At least two Iranian officials, including a general, made the threats in the wake of strikes in the Middle Eastern country over the weekend.
Iranian officials threatened the United States that the regime would respond after Washington launched airstrikes targeting the Houthis in Yemen over the past weekend.
“I warn all enemies that any threat being carried out [against Iran] will draw a tough, decisive, and devastating reaction,” Gen. Hossein Salami, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told Iranian state media outlet Tasnim News on Sunday after U.S. strikes were conducted against the Houthis, a terrorist group that is believed be backed by Iran.
On Monday, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry told a separate state-run outlet, Press TV, that Tehran will similarly take “decisive action” after the U.S. airstrikes.
“We will respond decisively to any aggression against Iran’s territorial integrity and its national security and interests. There is no doubt about this,” the official, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Monday.
Also on Monday, the U.S. military carried out fresh airstrikes in Yemen, according to Yemeni media outlets backed by the Houthis, in response to the terrorist group’s attacks on international shipping in recent months. The Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and Al Jawf governorate north of the capital Sanaa were targeted, Al Masirah TV said on Monday.
The Houthis, who have taken control of the most populous parts of Yemen despite nearly a decade of Saudi-led military activity in the country, have launched scores of attacks on ships off its coast since November 2023, disrupting global commerce.
The Houthis have said that their attacks, which have forced companies to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa, are in solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s war with the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza. However, Washington and its allies have described them as indiscriminate and a menace to global trade.
Aside from Iran’s statements, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said on Sunday that the group would target U.S. ships in the Red Sea as long as the U.S. continues attacks on Yemen.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News on Sunday that the campaign will continue until the Houthis announce that “we‘ll stop shooting at your ships” and “we’ll stop shooting at your drones.”
“Until then it will be unrelenting,” he said, adding that the campaign “is about stopping the shooting at assets … in that critical waterway, to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States.”
“Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long.”
President Donald Trump on Saturday confirmed he ordered the strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, according to a Truth Social post. He also warned the group that they must stop their attacks on shipping vessels or face more significant strikes in the future.
“They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones,” he said of the Houthis.
The president also issued a warning to Iran, saying it must end its support of the Houthis and not target the United States or shipping lanes.
“If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and we won’t be nice about it!” Trump wrote.
Reuters contributed to this report.