Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a blunt warning to the U.S. on Saturday, tweeting an illustrated image of what appears to be President Barack Obama holding a gun to his head and declaring that the U.S. will be the ultimate victim of any aggression towards the Islamic Republic.
“US president has said he could knock out Iran’s military. We welcome no war, nor do we initiate any war, but..” the tweet read.
The image – a black silhouette of a man in a suit, wearing an American flag lapel pin and pointing a pistol to his head – said: ‘”We welcome no war, nor do we initiate any war, but if any war happens, the one who will emerge the loser will be the aggressive and criminal U.S.”
Last week, Khamenei told supporters that U.S. policies in the region were “180 degrees” opposed to Iran’s, at a speech in a Tehran mosque punctuated by chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.
“Even after this deal our policy towards the arrogant U.S. will not change,” Khamenei said.
The Iranian leader presented the nuclear agreement as a victory, saying “for 12 years, the world powers tried to halt Iran’s nuclear program and now they have to come to terms with our spinning centrifuges.”
Khamenei also praised Iran’s negotiating team for “doing the best they could” during the talks.
