Any obstruction to Iran's energy exports would have consequences for the entire region, Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Tuesday, as the IRGC launched a public attack on US President Donald Trump and said it was preparing new weapons for the battlefield.
"If Iran cannot sell its oil, no one in the region will sell oil, and if our security is not guaranteed, no infrastructure will be safe," Ghalibaf said in an online parliamentary session, cautioning Washington against "miscalculations".
"The Iranian people must never be frightened by blockade and threats. If the American enemy's decision-making machine fails to grasp this fundamental reality, it will remain trapped in a cycle of receiving heavy blows from the Iranian nation," Ghalibaf said.
IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi, speaking at a press conference with foreign media on Tuesday, called Trump "a big liar" and said US forces must leave the Middle East and that Tehran was continuously producing new weapons.
"We are constantly designing new weapons, upgrading existing ones and mass-producing armaments to defend ourselves," Mohebi said.
"If the confrontations take on a different shape, we will certainly bring new weapons into the field."
Ebrahim Azizi, head of parliament's National Security Committee, has separately said Iran is fully prepared for a conflict more intense than what he described as the "40-day war".
IRGC blasts US military bases as 'only source of insecurity'
On regional relations, Mohebi said US military bases were "the only source of insecurity" in the region and pointed to "long-standing bonds" with 15 neighbouring countries.
Since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February in the opening salvo of the war, Tehran's retaliatory actions — including strikes on the territory of its neighbours, disruption of shipping and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — have strained those relationships.
Iranian officials have insisted their targets are solely US military assets. Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, said recently in Dubai that while relations with Tehran should continue, trust damaged by attacks in the Gulf would take years to rebuild.
On nuclear matters, Mohebi rejected claims that Iran is weeks away from building a nuclear weapon, calling them "the same lie that has been propagated for 25 years."
The IAEA has not reached an agreement with Tehran on redeploying inspectors or resuming monitoring.
Since Mojtaba Khamenei was selected as the Islamic Republic's new ayatollah, voices within Iran's political establishment have increasingly raised the possibility of a review of the country's nuclear doctrine, a development that has drawn international concern.
