds that appear unarmed, footage that Araghchi did not address directly.
Referring to last summer’s brief but intense conflict between Israel and Iran, the foreign minister said Tehran had shown restraint during that confrontation but would not do so again. He warned that any wider war would be prolonged and devastating, extending far beyond the region and affecting global stability and ordinary people worldwide. While insisting he opposed war, Araghchi said he felt compelled to be explicit about the consequences of further escalation.
His comments are widely understood to refer to Iran’s extensive arsenal of short- and medium-range missiles. During the conflict with Israel, Iran relied primarily on longer-range ballistic missiles and reportedly held back much of its shorter-range stockpile, weapons analysts say could be used to strike U.S. bases and assets across the Persian Gulf. In recent days, restrictions have reportedly been placed on travel by U.S. diplomats to American military installations in Kuwait and Qatar, underscoring concerns about potential retaliation.
The warning came as U.S. military movements drew increased attention. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been operating in the South China Sea, was tracked passing through the Strait of Malacca and into the Indian Ocean, placing it within days of the Middle East. A U.S. Navy official said the carrier and three accompanying destroyers were heading west, though officials stopped short of confirming a final destination.
At the same time, U.S. military imagery released publicly showed additional fighter aircraft, including F-15E Strike Eagles, arriving in the Middle East. Other images depicted the repositioning of a HIMARS rocket system, a mobile launcher that has been used extensively in recent conflicts. The deployments follow a major U.S. operation in the Caribbean that resulted in the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, further fueling speculation in Tehran that Washington may be prepared to act decisively elsewhere.
Regional governments, particularly in the Gulf, have reportedly urged restraint, warning that another major conflict would destabilize the region and threaten energy supplies. Iran, for its part, closed its airspace last week, a move analysts say may have been taken in anticipation of a possible strike.
Adding to the volatility, an Iranian Kurdish separatist group based in northern Iraq said Iran carried out a drone and missile strike on one of its bases near Irbil, killing at least one fighter. The National Army of Kurdistan, the armed wing of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, released video footage showing flames rising from a site in the predawn hours. Iran has not acknowledged the attack, which would mark its first confirmed military operation beyond its borders since the protests began.
Several Iranian Kurdish opposition groups have long operated from Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, an arrangement that has periodically strained relations between Tehran and Baghdad. Iranian state-linked media have previously accused some of these groups of launching attacks inside Iran during periods of unrest, claims the groups have sometimes embraced.
Meanwhile, the human toll of the crackdown continues to come into focus. A U.S.-based human rights monitoring organization said the death toll from the protests has reached at least 4,519 people, with more than 26,000 arrested. The group relies on a network of activists inside Iran and has a record of detailed documentation during past periods of unrest, though independent verification remains difficult due to restrictions on access and communications.
The scale of the reported deaths would make the unrest the deadliest episode of internal violence in Iran in decades, evoking memories of the upheaval surrounding the 1979 revolution. Although street protests have subsided in recent days, activists fear the number of casualties could rise further as information slowly emerges from the country under an ongoing internet shutdown imposed earlier this month.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, acknowledged over the weekend that “several thousand” people had been killed, blaming the violence on foreign interference, particularly the United States. It was the first public indication from Iran’s leadership of the magnitude of the casualties.
The mass arrests and reports of fast-track trials have heightened fears that some detainees could face execution, in a country that already ranks among the world’s most prolific users of the death penalty. The killing of protesters and the prospect of executions have been cited by U.S. officials as red lines in the rapidly deteriorating standoff, as both sides brace for what could become a far wider confrontation.