Iran’s foreign minister issued the most direct threat yet against the United States on Wednesday after Tehran’s bloody crackdown on protesters, warning the Islamic Republic will be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack.”
The comments by Abbas Araghchi, who saw his invitation to this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos rescinded over the killings, comes as an American aircraft carrier group moves westward toward the Middle East.
Araghchi made the threat in an opinion piece published by The Wall Street Journal in which he contended “the violent phase of the unrest lasted less than 72 hours” and sought again to blame armed demonstrators for the violence.
Videos that have emerged from Iran despite an internet shutdown appear to show security forces repeatedly using live fire to target apparently unarmed protesters, something unaddressed by Araghchi.
The demonstrations began on 28 December initially over the collapse of the rial currency, but morphed into wider discontent with the country’s government.
“Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” Araghchi wrote, referring to the 12-day conflict with Israel in June.
“This isn’t a threat, but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war.”
He added: “An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House. It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe.”
Araghchi’s comments likely refer to Iran’s short- and medium-range missiles. The Islamic Republic relied on ballistic missiles to target Israel in last year’s conflict and left its stockpile of shorter-range missiles unused, something that could be fired to target American bases and interests in the Persian Gulf.
Already, there have been some restrictions on US diplomats traveling to American bases in both Kuwait and Qatar.
Middle East nations, particularly diplomats from Gulf Arab countries, had lobbied Trump not to attack. Last week, Iran shut its airspace in likely anticipation of a strike.
The USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent days, had passed through the Strait of Malacca, a key waterway connecting the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, by Tuesday, ship-tracking data showed.
A US Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft carrier and three accompanying destroyers were heading west.
While naval and other defence officials stopped short of saying the carrier strike group was headed to the Middle East, its current heading and location in the Indian Ocean means it is only days away from moving into the region.
Meanwhile, US military images released in recent days showed F-15E Strike Eagles arriving in the Middle East and forces in the region moving a HIMARS missile system, the type used with great success by Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in the country in 2022.
Protest death toll rises
The death toll from the protests has reached at least 4,519 people, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said.
The agency has been accurate throughout the years on demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities.
The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought the republic into being.
Although there have been no protests for days, there are fears the death toll could increase significantly as information gradually emerges from a country still under a government-imposed internet shutdown since 8 January.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that the protests had left “several thousand” people dead and blamed the United States.
It was the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualties.
More than 26,300 people have been arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Comments from officials have led to fears of some of those detained being executed.