Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned in a message on Tuesday that American forces should leave the Middle East “if you want to be safe,” threatening a response after the Pentagon confirmed pervasive airstrikes against Iranian military sites that day.
President Donald Trump reportedly ordered the strikes against the Iranian armed forces in response to the shootdown of an American AH-64 Apache helicopter on Monday. The two pilots on the aircraft were rescued, reportedly by an American sea drone, and the strike resulted in no casualties, but Trump nonetheless stated publicly that any attempt to kill American soldiers must receive an appropriate response.
“I think it’s very important to respond. They shot down a helicopter, and we are responding as we speak,” Trump told ABC News on Tuesday. “This is a response to what they did with our helicopter last night, and I believe the response should be very strong, very powerful, and that’s what this one is.”
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), the arm the Pentagon responsible for the Middle East, confirmed late on Monday that it had “completed self-defense strikes against Iran” that day, directly tying the strikes to the attack on the Apache helicopter.
“CENTCOM forces struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precision munitions from U.S. Air Force and Navy fighter jets,” the office specified, emphasizing that the attack was a “proportional response” to both the helicopter attacks and Iran’s consistent disruption of global commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Reports indicated that the American strikes targeted Sirik, a town on the Strait of Hormuz, and military sites on Qeshm Island.
Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, published an equally infuriated and dismissive response to the strikes which targeted what remains of the devastated Iranian military. Araghchi cited American “defeats of the battlefield,” without specifying what events he was classifying as “events,” and suggested more American military deaths.
“Our Powerful Armed Forces will leave no attack or threat unanswered,” Araghchi wrote on social media. “Leave our region if you want to be safe.”
Similarly, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei told reporters during his briefing on Tuesday that Tehran was planning to “respond to the enemy with full resolve whenever necessary.” He suggested that Iran would “reassess” its participation in ongoing peace talks with the United States to end the current hostilities.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, claimed to conduct a variety of airstrikes overnight on Wednesday in response to the American kinetic action, targeting American sites in Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain. The Emirati newspaper The National reported on Wednesday that the IRGC targeted 21 American sites in those three countries, but all three reported no damage as a result of the bombings.
“Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait all reported activating air defence systems and intercepting attacks, with no casualties or damage confirmed in any of the three countries,” the newspaper shared.
Iran’s regional propaganda arms nonetheless claimed that the strikes were devastating. Al Mayadeen, a pro-Iran Middle Eastern website, cited an anonymous “Iranian military source” who claimed that the missiles targeting the three countries hit “70 percent of designated targets.” The outlet also published what it claimed to be visual evidence of the success of the strikes.
“The IRGC added that it had destroyed four high-value targets using long-range solid-fuel missiles and said a US MQ-9 drone was shot down during aerial engagements over Jam in Iran’s southern Bushehr province,” Al Mayadeen claimed, citing the source.
Active military hostilities broke out between Iran and the United States on February 28, when Trump announced Operation Epic Fury to degrade Iran’s ability to threaten its neighbors. Iran is the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism, responsible for supporting a variety of jihadist organizations including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and a host of terrorist gangs in countries such as Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. On the first day of Operation Epic Fury, Trump announced that the attack had killed Iran’s “supreme leader,” Ali Khamenei. Joint American-Israeli operations have since killed dozens of senior Iranian regime officials, creating discord at the top of the government.
The military engagements between Iran and America were paused in April as President Trump called for an indefinite ceasefire to allow for conversations towards an expanded peace deal. Peace negotiations are ongoing, but have made no visible public progress, as Iran is demanding an end to all hostilities and sanctions on its regime, while the White House is demanding that Iran abandon its illicit nuclear development, particularly its uranium enrichment program, which has been condemned by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The ceasefire has remained tenuous since April, interrupted by exchanges between Iran and Israel, which is currently engaged in an invasion of neighboring Lebanon that it claims is necessary to dismantle the threat of the Iranian proxy Hezbollah. This weekend, Iran launched a ballistic missile barrage against Israel after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) targeted alleged Hezbollah sites in Beirut. The IDF acted in response to Hezbollah attacks on its positions.
At the time, President Trump told reporters that he would discourage Israel from returning fire and that he did not approve of the ongoing hostilities in Lebanon. Iranian regime propaganda nonetheless blamed Trump for the strikes in that region.
“They cannot shirk responsibility for the crimes of their rabid dog, Israel,” an anonymous Iranian “official” told the regime-friendly Tasnim News Agency. “The Americans will pay a price in this regard. Attempts to portray the Israeli and American fronts as separate are merely propaganda and deception. Iran will not allow the United States to stage such a performance.”
The IRGC reportedly struck the American Apache helicopter shortly thereafter.
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