TEHRAN: Iran on Wednesday threatened to target the US bases in the region if a conflict breaks out with the United States.
Iran’s Defence Minister Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh said that if the nuclear negotiations fail and conflict is imposed, the adversary will certainly suffer heavier casualties and the US will be forced to leave the region, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.
“The US will have no choice but to leave the region, as all of its bases are within the reach of Iranian military and they will not hesitate to target all of them in their host countries,” General Nasirzadeh said as quoted by IRNA.
Iran and the United States have held five rounds of talks since April to thrash out a new nuclear deal to replace the 2015 accord that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
Since returning to White House in January, US President Donald Trump has revived his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, backing nuclear diplomacy but warning of military action if it fails.
The United States has multiple bases in the Middle East, with the largest located in Qatar.
Iran and the United States have recently been engaged in a diplomatic standoff over Tehran’s uranium enrichment programme.
Iran insists that its right to enrich uranium is “non-negotiable,” while the United States views the activity as a “red line.”
In an interview published on Wednesday, President Donald Trump expressed doubt about the possibility of reaching an agreement with Iran.
When asked whether he believed he could prevent Tehran from continuing its uranium enrichment, he responded that he was “less confident” a deal could be achieved.
Last week, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said enrichment is “key” to Iran’s nuclear programme and that Washington “cannot have a say” on the issue.
On May 31, following the fifth round of negotiations, Iran announced that it had received “elements” of a US proposal for a nuclear agreement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi later stated that the draft contained “ambiguities.”
Iran has said it will present a counter-proposal to the latest draft from Washington, which it had criticised for failing to offer relief from sanctions — a key demand for Tehran, which has been reeling under their weight for years.
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in a recent report, criticised Iran for providing “less than satisfactory” cooperation, especially regarding unresolved questions about nuclear material found at undeclared sites.
Iran dismissed the IAEA’s report as biased, accusing the agency of basing its findings on “forged documents” allegedly supplied by Israel, its regional adversary.
