Iran threatens US embassies in Middle East if attacked, official warns

Iran has warned that it could target United States embassies across the Middle East in the event of an American strike, Iran International reports.

Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reportedly communicated the warning to officials in several regional countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, last week.

The source told Iran International that Larijani conveyed Tehran’s position clearly, emphasizing that any US military action against Iran would prompt retaliatory measures against American diplomatic missions in these nations.

To note, decision-making circles in the United States and Israel have moved past diplomacy with Iran, viewing military action as effectively decided, with only the timing still under debate, a Western source familiar with coordination talks told Iran International.

According to the source, the key question in current meetings is no longer whether an attack will take place, but when an appropriate operational and political window will emerge — a window that could open in the coming days or take shape over the course of several weeks.

The source emphasized that, at this stage, the logic being discussed — unlike in previous periods — is not based on “reaching a new agreement.”

 US President Donald Trump said on January 29 he planned to speak with Iran, even as he sent another warship to the Middle East and the Pentagon chief said the military would be ready to carry out whatever the president decided.

Iran however says it will not engage in negotiations unless President Trump stops threatening it.

The source told Iran International that recent assessments identify the primary objective as delivering a decisive blow to maximally weaken and ultimately collapse Iran’s governing structure; a scenario that, in his words, is not comparable in scale or intensity to anything Iran has experienced so far.

The source said the operation under discussion would be “unprecedented,” stressing: “This time, we will be facing an attack the likes of which have not been seen before.”

By Vafa Guliyeva