Iran says would respond ‘ferociously’ to any US attack

Iran warned the United States on Monday that any attack would be met “ferociously” in response to President Donald Trump’s threat of limited strikes, while students staged new protests against the Islamic republic. Tehran and Washington’s threats came as both sides worked to reach a deal in indirect talks due to restart in Switzerland on Thursday. As Iran grappled with US pressure backed by a buildup of military force in the Middle East, university students started a new semester with anti-government protests, reviving slogans from nationwide protests that peaked in January and which were met by a deadly crackdown.

Trump last week said he was weighing a limited strike if Iran did not cut a deal, but Tehran’s foreign ministry reiterated Monday that any strike, even limited, “would be regarded as an act of aggression. “And any state would react to an act of aggression as part of its inherent right of self-defence ferociously so that’s what we would do,” ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at a briefing in Tehran attended by an AFP journalist. Iran has been working on a plan for an agreement on its nuclear programme, and said it would be ready to deliver a draft proposal to mediators in coming days.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is for civilian use but the West believes it is aimed at building an atomic bomb. And while Iran has insisted the talks with the US focus solely on its nuclear programme, Washington also wants to discuss Tehran’s missiles and its support for militant groups in the region. Trump said on Thursday Iran had at most 15 days to make a deal, suggesting the United States would attack if it did not using the arsenal of aircraft and ships built up in the region in recent weeks.

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The two countries concluded a second round of indirect talks in Switzerland last week under Omani mediation and were due to continue on Thursday, a schedule confirmed by Iran and Oman but not yet by the US. In an interview with Fox News broadcast over the weekend, US negotiator Steve Witkoff said Trump was wondering why Iran has not “capitulated” in the face of Washington’s military deployment.

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