Ali Khamenei: If the US and Israel attack, Iran will respond strongly

The leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran stated that he does not give a "high probability" that the US and Israel will attack Iran, "but if they do, they will certainly face a strong retaliatory blow." Ali Khamenei made these remarks on Tuesday, April 11, during the "Eid al-Fitr prayer" at the end of Ramadan in Iran, saying, "They threaten to commit mischief; we do not expect much that there will be mischief from outside, but if there is, they will certainly receive a strong retaliatory blow." He also expressed concern about unrest within the country, stating, "If they think about creating sedition inside the country, like they did in some previous years, the Iranian people will respond to them." The leader of the Islamic Republic and other government officials refer to popular protests over economic problems and political dissatisfaction as "sedition" and have repeatedly accused Western countries of being involved in these protests. The peak of these unrests in recent years was the protests of 1401 following the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini in the custody of the Islamic Republic's police, which lasted for months and faced severe suppression from security forces, resulting in hundreds killed and thousands arrested. The November 98 protests were also severely suppressed, with reports indicating that 1,500 people were killed by the Islamic Republic's security forces. Khamenei's remarks come a day after Donald Trump, the President of the United States, threatened that if Iran does not reach an agreement with the US regarding its nuclear program, it will face secondary tariffs and bombing. In a phone interview with NBC on April 10, he stated, "If they do not agree, bombing will happen. It will be bombed in a way that they have never seen before." Trump also threatened to impose "secondary tariffs" against Iran while announcing that US and Iranian officials are "in talks." On the same day, Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of Iran, announced that Khamenei opposed direct negotiations with the US but "supports indirect negotiations with the Trump administration." Ismail Baqaei, spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, also reacted to Trump's remarks on Twitter, accusing the United States of "violating the UN Charter" and stating, "Violence begets violence, and peace begets peace. The United States can choose." Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear agreement known as the JCPOA in May 2018 during his first term and imposed severe sanctions against Iran. Since then, Iran has deviated from its commitments to reduce the level of enrichment and production of high-enriched uranium, to the extent that according to the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, it possesses enough uranium to produce six nuclear weapons if enrichment is increased to 90%. Iranian officials have denied any attempts to acquire nuclear weapons.