Iran's Armed Forces General Staff and the Khatam al-Anbya Central Headquarters said US President Donald Trump's threats against Iran amount to little more than domestic propaganda rather than reflecting realities on the ground, according to a statement carried by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
The statement came in response to remarks Trump made at the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, where he told world leaders he faced "a big decision" over Iran: either a deal that would let the country "rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before," or to "annihilate the Islamic Republic" and "drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness."
Trump predicted a deal would follow after the US midterm elections on November 3, though he added that Iran was "not running" and that the vote had no bearing on his Iran policy.
Reacting to those comments, Iran's military said the repetition of "baseless claims and threats," combined with what it called the exhaustion of the US military, signalled "strategic desperation" rather than strength on Washington's part, IRNA reported.
It accused the US of an "illegitimate, illegal, and aggressive presence" in West Asia and of taking the global economy hostage to compensate for its setbacks against Iran.
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The statement added that Trump's rhetoric would not alter the region's power balance or reverse what it described as America's diminished standing and defeats in its war against Iran and the "Resistance Front."
Iran's armed forces said they stood "fully prepared to deliver even more severe, crushing, and unpredictable blows" against the US and Israel, invoking the country's eight-year war with Iraq and citing the deaths of Iranian civilians, including schoolchildren in Minab and Lamerd, during the ongoing conflict.
The exchange comes against the backdrop of the US-Israel-Iran war that began earlier this year, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's delegation attending the UN session even as hostilities continue.
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