Iran has vowed to keep fighting until its adversaries surrender, rejecting U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims that its military capabilities have been significantly degraded and warning of “even harsher” attacks.
Tehran will not accept the "vicious cycle of war, negotiations, ceasefire and then the repetition of the same pattern," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Thursday, according to the state news agency IRNA.
Iran will continue to resist for as long as the war continues, Baghaei said.
A spokesperson for Iran's armed forces headquarters echoed this stance, telling the ISNA news agency that Iran's enemies should "wait for even harsher measures."
He dismissed Trump's assertion that Iran's capabilities had been depleted, saying U.S.-Israeli attacks had hit only insignificant targets.
"They know nothing about our very extensive and strategic capabilities," he said, adding that strategic military production is taking place in locations about which Iran's adversaries know nothing and "will never be able to reach."
The war will continue until the "permanent regret and surrender" of Iran's enemies, spokesperson for the Iranian military's Khatam al-Anbiya central headquarters, Ebrahim Zolfaqari, said.
Iran's army commander-in-chief Amir Hatami, in the meantime, instructed the operational headquarters to monitor "enemy movements with utmost pessimism and accuracy" and be ready to counter any method of attack, state media reported Thursday.
"No enemy troops should survive if adversaries attempt a ground operation," Hatami said.
State media shared a soundless footage showing Hatami in a room with three other army commanders and on a video call with about a dozen others.
Iran's response came after Trump, in a televised address Wednesday, said the United States was on track to achieve all its military objectives in the war "very shortly."
"Their navy is gone, their air force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten," he said. "Taken together, these actions will cripple Iran military (sic), crush their ability to support terrorist proxies and deny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb."
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is not aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
He said the U.S. would hit Iran "extremely hard over the next two to three weeks."
Since launching its offensive alongside Israel in late February, Washington has made various statements regarding its war aims. Critics have accused Trump of lacking a clear plan and of pursuing an erratic course.
On Wednesday, Trump described these objectives as "very simple and clear," saying: "We are dismantling the regime's ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders."
Fears are growing that the conflict may leave Iran with a stranglehold over Middle East energy supplies now that it has shown that it can block the vital Strait of Hormuz by targeting oil tankers and attacking Gulf countries hosting U.S. troops.
Gulf states say they reserve the right to self-defence but have not responded militarily to repeated attacks by Iran over the past month to avoid escalation into a far more devastating all-out Middle East war.
Iran's parliament was reviewing a bill that would formalize the blocking of vessels from hostile countries passing through the strait and the charging of tolls for others wishing to pass, spokesperson Abbas Goodarzi said.
Thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East since February 28, when the U.S. and Israel began air strikes on Iran, triggering Iranian attacks on Israel, U.S. bases and the Gulf states, while opening a new front in Lebanon.
Iran said airstrikes had badly damaged some of its largest steel producers as well as Tehran's Pasteur Institute of Iran medical research center.
The country's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted U.S.-linked steel and aluminium facilities in Gulf states and would step up such attacks if Iranian industries were hit again.
Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted four drones and Abu Dhabi said it had intercepted a missile, with minor damage near an economic zone.
The U.S. embassy in Baghdad urged its citizens to leave Iraq, warning of attacks in the capital by Iran-allied militia in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Iranian and allied attacks on Israel continued during the celebrations for the Jewish festival of Passover Wednesday evening.
On Thursday morning, warning sirens sounded repeatedly in northern Israel. Two men were slightly injured by a Hezbollah rocket, the Magen David Adom emergency service said.
An Iranian rocket also aimed at the north was fitted with cluster munitions, Israeli media reported.
