Any US attack would spark ‘regional war’

Iran’s supreme leader warned Sunday that any attack by the United States would spark a “regional war” in the Mideast, further escalating tensions as President Donald Trump has threatened to militarily strike the Islamic Republic over its crackdown on recent nationwide protests.
The comments from the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are the most-direct threat he’s made so far as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated American warships are in the Arabian Sea, sent by Trump there after Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests. 
It remains unclear whether Trump will use force. He’s repeatedly said Iran wants to negotiate and has brought up Tehran’s nuclear program as another issue he wants to see resolved.
But Khamenei also referred to the nationwide protests as “a coup,” hardening the government’s position as tens of thousands of people reportedly have been detained since the start of the demonstrations. Sedition charges in Iran can carry the death penalty, which again renews concerns about Tehran carrying out mass executions for those arrested — a red line for Trump.

Iran had also planned a live-fire military drill for Sunday and Monday in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. The US military’s Central Command had warned against threatening American warships or aircraft during the drill or disrupting commercial traffic.
Khamenei spoke to a crowd at his compound in Tehran as Iran marked the start of a dayslong commemoration of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. He, at one point, described the US as being interested in its oil, natural gas and other mineral resources, saying that they wanted to “seize this country, just as they controlled it before.”
“The Americans must be aware that if they wage a war this time, it will be a regional war,” he said.
The supreme leader added that: “We are not the instigators, we are not going to be unfair to anyone, we don’t plan to attack any country. But if anyone shows greed and wants to attack or harass, the Iranian nation will deal a heavy blow to them.”
Meanwhile, Iran considers as “terrorist groups” the armies of EU countries that listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the bloc’s list of terrorist organisations, the speaker of the Iranian parliament said on Sunday.
The European Union marked a symbolic shift in its approach to Iran’s leadership on Thursday by designating the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation, following what turned out to be the Islamic Republic’s bloodiest crackdown of protests since its establishment in 1979.
“By trying to hit the Revolutionary Guards... the Europeans actually shot themselves in the foot and once again made a decision against the interests of their people by blindly obeying the Americans,” the speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, told his fellow lawmakers, who all wore Revolutionary Guards uniforms in support of the elite force.
“According to Article 7 of the law on countermeasures against the designation of the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation, the armies of European countries are considered terrorist groups.”
On the other hand, US President Donald Trump on Saturday said India will buy Venezuelan oil, helping to replace some of the Russian oil that the world’s third-biggest oil importer buys.
“We’ve already made that deal, the concept of the deal,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to his vacation home in Florida from Washington.
Reuters reported on Friday that the United States has told Delhi it could soon resume purchases of Venezuelan oil to help replace imports of Russian oil, citing three people familiar with the matter.

India stopped buying oil from Caracas last year after Trump in March imposed a 25% tariff on countries buying Venezuelan oil.
In his comments on Saturday, Trump said India would buy Venezuelan oil instead of Iranian crude. However, New Delhi stopped loading oil from Iran in 2019 due to US sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Indian refiners turned to US oil to make up for the loss of Iranian supply, then curbed US purchases and became the top buyer of Russian seaborne oil sold at a discount after Western nations imposed sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.