Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has issued the most direct threat yet against the US after Tehran's bloody crackdown on protesters, warning that the Islamic Republic will "retaliate with all means possible if we are subjected to another attack," the AP reported, BTA reported.
The comments by Araghchi, whose invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos was rescinded due to the killings of protesters, come as a US aircraft carrier group moves west to the Middle East from East Asia.
Araghchi made the threat in an article published in the “Wall Street Journal“. In it, the foreign minister claimed that "the violent phase of the unrest lasted less than 72 hours" and again tried to blame armed demonstrators for the violence. Videos emerging from Iran despite the internet shutdown show security forces repeatedly using weapons to attack apparently unarmed protesters, something that Araghchi ignored.
“Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces have no hesitation in returning fire with everything we have if we are subjected to another attack“, Araghchi wrote, referring to the 12-day war launched by Israel against Iran.
“This is not a threat, but a reality that I feel I must state explicitly because as a diplomat and veteran, I abhor war“, he said.
“A full-scale confrontation would surely be fierce and would drag on much, much longer than the incredible timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to impose on the White House. It will certainly cover a wider region and affect ordinary people around the world,” the Iranian foreign minister said.
Araghchi’s comments likely referred to Tehran’s short- and medium-range missiles. The Islamic Republic relied on ballistic missiles to attack Israel in the war, and left its stockpile of short-range missiles unused. They could be fired at US bases in the Persian Gulf. There are already some restrictions on travel by American diplomats to American bases in Kuwait and Qatar.
Middle Eastern countries, particularly diplomats from Gulf Arab states, have lobbied Trump not to attack Iran. Last week, Iran closed its airspace, possibly in anticipation of a strike.
The aircraft carrier "Abraham Lincoln," which has been in the South China Sea in recent days, passed through the Strait of Malacca, a key waterway connecting the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, ship tracking data shows. A U.S. Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the carrier and its three accompanying destroyers were heading west.
While Navy and other defense officials have not indicated that the carrier strike group is headed for the Middle East, its current direction and location in the Indian Ocean mean it is just days away from entering the Persian Gulf region. Meanwhile, U.S. military images released in recent days show F-15E Strike Eagles arriving in the Middle East and troops moving a HYMARS missile system, the same type used to great effect by Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.