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Iran's Revolutionary Guards threatened a "decisive" response to any attack after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes against Yemen's Houthi rebels and warned Tehran to cease supporting the group.
"Iran will not wage war, but if anyone threatens, it will give appropriate, decisive and conclusive responses," Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami said in a televised speech Sunday, rejecting Trump's warnings.
The U.S. president announced Saturday that American forces had launched "decisive and powerful military action" against the Houthis, aimed at ending threats to shipping in the Red Sea. A Houthi health official reported that the strikes killed 31 people.
Salami characterized the Houthis as "the representative of the Yemenis," insisting the group makes its "strategic and operational decisions" independently of Iran.
The exchange marks a significant escalation in tensions between Washington and Tehran during Trump's second administration.
During his first term in January 2020, the U.S. killed Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Guards' foreign operations arm, in a drone strike in Baghdad. Iran retaliated days later with missile strikes on bases housing American troops in Iraq.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei "strongly condemned the brutal air strikes by the U.S." in a statement earlier Sunday, calling them a "gross violation of the principles of the U.N. Charter."
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi added that the "United States Government has no authority, or business, dictating Iranian foreign policy." Writing on X, he urged Washington to stop the "killing of Yemeni people" and noted that U.S. influence over Tehran's policies ended with the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The Houthi rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for over a decade, belong to the Iran-aligned "axis of resistance" that opposes Israel and the United States. Throughout the Gaza war, they have attacked both Israeli targets and commercial shipping in the Red Sea, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.
These strikes represent the first U.S. military action against the Houthis since Trump returned to the White House in January.
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