Donald Trump has said that the US will “hopefully” reach a deal with Iran, after the Middle East country’s leader warned that any attack on Iranian soil would spark a regional war.
“The Americans should know that if they start a war, this time it will be a regional war,” supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Sunday, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Asked for his response to the warning, Trump nonchalantly responded: “Why wouldn’t he say that? Of course, he could say that… Hopefully, we’ll make a deal.”
In an apparent warning to Tehran, Trump also said that if a deal is not reached, “we’ll find out whether or not” Khamenei was “right” that a regional war would break out following a US strike on Iran.
How Iran could respond to US strikes
Trump has repeatedly warned that a “massive Armada” was heading towards Iran in a bid to pressure Tehran into limiting its nuclear programme and ending its violent crackdown on domestic protesters.
Iran’s retaliatory options against strikes on its territory could include cyber attacks, targeting commercial ships, carrying out offensives via its proxy groups in the region, and closing the strait of Hormuz, a sea channel vital to the global oil trade.
Meanwhile, Iran’s extensive arsenal of cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as drones, could also be deployed to strike targets as far away as Europe.
Amid rising tensions between Washington and Tehran, The i Paper revealed last month that British troops were being pulled out of the US-run Al-Udeid air base in Qatar.
A picture of Donald Trump set on fire by protesters during an anti-USA demonstration in front of the US consulate in Istanbul on 1 February, 2026. (Photo: Yasin Akgul/AFP via Getty Images)Melanie Garson, an associate professor in international security at University College London, told The i Paper: “Since 2015, Iran has focused on developing precision over range.”
Garson pointed to the Khorramshahr – a liquid-fueled, medium-range ballistic missile first displayed publicly at a military parade in Tehran in 2017, which has a range estimated to be up to 3,000km.
Other examples include the Sejjil, a two-stage, solid-propellant medium-range ballistic missile which is designed and built in Iran and has an estimated range of up to 2,000km.
The missiles are capable of striking military bases across the Middle East and southeastern Europe, including those used by the UK. These include RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, Britain’s Naval Support Facility in Bahrain, and the Royal Navy logistics hub at Al Duqm port in Oman.
Iran also has more than 20 types of drones with ranges of up to 2500km, Garson said.
She added that while Israeli strikes have compromised Iran’s ability to produce motors and solid fuel propellant over the last year, “there is evidence that China has been supplying the chemicals required for solid propellent, rocket fuel and oxidiser and potentially there is a deal to provide Iran with the HQ-9 defence systems to replace systems destroyed in the 12-Day War.”
Iran has also continued to develop longer-range missile technologies under its space-launch programme, including the Ghaem-100, a three-stage satellite launcher that uses solid fuel.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has warned the US that if it starts a war, this time it will be a regional war (Photo: Iranian Leader Press Office/Anadolu via Getty Images)The UK and its Western allies have repeatedly voiced concern that such launches could boost Iran’s ballistic missile technology, extending to the potential delivery of nuclear warheads.
Iran has claimed its satellite and rocket launches are for civil or defensive purposes only.
What about nuclear weapons?
Iran’s nuclear programme has been at the heart of the escalating tensions in the region.
The country’s Islamic regime has said its nuclear programme “only serves peaceful purposes” and that “nuclear weapons have no place in our doctrine”.
But concerns around Iran’s nuclear programme were sparked last May, when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report stating that its cache of near-weapons grade enriched uranium had surged by about 50 per cent in the prior three months.
Iran’s uranium had been enriched to 60 per cent – which could relatively quickly reach the 90 per cent weapons-grade enrichment level.
The concern sparked by the report culminated in Operation Midnight Hammer, in which seven advanced stealth bombers flew from the US mainland to Iran and dropped 14 “bunker buster” bombs on the three principal nuclear sites of Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow.
Susi Snyder, director of programmes at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, told The i Paper that starting in July 2019, “Iran took a number of steps that violated the Iran nuclear deal”.
These included increasing its enrichment of uranium-235 to 60 per cent and 20 per cent, instead of the 3.67 per cent agreed to under the JCPOA, as well as exceeding the limit on its uranium stockpile agreed to under the deal.
It also installed and operated centrifuges in excess of JCPOA limits and re-started enrichment at the Fordow facility.
Snyder said that some Iranian politicians have publicly called for Iran to leave the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty “and develop nuclear weapons in response to the Israeli and US attacks”.
He also said that analysts have warned that further military action and more sanctions on Iran could lead to it deciding to develop nuclear weapons.
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Despite Trump’s comments about a potential deal, further military action cannot be ruled out.
In recent weeks, Washington has deployed the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, along with other naval, air power and defensive assets, to the Middle East.
Meanwhile, at least 33 US military aircraft designed for insurgency operations and missile strikes have flown to positions allowing for an attack on Iran, a comprehensive analysis of open-source information by The i Paper revealed on Friday.
This could easily lead to an armed clash, and stronger retaliations from both sides.
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