Ayatollah Khamenei Warns Washington of a “Regional War”

During an address commemorating the “10 Days of Dawn,” leading up to the February 11 anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei framed the 12-day war in June 2025, protests that began in December 2025, and recent U.S. naval buildup as interconnected elements of a U.S.-Israeli plot to overthrow the Islamic Republic. He warned Washington that if the United States were to “start a war,” it would escalate into a “regional war,” a deliberately ambiguous threat implicitly directed at U.S. allies in the region.

• February 1: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke at an event commemorating the lead up to the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. A transcript of his remarks was published on his website:
  • Khamenei described the protests – specifically protests on January 8 and 9, which appear to have been the most violent days – as “American-Zionist sedition” instigated by President Donald J. Trump’s call to the people of Iran to rise against the regime in Tehran.
  • Turning to the protesters, Khamenei said: “Those involved were of two types: ringleaders and foot soldiers … The ringleaders were trained and paid; they had been taught how to act, where to attack, how to gather youth and speak to them. Many of them were arrested and confessed. Another group were emotional young people who were swept along by the noise; we do not have much problem with them.”
  • As for the performance of the security services, Khamenei said: “Our security forces, the Basij, the police, and other responsible bodies performed their duties well. They acted with patience and wisdom; they distinguished between those who had been deceived and those who were the main agents. This is an important point: In such incidents, one must differentiate between the instigators and the ordinary people who may have been drawn in emotionally.”
  • Khamenei also blamed the high number of fatalities on the protesters: “Another characteristic of this sedition was that its trained ringleaders were tasked with manufacturing deaths, creating casualties … For this reason, they carried out armed attacks on military and law-enforcement centers, using advanced personal weapons, so that a reaction would be provoked from the other side and people would be killed. And they did not stop at this; they even shot from behind at the very foot soldiers whom they themselves had brought to the scene through propaganda.”
  • Concluding the speech, Khamenei warned the United States of the risk of a regional war: “What you sometimes see – this talk of war, ‘we will come with such-and-such aircraft and do this and that’ – is nothing new. In the past as well, the Americans repeatedly used to threaten in their statements that all options are on the table. All options includes the option of war; they were always saying this: ‘All options are on the table.’ Now this gentleman, too, keeps claiming the same thing, saying, ‘Yes, we have brought aircraft carriers and done such things.’ In my view, the Iranian nation should not be frightened by these matters; the Iranian people are not influenced by such words and do not fear confronting what is right. We are not the initiators; we do not wish to wrong anyone nor to attack any country. But the Iranian nation will deliver a firm blow to anyone who harbors greed and seeks to attack or harm it. And the Americans should also know this: If they start a war this time, it will be a regional war.”

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