UK warns Iran of US retaliation if Washington's interests 'attacked'

LONDON, 20 May. - (ANA)  - Earlier in the day, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif lashed out at US President Donal Trump after the latter said that Iran would see its "official end" should it put up a fight against the United States.

Commenting on the recent verbal duel between Washington and Tehran, UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that Iran should pull back from what he called "destabilising activities" in the region. The senior official noted that US interests were attacked and Washington would retaliate, and Iran needs to think very carefully about its next move.

"I would say to the Iranians: Do not underestimate the resolve on the U.S. side," Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told reporters on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly in Geneva.

Earlier in the day, Zarif compared Trump with bellicose rulers of the past such as Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, saying that Iranians "have stood tall for millennia while aggressors all gone".

The statement came immediately after Donald Trump warned the Middle Eastern country in his Tweet that it would be "official end of Iran" if Tehran "wants to fight".

Furthermore, the Sun outlet reported that British Special Forces had flown to the Middle East in the framework of a top secret mission to rebuff possible Iranian attacks on merchant ships.

Tensions between the US and Iran have escalated earlier this month, when the US imposed more anti-Iranian sanctions and sent an aircraft carrier strike group, a squadron of B-52 bombers and Patriot interceptors to the Middle East to grapple with what Washington describes as a threat emanating from Iran.  - (ANA) -

AB/ANA/20 May 2019 - - -