Iranian FM: Tehran will fight back ‘with everything we have’ if Iran comes under US attack

Iran’s foreign minister has issued the most direct threat yet against the United States after Tehran’s bloody crackdown on protesters, warning the Islamic Republic will be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack.”

The comments by Abbas Araghchi, who saw his invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos rescinded over the killings, comes as an American aircraft carrier group moves westward toward the Middle East from Asia. Meanwhile, American fighter jets and other equipment appear to be moving in the Mideast after a major US military deployment in the Caribbean saw troops seize Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

Araghchi makes the threat in an opinion article published by The Wall Street Journal. In it, the foreign minister contends “the violent phase of the unrest lasted less than 72 hours” and seeks again to blame armed demonstrators for the violence.

Videos that have slipped out of Iran despite an internet shutdown appear to show security forces repeatedly using live fire to target apparently unarmed protesters, something unaddressed by Araghchi.

An Iranian official in the region said this week that the authorities had verified at least 5,000 people had been killed in protests in Iran, including about 500 security personnel.

“Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” Araghchi writes, referring to the 12-day war launched by Israel on Iran in June. “This isn’t a threat, but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war.”

He adds: “An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House. It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe.”