Iran warns US against 'repeating mistake' of violating borders
Iran's parliamentary speaker has warned the United States against violating the country's borders, cautioning such a move would draw a "stronger" reaction than the downing of a US drone a week ago.
In comments carried by Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency on Thursday, Speaker Ali Larijani said the shootdown of the American unmanned aerial vehicle was "a good experience for them to avoid any aggression".
"Iran's reaction will be stronger if they repeat their mistake of violating our borders," Larijani said.
Tehran said the US-made Global Hawk surveillance drone was in its territory when it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile on June 20. Washington rebuffed that claim, saying the aircraft was in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz when it was hit.
US President Donald Trump ordered retaliatory attacks on Iranian installations over the incident - which marked the first direct Iranian-claimed attack on US assets amid an escalating crisis between the two powers - before calling them off at the last minute.
Trump later said too many people would have died had the attacks gone ahead.
The war of words between Washington and Tehran has since escalated, with Trump this week threatening Iran's "obliteration" after President Hassan Rouhani called the White House's actions "mentally retarded".
On Wednesday, Trump said any war between Iran and the US would be swift, but reiterated his desire to avoid a military confrontation.
The US leader has been a frequent critic of Iran's leaders, accusing them of sowing disorder and unrest in the Middle East.
Tehran, meanwhile, has accused Trump's administration of "economic terrorism" and "psychological warfare" over Washington's application of punishing sanctions after Trump withdrew from an historic nuclear deal with world powers.
Under the 2015 agreement, Iran agreed to scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Tehran said earlier this month it would breach the limit of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium mandated under the deal by Thursday, and threatened to take further steps on July 7 to increase uranium enrichment purity levels over the 3.67 percent limit set in the agreement.
Citing unnamed diplomats, the Reuters agency reported Iran was still short of the cap on enriched uranium, however, but was on course to reach that limit at the weekend.