Iran signaled Wednesday that it remains prepared to answer any future attacks with military force, as officials adopted a defiant tone following reported retaliatory operations linked to recent U.S. strikes in the region.
"Today, the Iranian nation, in its battle with America and the Zionist regime, showed that the era of free-of-charge Iran threats is over and that any aggression will be met with a decisive, regrettable, and proportionate response," Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, according to local news agency ISNA.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran would continue military strikes against sites allegedly used in attacks on Iran, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) fired missiles on Kuwait and Bahrain.
"Our Armed Forces are conducting self-defense strikes on sites the US is permitted to use to attack civilian shipping and violate the ceasefire," Araghchi said in a post on X.
"Any hostile act will be met with an immediate, decisive response. What sanctions and war failed to achieve won't be won with more war," he added.
The remarks came in response to comments by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who praised the cooperation of Washington's regional allies, including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
"I think our allies in the region have been very cooperative - some, obviously, very aggressively cooperative, like the UAE, for example. Kuwait's been fantastic in this part," Rubio said.
Regional tensions have escalated since late February after the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, killing more than 3,000 people, including then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several senior military commanders and government officials.
Tehran, in retaliation, has targeted Israel and Gulf countries that host U.S. bases and closed the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global shipping.
A Pakistan-brokered cease-fire took effect on April 8, and efforts to reach a broader agreement have continued since then.
The IRGC on Wednesday said it attacked a U.S. base in Kuwait and the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, in retaliation for a U.S. overnight attack on its communications tower on southern Qeshm Island.