Iran hits back at Trump's violent boasts with defiant threat of "even harsher measures"
Tehran, Iran - Iran has vowed to continue fighting with "even harsher" attacks until its adversaries capitulate, dismissing claims by US President Donald Trump that its military capabilities have been significantly degraded.
Tehran will not accept the "vicious cycle of war, negotiations, ceasefire, and then the repetition of the same pattern," Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Thursday, according to the state news agency IRNA.
Iran will continue to resist for as long as the war continues, Baghaei insisted.
A spokesperson for Iran's armed forces headquarters echoed this stance, telling the ISNA news agency that Iran's enemies should "wait for even harsher measures."
He dismissed Trump's boasts that Iran's capabilities had been depleted, saying US-Israeli attacks had hit only insignificant targets.
"They know nothing about our very extensive and strategic capabilities," he said, adding that strategic military production is taking place in locations about which Iran's adversaries know nothing and "will never be able to reach."
In a televised address on Wednesday evening, Trump claimed that the US was on track to achieve all its military objectives in the war "very shortly."
"Their navy is gone, their air force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten," he said. "Taken together, these actions will cripple Iran military [sic], crush their ability to support terrorist proxies, and deny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb."
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is not aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
Trump said the US would hit Iran "extremely hard over the next two to three weeks," threatening to take a country of over 92 million people "back to the Stone Ages, where they belong."
Since launching its offensive alongside Israel in late February, the US has made contradicting statements regarding its war aim, which have grown increasingly erratic.
Iran, meanwhile, has retained control over the crucial Strait of Hormuz, plunging global oil markets into crisis, while continuing to strike US and Israeli targets in the region.
Cover photo: REUTERS