TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Monday against what he called “soft war” tactics employed by enemies in a bid to sow discord within the Islamic republic.

“Today, we have no concerns regarding hard defense or the enemy’s military threats. Islamic Iran possesses strong capabilities to counter such threats, ensuring a high level of security for its people,” said Khamenei during a speech in Tehran. He said Iran’s “enemies”—referring to Zionist entity and the United States—sought to create problems through “soft war threats” aimed at “manipulating public opinion, creating discord and casting doubt over the foundations of the Islamic Revolution”.

The remarks came a day after Zionist entity received a shipment of heavy American weapons during a visit by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. On Sunday, Zionist entity Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country had dealt a “mighty blow to Iran’s terror axis” and vowed to “finish the job” against Iran with US support. The war also saw rare direct attacks between Iran and Zionist entity for the first time, after engaging in a shadow war for years.

In recent videos, Netanyahu has addressed Iranians in a seemingly friendly tone, and in one, he claimed that the Iranian government was leading its people “closer to the abyss”.

During his speech, Khamenei acknowledged that Iranians “have problems and legitimate expectations”, referring to the economic difficulties faced by the country due to international sanctions.

Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday that US and Zionist entity threats against it were a blatant violation of international law and that they could not “do a damn thing” to hurt Tehran. The comments came after Zionist entity Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem on Sunday and said their countries were determined to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its influence in the Middle East.

Netanyahu said Zionist entity had dealt a “mighty blow” to Iran since the start of the war in Gaza and that with the support of US President Donald Trump “I have no doubt we can and will finish the job”.

Speaking at a weekly press conference on Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei responded: “When it comes to a country like Iran, they cannot do a damn thing”. “You cannot threaten Iran on one hand and claim to support dialogue on the other hand,” Baghaei said, state media reported. Trump has expressed an openness to a deal with Tehran while also reinstating the “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran that was applied during his first term to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. While stopping short of renewing a ban on direct talks with Washington decreed in 2018, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has criticized Trump’s previous administration for not honoring its promises.

In 2018, Trump pulled the US out of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. A year later, Iran reacted by breaching the pact’s nuclear curbs, accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent of weapons grade. It says its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes

Despite spokesman Baghaei’s defiant words, Tehran’s influence throughout the region has weakened severely with its regional allies - known as the “Axis of Resistance” - either dismantled or badly hurt since the start of the Zionist entity conflict in Gaza and the fall of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria in December.

US President Donald Trump, who returned to the White House for a second term in January, has reinstated his “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions against Iran, mirroring his approach during his first term. Under this policy, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, accusing Tehran of pursuing nuclear weapons, an allegation that Tehran has consistently denied. Trump has recently called for striking a deal with Iran, but Khamenei later said “no problem will be solved by negotiating with America”. — Agencies