Iranian MP brands US 'embodiment of Satan,' calls reformists 'friends of Satan'

Head of Iran’s judiciary said on Sunday that Tehran has no hope or trust in the US and warned Washington against using negotiations to buy time while boosting military capabilities in the region.

“If the enemy wants, in the name of negotiations, to waste time and add to its military equipment and tools in the region, it is mistaken,” Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said.

Mohseni-Ejei also said the enemy was seeking to tighten pressure on Iran through sanctions and economic isolation.

“We are in full readiness and will confront the enemy more firmly than in the 12-day war,” he added.

Iran’s army commander said on Sunday that the country’s armed forces are closely monitoring their adversaries and are ready to respond decisively to any hostile action.

Major General Amir Hatami, commander-in-chief of Iran’s army, made the remarks on the sidelines of a ceremony marking Air Force Day.

“The enemy’s movements are being carefully monitored, and we are prepared to respond firmly to any act of aggression,” Hatami said, adding that the presence of US naval forces in the region was not new.

Iran does not seek to start a regional war but would hold the United States responsible for the consequences of any such conflict, the country’s top military commander said on Sunday.

Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, said Iran remained fully prepared for a prolonged conflict with the United States while also remaining open to what he described as logical and unconditional avenues for diplomacy.

“We are not interested in starting a regional war,” Mousavi said at a ceremony marking the anniversary of Iran’s air force. “But a regional war would push the region’s progress and development back by years, and its consequences would be the responsibility of the war instigators, meaning the United States and the Zionist regime.”

Mousavi said Iran possessed both the military capability and readiness for a long-term confrontation with Washington, while stressing that Tehran preferred to avoid escalation.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Sunday that Iran’s long-range ballistic missile program poses a threat not only to Israel but also to other countries in the Middle East and Europe.

"The long-range ballistic missiles that the regime seeks to produce in enormous quantities endanger Israel, but not only Israel. The Iranian regime has already used missiles against other countries in the Middle East as well. European countries are also threatened by the range of these missiles," Sa’ar said during a meeting with Paraguay’s Foreign Minister Ruben Ramirez Lezcano.

The Israeli foreign minister said separately on X that Iran also “spreads terror beyond the Middle East, including to Latin America,” further commending Paraguay's designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organization.

An Iranian lawmaker said Tehran warned US President Donald Trump that any strike on Iran would trigger retaliation causing thousands of American casualties.

Mahmoud Nabavian, a member of parliament’s national security committee, said Trump sent a message via an unnamed country before negotiations asking to hit “two points” in Iran.

“We told them it was over. If you make the slightest mistake, we will take three to four thousand casualties from you,” Nabavian was quoted as saying.

He added that lawmakers had told Iran’s foreign minister to inform regional counterparts that any company or base “bearing the name of the United States” would be targeted.